Page 56 of How to Flirt with a Hellhound
We were in the middle of talking about flaying (kind of gross, and who knew someone could live so long through that process?) when my phone started ringing.
I checked it, saying, “It’s Josh,” for Dex’s benefit.
“Go ahead. I’ll clear the dishes,” he replied, grabbing the plates from the table.
“But you cooked. I’ll clear,” I said as I picked up the phone, saying, “Hey Josh.”
Dex just winked at me and carried on clearing the table.
“Hey,” Josh answered.
“My neighbor is a hellhound,” I gleefully proclaimed. Dex just stopped what he was doing to stare at me.
“That’s nice,” Josh said. “Thinking of a new series?”
Dex was staring at the phone, and I figured he could probably hear Josh’s side of the conversation as well. They had great hearing, apparently.
“Yup!” I said. “They kill people, but only really bad people,” I added.
“That’s cool. I think that’ll be popular. Bad guys who aren’treallybad. Everyone loves a morally gray main character,” Josh replied.
“Yeah. And they’re super sexy with muscles and glowing eyes and all the growling,” I sighed, because Dexwassuper sexy. “Oh, and Dex is my boyfriend,” I added.
“Oh my god, Toby! Seriously! That’s awesome! Congrats! Give me all the details!” Josh gushed.
I chuckled, “I totally will, but how are you? All ok? You still sound a little… tired,” I said carefully.
“Problems with Rick,” Josh sighed. “I think it might be time to call it quits, but it’s hard. We’ve been together awhile, but things just… they haven’t been good. At all.” He paused, but then he forced a cheery voice and said, “But I don’t want to talk about that right now. I called you for a cheer up, so fill me on your new boyfriend, and sparenodetails.”
So I filled him in, although I did spare a few details. At one point, Dex’s phone rang as well, and he went out onto the porch to take it, but I knew he wasn’t far.
I was safe. I was protected. I was dating a hellhound. And, if I was being honest with myself, I was probably in love with him as well.
But that bombshell could wait for another day. I think today had been eventful enough.
Chapter 22
Dexter
Ihave to admit a moment of… well, notpanic, because I was a hellhound, and I did notpanic. But it had definitely taken me by surprise when Toby had just up and told Josh what I was. Of course, Josh didn’t believe him, and I expected that Toby knew that would be the case.
Toby did have an overactive imagination, but I was still aggravated on his behalf. He wasn’t lying. Iwasa hellhound, and his best friend didn’t even believe him. Maybe I’d go all glowy eyes on Josh next time he was around. I chuckled to myself a little. I knew it shouldn’t be funny to think about startling Toby’s human friends, but, well, they really ought to believe him.
My phone rang while Toby was on his, and I stepped outside to take it since it was Liam. He started without even a hello.
“No luck on tracing the emails, which I didn’t expect, but after some careful combing through records I found the guy that was probably stalked before Toby. He had a delivery around the date your guy mentioned, and he filed a police report about a stalker before that. There were emails, phone calls, and complaints of being followed,” Liam said, keys clicking in the background.
“Wait—are you saying we have a name?” I asked, feeling gleeful.
“Well, sort of,” Liam hedged.
I growled.
“So the guy was a bartender in an upscale restaurant, and he had some guesses as to which customers he found ‘creepy’ and who he thought it might be, but he gave the cops a couple of names,” Liam said.
“Ok, well that’s better than nothing. You can start looking into them,” I said.
“Already done. Here’s where things get… tricky. Our bartender disappeared. He hasn’t turned up again. No credit cards used. No funds accessed. No social media posts,” Liam said.
