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“Okay, Ashley, maybe we should?—”
She didn’t hear the rest because in two seconds it had turned to shit.
The door behind her flew open and a couple of her charges came bounding out. Peanut was a rambunctious terrier who loved to hump anyone and anything (kind of like her sister in that respect). He jumped on Dex, who held up his hands—to protect The Face, no doubt—then stumbled back. Peanut was clearly overstimulated, but he was largely harmless.
The same couldn’t be said for Bandit.
Who did not like seeing his buddy, Peanut, getting up close and personal with the hockey player. Bandit lunged and, despite not being a big dog, still managed to knock Peanut out of the way—to presumed safety, at least in Bandit’s eyes. Then he stood and growled at Dex.
Leaving the apparent stalemate, Ashley pushed through the door to find a mess in the cages, or rather, out of the cages.
Toby was frantically trying to undo the damage wrought by Bronte who was sitting in the middle of the room with Rory, a Golden Retriever mix in her lap.
“Toby, you were supposed to keep an eye on her!”
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. I was feeding Benji and he squirreled his way past me and—hey, c’mere, fella!” He grabbed a Basset hound called Gaston and one of their three Jack Russells, Belle, and popped them into their respective cages. Ashley got busy corralling the remaining dogs.
“In you go, Joey! You’ve had your fun for today.” Joey the Pitbull gave her the sad eyes, but waddled his way in.
“What should I do with this little guy?”
Ashley turned to find Dex with Peanut, cradled in his arms, who looked like he was really enjoying the ride.
“Hey, you’re Dex O’Malley,” Bronte said. “I saw your dick online.”
“Bronte, you need to leave.” Ashley scooped up a Yorkshire terrier they’d yet to name and put him in his cage. “You promised you’d be good and now I can’t trust you.”
She turned back to Dex, wondering how he managed to pick up Peanut without incurring the wrath of Bandit. “Mr. O’Malley, I can take Peanut—uh, where’s the other dog?”
“He was getting a bit unruly, so I left him out there for now. I locked the door as well, just in case someone else comes in.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks for that.” A decent level of foresight, but she supposed Dex O’Malley was more adept than most at cleaning up messes. She took Peanut from him and placed him in his cage. “In you go, little guy.”
When she turned, Dex had vanished, and then she heard it: the worst combination of sounds possible in a shelter.
An animal growl and a human yelp.
She rushed out. Dex was holding his hand—his bloodied hand—and glaring at Bandit.
“The fucker bit me!”
“Yeah, he’s a bit of a wild card. Oh—” Ashley moved closer. That was quite a lot of blood. “We should get that fixed up.”
“Has that mutt had his shots?”
Ashley didn’t enjoy the implication that they didn’t run a clean shelter around here. “Have you had yours?”
He blinked at her. “My hands are pretty valuable, y’know.”
She had a million possible comebacks for that. Instead, she went with, “I can only imagine. Toby!”
Toby emerged carrying Lilith, a bulldog mix. “Yep?”
“Could you take care of Bandit? I have to manage this.”
Toby took a look at Dex, then back to Ashley. “Got it, boss. Here, fella.” Bandit growled but Toby knew how to handle him—gently.
She turned back to the injured hockey player. “If you come through, we can wash it and?—”
