Page 28 of Hey, Daddy

It had to be the senator orchestrating all of this.

There was so little evidence that pointed to her it was a glaring, bright red beacon.

Yet, he was acting like it wasn’t.

Why?

I asked John that when they released us to “get to work.”

“This isn’t sitting well with me,” John muttered.

“Agreed,” I said. “There’s something more at play here. I want to find out what the fuck is going on, and I can’t do that if I’m playing twenty-four-seven babysitter.”

“I’ll set it up and forward it to our phones…” he said.

“My phone,” I suggested.

His eyes narrowed. “Why just yours?”

“Because you got a kid you’re trying to get access to,” I pointed out. “And I’m about to do something crazy.”

“You’re not playing by the rules?” he guessed.

John and I never had.

Never would.

We saw the world in multiple shades of black and white.

We knew there were certain circumstances that things—illegal things—needed to be done to make this world a better place.

And my hunch on this case was blasting me in the solar plexus every half a second, letting me know that I needed to look into it.

The ways I’d have to look into it were going to be questionable…

This body came with a lot of terms and conditions I didn’t agree to.

—Nastya to Milena

NASTYA

“I’m not sure that getting a shelter dog as part of a mystery shopping experience is a good idea.”

I looked over at my sister and said, “Listen. It’s more of a ‘I want to see how my staff treats you’ kind of thing. Not as a ‘you should always get something for free’ kind of thing.”

“But a dog? You live in an apartment,” Milena pointed out.

“I make my own hours, and I have plenty of time to take the dog out and play. I live half a block from a dog park. It’s seriously going to work out just fine, I promise.”

“I know, but it’s a dog. That’s a big commitment. There are vet bills, dog food, toys. Are you seriously going to do this?” she asked.

Milena wasn’t a dog person.

In fact, she wasn’t an animal person at all.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like animals, she did. She just didn’t like the thought of something needing her to remain alive. Milena was a free spirit. She liked to fly by the seat of her pants, leave when she wanted to leave, go hiking in the mountains. She couldn’t do any of that with a dog—or even a man—to tie her down.

Hence the no animal thing.

---