Page 19 of Hellhound AU

MILO

Aww, my strawberry milkshake was a little bit shy. Still, the man could kiss. We’d be doing a lot more of that if I had any say in things.

I looked at the time—it was later than I’d thought, and the dry cleaner was probably closed because they had ridiculous hours. I wasn’t a fan of the place, and I wasn’t surprised a weighted blanket was being held hostage.

“Dry cleaner is probably closed, but it’s not that late, so maybe we could go deal with the dog fighting ring?”

“That really bothers you,” Rowan stated.

“Hell, yeah. People are shits to each other all the time, and sometimes some people deserve it because they’re assholes. But pets are never assholes unless humans train them to be. It’s fucked up, and I don’t want animals to suffer.”

Rowan nodded his head.

I handed him my phone. “Plug in the address, and we’ll head out to do some reconnaissance. The crew was pretty confident that the guy they gave us was involved.”

“If we wait until there’s an actual match, we could get more people. We could call the cops so even the spectators would get in trouble.”

I thought about that. He was right, and it made perfect sense. Still, I didn’t really want the cops involved. And now that I knew dogs were suffering, I wanted to do something about it. I shrugged my shoulders, and my boo knew me well enough already to figure out that meant no, so he started typing the address into the phone and put it up on the display.

It was about an hour away, which wasn’t too bad. I started driving, following the directions for a bit in silence. Rowan seemed content with the quiet, but I was nosy as fuck, and it was time to find out more about my sexy ginger.

“So, I talked to your sister already. What other family do you have?” I asked.

I looked over to see Rowan grimace. “Yeah, Riley will probably be a problem. I should call her back, but…” he trailed off and shrugged. “My oldest sister is Raina. She’s married to Troy—he’s a good guy—and they have twin girls. Then there’s Riley, then my brother Ruben, then me.”

“Aww, you’re all R names. Raina, Riley, Ruben, and Rowan—that’s so cute!” I gushed.

I looked over to see Rowan grimace again. Okay, so he didn’t find it as cute.

“What about your parents?” I asked. I hoped I wasn’t touching on sensitive topics, but I wanted to know.

“They’re pretty nomadic. They like to travel a lot, but we still stay in touch. My family is pretty close, and they’re all actually really great for the most part. What about you?” Rowan asked.

It was my turn to make a face. “I’m an only child, and my parents passed away. I lived with my Aunt Anabelle and Ethel for a while before they moved into the retirement home. Aunt Anabelle left the house to me when she passed away. So all my family is gone.” I shrugged, my voice getting a little quavery at the end.

Rowan put a hand on my leg, and the warmth and comfort were enough to have me take a deep breath and blink away my tears.

“Aunt Anabelle’s death hit me hard, but I still have Ethel and everyone at the retirement home. They’re all I have left, really, and I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

Rowan’s hand squeezed my leg, and I looked over to smile at him. He looked sad and concerned; he really was a sweetie.

“I’m okay,” I reassured him.

“I’m sorry you’ve lost so many people. I can’t imagine what that feels like.”

“Yeah, it’s hard, but I try to be thankful for who I do have,” I said.

We fell into silence for a bit after that, watching as the sun set while we drove. Rowan did some research on his phone, and every so often he would stop to point out a pretty piece of scenery. We ended up talking about places we’d visited for the rest of the ride. Rowan was well traveled, and I enjoyed asking him questions about different parts of the country.

We finally pulled up to the address that the crew had given me.

It was a rural area, and the house was big and a little unkempt. Nothing crazy, but you could tell the owners either didn’t care to upkeep it or were unable to. I could hear the sounds of dogs inside from the street out front, and there was a car in the driveway.

Rowan sighed. “We can’t kill this one.”

I kind of knew that, but I looked at Rowan, wondering about his logic. “Why not?”

“He’s raising dogs—it’s a puppy mill in there. It’s pretty awful, but he’s not a truly evil human being yet. There’s still a chance he could reform. He doesn’t mistreat the animals on purpose; he just has puppy mill conditions.”