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“I haven’t even had my first coffee of the day yet. Or breakfast,” I complained.
“Fine, I’ll let the ‘first thing’ part slide,” Dad conceded, knowing I was a grouch in the mornings until I’d had food and caffeine. “But you still should’ve called us last night.”
I took a quick sip of my coffee. “I’m sorry. By the time I talked to the police and the paramedics finished checking me over, I could barely keep my eyes open.”
“Paramedics?” Andrew echoed, sounding pissed. “Phillip didn’t mention that you were hurt, just that you were involved in the theft of a dog at work last night. He worked a day shift yesterday and has today off, so he didn’t have the chance to pull up the report yet.”
That answered my original question about how they found out. Someone must’ve told my brother’s best friend a little bit about what happened, and he called Andrew to check on me. “I’m okay. It was just a teeny-tiny concussion, but I barely have a headache this morning and have no other symptoms.”
My explanation didn’t help at all, and they made me go through every detail of what happened last night. Of course, I skipped the part about Kade putting me in one of his shirts while I slept and only focused on the fact that he’d watched over me from a chair.
“Who is this Kade guy, and why don’t we know about him?” Andrew demanded once I was done.
“He’s a friend of a vet I’m working on pairing with a service dog. Kade came in with him for his appointment.” The silence on the other end of the line was deafening, and I knew they wouldn’t budge until I gave them more details. “We went out for dinner a couple of nights ago, and he was supposed to foster Tucker before he was taken. That’s why he was there last night. To start his foster training. Which was a lucky thing for me.”
“He has my gratitude for that,” my dad begrudgingly conceded.
“Where does this guy live?” Andrew asked. “I’ll come get you and bring you to Dad’s.”
Kade’s name was on the police report too, so I figured they would get his full name and details as soon as we hung up. And more if Andrew hadn’t been joking about looking into anyone I dated.
But that didn’t stop me from insisting, “I’m fine where I’m at for now. All I want to do is eat the breakfast Kade made me. If you really want to do something to help, ask Phillip if there’s any progress in finding Tucker. I’m safe, but he isn’t.”
“I was already planning to do that,” Andrew confirmed.
“Not sure how I feel about you staying at some man’s home when I haven’t met him yet,” my dad grumbled.
I sighed. “I’m twenty-two, Daddy. I was bound to meet a guy sooner or later.”
Andrew made a gagging sound while my dad murmured, “You’ll always be my baby girl, no matter how old you are.”
I sniffled. “I know.”
“Which means you’ll send me texts to confirm you’re okay every two hours,” he demanded.
“Me, too,” Andrew chimed in.
“Fine,” I huffed. “But you better not show up on his doorstep unless it’s to surprise me because you have Tucker with you.”
8
Kade
Icouldn’t hear whatever Annalise’s dad said, but her frustrated expression had me seconds away from yanking the phone out of her hand and telling them to fuck off. Luckily—because that wouldn’t be the best way to win them over—my phone vibrated in my pocket.
I jerked my chin toward the living room, and Annalise nodded. As I left, I swiped the screen of my phone to answer.
“Deacon,” I answered in lieu of a greeting.
“I did some recon and found the vehicle, but it had been ditched in a grocery store parking lot.”
“Fuck.” We didn’t really have anything else to go on.
“You said the dog bit him?”
“Yeah, it looked like he punctured the guy’s skin pretty deep. Enough for stitches, if I had to guess.”
“Then I doubt he was able to walk far. Chances are high that he lives within two clicks of that store.”
