Page 53 of Subscriber Wars

The door slides open, and I’m hit with cool air and a view of a huge open space with obstacles and dog toys strewn all around. “The barn has air?”

Vee nods. “Yeah. Do you like to work out in the heat?”

I go to answer her, but the minute the door is opened far enough, something barrels into Vee, which sends both of us to the ground.

“Whoa! Hey, girl,” Vee says, after taking a second to catch her breath. The giant dog gives her a few licks and then moves to me, but instead of licking me, she sniffs as if she’s trying to determine, just by my smell, if I’m cool to enter her playground.

“Dogs are a great judge of character,” Vee says, as I lay stock still, not even breathing. “Scarlett, here, once took out an entire house of terrorists. She was shot taking down the leader who had her partner at gunpoint.”

“Scarlett sounds like a badass,” I whisper, hoping my speaking doesn’t trigger her to attack. If what Vee says is true and Scarlett is a good judge of character, she might eat my face.

“She is a badass, and she’s secretly my favorite.”

Scarlett finally puts me out of my misery and licks my face in one slippery lick.

Vee hums. “Maybe she isn’t such a great judge of character after all.”

I sit up and rub the furry head in front of me. “Or maybe she is.”

Vee smiles. “Maybe.”

Scarlett flops down and pins me to the ground with one of her massive paws.

“I’ll give you two some space and check on the other dogs.”

Scarlett swipes a slobbery kiss over my cheek, and I laugh. “Alright. I hope they all aren’t as brutal as this one.”

Vee stands and grins down at me. “She usually isn’t this friendly with strangers.”

I look at the beast lying on top of me. She looks calm, like she’s never seen war a day in her life. I scratch behind her ears and shrug. “Maybe she’s just having an off day or—” I roll my eyes dramatically, “—maybe my Midol threw her off?”

Vee belts out a laugh that isn’t very dainty. “I bet that’s it.”

“Of course,” I agree.

Two hours into Vee’s shift, and Scarlett and I decided to let her continue running around and entertaining the other dogs—seven in total.

“Are you sure you don’t want to put the suit on again?” she teases, tossing a frisbee for one of the dogs who darts after it.

“I’m sure,” I return. “I may never get the feeling back in my arm after the last time.”

It was Vee’s idea to put me in the K9 tactical bite suit. I knew it was her payback for me acting like such a dick last night after our dance video. So I took my punishment like the good team player I am. Besides, I don’t want to piss her off too much. Otherwise, she might decide she doesn’t give a fuck about this competition and go save the frogs with Vance.

Vance and I are friends, somewhat. We don’t hang out or anything, but he’s connected to the mayor, therefore Maverick likes to keep him in his pocket, meaning I can’t be too much of an asshole and scare him off.

But I can tell you that Vance cannot handle the likes of Valentina Lambros. She has way too much personality for him. Vance seems like he could use a soft-spoken woman who will rub his shoulders after a long day and then finish him off with a delicate hand job.

Valentina will push a shot of moonshine across the island and force you to down a couple, before tagging along while you blackmail a guy for Maverick and sneak into the girl’s locker room to get the footage you needed to do it. I don’t know if she would have offered me a hand job because we didn’t get that far, but I’m thinking she would have been a lot more exciting than Vance’s hope for a sweet, under the cover tug.

“Have you heard from Brick?” she calls, tugging the frisbee from the same dog’s mouth. I forgot his name. Seems like she said it was something like Turner, but maybe that’s the tan one.

“Yeah,” I tell her, stroking Scarlett’s back. “He’s in the driveway. I told him to stay put until we’re ready for him.” The fucker can sit in the heat with his piece of shit car that broke down a couple of days ago when he was supposed to be filming mine and Vee’s date.

She cocks her head to the side. “Why wouldn’t you just let him come on back?”

Uh, because I didn’t want him to think he needed to have a seat and talk or interrupt my time with Scarlett. Okay, and with Vee, but more so Scarlett. And bad employees deserve to be punished.

“He’s fine.”

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