Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
After dinner, we head back to our room. I climb onto the thin mattress of my bunk, thankful to have made it through the first day. Well, half a day.
Until our door opens.
And a low voice speaks.
“We came to initiate the new meat.”
Present day…
I jerk upright in bed, a cold sweat beading on my forehead.
Where the fuck am I?
The dog reminds me. My mother’s mistreated dog, who’s now panting at my bedside with a doggy smile on his face.
Right. I’m in Taos.
With Diana.
“Where’s Diana, boy?” I ask the dog.
Then I remember. I was half asleep when she told me she was running an errand, that she’d fed the dog. What time was that?
I have no idea. I look at my phone on the bedside table. It’s now nine a.m. She could’ve been gone a minute or an hour.
Man, was I out like a light. A good fuck will do that to a guy.
And a good fuck with a woman he’s in love with?
I don’t have anything to compare it to, but it was magnificent.
I’m in love with a woman I can never have.
I’ll deal.
I spent my life dealing with things I can’t have.
No sweat off my back.
I rise, head to the bathroom, and take a quick shower. I throw on some clean jeans and a T-shirt, and then I notice the dog again. He’s whimpering.
“You need to go out?”
He doesn’t answer me, of course, and I don’t know when he was last out. I have a vague recollection of Diana saying she fed him and let him out, but who knows when the hell that was?
“Okay, boy. Where’s your leash?” I find it draped across a chair, and I attach it to his collar. “All right. Let’s go.”
Once the dog has taken care of things, I clean it up, return to the lobby—helping myself to a cup of complimentary coffee—and then head back up to the room.
Diana took the car, so now what?
I didn’t get any information from my mother that would lead me to where Griffin might be. If she’s even alive.
I grab the jeans I wore yesterday and pull a Ziploc bag out of the pocket. Inside is the heart-shaped piece of flannel fabric from Griffin’s pajamas. I could be wrong, but why else would someone give it to me?
It has to be hers.
What the hell kind of errand did Diana have to run? She already bought food and supplies for the dog. Maybe she went out to get some breakfast.
As if in response, my stomach lets out a growl.
I can’t leave the dog alone in the room. Who knows what he might do? This is my mother’s dog, after all. He probably hasn’t been taught how to behave.
What if he scratches at the door, bothering the other guests? What if he damages the door? What if he barks his head off? What if he pees everywhere?
No.
I’m not leaving the dog alone in this expensive hotel room.
I do a quick search on my phone and find out that Taos is a very dog-friendly city. So I throw a hoodie over my head and grab the dog.
“Guess we can find someplace to eat,” I say.
I open the hotel room door just as my phone rings.
Chapter Eighteen
Diana
Mrs. Locke looks pretty much the same as she did last night, only this morning she’s wearing a robe. It’s hot-pink flannel, and it’s worn in places. Her feet are in pink fuzzy slippers.
“Good morning, Mrs. Locke.”
She cocks her head, scowling. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m a friend of your son’s. I was actually here last night with him, but I stayed in the car.”
“Good, then you can give me my dog back.”
Seriously? She thinks I’m here because of the dog?
“I’d be glad to do that,” I say, “if you were taking proper care of him. The poor thing was starving and in need of a bath. So you won’t be getting him back. In fact, I should call the cops on you for animal cruelty.”
“Nobody cares about a damned old dog.”
Wow. As if I couldn’t hate this woman more. Not only did she abandon her son for something he didn’t do, but she’s cruel to animals and thinks no one cares about them.
To a person who grew up on a ranch around all kinds of animals, those are fighting words.
“I care,” I say. “Your dog is now clean and well fed, and he won’t be coming back here. But that’s not what I came to talk to you about.”
She narrows her eyes. “I need a watchdog around here.”
This time I laugh. “Teddy is no watchdog. He went with Dragon and me willingly. That’s not watchdog material.”
She rolls her eyes. “Fine. What the hell do you want anyway?”
“May I come in?”
“No.”
“Then I guess we’ll talk out here.” I hold up the tray of coffee I picked up on the way. “Can I offer you a coffee?”