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“Like I said, I won’t let him,” I said, letting it drop at that.
If she had doubts, she didn’t vocalize them.
More likely, though, she was trying to focus on not crying out as the walk kept jostling her body, making her suck in her breath and tense up over and over.
“Almost there,” I told her, seeing my car in the distance.
“Storm,” she said, voice sounding choked.
Like she was about to cry.
“Got a backseat,” I said as I pulled the passenger door open, then carefully set her inside before yanking open the back door. “Come on,” I said to the puppy, who looked confused, but because his person was in the car, he carefully stepped inside as well.
“He can’t stay in the car,” she said as I slid into the driver’s seat.
“I’ll figure it out,” I assured her. “You’re gonna go down for testing. I’ll find a dog daycare or some shit like that.”
The city was teeming with those places. I was dubious that I would find one out here in the sticks, though. Why would you need a doggy daycare out this way? Throw in a dog door and a fenced yard, and the dogs could keep themselves entertained all day if they needed to.
It didn’t matter.
There would be a dog walker. A dog sitter. Someone. I found if you tossed enough money at someone, they were all too happy to do whatever you needed them to do. Especially if it was as easy as tossing some food at the dog, and keeping it safe until I could figure out another arrangement.
Judging by the looks of her, I didn’t think the hospital was going to need to keep her, unless she had some sort of concussion to deal with. They’d check her ribs, wrap her in elastic bandages, cast her wrist, then likely send her on her way.
She couldn’t go back to her cabin, obviously. But there were other options.
I was getting ahead of myself, though.
“How did you find me?” she asked, and I wondered if I was imagining the hint of suspicion in her voice.
I couldn’t blame her, I guess.
“Was driving down the road. Heard Storm barking like a fucking maniac. Then, saw him running across the street.” It wasn’t a lie. And wasn’t the truth either. But she seemed ready to accept it regardless. “I figured something was up, so I followed him.”
“He’s a good dog,” she said, trying to look back at him, but her face contorted in pain. “I don’t even know your name,” she said after a moment.
“Silvano,” I told her, even though my entire existence up here was supposed to be under one of my aliases.
“Millie,” she said, wincing hard as the tires hit a pothole that had the whole car jolting hard. “Will I have to talk to the police?” she asked, glancing over at me.
“Dunno. Maybe,” I said, even if I did know and she almost certainly would have to talk to them. People in healthcare were mandatory reporters. She’d clearly been attacked. Maybe she could have avoided it, lied about falling down a cliff or something, if it weren’t for the strangulation bruises on her neck. “Why?” I added.
A normal person would ask that. They would want to speak to the police. They would want to file a report, have the bad guys found.
I had to play the part of a normal person. Even if I understood all too well why other sorts of people wouldn’t want the cops called.
I mean, that was why the Family had their own medical professionals, why we only went to the hospital if it was absolutely necessary.
Clearly, whoever Millie was, she was not a normal person either.
Which left me wondering as we drove mostly in silence, save for Millie’s occasional gasp or whimper as the car hit some rough terrain, what had she been into? Who was she on the outs with? Who wanted to kill her? And how the fuck had she survived?
I didn’t want to pester her with questions when she was in pain, though, so I kept my curiosity to myself as I drove her up to the emergency room doors, then carried her inside, making sure she was taken back, then assuring her that I would take care of Storm, then come back and check on her.
“She’s gonna be alright,” I told Storm as he whined and scratched at the door since I had to roll up the window after he tried to bound out. “Take a nap, man,” I said, reaching over to pet his head as I brought up my phone, looking for any local pet sitters.
A half an hour later, I was pulling up to a lady’s house who had a shitton of reviews.
