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“Except I couldn’t exactly ask you,” she said lamely.
“Where. Is. He?”
“Richard took Bruce to the county animal shelter.”
Leave it to Dicky to call Boss by his formal name. Shelter. A chill swept through John ForRichard’ssake, it had better be a no-kill shelter.
* * *
John’s foottapped on the concrete floor while the middle-aged woman manning the shelter’s desk helped the family ahead of him.
Damn Richard. Damn Britney. Had he thought Britney taking care of Boss would somehow cement their relationship?
I’m sorry, Boss. I screwed up.
Another volunteer showed up to escort the family off to get their new pet. John’s gut twisted as he stepped up to the counter.
“Can I help you?” The middle-aged woman asked.
“I’m looking for my dog. My girlfriend’s not-so-ex boyfriend brought him here.”
“He what?” She gave a disgusted sigh. “How long ago was it?”
“Around two months. I was deployed.” It’d been a little longer since Britney jammed him up with her social media post, making him cut communication to almost nil. Had she done that purposefully, trying to get him to break up with her?
“Oh.”
The woman’s increasingly sympathetic and concerned tone slammed him in the chest like a sledgehammer.
“This is a no-kill shelter, right?”
“It is. You said this was your girlfriend taking care of your dog?”
“She’s my ex now. And forever more.”
The kennel worker nodded in understanding. “What was the dog’s name?”
“Boss.”
She typed and scanned the computer records. “I don’t have an animal named Boss in our records for the past year. What type of dog was he?”
“Rottweiler mixed with springer spaniel and part something else. Like a mastiff. Wait!” Hadn’t Britney said Richard turnedBrucein? “Try under Bruce.” Maybe Richard used his full name rather than think of him as The Boss.
She turned the monitor for him to see. “Is this him?”
“Yes! That’s my Boss! He’s here?”
“No. He was here two weeks before he was adopted.”
“Adopted?” It was better than Boss being dead or languishing in an animal shelter for months, but the word delivered a kill shot to his hope. He grasped at the only lifeline available. “Can you give me information on who adopted him?”
She frowned and sighed. “They didn’t have permission to relinquish him?”
“Hell no!”
“And you were deployed overseas?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He pulled out his military ID to prove his story. “I’m in a unit that can’t communicate much when we’re on assignment, so I didn’t know what she and her new dick boyfriend had done.”
