Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
“Where are we going?”
Callie was having a hard time ignoring the sign up ahead that indicated there was a dog training and boarding center at the end of the driveway. They’d left One Shot Tactical over half an hour ago, and Seth had said he had something he needed to see in Madison. She hadn’t asked what since she figured it was none of her business and she was just going along for the ride.
They’d talked a little before lapsing into silence. She’d asked about Rory Harper’s diabetes. She hadn’t realized Rory had the disease, but she was type one, which meant she’d had it for much of her life. And now she was pregnant, which added a whole new list of potential complications, but so far she was doing well. It was still early days. Callie gathered that everyone at One Shot Tactical was concerned but they all took it a day—a doctor’s appointment—at a time.
“Seth, are you taking me to a dog spa?”
Sure enough, he flipped on his signal and turned into the long drive. “You need a dog.”
She was going to kill him. “I don’t want a dog. I told you I’ve got enough to do without a dog adding more responsibility.”
Seth stopped his truck in the drive and turned to face her. “Babe. Listen to me. Somebody set a fire in the building where you work, perilously close to the lab you were in at the time. You almost didn’t get out alive and you’re still coughing from the experience. The man who urged you to take that job, and then asked you to do something illegal, is now dead. Do you really want to argue about adding a dog to your protective detail?”
She frowned as a ream of excuses flooded her head. But he was right. Did she really want to refuse anything that might help keep her and Nikki alive?
“Is this permanent?”
“Not if you don’t want it to be.” He jerked his head toward the direction they were traveling. “This is a rescue and rehab facility. The lady who runs it takes all kinds of dogs and makes them ready for new homes. She has a Belgian Malinois that I think would be perfect for you and Nikki.”
“A Malinois? Aren’t those police and military dogs?”
“Yep. This one wasn’t raised in that environment though. She’s sweet, thinks she’s a lapdog, but she’s also got that instinct to protect. Betty says she was owned by an older woman who recently passed. She had no kids other than this dog and some cats.”
Callie’s heart thumped. She felt sorry for the dog, but she still didn’t know if taking an animal when she wasn’t sure she’d keep it was the right thing to do.
“It’s normal to try a dog out for a few days, Callie. Betty doesn’t want you to commit today. She just wants to place the dog in a good situation.”
Callie drew in a breath. If she didn’t have to commit, maybe they could try. “Okay. What’s her name?”
“Luna. She’s four years old.”
“Nikki’s going to get attached.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Maybe. What happens in a year when she goes to college and it’s just me and Luna?”
“You’ll have a companion that will keep you company and look out for you until Nikki comes home on breaks. Then she’ll look out for you both.”
“You’re a bad man, Seth King.”
He grinned, and her heart skipped. Why did he have to be so damn attractive? Especially when he was maneuvering her into things she didn’t want to do?
“Just doing my job.”
He started down the drive again. She folded her arms and tried not to pout. “When did you have time to search up a rescue Malinois anyway?”
“I’ve got my sources. Betty is highly recommended. I called and she said she had something that might work. I told her you’re my girlfriend and I want you to have a dog for protection.”
Callie gave him a look. “Seriously?”
“It was the easiest explanation.”
He wasn’t wrong, and they were already committed to pretending to date for Nikki’s sake. Which was her fault because she hadn’t wanted to tell the truth and scare her sister.
Seth parked and a lady came outside to stand on her porch as they got out of the truck. She was older, pretty, with long blond hair that fell over one shoulder in a big braid. She wore a T-shirt that read Who rescued who? with a silhouette of a dog and cat sitting together with their tails forming a heart beneath them.
“Seth King?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He looped an arm around Callie’s shoulders and pulled her forward. “This is Callie.”
“Hi, Callie. Nice to meet you. I’m Betty. Y’all come on over to the kennel and let me show you Luna.”
Seth dropped his arm from her shoulder but took her hand in his. Callie couldn’t think of anything but his big hand wrapped around hers as they followed Betty into the building that looked more like a house from the outside than a kennel. Inside, it wasn’t what she expected. There were no wire cages, no dogs looking sad. Everything was sleek and modern, with clean lines and friendly signs.
Betty stopped before a door and turned to them. “Luna has been here for a month now. I had to keep her in the house the first week, but she’s learned to transition to the day spa and boarding suites now. She’s incredibly sweet, but she’s still a Malinois. Full of energy, smart, and capable of fiercely defending her people if necessary.”
“You said she’s had some training, but nothing like she’d have had as a working dog,” Seth said.
“Right. She can sit and stay and obey commands like no and down . She has that natural instinct that Malinois have to protect and defend, but you can’t command her to do it. She also gets along with cats because the lady had three and Luna was raised with them.”
Betty opened the door and led them into another hallway where there were several doors. Then she opened one in particular and a beautiful reddish-brown dog with a wide face brushed in black around her jaw, eyes, and ears hopped off her doggie bed, tail wagging as she hurried over to see Betty.
Her legs were black too, and she looked kind of like a German Shepherd. Though not as big or fuzzy. She was more compact, and that tail was going a mile a minute. Betty dropped to her knees and scrubbed the dog’s neck with her hands, telling her what a good girl she was.
Callie’s heart cracked. Betty must have noticed because she smiled and nodded. “Call her name and she’ll come to you.”
“Hi, Luna,” Callie said, kneeling with a hand out.
Luna trotted over, ears alert, but the tail was still wagging. Then she licked Callie’s fingers and her heart melted even more. She loved dogs, but she hadn’t had one since she was a kid and her mom’s purse dog died. Not literally a purse dog, but small enough to fit into a tote bag whenever they left the house. Her mother had loved that little beast—Coco, because of course that was her name—to distraction. Callie had loved her too, even if Coco preferred her mother and growled at Callie when she’d had enough attention.
Then there’d been the dogs at the barn, big Great Danes that she’d loved for their size and sweetness. She’d always said she’d get a dog someday, but it’d been impossible when she was working overseas. She’d kept putting it off after they moved here because there was always so much to be done with work and horses, and she hadn’t wanted to add a dog to the mix. She worried that a dog would be home alone all day without enough attention.
“She’ll be a good dog for you if you give her a chance,” Betty said. “Seth told me you live in a remote area and wanted a dog to help you feel safer.”
“Yes,” Callie said. “It’s me and my sister, and a horse and barn cat. I think sometimes it’d be nice to have a dog that could alert us to trouble or scare off anyone who wanted to rob us.”
“You can take her home to try her out, see if she’s a fit for your family and situation. I ask you to sign an agreement if you end up adopting her where you promise not to rehome her but to bring her back to me if anything ever changes. There’s an adoption fee of one-fifty to help with expenses. You’ll get her papers after the fee is paid. Today, you’ll get her food, toys, and treats, and we’ll have a training session before you leave the premises to make sure you understand her commands and that she listens to you. And if you ever want further training, you get a discount because she’s one of my rescues.”
Betty’s gaze turned to Seth. “You said you were former military. Did you ever work in or around military working dogs?”
“Yes, ma’am, I’ve been around them. I wasn’t a handler, though. But I know how specialized those dogs are. Luna may look like one of them, but she isn’t.”
Betty nodded. “That’s right. We talked about it over the phone, but I wanted to be sure you understood. If you want to take her home because she’s a Malinois and they’re popular right now, then I’d rather keep her here and find someone else. She’s not a dog from the movies. She has all the energy and stamina, but none of the specialized training. She’s not going to impress anyone’s buddies by fighting other dogs or attacking what she’s told to attack.”
“Ma’am, if anyone tried to hurt this dog, I’d break every bone in their body. Pets are family.”
Betty stared at him. Callie was still petting Luna, but she found herself staring at him too. He’d said it so smoothly, so mildly, but she knew he was deadly serious. A wave of emotion swamped her at how protective he was of a dog they didn’t even have custody of yet. And the knowledge that he was that protective of her and Nikki made her eyes sting.
Betty laughed a moment later. “I like you. You’re my kind of people.”
“And you’re mine,” he replied. “Anybody who puts in the effort you do for homeless animals is worth knowing.”
“Did anyone adopt the cats Luna was raised with?” Callie asked, feeling emotional and weepy and trying not to let any of it show.
“All three went to a family in Madison. I check on them regularly and they’re doing well. But that family has little girls and didn’t think they could take on a dog Luna’s size—or with her energy. As much as I would have loved to keep them together, I just couldn’t insist on it.”
“I understand.” Callie got to her feet while Luna went over to her bed and picked up a toy that she brought back. A set of rubber rings that had been chewed all to hell.
Betty reached for them, and Luna growled and shook her head. It wasn’t a mean growl though, and Betty’s next move proved it. She pointed at the ground and said, “Drop it.”
Luna dropped the rings at Betty’s feet and backed up. Betty picked them up and threw them across the room. Luna bounded after them, scooped them up, and shook her head viciously while growling and whipping them back and forth. Then she trotted over and dropped them.
Betty threw them again, and the whole performance repeated as she looked at Callie. “So what do you think? Are you willing to give Luna a try, or is she too scary?”
Callie watched as the dog settled on her bed and chewed the rings. She looked at Seth, who was watching her but said nothing. Then she met Betty’s gaze.
“I think she’s perfect. I’d love to take her home.”
It took another hour of touring the facility, having a training session, talking with Betty about Luna’s habits and needs, and loading up Luna and her stuff before they were on the way back to Sutton’s Creek. Luna sat in the back seat of the truck, panting but happy, her ears up as she watched things out the window. Callie turned around to look at her from time to time and Luna wagged her tail happily.
It made her emotional for some silly reason she couldn’t explain.
“You’ve been quiet,” Seth said after they’d gone about ten minutes without speaking.
She turned to him, eyebrow arched. “I thought that’s how you liked it.”
“I do. But getting a dog is a big deal. I thought you might have something to say.”
“Oh, like I told you I don’t need a dog and how dare you take me to look at one anyway?”
“Something like that.”
She blew out a breath and shrugged. “Too late now. She’s here, and unless she does some crazy shit at the house and I feel she’s not safe for me or Nikki, I have a dog for life.”
Which would be damned inconvenient if she was still trying to leave town. But she wasn’t, though the idea still simmered appealingly in the background. Still, Seth was right. Disappearing the right way took a village. She’d only make herself and Nikki more vulnerable if she went on the run. Their best bet was Seth and his friends.
But for how long? When would this be over?
And then what?
Once Nikki graduated and went off to college, Callie could take a job anywhere. She could go back to Poland, though the idea didn’t really appeal the way it once had. When she’d been twenty-four, working as a programmer for a government agency in DC, she’d longed to do something more exciting. An opportunity came up to move to Poland and teach software development to Polish military for the US government, and she’d jumped on it.
She hadn’t wanted to leave that job, despite Mikhail’s promise of a fantastic job in Huntsville, because she’d enjoyed the travel she got to do on her off time. A three-day weekend? Go to Paris! A few days off here or there? Fly to Rome!
Being that free again should be something she looked forward to—but she didn’t. Returning to the States to take charge of her sister had changed something in her. Not only that, but she liked where they lived. Sutton’s Creek was filled with charm, even if she didn’t spend as much time in town as she might have liked. Because she worked in Huntsville, she was familiar with the things available close to her workplace. She needed to change that and explore Sutton’s Creek.
“I’ll pay the adoption fee. It was my idea, so you shouldn’t have to.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know. But if you keep her, I want to. Least I could do.”
“Okay, then I’ll let you.”
“Good.” He looked smug.
“What now?” she asked.
“You like dogs. I thought maybe you didn’t, or that you were scared of them.”
“I never said I didn’t like them. I just said I didn’t want one. I already feel the pressure of taking care of the human and animals in my care. Adding another one wasn’t high on my list of priorities.”
“You’ve got Nikki to help you. She’s a good kid and she cares about you.”
“She is.” Callie snorted suddenly. “She’s going to freak out. First I bring home a guy who tells her we’re dating and now I’ve got a dog? She’ll wonder if I’m having a quarter-life crisis.”
“Is that even a thing?”
“It’s a thing. Some people feel like their lives aren’t adequate or moving in the right direction. Anxiety, depression, FOMO. Lots more symptoms than that, actually. I think I might have one if I wasn’t so busy with the life I have right now. Maybe when Nikki goes to college, I’ll question everything and decide to join a nunnery.”
“Not a nunnery. Get a sports car and shave your head or something. At least you can still have sex that way. Human connection. It matters.”
She told herself not to think about all the images his words conjured. No, no, no.
“You mean you can still have sex if you find someone who doesn’t mind that you have no hair.”
“Trust me, honey, most guys aren’t going to care. It’s sex with a pretty woman, hair or not.”
“Thank you. I think.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Have you ever questioned your direction in life, Seth?”
He seemed like he had it together. She wasn’t sure she’d ever felt like she had it together.
He hesitated. “No, never. I’ve questioned decisions I made, though. But I think we all do that. I never questioned the decision to join the military. It was the right thing for me. Got me out of my grandparents’ house and set me free.”
He’d said yesterday that they were assholes. It bothered her to think of him as a little boy in that environment. “I’m sorry they weren’t nicer people.”
“It’s okay. Wasn’t all their fault. They’d raised their kid, my dad, and then he dropped me off and never came back, though he sent money from time to time. Not enough. So they got to do the child-raising all over again. I think they were resentful. Like he stole their retirement years or something. ’Course they could have had child protective services come get me, but they never did.”
“They didn’t have to take it out on you.”
“They didn’t have to, but it was probably the only thing they had in common by then. I think they could stand the sight of each other only a little better than they could me, which wasn’t much. They bickered all the time. My grandma watched her news programs around the clock. She hated everyone, thought everyone was out to get her. My grandpa longed for the glory days, whatever those were, and hated everyone too, especially if they weren’t white like him. Said they were the cause for all his problems and he’d be happy when somebody taught them a lesson.”
Anger bubbled beneath her skin. Her mother had faced narrow-minded people when they didn’t like that her English was accented. If it ever bothered her, Callie didn’t know because she would sniff and tell Callie that she should never pay attention to bullies or let them get to her.
“They sound like delightful people.”
“Soooo delightful. My grandpa died first, and my grandma had the nerve to call and demand I pay to bury him. I told her to fuck off. For all I know he got a pine box and no frills. He didn’t deserve that much. Neither did she. They left their property to their church. I didn’t expect them to leave it to me, but if they had I’d have sold it as quickly as possible and donated the money to a charity for orphans. Kinda sorry I didn’t get to do that, but maybe the church will do something good with it.”
Callie was still thinking about all he’d said before she answered when her phone buzzed with a text. She picked it up, assuming it was Nikki telling her about something at school. She’d texted off and on about how boring things were this week in an attempt to guilt Callie into letting her cut the rest of the school year.
But it wasn’t Nikki.
It was Mikhail.