Winter Wolf (13 page)

“You’re out late, Miss Thomas!”

“Hey, Greg. Went to see a movie. Do you have a leash? Looks like someone lost their dog again.”

Greg sighed, long and heavy, reaching behind his desk. He pulled out a bright yellow leash. “Want me to take care of it, Miss Thomas?”

I chuckled, depositing my bags next to the desk. “Rest your old bones. The poor thing is whining in the bushes. If it gives me any trouble, I’ll just have you call animal control.”

Greg made a sour face. “Just be careful and don’t let it bite you.”

I waved away his concern, and his eyes focused on my bandaged forearm.

“What have you done to yourself this time?”

“Accident on set,” I answered, glad I could be honest to the old man. “Nothing big.”

“That friend of yours was by here a little earlier tonight asking if I’d seen you. I didn’t tell him anything.”

I grinned. “Dominic’s pushy sometimes, isn’t he?”

“Bad news, that one.”

“Any good looking man is bad news as far as you’re concerned, Greg.”

“Sure you don’t want me to go with you?”

“It’s just a dog, Greg.” Before the old man could get up from his desk, I swept through the doors and headed back to where I had heard the animal. I held the leash near the clip, watching the bushes for movement. As soon as I got within ten feet, the bushes rustled again and I caught a glimpse of gray fur through two of the shrubs.

A large, gray and tan head poked out through the branches. I dropped the leash in my surprise. With a yip belonging to a far smaller dog, Rocky barreled out of the bushes, skidded to a halt at my feet, and stood, draping his paws over my shoulders.

His weight drove me to the ground. He didn’t stay on me long, taking advantage of my prone position to wash my face with his tongue.

“Oh, gross. That’s
gross
.” I shoved Rocky’s head away with my good hand, grabbed the leash, and clipped it to his collar. “Rocky,
sit
.”

He obeyed, his tail whipping side to side.

“What are you doing here? How did you get here?” I didn’t get any answers from the dog, who seemed happy to see me at least. I got to my feet, dusted myself off, and led Rocky to the front door.

Greg’s eyes bulged at the sight of the huge German shepherd. “Holy Mary, Mother of God!”

“Can I use the phone?” I asked, leaning over the desk. With his eyes still fixed on Rocky, Greg nodded. I picked up the handset, put it to my ear, and punched in Dominic’s cell number.

He answered it on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Dominic, what were you doing at my apartment earlier?” I pinned the handset between my ear and shoulder, keeping an eye on Rocky.

“I was looking for you. Where have you been, Nicole?” There was concern in his voice. I waited, but he made no mention of Rocky.

It took every bit of my willpower not to snap at my agent. I looped Rocky’s leash around my wrist so I could drum my fingers against the desk. “Went to see a movie and did some shopping. Errands, stuff like that. I told you I had things to do, didn’t I?”

“You hadn’t,” my agent grumbled.

Since I wasn’t getting an honest answer out of him, I decided to take the direct route. “You didn’t happen to lose something large and rather furry, did you?”

Rocky panted at me, his tail thumping against the security desk. With my free hand, I scratched the dog behind his ears, pulling a few twigs out of his fur. There was a long moment of silence on the other end of the line—silence that told me everything I needed to know.

My agent knew Rocky was missing. I drew several deep breaths so I wouldn’t lose my temper, especially not with Greg watching me.

“Dominic, you can’t hide it from me. I have him right here. He was hiding out in the bushes. How did you lose him?” I wished I could see Dominic’s expression. It wasn’t often I got the edge on him and I wasn’t making any efforts to sound happy with him.

I had trusted him to take care of the dog who had saved my life.

“He broke his leash at the dog park when I came over to talk to you,” Dominic admitted after another long pause. “You hadn’t answered your cell.”

I had forgotten I had my cell, which had been turned off since I had gotten it back. I wrinkled my nose, but pulled it out of my pocket and turned it on. Ignoring the notifications, I shoved it in my pocket. “I forgot to turn it back on, and I was seeing a movie anyway.”

“I was worried.”

“Please tell me you have Silver, at least.”

Dominic remained silent.

“You lost
both
dogs?” My question came out as a mix between a hiss and a snarl. With my hoarse voice, it wasn’t a pleasant sound. “Are you at least out looking for him?”

“I gave up about three hours ago. Look, I called animal control and told them they were missing and gave them my number.”

“Dominic, you… you…” Instead of screaming my frustration, I slammed the phone down on the handset. My entire body trembled with my fury. Rocky whined, nudging my side with his cold, wet nose. “That cretin!”

“Miss Thomas?” Greg’s mouth hung open. I was convinced his eyes were about to pop out of his head.

I didn’t like public displays of anger, but I couldn’t tame my irritation at Dominic—not this time. I
owed
Rocky and Silver, and it was a debt I couldn’t repay—not now, not ever. They were dogs; how could I make them understand how I appreciated what they had done? Marie and I lived because of them.

Dominic repaid that debt by
losing
them both at the dog park.

My anger was cooled by fear—fear that someone would shoot Silver before finding out whether or not he was someone’s pet.

“Rocky’s one of my co-stars in a film I’m working on, as is another dog. My idiot agent lost them,” I explained, forcing myself to keep my tone reasonable.

Considering Greg paled at my words, I wasn’t doing a very good job at sounding reasonable. I squashed the surge of guilt. My first priority was to find Silver before something bad happened to him—and figure out how to take care of two large dogs.

“Anything I can do?”

“Can you ask the land lord if he minds me keeping two dogs in my apartment for a while? I’ll pay the pet fee on top of my rent.” Lots of people in the building owned dogs—and paid a pretty penny for the privilege. I would have to dig out all of my savings to keep the animals, but after Dominic’s screw up, I wasn’t about to give them back, assuming I could find Silver.

“I’ll ask.” Without another word, he pulled out a second leash from behind the desk and handed it to me. “I’ll keep your bags behind the desk if you’d like.”

“Thanks,” I said, shoving my messenger bag closer to Greg with my foot. “Don’t wait up for me, Greg.”

“Please be careful. Are you sure…?”

I reached down, snagged my cell out of my bag, and shoved it in my pocket. “I’ll be fine. I don’t want you getting into trouble for leaving the desk unnecessarily. And anyway, I’ll have Rocky with me.”

“I’ll call Mr. Perron.”

“Don’t wake him up, please.” Mr. Perron didn’t show his face at the apartment complex often; I’d met him all of two times since I’d moved in: once to sign my lease and the second time in the garage when he was meeting someone about a problem with the plumbing. He was a nice enough fellow, as far as landlords went, but I didn’t want to test my luck.

If I did, he might charge me more than the standard five hundred a month for keeping pets in his apartments.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head about me, Miss Thomas. Go find your dog.”

With Rocky at my side, I went back out to search for Silver.

~~*~~

Several hours later, an excited bark was the only warning I got before a large, furry shape plowed into me from behind. My knees crashed into Rocky’s side and I ended up bent over him, spitting out fur while Silver washed my neck and face with his tongue.

I was too relieved to get upset over Silver’s enthusiastic greeting. Sitting down on the sidewalk, I dug the leash out from my pocket and clipped it to Silver’s collar. “And where have you been, sir?”

Silver dragged his tongue over my face in reply.

Making faces at his affection, I wiped my mouth off with the back of my hand. “Gross. Don’t you two know I don’t like dogs?”

Judging from their wagging tails, I doubted either animal understood me. I didn’t blame them—I didn’t believe me either. Someone who hated dogs wouldn’t spend so much time looking for one in the middle of the night. Or early morning, as the eastern sky was lightening with the promise of dawn. I stifled a yawn and wearily got to my feet.

All I wanted was sleep, but the dogs needed to be fed and I didn’t have anything to give them. While I wanted to head straight back to the apartment, I trudged the extra four blocks to the grocery store, which was open all night. I left the dogs tied to a bike stand, got them a bag of food, and headed home.

Greg was still at his station when I staggered in. Offering me a grin, he grabbed both of my bags and came around the front desk. “I’ll carry these down for you. I spoke with Mr. Perron and he’ll come by in a few hours with an updated lease for you.”

“Thanks, Greg.” I was too tired to object. While I hadn’t bought that much, two bags and two dogs were more than what I was willing to juggle. It was hard enough not stumbling over my own feet.

Once safely in my apartment, I unclipped the dogs from their leashes, sent Dominic a photo of both of them chowing down on kibble, and then staggered to bed.

I don’t know how long I was out for, but a persistent knocking at my door roused me. Rocky and Silver were in bed with me, and I was impressed it hadn’t collapsed beneath their combined weight. I was glad I had indulged in a queen-sized bed, or we wouldn’t have all fit.

I staggered to my door, wiping the sleep out of my eyes, still dressed in yesterday’s clothing. Mr. Perron was tapping his foot, slapping a pad of papers against his leg. For a little old Asian man, Mr. Perron somehow rocked the pin striped Italian Mafia look from the 1920s, complete with a cigar dangling from his mouth. I couldn’t help but imagine him with a gun in one hand and a whiskey tumbler in the other.

“Never thought you’d get dogs,” Mr. Perron said, thrusting the papers and a pen at me. I took them, scanning over the lease for the changes. Instead of the five hundred extra I had expected, he was only charging me four fifty on top of my regular rent. I signed before he could change his mind and handed them back.

“They’re co-stars,” I explained, masking a yawn behind my hand. “Their handler was an idiot, so I’m taking them in for a while.”

“Movie dogs?” Mr. Perron’s eyes brightened with curiosity.

I opened the door a little wider and whistled for Rocky and Silver, hoping they’d understand the universal command for ‘get your furry butts over here.’ Both came barreling out of my bedroom, tails wagging and tongues lolling out of their mouths. “The larger one is Rocky, and his brother is Silver. They’re German shepherds.”

Mr. Perron whistled, tearing off some sheets from the stack of papers. “Big for shepherds. Gorgeous animals, Miss Thomas. Here’s your lease.”

Armed with the papers ensuring I’d be pinching pennies more than usual for the next few months, I waved farewell to my landlord and retreated into my apartment. Any other day, I would have gone straight back to bed, but the dogs couldn’t use my bathroom and I didn’t want to clean their messes off of my floor. Grumbling, I grabbed my cell phone. I glared at the number of missed calls.

Apparently Dominic had nothing better to do, because he had flooded my phone with texts and calls. I dialed his number as I gathered the leashes and shoved my shoes on.

“Nicole, you weren’t answering your phone.”

“Of course I wasn’t, I was asleep. After spending all night hunting for the dogs
you
lost.”

“I’m really sorry,” he said, his tone subdued.

I considered making him suffer a little, but restrained myself. If I had to pay four fifty extra a month to watch the dogs, I needed the movie contract, and that meant not pissing my agent off
too
much, especially since no one in their right mind would take me on as a client. “It’s fine. Who owns them? I’d rather just take care of them myself at this point, if you don’t mind.”

“You? Really? You’ll take care of dogs? Dogs are a huge responsibility.”

“I’ll take care of them,” I said, careful to keep the anger out of my voice.

“What about your apartment? Is your landlord going to be okay with that?”

I made a disgusted sound, and it came out as a hoarse grunt. “Four fifty extra a month. I’ve already signed the new lease. Any news about the studio?  Or a contract?”

“So you’re in?”

“If the price is right,” I replied.

“I’ve got a tentative contract, but…”

“But?”

“I think you could do better.” Dominic sighed. “It’s decent, but I think I can get you better.”

“Just don’t lose the contract being stubborn,” I ordered. If I didn’t get a solid income, and soon, I wouldn’t have anything left—not even in my emergency savings account. At least when I was annoyed, it was far easier to take control instead of letting Dominic lead me around. If he seemed bothered by my initiative, he didn’t show it. “Do what you can in a couple of days—we have that long, right?”