After the last mission, he’d left his dog behind.
No way in hell would he abandon Emily.
Chapter Nineteen
Emily’s head hurt so badly that she nearly threw up from the pain. She was laying on something hard and cold. It took several blinks before she managed to get her eyes to focus. She was in a kennel? One of her kennels. Her eyes flew open wider, and the action sent a shaft of pain through her head.
She grunted and the sound caused movement in the aisle outside the kennel. A woman moved closer, with a dog in her hands. An unconscious dog.
Princeton.
The sight brought back Emily’s memory. Her heart lurched.
Gritting her teeth against the ache in her head, she pushed to her feet and stumbled toward the plexiglass door separating them. She yanked on it, but a padlock held the door in place.
Dammit.
“What have you done to Princeton?”
She didn’t think the woman had actually hit him with her car as she’d tried to make Emily believe.
“Relax, I gave him a sedative. He’s just asleep.”
“So, you didn’t hit him with your car?”
Colby frowned. “No. I’m not a monster.”
Emily held back a grunt. “Could’ve fooled me. You haven’t been behaving very nicely, Colby.”
She knew it was stupid to taunt the woman, but she needed to know exactly what type of person she was dealing with, and it required pushing buttons.
“It’s your fault! All your fault!” the woman ranted, and started to pace. “Why did you have to bother with Holden? He’s mine.” She pounded her chest with her free hand. “Isaw himfirst. You didn’t even know him until he moved here.Imet him in Houston last month. Me! Not you.”
Shit.
This woman was off her rocker.
She needed to warn Holden. Hell, she needed to call Gabe and get Colby off the streets. Her chest tightened and fear gripped her heart at the thought of this lunatic going anywhere near Holden.
Emily calmed her pulse and worked on quieting her emotions in order to think clearly. She had training on how to deal with volatile animal owners. But the unbalanced ones were the toughest to deal with, because of their unpredictability, it usually required an assist from the police.
That wasn’t likely right now. Emily was on her own.
“And I tried to warn you off,” Colby said. “But you didn’t heed it. Not my fault.”
Realization rippled through her. “My car?”
Perez hadn’t vandalized it?
“Yes! Ding, ding…Now she gets it.” The woman lifted the still unconscious Princeton to her face and rolled her eyes. “Your mommy’s a little slow. But you won’t have to worry about that much longer.” Colby set his limp body on the floor and then straightened.
Emily stiffened, alarm rushing through her again.
What had the woman meant by that?
Was she going to do something to her? Her dog? Or both of them?
She glanced at the security camera in the corner near the ceiling, and her heart sank. The little red blinking light was out.
