Page 41 of His Captive Pet

She would not give him those names. He’d use them to ruin everything. It had taken too much work to get Luis to help her, to trust her enough to be alone with the dogs. No way she was undoing all that work.

Jorge didn’t trust her right now because of the raid. She’d have to find a way to make that right, to make him understand she had nothing to do with it. But the longer she stayed with Blake, the longer she had no contact with them, the harder that task was going to get.

He wasn’t in the room; he’d gone on to the kitchen. She could just put one foot in front of the other and meet up with him, but she found herself sinking to the floor.

Her hands and knees moved across the linoleum flooring then the hard wood of the hallway until she reached the kitchen. Samuel sat at full attention next to Blake who stood at the stove, plating the eggs.

“Next to the chair, Aubree.” He jerked a thumb at the single chair pulled out from the simple breakfast table. Three other chairs were tucked in, and she knew exactly what he wanted.

The ceramic tile of the kitchen bit at her knees more than the wood, but she wouldn’t complain. She’d do this stupid task for him, and get her fill of the eggs. Then she’d crawl back into the bedroom to be alone.

Blake placed a plate on the floor beside Samuel filled with bacon and scrambled eggs, petting him before heading over to his chair.

“He can’t have too much bacon, it’ll upset his stomach,” she said. As a veterinarian, she knew any table food wasn’t good for him but also knew spoiling her Samuel was a guilty pleasure.

“He’ll be fine.” Blake stepped around her and sat down.

The first forkful of eggs appeared before her mouth, and she opened for it without hesitation. Her stomach grumbled, and she wasn’t a hero. Getting hangry wouldn’t solve their problems.

“Have you checked in with Greg?” she asked, readjusting her knees to relieve some of the pressure.

“Yeah. He’s not thrilled about the situation. Having to deal with the bar on his own.” Blake shoveled another forkful of the tasty eggs into her mouth.

“My boss?” She wiped the back of her hand across her bottom lip.

“I talked with her. She’s safe.”

“Safe?” Aubree kneeled up, lifting her ass from her feet. “Why wouldn’t she be safe?”

He presented a piece of bacon, but she pushed his hand away.

“She’s fine. Everyone’s fine. And everyone wants you to stay safe. So, everyone’s doing what they’ve been told to do. Except for you, apparently. Get down.” He pushed on her shoulder until she was back in position.

“You’re not telling me things.”

His eyes widened then narrowed before his mouth slipped into a wide grin. “Neither are you.”

“We aren’t getting anywhere like this.” She started to stand, but his hand pressed down on her shoulder, keeping her in place.

“We’d be getting a lot further along if you’d just tell me who told you about the fights.”

“Why doesn’t your friend already know?” She yanked her shoulder from his touch. Just the little contact set her body on edge for him. Why couldn’t her body get in tune with the rest of her? She was angry with him, and she didn’t want him; he wasn’t good for her.

“John? Yeah, I asked him to look into it. I talked with him last night after you went to bed.” He took a bite out of a piece of bacon while she huffed.

To bed. Is that what he wanted to call making her crawl onto a doggy pillow to sleep?

“He didn’t find anything in any of the files on the gang that would point to you or who you might be friendly with. Which could be good, or it could be bad. These guys usually have at least one cop on their payroll, and if their man in blue can’t find you through the documents, they’ll see it as you’re being protected. And they’ll think that protection is in the form of another cop. Which means, again, you’re the rat.”

“I didn’t tip anyone off about that raid. If I could talk with Jorge, I can make him understand that.”

“That’s pretty doubtful. Jorge was released yesterday pretty quick. Lawyered up, and they had to let him walk. He didn’t have a dog in the fights as far as they could tell, and he hadn’t been betting. And just being there wasn’t enough to keep him.” His cool demeanor and blasé tone prickled her skin.

“If you’d let me use the phone I could find out what’s going on. I could get a hold of my contact and fix all of this then we could go home.”

“And your house?” He tossed the last bite of bacon into his mouth and leaned back in his chair. “What about that? You think they burned it down because they were having a temper tantrum, but they’re fine with it all now?”

Okay, maybe he had a few valid points. But that didn’t change anything.

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