Page 53 of Like An Animal
I pull the car into the driveway and we get out. Reaching into the back seat, I grab the crowbar hidden under the driver’s seat, something I picked up from the hardware store earlier today. Meanwhile Xavi pulls out his pistol, looking at the crowbar in my hand sideways.
“The fuck, Jer?” he groans as he slowly shakes his head. It’s as if he thinks I’m being childish.
“Don’t judge me for my weapon when you’re bringingthat. What are you going to do? Shoot the kid?”
He knows better than to think of doing something stupid like that. It’s not just any kid in there. She’s Bronwyn’s daughter. That alone allows her even more protections than your average child.
“Fuck, no! This is for the husband, dumbass.”
Nope. That would give him too quick of a death. He deserves to suffer for what he took from me, what shelethim take. I might give him a quick death for looking at her, maybe even talking to her, but he did much worse than that. He tainted things between me and her.
That won’t go unpunished.
“You won’t need that since you’re going to grab the kid and leave. I’ll get us in the house.”
He follows me as I walk up the porch, straight to the front door and try to turn the knob. It’s a small town. Most people leave their doors unlocked in a small town, but this one isn’t.
Smart girl.
“What’s the plan now, genius?” Xavi asks, sarcasm dripping from his words.
I slam the crowbar into the glass panel of the door, but it seems to be one of those panels that keeps glass from falling out when broken. I puncture it with the crowbar before dragging it down to create a big enough hole where I can slip my arm through.
I guess it’s a good thing the glass didn’t shatter. It would’ve made quite the ruckus that we don’t need right now.
I disengage the lock before pushing the door open. Pausing for half a second, I see the golden retriever sitting right there, staring at me with its tail wagging.
Not once did any of our intel reveal a fucking dog.
I don’t like dogs. I never have. They are dirty, stinky and destroy everything in their path. They’re loud as fuck, too.
The dog doesn’t move except to wag its tail.
“Calm down, man. Retrievers are nothing but cute and cuddly,” Xavi mutters as we walk through the door and I carefully close it behind us.
The dog practically wags its entire body as it walks over toward me.
“Aw. Look at it. It’s happy for some attention.”
Xavi reaches his hand out to pet it, but the second it looks at him, the dog snarls and snaps its teeth at his hand.
No barking though. That’s a positive.
“Hey! Bad doggie. Bad, bad doggie.”
The dog sends one more growl at him before looking at me. I swear, if this mutt attacks me, I’m not against putting it in an early grave…but, fuck, it’s Bronwyn’s dog.
The things I fucking put up with for that woman.
Suddenly, the dog’s entire body starts wagging as it walks over to me, whimpering.
I don’t know if the thing is scared or what, but it’s acting weird.
Then, out of nowhere, the thing jumps on me, nearly knocking me back into the door.
“Get this thing off of me,” I growl, but then the dog licks my chin.
“Aww. It likes you!”
