Home Is Where the Bark Is (20 page)

“It’s all right, Kylie,” she said. “Mack will get to the vet on time.” She was surprised how normal her voice sounded to her own ears.

On the bookshelf in her office was a snow globe—a gift from Maddy—that contained a figurine of a Maltese terrier dressed in a striped red scarf and a Santa hat. When she’d gone into that office before the call from the bank, all had been right in her dog-centered little world—just like that tiny plastic Maltese. Now, leaving the room, she felt like she was in a snow globe that had been shaken and shaken and shaken and the snowflakes had settled on a completely different world with the ground uneven and treacherous beneath her unsteady feet.

“Everything okay?” said Kylie, looking from Serena to Nick and back again.

It was killing Serena to smile and act as if everything was okay when it was so not okay.

All her hard-earned modeling money—her safety net for the first year of business—gone. If Paws-A-While had to close, Kylie would be out of a job. So would the others. “I had a problem with the darn accounting software. You know how frustrated I get with it. Nick was able to help me.That’s all.”

Kylie’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You’re sure about that?” She was as protective as a barnyard cat with its kittens. Serena appreciated that. Kylie had started out as an employee but was becoming a friend. She dreaded having to tell her what had happened.

Serena made a point of looking at her watch. “Kylie’s right. You’ve got to get Mack to the vet, pronto.”

“You’re not going with him?” asked Kylie.

Serena shook her head. Lydia, her regular vet, who was also a friend, had sung the surgeon’s praises, and she would like to meet him herself. But she didn’t think she could stand having to go out and act normal in front of strangers. And she needed time to think about what had happened with Nick.

Truth was, she felt barely able to stay upright. Nausea rose in her throat at the thought of telling Maddy what had happened—Brutus was a major investor; his funds were at risk. In a way, she was grateful to Nick for his demand not to talk to anyone about the disaster just yet. She wasn’t good at sharing her pain with humans. She just wanted to spend time with the dogs and their simple, uncomplicated attitude to life. Maybe then she could come up with some kind of plan.

She turned to Kylie. “I’d go to the vet if I didn’t have so much to sort here. But Mack is Nick’s dog now. It will help them bond.”

“True,” said Kylie. “A bit of doggy-daddy together time never did any harm.”

Serena did not dare look at Nick to catch his reaction to Kylie’s comments.

“Did I hear someone say that Jenna was here?” Serena said.

“She dropped in an order but couldn’t wait. She asked could you please give her a call.”

Outside she was smiling; inside Serena was churning with anxiety. What if Jenna asked why her invoice hadn’t been paid? Jenna was a doctoral student working on her thesis in some highly complex area of mathematics that Serena didn’t even pretend to understand. Jenna needed her income from Paws-A-While as much as Kylie did.

This just got worse and worse.

Serena turned her gaze to the tall, dark-haired man wearing glasses who hovered behind Kylie. Leaner than Nick, he gave the same impression of coiled strength in a Clark Kentish type of way. Somehow she’d never thought of insurance assessors as being as built as both Nick and this guy.

“This is my colleague, Adam Shore,” said Nick. “He’s here to lend some muscle if we need help with Mack.”

Adam was impeccably polite but the way he kept his gaze forcedly above her neck made it obvious he was not oblivious to her past as Serena St. James. Could he tell she’d been kissing his friend? If he made some innuendo-laden remark, it might just send her over the top.

How long until she was able to put the girl-in-a-bath-of-chocolate thing behind her? It had made her enough money to start Paws-A-While and to live comfortably in the apartment upstairs. Sometimes she wondered if the notoriety it had brought with it had been worth the money.

One thing was for certain: never, ever again would she pose half nude in a tub of chocolate. Nothing could make her do that again. No matter how much money she was offered—the amount of dollars went up with every call from her agent. Not even if she’d lost everything to identity fraud.

But if Adam was wondering about the chocolate thing, he certainly gave no evidence of it. In fact, the way he was covertly checking out Kylie made her wonder if short, curvy blonds were more to his taste. Maybe that was why Kylie had sounded so eager to go with him to the vet?

Kylie was practically hopping from foot to foot with impatience. “Time, people. You guys have gotta get that big mutt into your car and around to the vet hospital.”

“Right,” said Serena. Curious about Adam, she walked alongside him to the playroom. “The vet hospital is only a walk away,” she explained, “but poor Mack’s knee is too bad for him to take weight on it for any distance.”

“Nick told me,” said Adam. “I’m just here to help.”

“Do you have a dog of your own?”

“No,” he said. “I live in an apartment with a very dog-unfriendly landlord.”

Mack lurched to his feet to greet them, but his knee was obviously bothering him. He suddenly whipped his head around and furiously licked his knee joint. But Nick was immediately there to help him, and Serena noted how the big dog was already comfortable with Nick. “I’ll lift him,” said Nick to Adam, “then you help me get him into the car.”

“Wait,” said Serena. “Kylie, can you get another collar for Mack from stock? That really nice embossed leather red one will do the trick.”

“Sure,” said Kylie and turned on her heel.

Nick stopped what he was doing with Mack. “Another collar?”

She intercepted a quick glance between Nick and Adam that she didn’t understand.

“Uh, can I ask why?” said Nick.

Serena pulled a face. “I can’t stand this studded number he’s wearing. It’s way too butch for Mack, don’t you agree?”

“I, uh, guess so.”

“People are nervous enough around a black dog his size without making him look so intimidating with that brutish collar. He’s a gentle giant with a sweet nature and needs a collar to match his personality.” She knelt down and unfastened the ugly collar she had disliked from the get-go. “Something smart and cheerful. He’ll look very handsome with a red collar.”

“You mean you didn’t choose that collar he’s wearing?” Nick asked.

“Heck no, I hate it. He was wearing it when his owner brought him in. But now that he has a new owner I think he should have a new collar.”

She smiled at Nick. It made her feel warm every time she thought of Mack going to a good home. Amidst all the bad things happening, Nick paying for Mack’s knee operation and adopting him was a good thing. “Let me give it to you as a gift.”

That nerve in Nick’s jawline twitched. He seemed mesmerized by Mack’s old collar as it swung from her hand. “What will you do with the old collar?” he asked.

“Throw it out. Recycle it.”

“Can I have it?” asked Nick, his eyes watching it swing back and forth.

“Oh. Of course. He’s your dog now. You might like the studded collar. I’m sorry; it’s not my place—”

“No. No. The red collar sounds great. I agree with you entirely. It’s just I know someone else who would really like to have that collar.”

“It’s me,” said Adam. “I want the collar.” He held out his hand.

Puzzled, Serena frowned. “But you don’t have a dog,” she said, hanging on to the leather band.

“No. But I will one day and that is just the collar I would like for my dog. When I get him, that is. The collar would look great on a . . . on a pit bull.”

Serena shrugged. Adam seemed more a Dalmatian type of guy to her. A Dalmatian with an altogether more elegant style of collar than this. Though black would look okay on a Dalmatian, just not the ugly studs . . .

Obviously her matching-dog-to-owner intuition was failing. First Nick with a Yorki-poo and now his partner with dreams of a macho pit bull terrier. How off target could she get?

She handed the collar over to Adam. “It’s yours, Adam. I hope your future dog will be very happy with it.”

“Thanks,” said Adam, holding the darn collar as if it were studded with diamonds. There was definitely no accounting for tastes when it came to dogs and dog accessories.

Nick spoke to her in an urgent undertone that she had to lean close to hear. “We have to talk. When I bring Mack back.”

“I’ll be here,” she said.

“No. Not here. A coffee shop maybe.”

“Okay,” she said, not sure why she was acquiescing and hoping like hell that he would make things clearer when they next met.

 

 

Kylie
came out to help load Mack into Nick’s truck. As soon as she had gone back inside and Nick was back in the driver’s seat, he turned to Adam. His business partner was gloating over the collar, turning it over and over in his hands.

“Definitely a micro surveillance camera in there. An expensive one. Relaying to a cell phone most likely. Although I think—”

Nick shot him a warning glance.

“Don’t worry,” said Adam. “I’ve disabled it. They can’t hear us or see us. Whoever ‘they’ might be.”

“Now they’ll know we’ve found it.”

“That’s a risk we have to take. It might even flush him out.”

“We know it’s not Serena. You heard her. She didn’t put that collar on the dog.”

“So she says.”

“She was going to put it in the trash.”

“And you believe her?”

“Yes, I do. She’s got nothing to do with the fraud. Except for being its latest victim.”

As he drove away from Paws-A-While, Nick relayed to Adam what Serena had told him.

By the time he’d finished they were parked in the veterinary hospital’s designated parking area. For all that rush against the clock, they were five minutes early.

Adam swore. “You better be right about Serena. It’s easy enough to check if she’s telling the truth. And I will.”

For the first time Nick felt angry with his partner. “You do that. But I’m certain she’s telling the truth.”

“She could be setting herself up as victim to deflect attention from herself. It’s been done before.”

“Not by Serena. She’s innocent.” He’d felt his instincts had gotten out of whack. Now that gut feel he’d learned to trust was back. “I’d stake everything on it.”

“Everything?” His partner looked at him with cool, level eyes. “You’re sure you want to take that gamble?”

“Yes.”

“If you’re that sure, then we pull out of Paws-A-While. Concentrate on our other leads.”

Other leads that so far had not yielded anything of worth, either.

Nick shook his head. “No. Not yet. I still think we’re on to something at that place. Now that Serena is a victim, too, I’m thinking—”

“You’re thinking with your—”

Now Nick swore. “No. Yes. Dammit. I—”

Adam’s tone was somber. “You can’t get involved with a suspect.”

“What if she’s not a suspect?”

“No matter what, she’s still a person of interest and that means hands off. You know that as well as I do, Nick.”

“Yes, but—”

“No ‘buts.’ I’m going to verify if she really is the victim she claims to be.” Adam paused. “But I see where you’re coming from. She’s not what I thought she’d be.”

“How’s that?”

“I didn’t think she’d be so . . . sweet.”

“Sweet?”

“I knew she’d be hot and she is. That disguise does nothing to hide what a gorgeous woman she is.”

Nick growled his protest. From the backseat Mack did his growl-bark thing. Nick smiled. Mack was acting as his wingman already. He leaned over to the backseat and gave him a reassuring pat.

“Settle down, buddy.” Adam glared at the dog. “Uh, both of you, I mean. That was just observation. The hot thing I mean. I know you’ve got dibs on Serena.”

“I do not have dibs on her.”

Adam gave him a “yeah, right” look before he continued. “Serena St. James. I expected this haughty, stuck-up kind of princess. You know, too good for the rest of us. But she’s not that. She’s nice. Smart, too. And she’s sweet . . . The eyes, I think. There’s pain in those eyes. And fear.”

Adam’s acute insights into people never ceased to amaze Nick. It was one of the reasons he had jumped at the opportunity to work with him in their own business. He
had
to make this partnership work.

“Which leads me back to what I was saying,” said Nick. “What if this scam is personal? Aimed at hurting Serena, hurting her business?”

“It’s a possibility.”

“She’s had a stalker after her. Could be something there. A revenge thing.”

“Or a sex thing.”

Nick gritted his teeth. That thought was too awful to contemplate. But it might explain a lot about Serena. “Maybe. She hasn’t confided in me. Yet. But this new development might make her more willing to talk.”

“Get the name of the stalker. Pronto. And see if he’s on any of that webcam footage from the center.”

“There’s this millionaire mutt there, too. He and his owners could be at risk.”

“Yeah, I’ve read about him. The guy who tried to kill the dog is locked away in a British jail right now.”

“That doesn’t mean there’s not another psycho out there coveting the fortune that was bequeathed to a dog.”

“But for all that, there’s still nothing concrete linking Paws-A-While to this identity fraud, and the clock is ticking, man. We can’t waste weeks on this case unless we’re sure of where we’re going.”

“Except for the collar. That’s concrete.”

“Correct. It’s a serious little camera in that collar. You said the owner disappeared?”

“Serena couldn’t get in touch with him again.”