I wasn’t supposed to be here. Promised Josie I’d head to my motel so I wouldn’t cause a scene. But I couldn’t leave Josie alone with Nolan Rhys and Chief Craig, even if they were distracted by the unscheduled, unsightly, and unsanctioned dog humping that tore through the streets this morning. The scandal rocked Saint Christie. I walked in late, lingering in the back of the room as tempers flared.
“She was molested!” Mrs. Greentree appealed to the one hundred uncomfortable people subjected to their fourth retelling of the story that day. Most shifted in their seats, peeking at pictures others took of the event. Nolan and the councilmen struggled to gain control of the meeting from the dais. Wasn’t happening.
Mrs. Greentree sobbed into a handkerchief. “She was compromised by that brute of a dog!”
Jean-Baptise, with his six inch afro and puff ball tail, was anything but a brute.
“He was tempted!” Benjamin Ducacus shouted.
“Don’t you dare apologize for his behavior! If this is how you raise your animals—”
“Apologize?” Benjamin’s face turned red. “You owe me five thousand dollars for studding my dog!”
“I owe you? With my poor Millie taken advantage of in the middle of the street?” Mrs. Greentree waved the copy of the agenda before her face. “Oh, Lord have mercy, I think I’m getting weak…”
Two residents grabbed Mrs. Greentree before she collapsed.
The minutes were directed to reflect that half of the town sympathized with Jean-Baptise, and the other half crafted a rousing defense of Millie the shih tzu. Luann McMannis handed out I Stand With Millie buttons, Benjamin passed out pocket constitutions, and representatives from the animal shelter offered people pamphlets on spaying and neutering their pets.
And I thought jail was bad. Stolen cigarettes had nothing on life in Saint Christie, where poodles and potholes dictated town ordinances.
Except most of the audience forgot the dogs when I stepped into the room. If the damn dogs were disruptive to town business, my presence in the back row, so close to Josie, was cause for a goddamned riot. The town silenced. Luann’s buttons clattered to the floor. The uniformed officer on duty edged closer to me.
I didn’t need extra security to ensure I didn’t torch fucking city hall. Not like I didn’t have the eyes of the entire town burning through my jacket.
Nolan pounded the gavel, silencing the whispers. He frowned, staring me down.
“Mr. Maddox, are you joining us?” He pointed to the audience. “Take a seat.”
With pleasure.
I claimed the chair next to Josie. The meeting rumbled with more rumor than she could stand. Her fingers twisted in the paisley pink scarf she used to control her curly hair.
“What are you doing here?” She hissed. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“Why not?”
“Because…” Her gaze darted around until she realized she’d awkwardly made eye contact with everyone else sneaking glances. “Just…you should wait outside.”
I loved her because she was so innocent. Even I wasn’t stupid enough to make an appearance then suddenly leave for the deserted town while everyone was stuck in a damned meeting discussing library donations and fornicating dogs. I’d be accused of plotting everything from littering to murder, and Josie would be trapped in the middle. Again.
It wasn’t fair to her. Josie was a girl who only broke the rules when she switched brown and granulated sugar quantities in her recipes. They already looked at me like I was a deviant molesting her, some big bad wolf waiting for the chance to get blown. Christ, if they only knew what I had Josie do, what I’d taught her, and how goddamned good she was at pleasing me, it wouldn’t be my soul they stopped praying for.
“My poor dog is traumatized!” Mrs. Greentree demanded the council’s attention once more. “We spent two hours at the veterinarian! Tell them, Dr. Adams!”
The town’s vet awkwardly shrugged. “To be fair…it did alleviate her aggression issues.”
I laughed. Josie didn’t.
Benjamin stormed to the podium, shifting ninety year old minute-taker Annabelle Nickers out of his path. He slammed a photo of his poodle on the overhead, upside down and backwards.
“My Jean-Baptise did nothing wrong! And the fact that we might now have mutts in his name…the very thought—”
Mrs. Greentree gasped. “Oh, my poor sweet, Millie! She’ll have Shih-Poos!”
Josie covered her mouth to stop the giggle. A stray kernel of popcorn smacked my arm. I looked up, catching a wide-eyed Delta. The little firefly of a girl mouthed an apology and gestured to Josie. I picked up the kernel and dropped it into her hand.