“Cady, just to say, it storms a lot in Maine,” he pointed out.
The shelter worker wasn’t finished. “She also is perhaps a little on the overprotective side and has been known to corner humans that are strangers to her, and it’s been reported to us she can seem quite vicious, though to anyone’s knowledge she’s done no harm. However, she can only be called off by someone that’s known to her. And it’s important you know she’s a one-owner animal, and although friendly and affectionate to people that she knows or that she senses are okay from her owner, it’s been noted that her loyalty is focused almost solely on her owner.”
Coert looked to the worker. “We’ll take her.”
The worker’s lips quirked and she said, “We have an application process that takes just a few days to get approval.”
“We’re circumventing the application process,” Coert announced.
“Coert,” Cady murmured soothingly as he sensed her getting to her feet.
“I can see you’re the authority, sir,” the worker began, eyes tipping to his sheriff’s shirt and jacket. “But the procedures we have in place are for our animals’ protection and we take them seriously. The application process only takes three days since we also obviously want our animals to find their way to the warmth and comfort of home.”
“Ms. Moreland will apply but she’s taking the dog right now and if you have any issues with her application, you can inform her and we’ll deal with it then. Since you won’t, it’ll all be good.”
“Sir—”
He wasn’t one to throw his weight around.
Unless something like that was necessary.
Like now.
“Sheriff,” he corrected.
The worker sought help from Cady by looking her way.
And Cady did her best, saying to him, “I can wait three days for this beauty.”
The dog was sitting next to her, Cady’s hand in the fur between her ears, her tongue lolling, her eyes on Coert.
Coert looked to the worker. “How long has the dog been here?”
“About four months.”
Cady made a distressed noise Coert did not like at all.
Right.
“We’re circumventing the procedure,” he declared.
“Sir . . . I mean, Sheriff—”
“Do you seriously want this dog to stay in one of these cages for three more days?” Coert asked.
She looked to Cady, the dog, Coert and then she sighed before she said to Cady, “I’ll get you the forms.”
She took off and Cady got close.
The dog came with her like she was born to walk at Cady’s side.
Brilliant.
“Coert, I don’t have a lead or collar or any food or—”
“We’ll stop by the pet store.”
Her brows shot up. “Don’t you have a fire-starting, murdering, ex-drug peddler to catch?”
“Fortunately, I have sharp deputies that kinda like me and are fully briefed about the fact their boss is a likely target of a fire-starting, murdering, ex-drug peddler so they can get shit started while I take you and your new dog to the pet store.”
“I think you’re kinda crazy,” she whispered.
“I think I kinda already won’t sleep jack shit until I know Lars is caught, so maybe you can help me out by letting me set you up with a freaking dog so I might get a whole hour’s sleep at night instead of, say, none.”
She stared at him with big eyes for several very long beats before she said, “Okay.”
“Okay, now let’s fill out this application and get this girl outta here.”
To that she gave him a smile.
“Okay.”
She filled out the application.
They went to the pet store.
And finally he took her back to the lighthouse, burying the look Cady gave him when he refused to allow her to carry the huge bag of dog food into the house (like he’d refused to allow her to load it into the cart in the store or in the truck and the same looks she’d given him those times as well).
The dog did not explore her new home.
She jumped right up on Cady’s couch and lay down with a groan like she’d lived there since she was a pup, they’d just been on a tiring outing and she needed some shuteye.
When Cady witnessed that, she shot him a beam.
A goddamned beam.
Okay, yeah.
He missed holding hands with her, definitely, and all the rest, for certain.
He’d also missed her smile.
He responded to that emotion by clipping out, “I’ll be back later to put in your peephole.”
The beam died and she said, “I can get Walt to do that.”
He didn’t know who Walt was, and right then he didn’t have the mental capacity to think on that without maybe roaring his demand to know precisely who the fuck this Walt guy was and maybe freaking her out more than being the possible target of vengeance already was.
This meaning he’d also have to process his way to understanding why he felt such an overwhelming urge to demand precisely who the fuck this Walt guy was.
Even though, fuck him, he knew why he had that urge.
Instead, keeping tight control, he asked, “Can Walt drop everything and do it tonight?”
She bit her lip before she said, “Maybe, if I terrify him with the knowledge that someone may want me dead. But then he’ll only come to kidnap me because he’s that kind of guy, but even if he wasn’t, his wife is that kind of woman. So maybe I should just say I’m feeling a little weird about not having one and ask him to get around to it as soon as he can. He’s still here with his guys doing up the apartment over the garage, though this afternoon they’re off because they laid floors this morning and they can’t walk on them until they’re set. But I’ll only have to wait until tomorrow at most.”
Walt had a wife.
And they weren’t done working on the property so Cady would only be alone at night and the rest of the time a team of men would be on the premises.
Coert relaxed.
“How about we just say you’ll have one tonight because I’m installing one tonight?”
“Coert.”
“Cady.”
He said not another word, and for some reason her body locked.
He didn’t have time for that.
She had a dog. A dog that was reportedly vicious in protection of its owner. And Coert had no idea if the dog understood the concept of Cady at that juncture but he had a hunch the dog understood the bag of food and the couch, so if she wasn’t there yet, she was closing in.
So he could rest on that for an hour or two.
He had to get to the station and see how far his men had gotten with his orders. He had to order an alarm installed at Kim’s place. And he had to get to the hardware store to get a peephole. Then he had to get to Kim and give her a photo of Lars Pedersen.
“I’ll text before I show,” he told her.
“Right.”
“Locked doors, always, Cady.”
She nodded. “Right.”
He looked to her still in her cap with her hair bunched out around her cheeks and neck.
He looked to her dog that appeared fast asleep.
Then he walked right out the door.
Guts and Balls
Cady
Present day . . .
“OKAY, NORMALLY I’D CALL KATH with all this but I can’t call Kath and tell her that the drug dealer my ex-undercover-cop boyfriend brought down is firing a swath of vengeance, literally, across the United States, headed toward me. She’ll lose her mind. Pat will lose his mind. Then the Moreland dominoes will fall and I’ll be shunted back to Colorado, maybe never to see my lighthouse again. So I have to tell you.”
Midnight lay on her belly on the couch, ears perked, eyes alert and on me as I paced in front of the fire.
“So, girl, it’s going to be you who I share that I think I may be a little touched in the head, that I’m far less concerned about the fact Lars is literally firing a swath of vengeance with Coert and I as his final targets than I am about Coert showing up here in a few minutes to put in my peephole.”
When I stopped talking, Midnight wagged her tail.
“No, no.” I shook my head, moving to her, squatting by the couch and giving her head a rubdown.