Page 41 of Up In Smoke
Miss Margot simply lifts her head to look at who’s making all the racket, then drops it once more to go back to sleep. If she could roll her eyes, I bet she would have.
“Hey, Klaus,” Padilla says, reigning in the German Shepherd. “Remember that ‘best behavior’ we talked about, hmm?”
Klaus lets her give him a good rub down and kiss his head before dropping his ass on the floor by her chair, wagging his tail. As he’s momentarily lost his play friend, Rocky looksaround for Lochlan. Once he sees him, he races over to give his dad his usual exuberant greeting.
“Did you say Klaus?” Teddy asks, wandering back from the kitchen with a slice of cake on a plate. “Not the same Klaus who helped you guys rescue me and Cassius last year?”
“The one and only,” Padilla says proudly, rubbing between the dog’s ears. “He’s actually retired now, but we’ve found ourselves in a bit of a predicament. Reyna from the precinct was fostering him until we could find him a forever home. However, she fell and broke her hip yesterday.”
“Oh, shit,” Anton says as the team start filing back over with cake and coffee. Gene has a plate each for the captain and I, which I appreciate. “Is she okay?”
“Oh she’s a tough old bird, she’ll be fine,” Padilla says.
Valentine snorts. “You call her old to her face and see how fine you’ll be.”
Padilla arches an eyebrow at him. “Anyway. It’s going to take her a while to recover and she’s certainly not going to be walking anytime soon. So she asked me to go pick up Klaus and, as the One-Thirteen was on the way, I thought I’d swing by and see if anyone was interested in babysitting an eighty-pound ball of fluff for a few weeks.”
“Oh, man,” Teddy says with a sigh. “Cassius and I would love to. But we’ve already put our names down for a couple of dogs for when our new place is done.”
“By ‘couple,’” Lili says with a smirk, “he means half the damn population of that shelter.” Teddy sticks his tongue out at her.
“Miss Margot doesn’t share, I’m afraid,” Mrs. Bloom informs us, as if we were in any doubt on that matter.
“Well, don’t look at me,” Gene grumbles. “I’ve got about as many critters as children running around at home and I can barely keep them all fed as it is.”
“We got Becca a kitten for Christmas,” Anton says apologetically. “I think that’s more than enough responsibility for her at the moment.”
“We might be able to handle another pet on top of Queenie and Rocky,” Lochlan says dubiously.
“I’ll take him.”
To my surprise, I realize it’s me who’s spoken.
“You will?” Valentine asks.
I can feel my cheeks heating up as everyone looks at me, but I just focus on Klaus and nod. I was looking for a distraction, wasn’t I? This feels like a bit of a divine intervention if you ask me.
“Yeah, I’d love to,” I say, crouching down and offering the big, shaggy dog my fingers to sniff. He does so, then smiles at me and wags his tail. My heart melts.
I probably shouldn’t make a commitment like this without talking to Jesse, but it just seems like a no brainer to me.
“It’d hopefully only be for a couple of weeks,” Padilla says. “Maybe a month, max. Service dogs need some time to adjust to retirement life. But then we’re hoping to place him somewhere to live out his golden years. He needs walking every day, you understand?”
“Of course,” I assure her. I might not have had a dog before, but I get the basic principles.
“Would you bring him to the station while you’re on shift?” Valentine asks pointedly, glancing over at where Rocky is snuffling along the floor, looking for cake crumbs. I know what he’s thinking. One dog at the station is probably enough, especially for our poor cat, Smoky, who is most likely hiding on top of a cupboard somewhere while the canines have been terrorizing each other.
“I wouldn’t be happy with you regularly leaving him alone for twenty-four hours,” Padilla says firmly, which I appreciate. Klaus needs someone to advocate for him, after all.
I shake my head and stand back up. “No, I, um, actually have a new roommate,” I say tentatively.
“You do?” Sawyer asks, sounding outraged he wasn’t aware of this fact.
“Oh! Your…” Padilla glances between Mrs. Bloom, Captain Valentine and me. “Your friend. Yes.”
“Yeah, him,” I tell her, deliberately ignoring the quizzical stares I’m getting from the rest of the team. “I think he’d like the responsibility of taking care of a dog right now. It would give him structure. I’m assuming Klaus is already well trained?”
“Oh, impeccably,” Padilla scoffs, as if he could be anything else. “Klaus, schlafen.” The dog’s ears prick up, and he immediately lays down. “Guter Junge! Okay, aufstehen.” He jumps back up again and lets himself be fussed over. “We train them in German so it’s less likely civilians will be able to confuse them,” Padilla explains. “Plus, it’s just cool. There’s a guidebook I can give you to help with that, though.”