Page 16 of Rage's Heart

Dread tilted his head, studying him. “Scrawny thing, ain’t he?”

I huffed out a dry laugh. “Yeah, well… vet says he’ll live.”

Dread nudged my shoulder with his own. “Fucking softie.”

I shot him a glare. I’d gotten conned into keeping the damn thing thanks to a sexy blonde with a sexier smile.

Before I could tell him to fuck off, my phone started ringing.

I pulled it from my pocket, checking the screen.

Unknown number.

I almost let it go to voicemail, but instead, I sighed and swiped my finger to answer. “Yeah?”

There was a beat of silence before the familiar, soft, tentative voice filled the line.

“Uh… hey. It’s, um—Mac. From last night.”

My brows shot up. Holy shit. She’d insisted we swamp numbers last night so she could check up on the dog, but I hadn’t expected her to actually call.

I glanced away from Dread, who was watching me with way too much interest. “Hey, babe. What’s up?”

She hesitated. “I, um… I just wanted to check on Diesel. See how he’s doing.”

I ran a hand through my hair, glancing through the window at the dog. “I just got home from picking him up, actually. He seems like he’s going better.”

Another pause. Then, a softer, “Good.”

Something about the relief in her voice had my grip tightening around the phone. It blew my mind that she actually gave a fuck.

I waited for her to say whatever was clearly sitting on the tip of her tongue and sure enough, after another beat of hesitation, she cleared her throat. “So, uh… this might be a little weird, but I stopped by the pet store earlier.”

My brows pulled together. “The fuck for?”

She let out a long sigh. “Well, I figured you probably didn’t have, you know, actual dog supplies. Food. Bowls. Stuff like that. So, I picked up a few things.”

Okay. She had me there. I didn’t know the first thing about having a dog and I sure as hell didn’t know what they needed to survive. Still, the dog was my responsibility so I was confused.

“You bought shit for my dog?”

She let out a small, nervous laugh. “I mean, I guess technically he’s your dog. But yeah. I did.”

That’s when she hit me with the final blow.

“I was wondering if I could bring them by?”

I blinked, thrown for the second time in sixty seconds. This woman was full of surprises.

“You wanna come here? To my house?”

“Uh, yeah. If you don’t mind.”

I hesitated, my eyes cutting to Dread, who was now openly fucking staring at me.

Then, before I could talk myself out of it, I muttered, “Yeah, alright. I’m at—” I rattled off my address. “You close by?”

“Not far,” she confirmed. “I’ll be there soon.”

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