Page 105 of Tequila Tuesdays

Tiana and I both gasped, and I reached over and tried to slap his leg. He backed up even more and held up his hand.

“Don’t tell me your shit if you don’t want my opinion. I saw how he took care of you when you found out Frankie died. And most of us have a crazy-ass ex. Or three.”

Tiana nodded. “That’s true.”

Jaime grinned. “But if you’re too chickenshit––”

I gasped and jumped up. They got up as well, and Jaime danced away from my pinching fingers.

“Ouch, damn it! Quit pinching me! I’m just trying to help you, you crazy bitch.”

I stepped back with a demented gleam. “You can call me a crazy bitch, and ask me what crawled up my ass, but if you ever call me ‘chickenshit’ again I’ll tell your wife you really want to try pegging. And you have a foot fetish.”

He held up his hands. “Okay,puta loca.” He tilted his head. “How’d you know about pegging?”

Tiana started laughing.

Jaime threw his arm around my shoulder. “Go call him.”

Chapter 33

Beforeheadinghome,Icalled Damien. He didn’t answer, so I sent him a text.

Me: Tiana said I can’t be angry since we weren’t together. Jaime called me a crazy bitch. I’m scared but I want to try and make this work. Call me when you can.

Right after sending the text, I noticed an alert that my front yard camera had been motion-activated that morning. I wondered briefly if Damien had come by as I pulled up the footage to watch it. The footage showed a man in a black beanie and a black jacket walking up to my back fence and tossing something into my backyard. Then he turned and quickly walked away.

I squinted at the footage, not understanding what I was seeing at first. Then it hit me. The man had thrown what looked like a chunk of meat into my yard, and Gary spent a good portion of his day either sleeping or lounging around back there. I’d even installed a handy dog door so he could get in and out.

My hands were shaking, but I found Olivia’s number and called her. “Please, God. Please, God. Not Gary,” I begged as the phone rang.

Olivia picked up. “Hey, Harley.”

“Ollie, someone threw a chunk of probably poisoned meat into my backyard this morning.” I started shaking. “Have you been over to my house? Have you seen Gary?”

“Mother fucking son of a whore! Who would do something like that?” Olivia yelled. She took a deep breath. “Har, Gary’s with us. Mom wanted to go to Paws for Coffee this morning. It was her idea to take Gary.”

I put my head on my steering wheel and started bawling. Ava had saved him. My mother had saved Gary. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

“Harley, are you there? Are you okay?”

I pulled myself together and wiped my eyes. “I’m here. Thank you. Tell Mom thank you.”

Olivia went silent for a moment. “I’ll tell her. We’ll be home soon. When it’s safe for Gary, we’ll bring him over.”

I called the police on the way home, and Officer Robertson met me less than ten minutes later. We studied the chunk of meat, and he took a few photos. It looked like some type of cheap steak and had blue crystals mashed into it.

Officer Robertson thought it was rat poisoning. “You’re lucky your dog wasn’t here when the perpetrator threw this over the fence.” He bagged the piece of meat. “This looks like the type of rat poison that causes internal hemorrhaging. It’s a terrible way to die.”

I shuddered, thinking about Gary suffering like that.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll ask around and let you know if I hear about any similar cases.”

After he left, I hosed down the backyard and scrubbed the patio area where the meat had landed. I’d just walked out the front door to get Gary from my mom’s house when Damien drove up.

He got out of his truck and studied my face. “What’s wrong? Hey, we can work this out…”

I sobbed once then hugged him and buried my face in his neck, wrapping my arms around him. “Someone tried to poison Gary.”

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