Imperatrix

chapter 29

Jack stared at the incoming call and sighed before cutting it. Not less than two seconds and it was ringing again.

“Don’t you want to pick that?” Angy asked as she unwrapped the third lollipop that day.

“No.”

Angy shrugged and followed her out to the backyard. Pablo saw her coming first and ran at her full speed. She bent down to it’s height and let him lick her. Sugar came running seconds later and did the same.

“Hey,” she said rubbing their sides. Then a smell hit her and she wrinkled her nose. “Ugh, you guys need a bath ASAP.”

On hearing that, Pablo took off running. He hated water whereas Sugar loved it.

“Stop,” Jack said softly and he froze. “Come back here.”

Pablo turned and trotted to her with his head hung low. He didn't look at her even when it got to her.

“Bad boy,” Jack chastised as she unclasped the silver collar around his neck. She opened the wide pendant and took out a flashdrive. Then she clasped it back around his neck. The safest place was around Pablo's neck. He didn’t like water, so she wasn’t scared that he would fall in the pool or something. And unless they killed him, no one could touch his collar. No one except her.

She looked back at Angy standing some distance back. If she came any closer, they could attack her. The dogs didn’t like anyone. They had tried to bite Lucas and scratch Angy once. They really didn’t attack unless you went to meet them, or Jack commanded them to.

She gave them one last scratch and got to her feet. “I’ll be back, don’t let me look for you Pablo. I mean it.”

Sugar was obedient, but Pablo, that dog was a nightmare sometimes. He liked to disappear everytime it was time to take a bath.

Walking back into the house, Jack went straight to her office and tossed the flash to Angela. She wiped her face of their slobber with a clean towel.

“Check that, and I’ll see what I can find in these files,” Jack said as she opened the safe in the wall and pulled out some files.

They were looking for a date. What was so important about that date? Dominic made a deal with Lord Micheal Bernard. A French Duke.

And now they needed to call in a favor with the Duke. Not that he was denying making a deal with Dominic, he wanted proof of what happened that day. Jack was sure Dominic kept at least a recording, or even a file of everything that happened. She just need to patiently find it.

One simple hitch, she wasn’t patient.

*********

Harry dropped his phone and picked a file instead. Anna wasn’t picking his calls or replying his texts. She had told him she was a busy woman, but he didn’t think she was so busy that she couldn’t reply a simple text.

A simple hi would suffice.

Concentrating on the file he was reading, he groaned. It seemed it was everyday there was a new cargo containing drugs. But finding the location of the precious cargo was the damn problem. Sometimes he thought it was just a hoax, but the amount of drugs circulating the city was not.

Kane dropped into the seat opposite him dropping a carton of donuts onto the desk. Harry looked up at him, Kane was sporting a huge smile.

“Do you ever stop smiling?” he asked irritatedly.

“Hey, it’s not my fault I’m not grumpy like you,” Kane said shrugging. “Speaking of which, you’ve been moody these past couple of days.”