Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
All their girls? She’d heard Livvy talk about her friends, but the only one she’d really met was Ricky, who she owned the hair salon with.
How many friends did they have?
Well, it didn’t matter. If they wanted to fill up her class, she’d take it. Anything that would keep the bitchy besties away. Although hopefully they wouldn’t be back.
“Oh heck! Is that the time?” Millie said with alarm, checking her watch. “I’ve got to get home before Spike does. He doesn’t know I was going out this morning. I forgot to tell him and Spike doesn’t like when he doesn’t know where I am. I could’ve texted him, of course. But I kind of forgot my phone, too.” Millie widened her eyes and made an ‘eek’ face. “Come along, Mr. Fluffy, we’ve got to get home.” She tugged at her dog who seemed to be in the throes of a blissed out cream coma.
Yep, he even had a happy, canine smile on his face.
“Mr. Fluffy! Spike is gonna kill us!” Millie cried.
Maya gave her an alarmed look. Kill her? Did she need help? Was Spike actually abusive? The way she’d talked about him before, it didn’t seem like the case, but sometimes it could be hard to tell.
“Do you need help?” she asked. “I can get you out of that situation. Just say the word.”
Millie gave her a surprised look.
“He won’t really kill her,” Livvy told her as Millie tried to wrangle Mr. Fluffy. “He actually adores her.”
“If he adored me, he’d let me get a dinosaur blow-up bouncy castle in the backyard permanently. I also wanted to grow some hedging and then get them cut into different dinosaurs, but he wasn’t keen on that either.”
“But he would let you get a bouncy castle for your birthday,” Livvy told her.
“Well, yes, obviously. He’s not a monster. Here we go, come on, Mr. Fluffy. The vet said you had to walk places so I am not going to get the car and come back for you,” Millie told her dog as he heaved himself up with a sigh and started walking . . . in the wrong direction. “No, no! Mr. Fluffy, we need to go this way.”
They finally headed off in the right direction, waving back at them. “Bye! Nice to meet you!”
“You too!” Maya called back.
“Is there something I can do to help with your boss?” Livvy asked.
“Don’t even worry about it. David sucks. I only took this job because I want to help the puppies.”
“Puppies?” Livvy asked.
“Yeah, the ones being forced to take part in puppy yoga class.”
“There’s a puppy yoga class?” Livvy asked. “That sounds kind of cute.”
“Sure, it sounds cute. But I’m not sure that David has the animals’ welfare in mind. What if they’re not in the mood for yoga? I mean yoga rocks, but they can’t say no. Right? And David is the type of asshole who will use young puppies and not ensure that they’re properly looked after and not stressed.”
“This means a lot to you,” Livvy said.
“There’s no other reason I’d work for a jerk like David,” she said. “This is for a greater cause.”
The safety of the animals.
And she would help them.
“Let me know if you need any help.”
Maya smiled in thanks even knowing that she wouldn’t take Livvy up on her offer. It was too dangerous and Livvy had three boys to think of.
Maya had to do this on her own.
As usual.
3
The lights flashed from behind her and Maya started cursing.
Seriously?
Had he been waiting for her to drive past? Surely he had better things to do on a Tuesday night than harass her?
Like his actual fucking job.
For a moment, she imagined putting her foot down and outrunning him.
The trouble was that could put someone around her at risk. What if a dog or cat ran out in front of her?
The second issue was that he knew where she lived. And the last thing she wanted was him turning up there.
So, with a sigh of irritation, she pulled her car over to the side of the road. Her car was old, but it was reliable and could fit all of her babies in the back.
Maya rolled down her window and waited for the shithead to approach.
Vince thought he was God’s gift to women. The uniform seemed to make him think he was irresistible. So did the number of women he’d gone through.
Lord knew how diseased his dick was by now.
Best she didn’t think about it. She didn’t want to throw up the peanut butter and jelly sandwich she’d had for lunch.
“Maya, you’re a hard person to track down.” Vince leaned down so his face was nearly level with hers.
Not pleasant when his breath smelled like garlic.
“You’re a cop, Vince,” she said dryly. “It shouldn’t be hard to track someone down, that’s kind of your job.”