“How are you doing?”
But when I spoke to her, she didn’t respond.
When we gotto the house, she looked confused again.
“What about Bandit?”
“We can go tomorrow.”
Her face crumpled. “That means he’ll have to spend another night in the kennel.”
“I’ll send Oleg to go get him.”
She started to cry in earnest. “They won’t let him take him. You need to be there. You have to fill out the application form.”
I cupped her face in both of my hands. “I’ll make you a deal, okay?”
She nodded.
“You go inside and lie down for a little bit, and I’ll drive to the kennel right now and do all the paperwork. I’ll bring Bandit home.”
“Right now?” She looked up at me tearfully.
“I’ll leave when Oleg gets here.”
She nodded. “Okay. Bandit’s bed and toys and dishes are all ready.”
I knew that she was in some level of shock. She was focused on the one positive and was completely shutting out the trauma that she’d just witnessed.
“We’re ready for him. Why don’t you go upstairs and rest until he gets here?”
She looked pale but composed. “Okay.”
The day was a complete shitshow.I sat outside the shelter and called Maksim.
“Maksim, how’s it going?”
“The cleanup crew found that one of the Volkov men had a small short range bomb and some schematics for the warehouse. They weren’t expecting Anton to pull up.”
The Volkov weren’t playing anymore. I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “How’s Anton doing?”
“Doc cleaned him up and said the bullet took off the first layer of skin but no muscle. He said it was the least Anton could get shot while still taking a hit.”
“I’ll check on him later.”
“How’s Mila doing?”
Thus the reason for my call.
She was going to hit her wall when I returned without Bandit. “She’s in shock but hanging in there. Can you get one of our tech guys to immediately do a job for me?”
“Yes.”
“Access the mainframe of the Westhaven Animal Shelter and find out who adopted a dog named Bandit this afternoon. I want a full background on them. And I need this as priority.”
“You got it.”
Mila wasn’tin bed when I got back. She was instead waiting at the bottom of the staircase with Jordan sitting protectively next to her.
