“Yes,” Dominic answered. “I want this one.”
“Are you sure about that?” she asked me with a slight frown. “That dog has some past trauma, I’m sure you can see that, but it means he might need some special care. Extra attention.”
“What exactly happened to him?” I asked, knowing that it didn’t matter if he was difficult. Dominic was right. He belonged with us.
“He was rescued from a dog-fighting ring along with three others. They all had to be put down.”
“That’s horrible.”
“They were all so aggressive. We worked with them for weeks, but got nowhere. So we had no choice. This little guy was different because he was used as a bait dog.”
My heart hurt. I could just imagine this small dog being chained up and attacked over and over just so that other innocent animals could get a taste for blood that would ultimately cause their deaths. There was a special place in hell for people that did these things.
“We’ll take him. I’m sure.”
“Okay. We’ll have to go slow, don’t want to freak him out. Here,” she handed Dominic a couple of dog treats from her pocket.
Trainer and I stood back as she opened the cage. Dominic went down on his knees in front of the cage at her direction, holding out his hand with the dog treat and waiting. It seemed to take forever, and I was impressed by Dominic’s patience. He didn’t move a muscle, even when the dog started to creep forward. Its head was lowered and tail tucked between its legs.
Now that it was standing and coming closer, I could see that there was also scarring on its legs. It wasn’t as obvious because the hair around the scars was thicker, helping to cover the damage. As the dog got closer to Dominic, the smile on his face got bigger.
Trainer reached out and took my hand as the dog finally got close enough to Dominic to extend his neck and reach the treat. Before taking it, he sniffed Dominic’s hand, looking into his eyes. I could almost swear that I could see a connection forming between them. When the dog decided that he’d sniffed Dominic enough, it took the treat and even allowed itself to be petted. It did flinch for a second, but once Dominic scratched behind its ears, they both relaxed.
This was the forging of a relationship that was going to last for years, and I was so glad that I agreed to get him a dog. Dominic would be comforted by having one. As I squeezed Trainer’s hand, I wondered if I had found what I needed in him as well. It certainly felt like it.
“Does he have a name?” I asked.
The shelter worker shook her head, “No, not that we’re aware of.”
“Gizmo,” Dominic said. “His name is Gizmo.”
“Okay, I’ll start the paperwork and get you guys out of here in a jiffy.”
It didn’t take long to complete the process, and the three of us were walking out of the building twenty minutes later with Gizmo on a leash, and Dominic looking happier than I’d ever seen him before.
“Thanks for being here,” I said to Trainer as we got into the car. “I know it’s not exactly a typical date…”
“Hey, I had fun. Don’t tell anyone, because I have a tough-guy image to maintain, but I’m a sucker for puppies.”
“I don’t think I saw a single puppy in there.”
“All dogs are puppies at heart.”
As if to prove Trainer’s point, Gizmo let out a bark before raising up on his hind legs and licking Dominic’s face. It looked like he was happy to be coming home.
Thirteen
Trainer
I wasn’t sure exactly when I’d decided to move forward with Erica. I just couldn’t seem to help myself when I saw her unexpectedly. So, I decided to get out of my way and do this already.
When I ran into her at the mall, I was with Pin, meeting up with a contact that had connections to Las Balas. Ryder was serious about putting a stop to their peddling of meth here in La Playa. It had been an issue before, but he took what happened with Carlos personally. Yesterday, our Prospects had been tasked with moving his shit out of his apartment in the Outlaw Souls complex.
I was pissed about it, but not nearly as much as Hawk. He’d sponsored Carlos, and the man’s betrayal reflected badly on him. That was the problem with drugs like meth. People got so hooked that they lost their damn minds. Crystal meth was even worse because of the crap that it was made out of. Not only that, the labs had a nasty tendency of exploding. It was bad news all around.
The person we met at the mall was an old flame of the Sergeant at Arms for Las Balas. She was bitter as hell because the guy kept promising to leave his wife and never followed through. So, it was easy to get information about the club from her. Their pillow talk had proven to be rather detailed, and we now knew that the Vice President was the one cooking the drugs.
We just had to figure out where the man did the deed. In the meantime, I was eating Chinese food on Erica’s couch while we watched her son play with his new dog. I had never spent much time around kids, other than the younger ones that I met in the foster system, but I hadn’t formed a connection with any of them. I was still getting to know Dominic, but I liked the kid. He was very well-behaved, so much so that I had to wonder if it was normal. Weren’t seven-year-olds supposed to whine and complain?
