Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75478 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75478 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“So, you know that thing in movies and TV where someone gets hit on the head… then they wake up hours later?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it’s mostly bullshit. I mean, for moderate or severe brain injuries, it’s possible. But most people who knock out from getting hit on the head are out for less than fifteen minutes.”
“But I—“
“Was kept for hours, yeah,” he finished for me. “Which made me wonder how he kept you out for longer. This,” he said, waving toward my arm, “seems to explain it.”
“He drugged me? Shouldn’t I… feel something?”
“I think you probably slept most of it off. Then, when you woke up, the adrenaline you felt about the bomb and shit kinda counteracted any lingering effects.”
“What could he have used?”
“There are a few things,” Sully said, shrugging his shoulder. “None of them are anything to worry about since you’re here, you’re awake, and you’re not experiencing any weird side effects.”
“Okay,” I said, but the way my heart was pounding said nothing at all was okay about that.
“But it might also give me… something to go on.”
“How so?”
“There’s really nothing he could have had legally to knock you out like that. Which means the club can start hitting up local dealers, see if anyone had a client who fit your rough description.”
‘Rough’ was hardly an adequate word. I mean, I’d had almost nothing to give him. Average height and husky with tight clothes? No hair or eye color. No tattoos. Nothing useful.
But maybe we could hope for a little miracle.
“I’m just gonna grab you those meds,” he said, walking into the bathroom, rattling around, then coming back with two pills that I happily took, though it seemed like they got stuck in my too-tight throat.
“Thanks,” I said, then stiffened as the door pushed open behind him. I really didn’t think I could handle another person right then.
Only, it wasn’t a person.
It was a dog.
A big, chunky Rottweiler, in fact.
“Oh, hey, bud,” Sully said, putting a hand on the dog’s big block head. “This is Nitro. He belongs to one of the club guys. And he’s… oh, okay. Is that okay?” he asked.
Not that Nitro cared for permission as he hefted his considerable body up onto the bed, climbed up toward the top, and dropped down next to me with a long-suffering sigh.
“It’s fine,” I said, smiling at the dog as he eyed me for a second, then half-rolled onto his back, silently asking for a belly rub. “More than fine,” I added, rubbing all over until I found the spot just under his rib that got his foot tapping. “That’s a good boy,” I cooed. “You’re just a big, silly lover, huh?” Glancing up, I caught Sully smiling down at me. “I really love dogs,” I said, embarrassed he’d heard me using my baby voice on Nitro.
“You don’t have one at home that hasn’t been fed or let out, right?”
I was kind of insulted that he thought I could forget something so important. “No. My building doesn’t allow dogs.”
“Lame,” Sully said as Nitro rolled completely onto his back to give me more access. “You’d never know he was a junkyard dog by looking at him now.”
“Were you a big, scary boy?” I asked as his tongue lolled out of his mouth.
“Voss didn’t like how he was being treated. So he went back and stole him.”
“A totally acceptable reaction,” I said.
“What kind of dog would you get if you could have one? Big? Small? Purebred? Mutt?”
“They’re all good,” I decided. “My only real dealbreaker is that I want a dog that is dog-friendly, so I can bring them to work with me.”
“Kinda got the perfect job for a dog lover, huh?”
“It really is. I hated every other job I ever had before this. Now, I’d usually rather be there than at home.”
“You’ll like hanging here. Someone is always dropping by with their dogs. Or leaving them here if they are going away on vacation or shit like that. Oh, that then there’s Charlie on occasion, too.”
“Charlie?”
“An umbrella cockatoo. Belongs to the wife of one of the OG members. Really sweet. But destructive as fuck. When we were watching him once, we made the mistake of walking away for, I dunno, twenty minutes. He chewed through one of the legs on the pool table.”
“I love birds too. I think I just work too much for them. They need a lot of social time. And I can’t exactly bring a bird to work, since not all the boys are as good as this boy,” I said, giving his belly quicker rubs.
“Nitro… where’d you go, you big doofus?” a female voice called, moving closer, then stopping in the doorway. “Look at you, you big traitor.”
“He goes where the belly rubs are.”
“And the most comfortable bed to rest on,” the woman said.
“Syl, this is Bonnie. Bonnie, Syl. This is her dog.”