AllFreeNovel
Share Us
TWENTY-FIVE
Decima
“Is this…a kind of job that you guys normally take on?” I asked, holding the leash of a small corgi that walked in front of me as if he was the one leading me down the sidewalk. I’d never thought much about how I felt about dogs, but this one had stolen my heart the moment we’d picked him up from the breeder.
I wished I could take him home with us, but I imagined the guys would have something to say about that. And he was kind of essential to our plan.
Julius shook his head where he was walking by my side. “Not on a regular basis. It’s definitely not within our typical range of services. Only for special circumstances like these.”
Like a genetic scientist who didn’t happen to have anyone she wanted chaotically murdered as payment for her services. I couldn’t suppress a laugh, and the corgi looked over his shoulder at me without slowing his pace. He ran into the back of Garrison’s heel and stumbled over his sausage legs before correcting himself and walking a few paces behind Garrison.
Garrison shot the dog a look, but from the twinkle in his eye, I didn’t think I was the only one taken with this bundle of brown fur.
“It seems pretty simple for the complex work she’s going to be doing for us,” I had to point out.
Garrison snorted. “For her, sequencing DNA is a piece of cake. We had to locate a dog that’s a near-perfect match for hers, and now we’ve got to sneak it into her ex-boyfriend’s house and retrieve the real one without him having a clue. It’s a stealth mission that takes a lot of skill and prep-work, so I’d say she’s getting one hell of a discount for our services.”
At his tone, I couldn’t resist gazing down at the dog and sticking out my bottom lip in an exaggerated pout. “And you’re sure that we can’t keep him?”
Julius looked over at me, and a chuckle escaped him. “He’s already been assigned to a home, Dess.”
I sighed. “Fine. But don’t blame me if I find I’m unable to stop myself from bringing a different one back to the apartment one of these days.”
Garrison shook his head, but his lips twitched with amusement. I glanced around at the quiet suburban neighborhood through my sunglasses, still alert within my disguise even though traffic cams were in shorter supply here. We had no idea how close our enemies might be to finding us, so we’d pulled together this job as fast as we could.
But at the same time, a sense of calm had settled over me, taking the edge off my nerves. We’d all worked together, making a convincing case for dog ownership when we’d picked up the pup, driving out to the edge of the suburbs while keeping our charge in a good mood, and now approaching our target’s home like a group of friends out for a stroll. It was like nothing had changed, despite our argument a couple of days ago. No matter what our enemies might have in store, that knowledge filled me with relief.
“That’s the house,” Julius said without looking at it as we crossed the street. “Three down from the corner.”
I took it in from the edge of my vision as we ambled by. It was one of the larger buildings on the residential street, white with beige shingles and a big porch. “Got it,” I said.
We made a longer circuit, coming around to where Talon was waiting in our getaway car. Julius nodded to him, and the other man started the engine to drive over to the house on the opposite side of the block from our target’s. Garrison headed back around to the front of the house, while Julius and I followed Talon on foot.
“You’re sure you want to do the inside work?” Julius asked me.
I nodded. “I’m the smallest out of all of you—it’ll be easiest for me to stay unnoticed. And he seems to like me.” I bent down to scratch the dog behind the ears. “Hopefully his counterpart will too.”
“All right. I’ll be waiting by the fence for the handoff. Get in there as soon as you hear Garrison at the door.”
We walked up the driveway of the house that backed onto our target’s backyard as if we belonged there. We’d already confirmed that the owners and their neighbors would be at work. Too bad we couldn’t say the same for our target, but apparently one of the reasons our client had broken up with him was that he’d decided to laze around at home all day playing video games while living off an unexpected inheritance.
Unfortunately, that’d also made it impossible for her to get the dog herself. He’d paid for one of its vet bills once and had found some lawyer who’d insisted he could make a case to sue if our client tried to take the dog with her, even though the dog had been hers for years before they’d ever met. I knew all about vindictive pricks, even if I’d never been in a relationship with one, and this guy was clearly a massive one.
I scrambled over the wooden fence with the help of a lawn chair, and Julius handed the corgi over the top to me. The dog squirmed a little when I tucked him under my arm, and I made a soft clucking sound that had seemed to soothe him in the car. When he went still, I gave him a quick pet. “Good boy.” Then I stole across the overgrown lawn to the back door.
At least it looked as if this dude didn’t treat the current doggie resident too badly. There were a few toys scattered in the yard, and when I peeked through the window in the back door, I made out a full water dish and a food bowl that looked recently cleaned of its contents.
No sign of the actual dog, though…
I couldn’t see the supposed owner, but chances were he was camped out in the living room in front of his widescreen TV jabbing at a controller. Stroking the dog’s fur comfortingly, I used my other hand to quickly pick the lock so I’d be ready to move as soon as I got the signal.
All good, I texted Garrison.
A minute later, the doorbell pealed out. The floor creaked as the occupant must have walked over to answer it. I eased open the back door at the same moment.
It let out a faint squeak, and I froze. But the guy was already swinging open the front door and didn’t appear to notice. I slipped into the mudroom and set down the new corgi.
“You stay right there,” I murmured to him, setting a few treats in the food dish. As he started gobbling them up, I stalked farther into the house.
