Page 43 of Mommy

His throat works as he swallows the whole piece of raw meat in one large gulp. Shards of glass and all.

I pat his cheek with my free hand.

“Good boy.”

I drop the gun from his throat with a smile.

There were no more meatballs in his pocket, so I’m assuming he has already ‘gotten rid’ of the others while he wandered through this area.

“You better go back and find all those pieces you lost. And get rid of them.” I murmur quietly while I put my gun back into the holster. “Every meatball I find before you do, will follow the one from your pocket.”

I watch as he scrambles back to the path, picking up the lump he dropped before I got hold of him. Throwing a fearful glance over his shoulder in my direction, he watches as I follow him down the path. I’m strolling along behind him, watching carefully as he picks up one piece after the other. Occasionally I bend at the waist and inspect the grass to my feet, causing the dude before me to whimper quietly. Fearful that I might have found something he overlooked.

I end up not finding anything, and when I see my colleague in the distance on the path, I reach out to grab the asshole’s shoulder.

“What’s your name?”

He winces.

“Silas.”

“Well, Silas. If you don’t want to get caught by my colleague over there and spend the next few hours in holding while I desperately try to figure out your paperwork…” I emphasise the words, making sure he knows that I’ll take as much time as humanly possible to process him. “I suggest you get lost.”

He nods quickly, before he scurries off to the side, disappearing through the trees.

Chapter twenty five

Ivory

I recognize the pair, the second they walk through the door. It’s not in the way they look, but rather how they take in everything before their eyes settle on me behind the desk.

The woman has a polite smile on her face as she approaches me.

“Good morning, how may I help you?” I ask my question even though I already know the answer.

“Good morning, we are Dean and Amanda. We are here to pick up a dog.” Her smile widens and I exhale through my nose slowly to keep my own from cracking right there on my face.

“Sure, which one? We have a lot of great dogs here.”

Amanda tucks her hair back behind her ears, leaning against her husband slightly.

“She is a splotchy white pit mix. We visited her a few days ago.”

I know.

They came on my day off, visiting Viv for the second time and falling irrevocably in love with her; according to Shelly and Liam.

“Of course. Let’s go get her.”

Grabbing a leash from one of the hooks on the wall, I lead the two down the kennels to the very last.

Viv is on her bed, surrounded by the puppies, but she jumps up to greet us when she sees us stop at her kennel.

I turn to check with Dean and Amanda, but both their gazes are glued to Viv, happy smiles on their lips.

This is good.

I keep repeating that to myself, while I open the kennel door and squeeze in to leash Viv. But my heart still cracks when she looks up at me with those trusting brown eyes.