Winter Howl (Sanctuary)

Winter Howl (Sanctuary) by Aurelia T. Evans Page B

Book: Winter Howl (Sanctuary) by Aurelia T. Evans Read Free Book Online
Authors: Aurelia T. Evans
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Renee said. “I have to go down and see what they want. Choose which skin you want to be seen in if someone comes up. Or just…go away.”
    “I’m going to ride in the back of the truck,” Grant said. And before Renee could say anything, he opened the door and jumped into the covered bed, then pulled the door closed behind him.
    Renee looked down at Britt, who looked back at her with an inscrutable expression on her face. Finally, Renee shrugged, thinking that saying anything would be more trouble than it was worth to make a fuss. As long as he didn’t make her crash. Britt did a little huffy thing with her nose as Renee sighed and opened the driver’s door. Britt got in first, and Renee climbed in after her.
    Renee could see through the back window that Grant was lying down with his hands cradling his head. He was insane, and she shook her head before buckling herself in and turning the truck on.
    The drive there was fairly uneventful. Grant didn’t do anything, just lay there in the bed, sitting up near the end in order to brace himself against the unbalanced shaking and sudden stops that came from driving on a dirt road.
    When she reached the end of her driveway, Renee groaned. Josh and Marcus and one of their friends, Will, were there, and they leaned against Josh’s truck with their arms crossed and faces smug, obviously glad they could waste her time and harass her with their fucking passive-aggressive bullshit. She barely realised that she’d said that out loud before Grant opened the back window and said, “Kiss your mother with that mouth?”
    “Shut up,” she muttered as she turned off her truck and got out.
    “Hey, bitch, got a dog for sale?” Marcus asked. The man didn’t need to be drunk to be crass.
    “Fuck off,” Renee said from the other side of the gate.
    Josh raised his eyebrows. The other two did their ‘oooooohs’, which had been old way back in high school.
    “Come on, this is a charity, right?” Will said. “We’re here to be charitable.”
    She did not even try to be polite. “This is a sanctuary. We screen each potential adoption, and you can’t get in without an appointment. So. Fuck. Off. I don’t have time for you.”
    “But what if we want a dog? We have money. We can pay,” Will said.
    “I would never give one of my dogs to you. This isn’t a business, it’s a non-profit organisation. I decide whether to let the dogs go or not. I’m not doing it for the people that come in, I’m doing it for the dogs that go out. And I would never ruin one of my dogs’ lives by letting you bring him home,” Renee said.
    “God, you’re chatty when you’re safe behind an iron fence,” Josh said. He curled his hands around the wrought iron and pressed his face between the bars. “I’d half a mind to think you were slow.”
    “You do have half a mind,” Renee muttered.
    “I heard that,” Josh said. “You know, I may not be able to get this truck through the gate, but I can find a way over the fence. Primitive system you’ve got here.”
    “You do that, Josh,” Renee said, stepping closer to the fence and stopping short of his arm’s reach. Her voice could shatter ice as she continued, “You could fall and get barbed wire in your balls. Or, if you make it over, one of the dogs could take a bite out of your face. Or ass. Or worse. See, my sanctuary doesn’t need anything more than it has. You come in here and find that out.”
    “If I get a bite out of my ass, I’ll sue the sanctuary for reckless endangerment,” Josh said. “I could shut you down and have all your doggies put to sleep.”
    “You would have been trespassing. Anything the dogs did to you would be in protection of my property, and you would be liable for any damages. If you tried to go to court, you would lose,” Renee said. She did not think that it was in Josh to do anything like that, anything complex like legal issues. He had probably just watched too much Judge Judy and Law & Order and thought

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