Page 23 of The Bratva's Innocent Sold Bride
After she loaded the pup into the backseat and had it somewhat calm, she looked over the top of the car at me. “Shouldn’t you stay and help Masha dole out the punishments?” Her face was set, eyes burning with the need for justice. “They shouldn’t get away with something like this.”
“Don’t worry, they won’t. Their days of dognapping are over. Maybe their days are over, period, if they piss her off enough. I’d rather get home and get this guy settled in.”
She nodded, seeming content with the knowledge that due suffering was about to be heaped on their heads, and not at all upset that I’d hinted they might not make it out alive.
On the way home, she tried to disguise how happy the scraggly dog made her for some reason, but there was no hiding the smiles that kept breaking out on her pretty face.
“His name is Thor,” she announced.
“His name is most definitely not Thor,” I said.
She only laughed and reached back, asking the dog what his name was in a shockingly cute baby voice. I wanted to get us home safely, but kept sneaking glances at her, unable to tear my eyes away for long.
Was I getting in too deep? Every day, my feelings for her grew stronger. There had to be a limit, or I’d lose control. As she chattered away about all the things she’d need to buy for the dog, whose name wasnotThor, I decided I didn’t care how deep I’d fallen. She was my wife. I could feel, however I wanted about her.
Chapter 15 - CJ
I was in shock, but in a good way, if that was possible. My mind was reeling, and my feelings were in turmoil. I was furious, but for once, not at Mat. Learning about where we were going and why broke my heart. I could have lived the rest of my life not knowing things like that happened.
When we got to the dilapidated house where the dogs were being hidden before the fights, there was a moment when I wanted to stay in the car, pretend it wasn’t happening. What horrors would I see in there? It was when Mat solicitously told me I didn’t have to go inside that I stiffened my spine and followed him. Not out of stubbornness alone, but because I had something to prove.
I had to see what went on in his life.
I was not prepared for the stink and the filth and the chaos of all those dogs running around, recently freed from where they’d been stuffed in crates in a bedroom. Masha and her men worked as efficiently as machines, calmly rounding them up and getting them into vans. If there had been any people there when they arrived, there was no sign of them when Mat and I turned up, and it was too dark and disgusting in there to make out any signs of a fight. A dozen murders could have taken place in that house, and it all would have blended in.
One half-grown retriever mix instantly sought me out, wrapping his shaggy body around my legs. The poor thing was trembling and looked like he could use a meal. There might have been a minute or two when I thought I hated Mat, thought I wanted to see him suffer, but those times were dwarfed by the hatred I felt for whoever had masterminded this dogfighting ring.
The most overwhelming feeling of all, I couldn’t put a name to. I looked at Mat, speaking in low tones to Masha before pitching in to help catch the dogs, and saw him as a completely different person. How could he be the same man who threatened my father on a daily basis, stole me, and forced me to marry him, and then be so tender to these lost and forlorn animals?
I couldn’t help as much as I wanted with the puppy clinging to me and tripping me up, and when it came time to hand him over, my chest felt like it would burst. In less than half an hour, I had become completely besotted by him, and the way he buried his head against me when I knelt down to hug him goodbye told me he’d grown attached to me, too.
Maybe I could find out what shelter he was going to and start working on Mat. I would promise him anything if he let me adopt this dog, even go back to my stupid chore schedule in the ridiculous maid costume. I’d even…
Then, just like that, he said the dog was coming home with us. No begging, no bargaining. I had a dog. And his name was going to be Thor.
“His name is most definitely not Thor,” Mat said when I told him.
I laughed pretty much the whole way home. It had only been three weeks since my new life began, but it seemed like I had forgotten how to do it, as well as how to be happy. Thor brought something into this life that gave me a reason to wake up in the morning. And he showed me a completely different side to Mat.
Was he, way deep down, actually kind of sweet?
At the mansion, he refused to let Thor into the house, hoisted the skinny dog into his arms, and headed around back. I followed, as anxious as a new mom. Dumping him into the tubin the pool house, he pointed to the bottle of shampoo and then at Thor.
“If I see a single flea…”
“Thor doesn’t have fleas,” I said indignantly.
Thor did, in fact, have fleas, but after one of the guards gave up a sturdy, narrow-bristled comb to run through his belly fur, and I had scrubbed him down twice with the high-end salon shampoo, it seemed like I had conquered the problem.
Still, Mat refused to let him into the house until I could get him to the vet in the morning for medicine.
“It’s perfectly comfortable out here,” he said.
The pool house hadn’t been furnished except for the kitchen and bathroom essentials, but Mat laid out a pile of towels, stating it was better than where he’d been, and better than the shelter, too.
“That’s not the point,” I said. “He’ll be alone.”
Mat took me by the arm and led me out, warning me not to get all mushy or that would just work the dog up more. But Thor was whining and wrapping himself around my legs before we even made it to the door. Once we were outside, he started to howl, and it was such a plaintive sound that tears welled up in my eyes.
