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you’re wasting my money.”
    “It’s my money, Miles,” she retorted coolly. “Even though you’re stopping me from collecting some of it. I earned every penny of our community property. You should have paid me more to put up with you.”
    So this was her ex-husband, the Beverly Hills plastic surgeon. His eyes were inky brown and as cold as a winter night in the San Bernardino Mountains. His high cheekbones underscored those small eyes, and his narrow chin had a wattle of flab hanging down that quivered like gelatin on a moving train.
    He looked as if he could have used some of his own surgical skills on himself.
    “You were nothing but a barely successful screenwriting hack before,” he continued, hands clenched into fists at his sides. “At least if you’d kept doing that, it would only be you I’d have been forced to support now, not this ridiculousfaçade, too. If you had to pretend to love and save animals, why not purebreds that someone might actually spend money to buy from you, not pathetic things at the ends of their lives? And why you have to house them in luxury like this—”
    “It’s not luxury. It’s a warm, loving environment and they deserve it. A lot more than you ever did. You’re the pathetic thing, not my animals.”
    “Well you’d better warn that damned lawyer of yours to get ready for the next round of our fight. You’ll never see another cent of rental income from my real estate. And I’m going to get the rest of my money back, too, you’ll see.”
    “Over my dead body,” Bella spat. “Rather, your dead body.” Her grin was malicious.
    I saw those fists of Miles Frankovick rise as if he planned to use them on Bella. I quickly grabbed my BlackBerry from my large purse and aimed it at him. “This thing takes great pictures. That’ll make a wonderful one to send to the cops. And it’ll look great plastered all over the Internet.” My turn to grin.
    He pivoted toward me, and I wondered if he would instead punch me. But he just aimed another furious glare first toward me, then at Bella. “This is far from over,” he spat, then walked briskly toward the door.
    In moments, he was gone.

Chapter 4

    Bella was visibly shaken as she thanked me, then insisted on meeting Durwood. Neddie was still there, saying nothing, but she looked scared as she accompanied us back to the quarantine area.
    “He’s so sweet,” Bella said, stepping into the kennel, lifting Durwood and giving him a hug. “We’ll take good care of him, you’ll see.” Her voice quavered.
    “I know you will.”
    I needed to get back to HotRescues, but I hated to leave Bella alone. Well, she wouldn’t exactly be alone, but I wanted to provide whatever support I could.
    “Let me call my assistant,” I said. “If Nina can hang around for a while, let’s go out for dinner. We can chat about good times and great pets.”
    “I’d love that.”
    Fortunately, this was one of the evenings Nina wasn’t volunteering at the East Valley Animal Shelter. Plus, she told me our security director Brooke had already shown up with Cheyenne and was taking her initial walkthrough of HotRescues for the night.
    Before we left, Bella invited me to meet her own dog, Sammy. “He’s out in the rear yard helping to get our more frightened new residents acclimated to being around other dogs as well as people. Come on. I’ll introduce you.”
    Sammy was a Belgian Malinois, which resembles a German shepherd. They’re particularly smart dogs, also frequently used in law enforcement. As we reached him, he was lying down on a grassy area while a nervous-looking greyhound sat beside him, apparently ready to bolt if he hadn’t been on a leash.
    “Everything okay?” Bella asked the staff member observing the encounter who held the other end of the lead.
    “Absolutely. Sammy’s got Godric all calmed down.”
    “Excellent! Come on, Sammy. Time for dinner.”
    That apparently made Sammy happy. He followed us to the small cottage at the