Read Dylan (Bachelors of the Ridge #1) for Free Online

my stuff somewhere that’s mine.”
    “Will do. Talk to you soon.”
    I turned off the truck after I’d parked in the back of the lot. There weren’t too many cars there, which wasn’t surprising since it was late afternoon on a beautiful weekday. For a few minutes, I just sat in the quiet of my truck, enjoying the heavy heat of the sun coming through the windshield. Michigan in the spring was beautiful, no doubt about that, but for some reason, I couldn’t remember why. I couldn’t remember how anything was as beautiful as a place where the mountains looked down on you everywhere you went.
    Before I locked the truck, I slipped my aviators on and crossed the parking lot. I was searching out the key for the back door when I heard a sound back by the dumpsters. I cocked my head to the side and listened, but didn’t hear it again over the traffic rushing past on the street.
    But I heard it again after I’d stuck my key in the lock and turned, so I leaned to the side and looked at the two large metal dumpsters just to my right. They were walled off from the rest of the parking lot by a concrete wall, and when I walked in front of the first one, I heard it again. Just a tiny little whimper.
    Crouching down on the balls of my feet after the first dumpster came up clear, I peered around between the wall and the second dumpster when I saw it, all long reddish fur and giant brown eyes.
    “Well hey there, little guy,” I whispered and held my hand out to the puppy. All curled up the way he was, I couldn’t get a gauge on his size, but he wasn’t tiny. His snout neared my hand and he took a cautious sniff.
    He looked up at me again, and I swear, I felt it in my gut, his eyes looked so sad. Very carefully, I reached my hand closer and scratched the underside of his jaw, which he leaned into. I smiled and shifted a little closer.
    “Come here, little guy. Can I get a look at you?” I clicked my tongue a couple times and his long, fuzzy tail uncurled from around him, thumping a few times on the concrete beneath his body.
    Making a couple shuffles, he pulled his back legs up first, stretching his butt up in the air with a groan. But it wasn’t until he stood fully and then took an awkward lurch forward that I noticed the missing front leg. Or part of it was missing, at least.
    “Oh man, what happened to you, huh?”
    His tail was wagging in earnest now, and I eased a hand under his belly, tucking him into my chest as I stood. Sure enough, he settled right into me, heaving out a sigh when I stroked a hand down his soft, albeit a little smelly, fur.
    The back door swung open and Brian, the skinny bar-back, came out, stopping up short when he saw me. His eyebrows shot up his forehead over the rims of his glasses when he saw the dog.
    “Whoa, where’d he come from?”
    Tilting my head toward the dumpster, I shifted the dog in my arms. “Back there. Look, he’s missing part of one leg.”
    Tsking his tongue, Brian scratched the puppy’s head. “Poor dude.”
    “Yeah, umm, what should I do with him? Drop him off at a shelter or something?”
    But Brian was shaking his head. He held up a finger and fished his cell out of his back pocket, thumbing across the screen and pulling it up to his ear.
    “Umm, Kat? It’s umm, yeah. It’s Brian. Yeah, I know you’re not on tonight, but I’ve got someone who needs to come see you.”
    “Kat?” I whispered and he nodded. Huh.
    “Yeah,” he said to her. “Uh huh. Dylan found a puppy back by the dumpsters, and I think you can help. Can I send him your way?”
    Brian nodded and whispered for my phone number, which I gave him. The puppy swiped a soft tongue against my forearm and I grimaced down at him.
    “Suck up,” I whispered down at his head.
    Brian hung up the phone and looked up at me. “She’ll text you the address.”
    “Okay. So what exactly does she do?”
    “She’s a vet tech and works at some specialty place for animals that are missing limbs, that’s about all