Penny crosses her arms and glares, pouting as she talks. “I didn’t name him. That’s the name he gave himself.”
“And by that, you mean you wrote twenty names on tennis balls, and the first one he brought back was what you named him?” the one who isn’t wearing a crazy outfit says with an eye roll.
“Seriously?” I can’t help but ask.
The woman just shrugs. “She does it for all the dogs that get brought in when she doesn’t like their original names.”
Riiight.That just makes complete sense.Not.“Well, um, thanks for letting us pet Goober.”
“Want to keep him?” Penny goes from pouting to happy in seconds.
I’m so thrown by her complete 180 change that all I can say is “Huh?”
“Penny,” her friend says warningly.
“What? Goober needs a home, and the boy looks like he could use a friend.” Penny points to Ollie, and the fact that she noticed how sad my kid is makes me think we need therapy sooner than not. If someone crazy like her sees it, then it’s that bad.
“Well….” The other woman glances from Penny to Ollie, biting her lip before looking at me. “He really is good with kids. He was trained as a family protection dog along with his brothers and sisters but was considered the runt of the litter. He’s great, just smaller than they wanted, so they gave him to me to help train my lot. I don’t need his help anymore, so wearelooking for someone to adopt him, if you’re interested.”
“Oh, can we?” Ollie looks up at me eagerly.
Obviously, this woman doesn’t have children. If she did, she’d know not to ask if someone wants a dog in front of a kid. Or maybe that’s her whole tactic. One look at Ollie, who’s now on his knees and getting licked everywhere, and it’s clear that he’s already in love. And the woman knows how to sell the whole thing to me just by the mere mention of him being trained for protection.
“Who are you?” My attitude comes out harsh for someone in Kansas, but it’s the normal tone for a girl from Brooklyn.
“Oh, sorry, how rude. I’m Wendi, and this is my sister, Penny. We run a vet clinic that’s a bit out of town, as we cater to most animal types. We recently started our hand at guard and protection classes, bringing in some specific types of dogs for people to use. Casper just picked up some for him and his friends.”
Ruby laughs at that as I look this chick over. She seems too bubbly for her own good, but it’s probably because she seems like the type to turn herself in for jaywalking. Far too nice and innocent to understand that she’s handing a bunch of bikers some trained killers.
Danny’s phone goes off, the shrill ringtone quite loud before he pulls it out of the inside pocket of his jacket and answers it. He walks away from me and Ollie, and I know it’s family business. The boys have been doing everything to keep Ollie out of earshot of what goes on. We already agreed that we aren’t hiding who we are, but we aren’t going to flaunt it either.
“So, what do you say? Want him? You can take him for the weekend or something and see if he fits into your life,” Wendi offers.
“Pleeeeease,” Ollie begs.
I’m watching Danny from the back as he tenses. Even with his damn suit jacket in ninety-degree weather, I can tell.
“Yeah, sure,” I say, not really sure what I’m agreeing to as my brother walks back toward us. I take a step away from the group and head to where Danny is. “Who’s that? Who’s on the phone?”
He ends the call and looks at me head-on. “Vinny.” He waits a beat, glancing at Ollie, then back at me. “Tommy’s on his way home.”
“And?” I throw my hands up, waiting for him to explain more because that means shit to me right now.
His jaw clenches. “There were some complications.”
Chapter 27—Bass
Ihate flying home. Always takes longer than the first flight. Even if it’s a short trip, it seems twice as long. Today is no different. Not only because I want to be back home already, but I know the best damn surgeon in the world is there. Okay, maybe General isn’t the best, but for me he is, and I trust him. Nothing wrong with getting a second opinion in my book.
The doc we used to patch us all up enough to get us back to the US alive was okay. But he spoke Russian, and I had to rely on trusting Tommy as an interpreter. Not that I don’t trust the guy. He proved his worth to all of us. It’s the fact that he was heavily medicated and kept passing out, so I’m not even sure he knew whathewas saying, much less the doctor.
The crackling over the radio is followed by our flight crew announcing that we’re about fifteen minutes out, and they already have people on the way to take us to the hospital. Which won’t be happening. I can’t speak for Tommy, but I’ve got no plans of going back to a hospital anytime soon. General’s clinic at the compound is good enough for me.
We used our own team to get here, but since things went quicker than expected—though with a few left turns we didn’t plan on happening last minute—we’re using some connection Jimmy Travis has and got out on the quickest C-130 transport going Stateside. These guys are a good group, they just don’t know who we are, and since we have connections to an ex-CIA operative, we’re choosing not to gettoo friendly with them. Especially since we doubt anyone will take kindly to the fact that we just took out a major mafia kingpin and might have started a war if anyone learns we had the help of a certain mafia family based in the US.
Attacking another mafia is kind of like attacking another motorcycle club. There are rules in place to prevent all-out war. Not many, but enough that what Tommy and his family did to help us could cause some serious issues.
When we land, an ambulance is waiting as expected, courtesy of the flight crew, but so are four SUVs. Several men in suits get out of two of them, but it’s only two who have a family resemblance to Milly and Tommy. Now that I know what I’m looking for, the connection is obvious, even if they aren’t all twins.
