The Camaro pulled past the wrought iron fence and down the loose gravel driveway. Dom pulled us to a stop in front of the house. Leo hopped out first, ready to grab the leash.
Before she swung open our door, Lady leapt forward to the center console and gave Dom’s stern face a big, wet lick.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Dom grumbled as Leo grabbed the leash and guided our new pup out of the car. But there was no hiding the slight turn of Dom’s lips, lifting just at the corners as she wiped the slobber off with the sleeve of her designer leather jacket.
As we all hopped out, Dom started to disappear into the house. “Keep that fucking beast away from me.”
I knelt down on the gravel, rubbing Lady’s back. “She said the same thing when I got here. She’ll soften to you.”
And deep inside, I really believed it.
69
DOM
As soon asI lunged forward, Lady let a deep bark rip from her chest as she leapt up, grabbing the thick, ropey jute sleeve. Even through the thick pad, I could feel her teeth sinking into the guard.
I tried to rip the arm away, teaching her to adjust for the resistance of my arm. She’d gotten pretty good at keeping her grip, even in the two weeks since we brought her home.
Much to my dismay.
But I was happy to take advantage of the unseasonably warm day to keep up her training. If her slobbery ass was going to be on all of my furniture, I sure as fuck was going to get a guard dog out of it.
We’d all been trapped in the house a lot more lately. A photo from Gabe’s apartment break-in had leaked on Spyre’s surveillance network: a fuzzy picture of Kiera in my jacket, rushing away from the building.
We were a blur of motion behind Gabriel’s security team as they were photographed rushing onto the scene. But it had been enough for the AI sensors to match Kiera’s face to the thousands of images of her that Spyre had uploaded to their database.
Though, by whatever stupid luck, it didn’t manage to catch me. I’d turned to look behind us at just the right second, obscuring my face.
That was way too fucking close. Should’ve made her wear a mask.
It was too late now, though. We were on lockdown while everyone outside hunted for Kiera. And as their search began closing in on Valemont, our world shrank again.
All of us were starting to lose our minds.
“Drop it.” I growled at Lady, a word that wasn’t meant to be a release word for this kind of training. Only when she managed to grab a snack off the countertop.
Like a good girl, she kept her grip. Until I whistled her tune, which immediately unlatched her jaw from the sleeve and put her at attention in front of me.
Her eyes were a bright orange in the afternoon sun, fixed on me and my every word. Just how I liked it.
Until she heard the patio door swing open, a goofy grin taking over her face and replacing the focused scrunching of her eyebrows with hope.
Kiera padded across the lawn, bare feet on the dried out grass. “Hi, puppy.”
Lady immediately sprinted over to her, the zoomies setting in as she saw her favorite person.
Just as I had suspected, my ‘guard dog’ was more like a family pet the vast majority of the time. I’d been very clear with my housemates. No furniture. No dining room. No kitchen.
And within two hours, they’d managed to break every rule I had.
Kiera knew the power she had over me, especially after everything I’d done to hide our past from her. As soon as she slipped into bed on Lady’s first night, she patted her duvet and invited the beast up.
They’d all slept like that for two weeks now: Kiera, Leo, Spencer, and Lady all piled on the king-sized mattress. As much as I avoided thinking about them all together like that, I was surprised that Spencer and Leo fit together, let alone the hulking dog.
From the lawn, I watched Kiera get down on the ground and give her dog endless pets. And despite myself, I was glad to see her smile. Ever since her revelations, she’d been overwhelmed by flashbacks and memories, most of which she needed contextualized.
I hated doing it, reliving everything I’d let happen to her. Looking back, I would’ve sooner killed my own father and spent my life in prison if I could’ve taken the pain from her.
