Page 22 of The Arrangement

“You do that. Ten seconds and I want you coming in from the front and him moving in through the back if you can get him on the phone. We meet in the kitchen. Let’s try to keep it quiet. Vine’s trying to sleep and Sasha won’t appreciate being woken up by someone’s screams.”

“Got it.”

Anton hung the phone up and made his way down the hallway, not bothering to turn on any lights as he went. Once he opened the door to the stairwell, the panel downstairs would notify the intruder that Anton was coming down. He wanted to be ready for whoever it was, not the other way around, so he took a moment to gather his thoughts and calm his raging emotions as he came to the stairwell door.

It took him all of three seconds to blink away whatever hesitation might have remained. Tightening his grip on his gun, Anton opened the door and took the stairs two at a time. Instead of his nerves growing as he neared the bottom door, he only became calmer He could already taste the blood on his tongue.

And now he was just pissed the fuck off.

Somebody was going to bleed for waking him up and scaring Viviana. They’d get even worse if it was an intruder. A soft whine behind the door at the bottom of the stairs stopped Anton from slamming it open.

“Rocco?” he asked.

The animal should have been inside his kennel. He had never escaped, or tried to, before.

The pup barked loudly, but his master knew it wasn’t a warning like he’d been trained for, rather an indication of his excitement.

“Rocco, you little—”

Anton gritted his teeth and opened the door to find the German shepherd wagging his tail with his tongue sticking out.

“Boss?” Rory called out from the darkness.

“Fucking Rocco,” Joe growled, coming around from the kitchen.

“Is everything okay?”

Anton frowned at Clarissa’s groggy voice adding to the mix.

“Everything’s fine,” Rory said lowly. “Go to bed.”

The previous anger and desire to kill Anton had been feeling ebbed away as he stared down at his waiting dog. Clearly, Rocco had set off the sensors from the inside, and it wasn’t something they’d ever had to deal with before.

“How’d you get out, huh?” he asked the pup.

The two bulls had come to stand in the hallway, each sporting amused expressions.

“Boss?” Joe asked, hiding his grin with his hand.

Now Anton just felt stupid. Viviana was probably upstairs freaking out.

Perfect, he thought.

“Take Rocco out to piss, and then get him back in his kennel.”

Rory snorted. “Can’t. I noticed it on the way in. He must have broken one of the hinges because the side collapsed in.”

The dog in question seemed wholly unbothered that he had caused such concern and ruckus. Why on earth was he trying to escape, now? Did he want to be closer to Viviana?

“Viviana?” Anton asked, noticing immediately that the dog perked up at her name. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. No way was the dog sleeping in his bedroom every night. “No way, Rocco. You have a bed.”

Rocco whined and cocked his head in a lupine way. “No,” Anton repeated.

“This is really fun and all …”

Anton tossed a glare at Joe and it gave Rocco all the time he needed to push past his master and jog up the stairwell. Cussing low under his breath, Anton knew there would be no fighting with the dog, never mind Viviana when she found out what happened.

“So, no gutting?” Rory asked cheerfully.