This was a violation Inspector Smith would allow us to correct. With this guy, we probably already had so many he’d need a ream of paper to print them all out.
Focus, Pepper.
I ran through my mental catalog for each new dog and checked what I’d written. That was all of them . . . I was pretty sure.
He appeared in the doorway and made a disgruntled noise as he took in more dogs. Sadie barked her head off as he approached her kennel.
But the acute sound of his pencil rubbing on the paper was loud and clear.
Once he moved down the row of kennels, I discreetly dropped treats into Sadie’s. Her barks turned into smacking . . . until she finished her biscuit. Woof. Woof. The smarty pants barked again. I fed her another treat and wished this man would hurry up and finish before I had to give her the whole tin.
Miss Adeline widened her eyes at me. The woman knew when to speak and when to be quiet. She hadn’t said a word to the man.
“Your papers?” he asked when he’d finished perusing—okay, more like scrutinizing.
I jumped. “Here’s the log.”
Sadie barked the second I stepped away. Even Inspector Dawson’s nasty look didn’t quiet her. If anything, it amped her up.
“The business license?” He sounded beyond unimpressed that I hadn’t collected everything in a timely manner.
“I thought I’d picked it up.” I pulled on one strap of my overall in a nervous fidget. “Let me grab it.”
Once I set it in front of him, he barely glanced at the document. “This facility is only authorized to safely house eight dogs.” What? Where did it say that on any paperwork we had from the city and state? Inspector Smith never mentioned it. And we always had more than eight dogs.
Miss Adeline opened her mouth, but I held up a hand.
“Please show me—”
“You have forty-eight hours to rectify the situation.” He narrowed his gaze on me. “And I’m being generous. If I come back and there are nine dogs, I’m shutting you down.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Pepper
“Give me his card.”
My hands trembled as I pulled the cardboard square from my pocket and handed it to Daniel.
I slumped against the counter, where I’d been since Inspector Dawson left, along with his list of violations.
I glanced to Miss Adeline in a what are we going to do look. She’d resumed feeding the dogs, though her movements were stilted and aggressive.
“I’m sorry we weren’t here.” Muriella placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.
“We can’t adopt out that many dogs in two days,” I said more to myself than anyone else.
Miss Adeline grunted. She still hadn’t spoken. When she was quiet for this long, it was a little scary. Except I was already terrified.
“Did we mention we have a lot of space?” Vivian’s voice was full of determination. “That jerk wants to play? Then let’s play.”
How did we go up against power? We couldn’t afford an attorney and even if we could, there wasn’t enough time.
All the innocent faces in those kennels . . . they were depending on us to protect them. If we were shut down, they’d take the dogs. Visions of them in the overcrowded city shelter bleached my brain.
They did the best they could. We’d taken dogs off their hands before.
But they killed.
I white-knuckled the edge of the counter.
Nausea rolled through my stomach in a wave.
An arm slipped around my waist. I leaned my head on Miss Adeline’s shoulder.
“We always figure it out, don’t we?” she whispered.
I nodded.
“We can take them today, but since they’re comfortable here, it might be best to do it tomorrow,” Vivian said. “They can stay until we get the jerk-face off your back.”
“Take them?” My brain was foggy with nightmare scenarios to the point I couldn’t think.
“Did you not hear me?” she asked. “I said we have plenty of space.”
“We can’t ask you to do that,” I said quietly. “If we get caught—”
“What are they going to do to us?” Vivian looked smugly at her husband, whose back was toward us as he spoke low into his phone.
“Take them all. Shut us down permanently.” I was going to be sick.
Sadie pawed at her cage like she was trying to dig out. I opened it and sank to my knees. She bolted straight into me, covering my face with kisses. I couldn’t lose them. They were my life.
“He’s legit,” Daniel said as he strode back in the room. “And he has the authority to do what he said, even though it wasn’t precedent with previous inspectors.”
“We’ve solved the problem,” Vivian said. Daniel looked warily at his wife. “They’ll come hang out with us until this blows over.”
What if it didn’t blow over? I was beyond grateful for their help, but it wasn’t a permanent solution.
“They can’t just disappear. We’ll have to show who took possession of the dogs,” I said. Hiding them out wouldn’t be good enough.
“You can put them all in my name.” Stone tugged on his ball cap. He was a massive movie star—at least he had been before he quit—but he’d always been down-to-earth and kind.
“That won’t do. We can’t turn over that many dogs to one person.” As much as I wanted to take him up on the offer, it wouldn’t work.
“They try to be asses and I’ll take it public. Besides, we’ve got a lot of acres in Texas. More than enough for the dogs. If they ask questions, our alibi is airtight.” His stance was casual, easy, like he’d solved all the problems.
Had he?
“Not to mention we’re having the adoption event soon,” Muriella said.
I put my head to Sadie’s and rubbed behind her ears. The adoption event. I—I couldn’t get excited about it. As crazy as this girl drove me, I didn’t want to let her go. We were her forever home.
And she wasn’t the only one.
I never should’ve agreed to the event in the first place. Maybe that was selfish. Maybe I needed an attitude adjustment. A new way of thinking.
But as Muffy nudged his door and wagged his tail, I knew we did something right.
As many dogs as we had at the rescue, they were happy.
I’d always be proud of that.
“We’re not letting some old mean man stop us, are we?” I whispered to Sadie.
I drew in a long breath and let it out slowly. When I rose to my feet, I looked around at the supportive faces. Thank goodness they were here.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked. Miss Adeline gave me an approving nod.
“We are doing this,” Muriella said.
“Thank you.” A lump formed in my throat but I quickly swallowed it down. “We have a few who are recovering from injuries, so they’ll stay here.” I rubbed Sadie’s head. “Along with the troublemakers.”
Woof.
At least she didn’t deny who she was. See? Greyhounds spoke English.
“If either Miss Adeline or I can come take a look at where you think you can keep them, we can get you the supplies you need.” With every word, optimism infused me. “And of course, they won’t be solely your responsibility. We’ll come care for them.”
“I’ll have the furniture removed from the living room. That should be plenty of space for everyone.”
All eyes jerked to Daniel. His expression remained cool and calm.
Then Vivian kissed his cheek. “I like that solution.”
Stone slung an arm around Muriella’s shoulders and grabbed a leash off the counter behind them. “We better get back to it. I’m thinking you need more help than us walking four dogs.”
It was hard to admit the truth. I liked taking care of things myself, and for such a long time, that was exactly what I had been doing. With Miss Adeline, of course. But in the past few weeks, it had felt like an army had entered my life, slowly showing me I was wrong. That it wa
s okay to say “yes, please” and “thank you” when help was offered. And one of those times was now.
Chapter Thirty
Teague
“Yo!”
I stirred the chili simmering on the stove, not in the mood for Burke.
He clapped my shoulder. “How much longer?”
I’d come in early for my shift to cook. Actually, it was to avoid being alone with my thoughts for a minute more. I couldn’t turn off the images of the fire that had ultimately taken Cassano’s life. It didn’t seem possible he was dead.
“About ten minutes.” My answer was robotic. I didn’t sound like myself. Didn’t feel like myself.
I’d hoped being at the firehouse would bring a sense of normalcy back.
It hadn’t.
“I’ll go tell the fellas.” He snorted. “It’ll take that long to get them to the table.” Burke was behaving almost like himself. But there was something off. His joke not quite authentic. Like he was overdoing it.
Because we’d lost a brother.
I continued stirring on autopilot.
“Shit.” I banged the spoon on the side of the pot before I stirred it too much.
My phone chimed.
Call me.
I put the lid back on the pot of chili and turned around one of the kitchen chairs. As I hit Daniel’s name on my phone, I sat backward in the chair.
“An inspector paid a visit to Grey Paws today.”
No.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse. And this was completely my fault.
“What happened?” I spat.
“They have to get down to eight dogs in forty-eight hours or they’re shut down.”
“Son of a . . .” I stood, the chair scraping across the linoleum when I did. I kicked it. There was no satisfaction when it fell on its side.
“I’ve called my contacts, but I don’t think we can stop this.”
We couldn’t stop it. I could.
Daniel was a powerful man in the city. His reach was far and wide in ways I didn’t really want to know the source of.
But my father was more powerful. Had more money. Played dirty to get what he wanted.
Unstoppable.
He was a force no one could contain.
No. One.
“Find anything you can on that man. Get him demoted, moved . . . anything.” The desperate quality to my voice was one I didn’t recognize.
“Already on it.” He paused. “We’re helping Pepper and Miss Adeline. I just thought you’d want to know what was going on.”
“I want to know everything.”
I ended the call, picked up the overturned chair, and turned off the stove.
“It’s ready.” I shouldered past Walsh and Rivera as I stormed out of the kitchen.
If I hadn’t seen Pepper yesterday, would my father have sent his goon to torment her? If I’d showed up for duty at Hollingsworth Properties, would that have stopped him? There was no way to know.
“Where the hell are you going? You’re on in a half hour,” Captain called as I shoved out the back door.
“Family emergency,” I grunted.
When I reached my truck, I yanked open the door and climbed inside. Instead of starting it, I sagged against the steering wheel.
Where was I going?
If I went to Grey Paws, a fresh hell would be rained down on Pepper.
My breath came in short, heavy pants. I couldn’t catch it.
How could I fix this for her? What would happen to the dogs? Who would care for them like they did?
Without thought, I dialed.
“Are you at work?” Just hearing my brother’s voice allowed me to take a deeper breath.
“He’s going to shut her down,” I croaked. “How do I stop it?”
A tense silence floated between us.
“By being smart. Whatever you’re thinking of doing, wait.”
He knew me better than anyone. Somehow I’d tamped down my urge to go to Pepper . . . but I had a few other people I wanted to pay a visit to. Starting with that inspector.
“Daniel’s helping her. But it should be me.” My voice crescendoed to a shout.
“If you get near her, it’s only going to hurt Pepper.”
I resented it but was relieved my brother had the ability to remain calm in the midst of turmoil.
“I got her into this mess. I need to get her out.”
“He did this. Not you.” Lincoln was as fierce as I’d ever heard him. “Do you understand me?”
Loud and clear. But that didn’t mean I agreed with him.
“Go to work. Get your head on straight. We’ll figure this out as a family.”
He was right. I was in no frame of mind to do anything other than the job that was second-nature. Even that was going to be hard.
“All right.” I put my hand on the door handle.
“We’ll come up with something.”
I nodded, despite he couldn’t see me. “You still at the office?” It was late afternoon and a stupid question. He was always working.
“No. I just finished up a meeting with Dad and I’m headed out to look at some property.”
Maybe he did get out of that prison every so often.
“I won’t be home until late.”
After I hung up, I sat there with one hand on the door handle and the other on the steering wheel. Lincoln had a way of settling my temper. He was solid, had reasonable wisdom. He was always there for me, no matter what.
I cranked my truck.
And this time, I ignored his advice.
Chapter Thirty-One
Teague
“Sir. He’s not here.”
For the second time in a week, my father’s receptionist chased after me. I’d believe her when I saw with my own eyes.
On the drive over, I still hadn’t decided what I was going to do once I confronted him. Part of me wanted to give in, do what he wanted, and pray he kept his word he’d leave Grey Paws alone. Except I couldn’t recall him saying exactly those words.
In my father’s world, promises were meant to be broken.
I shoved one of the mahogany double doors to his office.
And found the receptionist had spoken the truth.
He wasn’t there.
When I spun to retreat, she flashed an I told you so look in my direction. I ignored her and marched back toward the lobby.
Now what?
My grand plan failed.
“Don’t you want to know where he is?” Her tone was a taunt.
I hesitated at the elevator. Did I? I wasn’t much for signs, but maybe this had been one that my brother was right.
Without answering, I stabbed the down button. Mercifully, the elevator arrived quickly.
“Should I tell Mr. Hollingsworth you dropped by?” She smirked and finger waved as the doors closed.
She’d tell him, no matter what I said.
I leaned against the wall. Should I go back to work? Or go to Pepper?
The pull was strong in her direction. She already had enough to deal with before I came into the picture. I hated to be uncertain. But I truly didn’t know if it would do her more harm than good if I went to help her.
Damned if I do, and damned if I don’t.
As I wheeled out of the parking garage onto East Fifty-sixth Street, I glanced behind me. A black car eased away from the curb into traffic. It looked eerily similar to the one I’d seen at the fire yesterday.
I checked the rearview mirror every few seconds. The car maintained a safe distance behind me.
I turned.
It turned.
I pulled over.
It pulled over.
Once again, my father made the decision for me. I cruised back to the firehouse. I was only an hour late for my shift.
One question pounded in my brain.
Why did he care what I did?
It couldn’t simply be power or control. If he’d wanted a relationship with me, he’d had more than
enough opportunities to repair that over the years. Up until this point, I’d have been willing to hear him out if he’d have shown any sign of remorse.
I’d be wary. But willing.
No longer.
I didn’t bother with a turn signal when I hung a left into the lot behind the fire station. The car rolled past as if it were any ordinary vehicle.
Was he in there?
Had he known I’d come to him? Shit. What if he thought Pepper had told me about the inspector?
I parked, grabbed my phone, and fired off a text.
Can you keep eyes on GP?
Daniel responded in seconds.
Already on it.
I sagged in relief. At least someone would be there to watch over them, even if it couldn’t be me.
I killed the engine and opened the door.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
I checked the incoming call and did a double take. Cassano’s name splashed across the screen.
My finger shook as I swiped to answer.
“Teague? It’s Ellen Cassano.”
I dropped my head back until it hit the headrest.
“Hey.” Guilt harpooned me in the chest. Why hadn’t I already called his wife to offer my condolences? Because I’d been too consumed with myself.
“I wanted to let you know”—sniffles fired through the phone at me—“the funeral is tomorrow,” she choked out.
A solid lump formed in the back of my throat. “I’ll be there.”
There was a pause, neither of us able to speak.
“Thank you.” She’d somehow managed to compose herself, and I was wowed by her strength. “I’d like you to be a pallbearer. Freeman thought the world of you. And you saved him from that fire.”
But he was still dead.
I couldn’t find the words to answer. She’d gone out of her way to ask me to do a great honor. If it weren’t for me, her husband might still be alive.
“Will you, Teague? He’d have wanted you to.”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah.” It was a pitiful response, but the best I could come up with. “I’m so sorry, Ellen.”
Crash: Crash & Burn Duet Book 1 (Shaken) Page 14
