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eight
“Everybody’s good, ma’am. I’m turning in.” Roger peeked into the living room, where Sunny sat by the fireplace, watching the pups and Chevy snooze while she nursed a glass of wine.
“Thanks, Rog.” Sunny offered a tired smile. The day had been long, but rewarding. Despite the ice storm, she’d been able to place three of her dogs into successful adoptions today. “I’ll see you in the morning. Oh, hey!” she called out before Roger disappeared. “What happened to the new girl? Yolanda? She wasn’t here when I got back today.”
Roger paused in the entryway. His shoulders rose and fell before he turned back. “Janice stopped by again.” Roger waved in the general vicinity of the Matteri land. “When you were out. I didn’t want to tell you, because you were so busy and look so tired. She threatened me and Yolanda. Made her hand into a gun—” Roger imitated “—and said we’d be sorry if we set foot on her land. Yolanda spooked. But I don’t want her to get kicked out of the program. Yolanda is good people. She needs to be here or she’s just going to be strung out her whole life.”
Sunny’s insides tightened, her fatigue filling up with the sizzle of adrenaline. “I’ll talk to Kendra tomorrow. See what I can do. I’ll make sure Yolanda doesn’t lose her spot.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Roger turned to go, but stopped again. He lowered his voice, even though nobody was around to hear them. “I know you wanted to go back for that beagle last time you raided her mill, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. That woman is on to you and she’s crazy. Please don’t go over there. At least for a while.” He opened his hands in a stop gesture, which offered an impressive palm spread. Though only nineteen, Roger was a large man with a deep voice and a gentle demeanor that belied both his years and upbringing.
Sunny drained her wine and smiled. “You’re sweet to worry about me, Rog. But I’ll be okay. You go get some rest now.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Sunny watched him through the window as he made his way out back and along the path to the cabin that was reserved just for him. It was the largest one, attached to the main kennel. Sunny would never forget the tears she saw in the young man’s eyes when she offered him the place for his very own. “No rent,” she’d said. “You live here and help me take care of my dogs for as long as you want to and the room and board is on me.”
Despite the fact he shared his quarters with half a dozen dogs, all he’d said was, “I’ve never had a room of my own before.”
Sunny’s eyes had welled up fast. “Well, you do now.”
As soon as Roger disappeared inside, she plunked her empty wineglass down, rose and snatched up her coat and boots. It was one thing for Janice Matteri to threaten her; it was another entirely to go pointing her nasty fingers at her crew.
Sunny trained her binoculars on the back of Janice Matteri’s kennel. This is where Janice kept the dogs she cared the least about. Anything prized, which is what she’d shown to the police, was kept in or near the main house. Everything was dark, quiet and freezing. A shift to the left: the security camera was still disabled with black spray paint. Now was the time. Nobody would be expecting Sunny to raid the kennel just days after Janice had gone to the police. What kind of idiot would do that?
Me, that’s who, thought Sunny.
She slipped the binoculars into her bag and approached the fence, feeling around until she had the first foothold. Sunny had long ago memorized the notches in the old wood fence that Janice was too cheap to replace. Divots just big enough to hook her feet and hands and pop herself over. Sunny landed with a thump, then slunk through the trees and stopped at the door of the kennel. The padlock Janice had put on the handle made her chuckle. Sunny withdrew bolt cutters from her bag. She paused before she put metal to metal, but all was silent. Despite the fact that common sense suggested a kennel full of dogs would bark at Sunny’s noise or smell, she had learned early on that Janice’s dogs were cowed into silence. They didn’t like the sound of people approaching and never drew attention to themselves.
Her heart thudded in her chest as she braced to cut open the padlock. This time, she’d come armed with a leash and collar and a bag of raw meat to entice the poor beagle out of his corner. Even though some time had passed since she’d first tried to lure him away, now that she was here Sunny felt an urgency to get to him as quickly as possible. Her hands shook with anticipation.
“Hands up,” a cold male voice came from behind her back. “Nice and slow.”
Sunny’s hands planted on the cold metal of her car as the detective spun her around. Her head was spinning, just as fast. What the hell had just happened?
You got busted trying to break into Janice Matteri’s kennel and then marched out to your car, where you thought it was safely hidden on a back road nobody knows about, by a police detective, her brain shot back.
“Sunny Morrigan, I presume? I’m Detective Callahan. Would you like me to radio a female detective to come out here and frisk you?”
“Frisk me?” Sunny’s heart hammered in her chest. “Listen, Detective, I’m not on any drugs and I’m not carrying a gun. I was only trying to check on—”
“Who said anything about drugs or a gun?” His voice got sharper.
Dammit. Where the hell had he been hiding? And why?
“I’ll take that as a no.” Detective Callahan kicked her legs apart with his foot and patted her up and down, cold and professional, until he was satisfied she wasn’t packing. “Turn around. Stick out your arms and touch your nose, one finger at a time.”
“Listen.” Sunny pushed off the car and obeyed, her fingers going rapidly to her nose, back and forth. “I know what this looks like. But it’s not what it looks like. If you’d just let me explain.” Sunny actually had no idea what she would say if the detective suddenly agreed.
“Walk in a straight line, just there.” He pointed. “One foot in front of the other.”
“We both know I’m not drunk.” A cold fist tightened around Sunny’s stomach. “Janice Matteri’s the one you should be arresting. She has dogs in that kennel who are suffering. Shame on her, and shame on you. I’m the only humane one in this scenario.”
Silence passed. A hand gripped her shoulder, stopping her midstride. Sunny turned and faced the steely gaze of the detective. He wasn’t exceptionally tall, but he didn’t need to be. His eyes looked like cold stars, the way they glittered in the dark, and his jaw could’ve been chiseled from marble. His light brown hair was cropped close on the sides, and the way he filled out his clothes, beneath his protective vest, left no doubt of his strength.
Sunny held up her hands, palms open.
Callahan’s face softened, like he was seeing her for the first time. “You’re under arrest,” he said. “I’m going to put you in the back of my car and take you back to the station. Maybe a night in jail will make you think about how reckless you’re being.”
