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She heard a shot, then she heard Sabina and Sonia screaming.
Oh God, he shot Ahmed!
She heard the truck’s door clang open, then the young man tossed her upward. Her forehead cracked against metal and her nose and mouth filled with liquid covering the floor. She inhaled in shock and choked on it. It was cold, but the coppery taste was foul.
Blood!
She jerked up her head as best she could and tried to scream, but the blood in her lungs made her cough.
“Get me out of here. Let me out,” she begged as she spit blood out of her mouth.
“Shut up. Figure out a way to roll over, and you’ll be fine.”
Jenny looked over at the young officer and saw his maniacal pleasure. He laughed.
“Enjoy your time. Just wait until we start driving over rocks, then you’ll really have fun.”
Jenny had a moment to look around and saw that there was no meat hanging from the hooks, but the notched floor of the truck had blood an inch deep in each of the runnels, and her mouth had landed in one of them. Then the door clanged shut and her entire world went black.
Without being able to see anything, she could hear the blood sloshing around, and smell and taste the copper in the air.
I’m in hell.
2
“Oh God, you really are a teenager, aren’t you?” Brax looked up at the sky for any kind of an answer. “Why me? She was so much fun and good up until now.”
He crouched down and looked over at Faith. “Come on, girl. Come.” He patted his knees. Faith started to run toward him and Brax sighed in relief. Then she ran past him and picked up the knotted rope ten feet behind him. She brought it back to him and dropped it in front of Brax. His puppy looked up expectantly.
“That’s fetch, Faith. Come on, for the last four months you’ve known the difference between fetch and come. What in the hell is up with you?”
She looked at him, then turned her head and literally gave him the side-eye. She ran back to her see-saw and started trying to balance on it. Every time she slid down one side, she’d climb up and try again. It was clear she was having a blast.
Yep, it was playtime, not training time. Typical teenager. She had no use for school.
Dammit. At this rate he was going to have to send her to military school. Brax huffed out a laugh.
BUD/S for teenage dogs. That would be something. At least she wasn’t into clothes and make-up. “Come on, girl. We’ve got to go. Time to go visit Hercules.”
Brax watched as Faith got off the see-saw in a shot and beat him to the back door of his recently purchased house. “So, was it me saying ‘come’ or me saying ‘Hercules’?”
Woof
“Come?”
Faith stared at Brax.
“Hercules?”
Woof
“So, you’re boy crazy. Figures.”
“Down.”
Brax watched in amazement as both black Russian Terrier pups plunked their asses on Mateo and Lainey’s tiled floor. Lainey hadn’t even offered Faith a treat, and she was calmly sitting, waiting for Lainey’s next command.
What the fuck?
