My Pet Sold Me novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Open Bond

"Clinic first," I said. "Then Alder Court."

Penny did not ask why.

She took the turn out of the meadow road hard enough to throw gravel against the fence.

"That address is a trap, Lara."

"It's also home to eleven other people."

"Okay."

"The old man in Apartment 2 waters my plants.

"The nurse in 6 has a baby.

"None of them know what that site is."

"So we call the police."

"And tell them wolves are coming?"

Penny had no answer to that, and she drove faster.

The clinic kept three big boarders in the back kennels overnight, and I had a key.

There was a mastiff and two shepherds, all of them over ninety pounds, and all of them in love with me.

I clipped leads on them in the dark and walked them out to the Honda one at a time.

"We're taking the dogs," Penny said.

"Every dog in that building will bark before I hear a footstep."

I took one more thing from the locked cabinet.

It was a syringe of sedative, drawn up that morning for a Rottweiler's dental, and I put it in my jacket pocket.

At Alder Court, a brick propped the front door open.

Somebody's truck sat across two spaces with its engine ticking.

We went up the stairs with three dogs pulling at their leads.

On the second landing, the heavy man in the hunting vest was leaning against the wall beside my door.

The woman who had said I bite stood next to him with her arms folded.

Two more men stood behind them, and one was holding a baseball bat down along his leg.

"Evening, keeper," said the vest.

"Get away from my door."

"The post says first come, first served."

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