Jenniffer loved that she got to work with dogs, both big and small. They had their own personalities and all they really wanted was love, belly rubs, and food. It was always interesting to see the big dogs play with some of the smaller dogs that were brought in to be trained for service dogs when they were given the freedom to be themselves.
Jenniffer brushed her long blonde hair before putting it into a ponytail. While she got dressed, she made a mental note of everything that needed to be done before the day could be started. Dressed in her normal pair of jeans, an old beat-up USMC t-shirt, her boots, and a flannel shirt to use as a jacket. Jenniffer got done getting dressed, then headed out to the warehouse behind her home.
While Jenniffer had been in the hospital, she didn’t know what she was going to do with her life. She and Jeff had talked about opening their own business. Jeff wanted to do private sector for security, specializing in military contracts while she had always wanted to work in the private sector with dogs. They had gotten an account together and put a portion of their checks into it so they could save up to buy some land to not only build their home, but to build a place to train the dogs and run their businesses out of.
She was just glad that when they had finally made the purchase of the land that they had before their last deployment, the ten acres of land that they had purchased using the funds saved and put the property in her name. The things she’d learned when she came out of the coma in Germany had her knowing she would have lost everything they had worked so hard for in the four years they were together.
They had both reenlisted in the Marine Corps for another six years, deciding that they would do one more enlistment to get the money they needed to make their dreams come true with their deployments. Jeff believed that with more experience in the war zone under their belt, they would look more appealing when people sought them out for their expertise.
After Jenniffer had been released from the hospital and completed her required physical therapy, she headed to the land, pitched a tent and went about having her simple home and warehouse built while she started what she needed to do to get her certifications to legally be able to train dogs in the state of California. Jenniffer did everything she was supposed to do with what little she had, it took nearly eighteen months to get her small comfortable home built, as well as the warehouse where the dogs would be housed, and their training grounds.
Heading out to the warehouse, she mentally checked off a few things that she knew on memory muscle alone. She spent the next hour checking on the dogs in the warehouse, feeding them before letting them out to run, getting some of that puppy energy out first thing in the morning. While the dogs were out running and doing doggie things, as she called it, she cleaned out their cages, putting fresh bedding down so that she could wash the dirty ones. She marked off how much each animal ate and who needed to be watched due to eating less.
Once all of that was done, Jenniffer walked out into the training area and gave the command for the dogs to heel and return to her, smiling when each and every dog, twelve in total, followed the command to the letter. Smiling she praised all twelve dogs by name and gave them treats. Today, she could be losing three of her babies to the San Diego Police Department, but she knew they would be doing good work. That was what she was ‘paid’ to do, but these dogs were her babies. They were her children as if she had given birth to them herself, which that thought had her laughing since it was impossible.
Today three members of the San Diego Police Department were coming to her little part of town in Bonita to look at three of her babies. The people coming would be paired each with one of the dogs they would be taking into their home and becoming partners. Jenniffer knew most of the city, state and county handlers in Riverside County and she also knew these were not returning faces, they were new to the K-9 unit for their department.
One thing Jenniffer is known for is getting a roster of the officers coming in from their department, so she knew how to better pair the dogs with their new partner. Many have dubbed her the dog whisperer, but she’s a firm believer anyone could understand a dog if you truly paid attention and were in tune with your four-legged partner. It’s why she and Axel worked so well together. They just knew what the other was thinking. They had more awards than any other K-9 unit in the military with how well they worked together.
Shaking her head to dislodge the memory so she could focus on her dogs, she ran the dogs through their morning paces while she waited for the three officers to show up. She hated to admit it, but she was secretly looking forward to meeting one of the officers whose photo jumped out at her from his photo. Two of the newest members of the K-9 Unit were males and one female. She had studied the faces of Officers Pratt, Axelson and Monroe.
Jenniffer kept telling herself it was the last name that drew her in because it reminded her of her beloved partner. She kept watch on the three they were meeting today, Hercules, who was a tan, well-built Belgium Malinois, purebred, Spock, black purebred German Shepard whose ears made her think of the Star Trek character, hence his name, and his beyond normal intelligence. He had become her favorite animal so far to work with and she really hated to see him go, and then there was Xena, her pain in the rear Belgium Malinois who had serious attitude. Xena was also the lone female in the pack she currently had. Sometimes she felt she understood Xena, the only female in a group of boys and having to prove herself. This dog was all attitude and then some. She hoped that the new owner was good for her. She needed someone to give her lots of love, but Xena was a damn good dog when it came to doing the job, hence why she was going with one of these three.
She smiled watching the three dogs in question did their jobs required with little to no issues, the little issues coming from Xena of course, typical female, Jenniffer laughed to herself. Calling the dogs to heel, the stopped where they were. She put the other nine dogs up so there wasn’t a lot of chaos when the three officers showed up, she kept Hercules, Xena and Spock out and decided to work with them on their searching, and other aspects of police dog training. She knew her only employee, James was on site since he had called out to her before he went into the warehouse to get started on his workload before putting on the suit to help her work on the three’s biting and apprehending of suspects.
She put the harness and leashes on all three dogs, keeping two chained so they didn’t attack James at the same time. One by one, she took them through their rounds. They were doing great. Yep, she was going to have a hard time letting these three furballs go. She always did a little cry when the dogs went to their new departments or owners, but these three captured her heart, reminding her more and more of Axel each day.
“Excuse me ma’am, we’re looking for a Miss Jenn Lopez.”
CHAPTERTHREE
Jackson, or Jack to his friends, ‘Preacher’ Axelson stepped out of his vehicle and watched the woman in the field work the dog she was with. She was grace in motion. He figured she was approximately five feet three, and he refused to guess her weight but damn she had a body that made him forget he was on the clock right now. She had hips that his fingers were itching to grip as he took her from behind, he could tell she worked out because her body looked trim, even though she had a nice ass, damn! Her blonde hair was long, probably went down to the middle of her back. He could see himself gripped a handful of her hair as he…
“Earth to horny jackass!” Tabitha Monroe quipped beside him, shaking her head. “Seriously? Is there anyone you don’t get a hard-on around?”
“Yeah, you!” Jack replied, shaking his head.
“Okay children. Let’s behave so these people don’t think we’re uncivilized and refuse to pair us with our new partners.” Dominick Pratt chuckled, smacking Jack on the back, ignoring Tabitha. “And for the record Monroe, there’s a lot of women this man doesn’t get a woody for. One being you, and two being the three chicks you’ve tried to send his way.”
“I didn’t send those skanks his way! They asked if I was with him and I told them no.” she declared, her voice going a little high.
“Uh huh. Look, I don’t know how you got in the k-9 Unit, but we both know you hate animals, so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt, but my eyes are on you!” Dom warned the woman, who glared at him.
Jack flinched at Dom’s warning to the female officer. He knew from experience that Dom was a no bullshit kind of person. Dom was his best friend, aside from his sister, Laura Pratt-MacLeod who was a Riverside County Sheriff’s Detective with the Human Trafficking Task Force. They treated him like family, and he considered Dom and Laura his siblings, more so than his own parents and blood siblings. They invited him to dinners, family gatherings and anything going on. They helped keep his demons at bay, especially Dom.
Jack and Dom went through basic training for the Army together and then they both served in the Special Forces, at first on separate teams until they both went through Delta Force training together. There, the instructors realized how well the two of them worked together and decided to keep them on the same team. He was an expert in anything that went boom while Dom was the team sniper. They had good times, and they had some pretty bad times, but through it all, he had Dom by his side as his best friend.
Even when Dom left while Jack still had three years left of his six contract, Dom was still there despite him not being in the vault anymore with the team. He understood why Dom left, his sister needed him after going through a really nasty divorce and the issues with his parents. Dom wasn’t close with his parents, especially a younger sister because of how nasty they were and how they treated Laura. Jack envied the closeness Dom had with his sister since he didn’t have that with is own siblings, but was grateful that Laura, just like Dom, would drop anything and everything to be there for him if he needed something. She treated him like an older brother and for that he was grateful. Whoever said family could only be blood didn’t know jack shit of what they were talking about.
Jack stood by Dom watching Tabitha grind her teeth as she glared at the beautiful woman working the solid black German Shepard. They were poetry in motion. He didn’t understand how Tabitha got on with the unit they were now on. Hell, Jack was surprised Tabitha was still even a cop. She was a diva down to her bones, hated getting dirty and had no problems making rookies do her dirty work. There was speculation on why she was in the department and how she got in. Monroe was Chief Monroe’s daughter; his only daughter and it was widely known she was spoiled rotten by her mother.
She was the cause of two officers losing their jobs because she had slept with them and they didn’t return her phone calls after and filed a complaint against her for stalking them, keying their cars, or doing something to a new date’s property. Instead, they lost their job because she told her mother a different story. Last Jack heard, one of the former officers is now suing the department for wrongful termination, which includes the chief and Tabitha.
Jack shook his head, ignoring Tabitha’s whining voice as she complained to no one particular about why they were here. Jack walked towards the woman, watching her movements. When he watched the dog sit at her command, he approached her, making sure to make noise so he didn’t startle her.
“Excuse me, ma’am. I’m looking for Jenn Lopez.”
When the woman turned around, Jack thought Dom was going to have to do CPR on him because she had the most beautiful fucking eyes he’s ever seen on a woman, and he was no damn monk that was for sure. The woman had the longest, darkest natural lashes he’s ever seen, the kind women would literally kill for. Her eyes were a whiskey hazel with green flecks. Damn she was beautiful.
