Page 26 of Sully

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.”

“Andheis standing between me and my coffee. Come on, buddy,” she called, patting her leg. Then, with a knowing smile, “I’ll get you some whippy!”

That had Nitro scrambling to get up, nearly knocking me off the bed in the process, dragging a laugh out of me.

It was the calmest I’d felt since work the night before.

“Thanks for loving on him,” Syl said as she followed her dog out.

“That was a mood elevator, huh?” Sully asked.

“Forgot all about everything else for a minute.”

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