Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Yeah, she thought he was right.
34
Maya couldn’t sit still.
She paced up and down her bedroom with her phone in her hand. Shouldn’t she have heard from Millie by now?
It was late Saturday afternoon and Millie had followed David home after the puppy yoga class.
Her phone buzzed and she checked her messages.
Millie: This is bad. Way worse than we thought.
Oh no.
What did that mean? A couple of photos came through. One was of an older house with long grass out front. It looked rundown and like the owners just didn’t care about appearances. The other images seemed to be taken from a higher vantage point.
Were those dogs in the backyard? There were so many!
And then another photo came through that had to have been taken through a dirty window.
More dogs. Stuck in a room.
Shit.
A puppy farm?
Millie: There are so many puppies here. I’ve managed to count twenty. It’s wrong. Just wrong. We have to do something.
Livvy: Millie, were you up a tree? And did you sneak onto the property to get that last photo?
Millie: Of course!
Livvy: Shit! I wish I’d been able to come with you. Wyatt just finished vomiting and is finally asleep.
Poor Livvy had been unable to go to the class because Wyatt was ill. Which had left Millie on her own. Not necessarily a great idea as Maya was now learning.
Maya: Millie, you could get caught by these people. You need to be really careful.
If these people were overbreeding dogs, they wouldn’t take kindly to someone spying on them. Or reporting them.
Millie: Who cares about that? Some of these puppies don’t look like they’re in good shape. Most of them are being kept in one room inside the house. They were outside before but there’s not enough space for them all.
No, it wasn’t right. And Maya had to do something. She had to help the dogs. But what could she do with Matthieu watching her every movement?
Shit. This was going to be difficult.
Millie: I’m going to get them out.
No. Nope! She couldn’t let Millie do that on her own. She was going to get into trouble.
Livvy: Millie! You cannot do anything on your own.
Millie: I need to save these babies. Obviously David has been using the ones in the best shape, but some of these puppies are crying.
Shit. Maya totally understood Millie’s feelings. She couldn’t stand the idea of these animals being hurt or mistreated.
So what are you going to do? Sneak away? That’s not right, either.
Stuff it.
She was just going to have to take Matthieu with her.
Maya: Don’t do anything yet. Are there close neighbors? Where are you exactly?
Millie sent a pin to show her location. Right. That wasn’t actually that far from here.
Millie: There are neighbors, but one house looks abandoned and I saw an old, elderly man in the other house.
Maya: All right. You need to wait for me. I’m coming.
Livvy: How are you going to do that? You can’t sneak away from Matthieu.
Maya: I’m not going to. Just wait for me, Millie. Do not do anything without me.
Millie: All right, I’ll wait.
Thank God for that.
Livvy: Good luck. Keep me informed.
Right. Maya knew that she didn’t have time to figure out a plan or a lie. She just had to get this done.
“We’ve gotta go!” Maya ran through the house.
Matthieu reached out an arm and grabbed her around the waist as she attempted to run past him. For some reason she’d changed and was now dressed all in black. “Go? Go where?”
“We have to go! There’s an emergency.”
“We’re not going anywhere until you explain what sort of emergency.”
“An animal emergency,” she said urgently.
“An animal emergency?” What the heck?
“Look, I don’t have time to explain right now, but we have to go.”
He stared down at her, his arms crossed over his chest.
“Doggie lives depend on us!”
“Maya, I’m not taking you into an unknown situation. You need to tell me what is going on.”
“Please just come with me,” she begged. “I could have tried to sneak off without you, but I’m trusting that you’ll help me.”
Merde.
What was he supposed to say to that? He guessed he could go with her and if he didn’t like what she had to say, he could turn the car around and take her home.
“I don’t like what you have to say,” Matthieu told her as he pulled onto the street where Millie said she’d found the puppy farm.
He parked and turned to her with a stern expression on his face. Maya bit her lip nervously.
This was the tricky part. Getting him to agree to help her and Millie rescue the puppies. She’d told him about Millie following David after the puppy yoga class to see where the puppies were being kept. But she hadn’t mentioned the part about rescuing them yet.
He turned as someone approached from across the street and knocked on the window.