Chapter 1 - THE NAME BENEATH NERO’S COLLAR
Jared Kensington did not ask me how I had made Nero eat.
He asked me why I had said one particular word.
“Home.”
His voice was quiet, but every armed man in the penthouse heard it.
I kept one hand beneath Nero’s enormous head while offering him another small piece of food.
“It’s just a word.”
“No.”
Jared stepped closer.
“It isn’t.”
Nero’s body immediately tensed.
Not because of Jared.
Because someone else had entered behind him.
A gray-haired man wearing an expensive charcoal suit.
Maybe sixty.
Perfect posture.
Polished shoes.
A gold ring on his left hand.
Nero stopped chewing.
A low sound vibrated in his chest.
The man froze.
“That dog has never growled at me.”
Jared looked down at Nero.
“Until now.”
The stranger smiled, but his eyes stayed cold.
“I’m Dominic Kensington. Jared’s uncle.”
I didn’t care who he was.
I cared that Nero had suddenly pressed closer to my leg.
“Everybody back up.”
Dominic frowned.
“Excuse me?”
“The dog is frightened.”
“He’s dying.”
“Those aren’t mutually exclusive.”
Miles coughed to hide what might have been a laugh.
Jared didn’t.
He simply watched me.
Dominic stepped backward.
The second he did, Nero relaxed slightly.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
I gently touched the worn leather collar.
“You said he stopped eating a few weeks ago?”
“Twenty-three days,” Jared answered immediately.
“What happened twenty-three days ago?”
Nobody spoke.
That told me plenty.
I looked at Jared.
“If you want me to help him, I need the truth.”
His jaw tightened.
“My sister disappeared.”
I stopped moving.
“Disappeared?”
“Her car went into the Hudson twenty-three days ago.”
“Body?”
“Never recovered.”
“Nero belonged to her?”
Jared glanced at the dog.
“He belonged to both of us. But Evelyn raised him.”
That explained more than any laboratory report.
Nero wasn’t physically refusing food.
He was grieving.
Waiting.
Possibly terrified.
I ran my fingers beneath his collar.
Something sharp scratched my thumb.
“There’s something inside.”
Miles bent down.
“Where?”
A second strip of leather had been sewn beneath the collar.
I carefully worked one edge loose.
Hidden inside was a thin silver plate no wider than my finger.
Jared crouched beside me.
His shoulder nearly touched mine.
Engraved on one side were three words.
IF I’M GONE.
Jared’s breathing changed.
I turned the plate over.
My stomach dropped.
There was a name engraved on the other side.
Not Jared’s.
Not Evelyn’s.
Mine.
WILLA THORNTON.
Below it was a Brooklyn address.
The veterinary clinic where I worked.
Jared looked at me.
The entire room seemed to become colder.
“You told me you never met my sister.”
“I didn’t.”
May you like
His eyes moved from me to the hidden tag.
“Then why did Evelyn Kensington put your name inside my dog’s collar before she disappeared?”
