Page 38 of Beware of Dog (Lean Dogs Legacy #6)

“Miss Blake?” the receptionist said as she opened the office door. “Mr. Shepherd here to see you, ma’am.” That was never not going to be weird.

Raven’s office was larger than most studio apartments in the city, with its own kitchen and sitting room, and a killer corner view through floor-to-ceiling windows.

Today, she was seated on the sofa, rather than behind her desk, carefully looking through bright photos of dresses on stick-thin models.

In some ways it was difficult to picture Cass doing this, but in others it wasn’t: she would be dressed differently, would be seated cross-legged on the floor and listening to obnoxious music, but she pored over her craft with the same meticulous dedication as her sister.

Raven lifted her head and blinked at him in surprise, fingers poised over slick photo paper. “Shep? Did we have an appointment? Oh, God.” Worry touched her face. “Is Cass alright?”

“She’s fine,” he assured, patting the air with his hands. “And nah, we didn’t have an appointment.”

“Oh.” She sat back, and crossed her legs, miles-long in a pencil skirt and simple but elegant slingbacks.

It was funny: the first time he’d met her, he’d thought wow , because she was the sort of traffic-stopping beautiful that couldn’t be ignored.

She looked expensive , sleek and perfectly-groomed and dolled up to a professional degree.

Any man in any bar in the world would have hit on her, despite the high likelihood of rejection.

But wow was, at this stage in his life, a familiar and unremarkable sensation. Women were pretty; some were prettier than others; sometimes they dug his broken nose and his rough voice and his bold come-ons. Wow was about getting his dick wet.

When he looked at Cassandra, he wanted to open up his own chest and stuff her inside where she could be safe.

He wanted to know what every part of her body tasted like, and wanted to return to those wells again and again, constantly.

He wanted to hear her laugh—to make her laugh, and to make her come, make her claw his back.

Wanted to make her breakfast and hear her hum in pleasure over his efforts in the kitchen.

Cass made him warm .

Cass made him smile so wide his face hurt, and laugh so hard he couldn’t catch his breath.

Cass had the power to devastate him in every possible way.

What were Raven’s legs compared to that ?

Raven smoothed her already-smooth hair. “What can I do for you, Shep?”

Shep carried the folder that Kat had given him.

In this instance, dread didn’t cramp his stomach or shorten his breath or turn his palms clammy.

He’d known this day would come, and now here it was.

He could stitch his own face up in the mirror if her ring busted it open the way he expected.

All the way over here, he’d rehearsed what he wanted to say.

He only had so much capacity for gentleness; blunt honesty would have to do the heavy lifting.

“I need to tell you something,” he said, and eased down onto the sofa across the table from her. “And you’re not going to like it.”

Her eyes went huge. Her pale, delicate throat worked as she swallowed. She was a deer in headlights, but her voice cracked out, sharp and already angry. “What?”

“Cass has been dealing with something at school, with her roommate.”

Raven blinked; she hadn’t expected this line of discussion, he could tell. “They’ve been arguing.”

“Nah. Well, I mean, yeah, but not about stupid shit.” He gave her a quick rundown of the Sig-Jamie situation, and Cass’s role in it. “I’ve told her over and over to tell you about it, but she says she doesn’t want to add something else to your plate.”

“Oh God.” Raven pinched at the bridge of her nose. “Oh, Cass. God, that’s sweet. Misguided, but sweet. Damn .” She sent him a miserable look. “And she’s been handling it all on her own.”

“No.” Here his voice got sharp, and Raven’s head lifted, expression going bewildered. Shit. “No,” he said, softer, “she’s not been on her own. She’s had me.”

She blinked. “Yes,” she said, slowly. “Yes, she does, doesn’t she? You’ve been incredibly helpful, and I don’t think I’ve ever thanked you properly for keeping such a close eye on her.”

He grimaced, and held up the folder. “Might want to hold up on that thanks. There’s something else.”

She stilled. He hadn’t said it yet, but he thought maybe she knew. “What?”

Honesty, he reminded himself. There was no way to cushion it. “Cass and I are together,” he said. “We’re sleeping together.”

He thought she’d been still before, but now she froze completely. She didn’t blink, didn’t breathe. Her hand caught suspended on its way to tuck her hair behind her ear.

“And that,” he continued, “makes it sounds cheap, and it’s not. She’s…I love her. She’s it for me. Old lady and all of—”

“Stop,” she gritted out, and he stopped.

Raven turned her head and blinked into the middle distance, lips parted, chest lifting unsteadily like someone who’d been punched in the gut. She was reeling. She gathered her hair in one hand and held it off her neck. “Jesus,” she murmured. “Jesus Christ. Cassandra, you idiot .”

“Hey, she’s not an idiot.”

“No, you are!” Raven rounded on him, color flooding her face, eyes flashing.

She balled both hands into fists in her lap, and the massive diamond on her left hand winked when her fingers flexed.

“You stupid, selfish, amoral, randy fucking creep . Are there not enough whores in Albany? In Manhattan? Was there nowhere else you could stick your cock except inside my little sister? I’ve mistrusted you since the moment I laid eyes on you, and now I know it was well-founded! You are the lowest—”

“Calm down before you have an aneurysm.”

She shot to her feet, shaking all over with rage. And with hurt. More than anything, she was devastated. “How dare you? You—you—you…” She made a sound like a sob, and clapped a hand over her mouth; it reminded him of Cass the night of her birthday, and some of his hackles smoothed.

“I didn’t tell you to get you all worked up,” he said with a note of apology. “Are you even really surprised?”

“I should be!” she shouted through gapped fingers. “I should…God, I always knew she’d throw herself at a bloody Lean Dog one day, but I hoped it wouldn’t be you .”

“Okay, fuck you. Did you not just hear the story I told you about that dipshit at school? Is that what you want for her, huh? Some rich boy who’s gonna treat her like shit, but at least he can get into all the right parties?

” When she started to retort, he doubled down.

“No, fuck it. If you really want that, want her to be with someone for money and social status, you’re worse than I thought.

Be happy somebody loves her, and takes care of her, how about it.

I may be a sack of shit, but I’m not the worst thing that could happen to her! ”

“Have you no self-control?”

“ I love her! Do you get that? I am not fucking around. I love her, and as long as she wants me, then I’m staying!”

“You’re shouting at me!”

“ You’re shouting at me !” he shot back. “And if you shout at Cass about this, you and me are gonna have a big goddamn problem!”

Raven gulped audibly. She looked like she’d been slapped. She settled her hand at her throat, where her pulse throbbed a visible tattoo, and said, voice hoarse, “I could cut off the money. I could tell her I won’t pay for school.”

“No you won’t. Get outta here with that shit.”

“I could…” She trailed off, eyes big and bright with tears.

“What?” he sneered. “Threaten me? Then you better have a gun in your purse and a body bag on standby, ‘cause you don’t have anything else to threaten me with, sister.”

She bowed her head, sniffled quietly, and wiped at her eyes. When she lifted her head, she was smiling.

She choked out a laugh. “Christ, you are such an asshole.”

“Yeah.”

She rolled her eyes and dabbed at the corners. To the air, she said, “I always knew she wanted a Dog. That she’d end up with one. She would eat a little rich boy alive .”

Then she stepped around the table.

Shep sat up straight, and relaxed his jaw; it would hurt less, and do less damage if he was loose when she struck him.

Instead, she reached for him, with both hands, slow and careful like he was a dog about to bite, and caught his jaw in her palms. She leaned down and pressed a damp kiss to his forehead.

Shep’s hands were shaking where they rested between his thighs. “I do love her,” he said.

“I know that, darling,” she sighed. “I’ve known that for a long while now.” She sighed again, turned, and plopped down on the couch beside him. “I’m not going to help her change your diapers when you’re an old man.”

He snorted, dizzy with relief. “Nah. We’ll make the kids do it.”

“Christ,” she said, not unkindly this time. “Can you at least wait until she’s graduated?”

“Yeah.”

She slumped back against the sofa, all the fight bled out of her, exhausted in its wake. She gestured to the table. “What’s in the folder?”

He reached to snag it, and explained all the ways the Blackmons needed to be scrubbed from the earth.

~*~

Cass spent the day struggling to focus, plagued by memories of Jamie’s pale face, and her mother’s flushed one. She tried texting Jamie between classes, but got no answers.

If Jamie recanted her statement, that would mean the charges would drop, and that would mean there would be no trial. Sig would walk free, and doubtless assault someone else. And what about Jamie? She had to quit school over this? And who the hell had Sig sent to scare the family?

By the time she walked to the busy curb after her last class, she’d decided the only course of action was to call and talk to Melissa. Maybe she could talk some sense into Jamie and her family.