AllFreeNovel
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“Where were you going?” I ask.
“To bury a body.”
I have a feeling her dark jokes are something I’ll have to get used to since I’m stuck in the cab with her. “Great. Me too.”
“Seriously?”
My mouth drops, and I am quick to shake my head. “No.”
“Mm-hmm. Okay, well, I need to go to the butchers to get food for my little guy. You want to come?”
Little guy?His paws are the size of my hands.
I shrug my shoulders. “Why not? I have nothing better to do.”
She hands her phone to the driver, and he nods his head, shifting the car into drive. Drivers behind us honk their horns, but I assume that’s normal because of how crazy the traffic is here.
“Do you like to shop?” she asks.
“Not really.” I look down at my outfit. I can’t help but compare myself to her. She’s dressed in what looks like an outfit worth half a million dollars while I’m wearing sweatpants and a tank top.
“I thought so. You look as if you just got out of bed.” She pulls on the dog until he’s lying on her legs, covering her entire lower body. “What do you plan to do with the money?” she asks.
“I was thinking about donating a lot of it.”
She smiles, her round cheeks forming dimples in the center. “I donate a lot too. Mainly to animal shelters.”
“I’d love to do that!” I tell her.
“Yeah? We can stop there before we go to the butchers!”
“Please.”
“Driver, let’s go to a shelter.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he mumbles.
Rose and I share jokes back and forth as if our lives depend on it. I’ve never had the opportunity to meet many people in my life, but something about Rose makes me want to open up to her completely. She’s funny, kind, maybe a little stuck-up, but that’s okay because she has to have at least one flaw. I can tell by the way she dresses that she spends money as if it’s just a number in her account. Her clothes look like they’ve been to the dry cleaners. Her heels are bright green, her toes painted white.Who dresses like this on their way to an animal shelter?
The car pulls up to a building that looks run-down, the brick walls close to crumbling. Rose gives the driver three hundred-dollar bills as if they’re pieces of notebook paper. She didn’t have to pay for my drive. I make a face and scratch my cheek as I get out the car. She calls her dog, and he zips through her legs with every step she takes. Some of her words I can’t understand, but I think they’re commands because he starts to walk in circles around her.
“Do you want a dog?” she asks with a grin I’ve already come to know far too well.
I scrunch my nose. “I would love one, but I can’t.”
She brings her well-manicured hand to my nose and taps on it. “That’s what you think. Just wait. Once a dog chooses you, you’ll never be able to leave it.”
I gulp, nervous that she’s right. Mikhail would literally kill me if he came home to a dog sitting on his couch. I’ve noticed he likes things to be completely spotless, not a single crumb in sight. When Lev touched me that night, he made me clean his touch off me. I don’t think that had much to do with him wanting to make me feel more comfortable; I think he just didn’t want another man to touch what he views as his.
And he might be right. I feel as if he is mine and I am his, but that’s a nightmare to untangle.
“Are you coming, Sloane?” Rose asks, opening the door.
I hurry up and rush after her, my ears instantly flooded with the barks and howls of beautiful animals locked in cages. Rose stops by the front desk and talks to a younger woman. She nods at whatever she says and then makes her way over to me.
“What kind of dog are you looking for?” the woman asks. Her hair is pin-straight and dark black, and her eyes are so dark they look as black as her hair.
“I’m not getting a dog, but I wouldn’t mind petting a few.”
