Irrevocable (Evan Arden 5)

When I’m done, she follows me back to the living room. Alina puts a little dog bed over by the window, but Maisy isn’t interested. She seems to like sitting on my foot.

“Does she always sit on people’s feet?”

“Honestly, I’ve never seen her do that before.” Alina laughs. “I let her sit in my lap sometimes, but she knows she’s not allowed on furniture, so she won’t fuzz up the couch or anything like that. She usually sits in her bed.”

I look down at the pup and shake my head.

“Not what you were expecting,” Alina says.

“No,” I reply, “not at all.”

“Is it still okay?”

I look at Alina and see the worry in her eyes. I reach over and cup the back of her neck, pulling her close to brush my lips against hers.

“It’s fine. I’ll get used to it. Will she at least play fetch?”

“I have no idea,” Alina says. “I’ve never tried. She does tricks though.”

She calls to Maisy, and the dog turns around in a little circle. She speaks on command, shakes hands, begs, and rolls over.

“Not bad.” I smile and rub Maisy’s head. If she can do all that, she ought to be able to learn to play fetch. I’ll have to come up with something other than the tennis balls I used with Odin. I don’t think they’ll fit in her mouth.

“Are you ready for lunch?” Alina asks.

“I need to go pick up a friend from the airport,” I tell her. “You and…and the little fuzzball get settled in. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

I fight Chicago weekend traffic over to O’Hare and pull up to the arrivals area where Eddie-boy is waiting for me, bags in hand.

“Good to see you alive, LT,” he says with a smile.

“Haven’t found that bullet with my name on it yet.” I grab one of his bags and load it into the back of the Camaro.

“Don’t even joke about it.” He eyes the Camaro’s rear bumper. “Uh…LT?”

“Don’t even joke about it.” Eddie-boy laughs at the repetition while he climbs in the passenger side as one of the airport employees yells at me to get out of the taxi lane.

“I’m glad you accepted my invitation. Things are a little crazy around here, and I need people I can trust.”

“I always got your six, LT.”

I bring Eddie-boy up to speed on everything that’s been going on, and he listens intently. He asks a lot of questions about Jonathan, and he taps into his phone as I tell him everything I know.

“Seems like a good guy,” Eddie-boy says.

“I’ve known him a long time. I trust him implicitly.”

“Always good to have one of those around. You know he’s got a record, right?”

“Yeah, from when he was young.” I’m constantly amazed by how much Eddie-boy and Jonathan can find out about someone in such a short period of time. I think they’ll get along great. I give him the names of the guys Paulie hired, and he checks them out as well.

“These two have to go,” he says, indicating the names with a tap of the phone’s screen.

“Jonathan agrees.”

“Good.”

“I got you a place in my old apartment building,” I say. “I think you’ll like it.”