Page 22 of The CEO

“Let’s go.” I grabbed her hand and started off in a light jog in the direction Pria had pointed.

Even over the city noise, I could hear Pria behind me sniffling every few minutes. I couldn’t look back at her or I’d stop and try to console her when I needed to keep my eyes peeled for a large gray dog.

We stopped by the first street vendor, Pria clutching at my arm. “Have you seen a gray Great Dane go by here in the last…” I turned to look down at Pria and her tears nearly wrecked my already breaking heart.

“Twenty minutes, maybe.”

“Twenty fucking minutes,” I growled under my breath. Did she not realize what could happen in that amount of time? Sarah could easily get hit by a car. She wasn’t used to being off her leash unless she was at the dog park. “Maybe she went to the dog park.”

“That’s where we were coming from. I know she last went this way. I was only in your building for a minute, maybe two and I kept my focus on the windows in case she turned back around.” Her tears had dried. Thank God. Now I could be mad at her again.

The vendor finally spoke. “A big dog came sniffing around here about five minutes ago. Headed that way.” He pointed to the east. The same way Pria said she was headed.

“Thanks,” Pria and I said at the same time.

We took off at a run, looking around every vendor, bush, and between cars. Everywhere. When we reached the Paws and Hearts rescue shelter, I stopped outside and looked in. I didn’t see Sarah, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask if they’d seen her.

“Stay here. I’m going to ask if they’ve seen Sarah.” Pria’s sad eyes looked at me with dead eyes and I didn’t wait for a reply.

Two women stood behind the counter chatting but when they saw me, they straightened and smiled. “Have you seen a Great Dane come by here? My dog walker let go of her leash and now we can’t find her.”

“Oh no, you lost your puppy. What does she look like?” She batted her eyelashes at me. Why were women always batting their damn eyes at me? All it did was piss me off.

“Big and gray,” I answered back a little gruffer than I needed to. “She’s a Great Dane.”

Her friend seemed to understand that I was annoyed. Putting her hand on the other woman’s arm, she frowned. “No, I’m sorry. If you want to leave your contact information, we’ll call you if she’s brought in or we see her.”

“Her name is Sarah. It’s on her tag. If you find here, please call me.” I slid a business card out of my pocket and placed it on the counter.

Stepping outside, I found Pria huddled underneath the awning. It had started to rain while I was inside. “If you don’t want to get wet you can stay here, but I’m going to continue looking for Sarah.”

Pria stepped out from under the awning and into the rain. “I’m coming with you.”

We trudged along the sidewalk looking everywhere for Sarah. With each passing minute, I knew our chances of finding her were becoming nil. The temperature had dropped around twenty degrees once it started to rain and our teeth had started chattering about half an hour ago. We’d most likely be sick tomorrow, but the only people who knew I was back in town were my secretary and Pria.

“Maybe we should turn around. She could have turned back around, and we wouldn’t even know.” Pria hung her head and every word that came out of her mouth sounded like a lie. She didn’t think Sarah had doubled back, and she didn’t think we’d find her either.

“You can head back, but I’m going to keep going this way for a little longer. I know there’s another vendor up here and if they say they haven’t seen her then I’ll turn around.”

“I’ll stay with you unless you want to go back.” Her lips were turning blue and yet she wanted to stick it out with me.

“You’re freezing?—”

“So are you and this is my fault.” Her hands went to her chest. Pria looked miserable. Not only was she freezing but devastated by losing Sarah. “I’ll never be able to forgive myself if something happens to Sarah… even if she does hate me. I can’t believe I let go of her leash.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “I’m so stupid.”

I was the stupid one leaving her to take care of my dogs. If I had been thinking I would have known there was no way for her to walk all three. It was her damn tears that had me thinking illogically. “You’re not stupid. Now come on, let’s go see if they’ve spotted her.”

Wrapping my fingers around her small freezing hand, I wanted to demand Pria go back to my apartment and warm up, but I knew she’d refuse. Instead, I held her hand tighter andtrudged along the sidewalk in the direction of the hot dog vendor that I always had to pull Sarah away from.

To my utter disappointment, Sarah was not sniffing around the hot dog man. “Mr. A,” Sid called me over, his big frame dwarfing his food cart. “Are you looking for Sarah?”

Hope bloomed as we raced over. “Have you seen her?” Stepping under his tent, my thighs brushed against the warm metal of his cart as my heart started to pound in my chest.

“I have and I gave her a hot dog.” Sid knew I never fed my dogs his food. They were on a strict diet to keep them happy and healthy. “Don’t give me that look, she was hungry and alone.”

I guessed I couldn’t hide my unhappiness at his admission. “How long ago did you see her?”

He see-sawed his head back and forth. “Probably around two minutes ago. I tried to get her to stay with me because I knew you’d be coming to find her. You take such good care of your babies.” They weren’t my babies. They were Murphy’s babies. I had been their foster parent when she got sick and then… now they were mine.

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