Now, the owner wanted me gone, pronto. I was hanging on by a thread, especially at my age. I was planning on retiring once my contract was up, anyway—the rookie linebacker from Florida was breathing down my neck. I wanted to finish my career in Dallas. I’d played all my ball here, from peewee on up. Hell, my mom still lived in Plano and came to my home games.
The GM was clear—if I didn’t keep my dick in my pants and my face off the news, I wouldn’t get to play out my two-year contract and retire from my hometown team.
So, yeah. As much as I liked Lily Costello, she was strictly off limits.
“Is she a mixed breed? How big is she?”
I forced myself to pull even with her as we walked the length of the hall. “Yeah, she’s a big girl. One-ten, maybe? Some kind of Pit Bull, but bigger? Looks intimidating as hell but she sticks to her kennel like she’s scared.
“I think if it’d been a yorkiepoodleretriever that nipped that sitter, he wouldn’t have made a fuss. My girl barely broke the skin. Honestly, I’d watched the nanny cam footage I set up to keep an eye on the dog during the day. I would have bit the sitter, too. I told him to check on her, let her out to potty in the bedroom on the pads because she wouldn’t tolerate a leash. If I try to take her outside, she locks up on me before I can get her out of the room.
“The sitter tried to drag her out of the crate by looping a leash over her head and pulling. Now this guy is playing it for all it’s worth to get into my pocket.” I felt the lines in my forehead deepen.
“A lot of those folks don’t have a ton of experience when they take a job as a dog sitter and don’t have the proper training in canine behavior. Working with dogs sounds like a fun and easy way to earn some money. Until it isn’t.
“Most of the time, when a dog bites a person, it’s either because they’ve been trained to, or the human isn’t reading their behavior correctly. She likely panicked on the leash. Since you found her outside, I doubt that will send her into a panic, but getting her out there might be an issue. How did you get her to go with you?”
Meeting Lil’s eyes this close with the light from the end of the hall filtering in, I discovered that they weren’t blue like I’d thought. They were the most amazing shade of violet. “Uh, protein bars. I unwrapped one and threw it in the back seat of the cab. I held another and sat on the parking block. Took about twenty minutes before she came up to me and took the pieces from the ground. Another ten, and she was eating from my hand. She’d let me touch her side, but if I reached for her head she ducked away. The emergency vet found a gash in her neck. It’s healed, and the stitches are out, but it was bad. Vet said it was a knife wound and barely missed her jugular. I’m guessing whoever tried to slice her throat is sporting some serious wounds of their own because they obviously didn’t finish the job.”
Lily’s nostrils flared and I could almost hear her molars grinding together.
“When I stood up off the parking block, the dog skittered back. I thought she was going to run away, so I opened the door of my truck and threw the last of the bar in the back.” I shrugged. “I got lucky, I guess, because she jumped in.”
I slipped my key into the lock. I knew I was staring, but I couldn’t stop trying to get another peek at those purple eyes. “I figured, out there in the north forty at the training facility, there’s coyotes and bobcats. Even heard tell of a couple mountain lions. I didn’t want her to be something else’s dinner. Hey, are your eyes purple? They’re mesmerizing, Lil.”
She nodded, chewed on the inside of her lip. “It’s a mutation. They’re not actually purple. It’s a shade of blue that appears violet in certain lights. But that really wasn’t smart, Brody. A dog that big could have attacked you from behind while you drove and taken your head off. You should have called the nearest rescue or animal control. And dude, the way you’re staring is full-on creeper.”
Like I said, Liliana Costello did not sugarcoat shit. I huffed a quick laugh. “Sorry, don’t mean to be creepy. I’ve never noticed it before, and I’ve never seen anything like it.” Lily cleared her throat, forcing me back on topic. “The dog stayed curled in a ball on the floorboard. But, yeah. I realized that after the fact.”
Pushing the door open, I motioned for Lily to go first, resting my hand on her back without thinking. The small touch sent a shock of heat through me and a shiver through her.
“Wow. This is... I expected it to be bigger.”
I snickered as she surveyed my apartment. “That’s what she said.”
She let out the most inelegant snort. Yet, that beautiful purple hue sparked with her smile. I liked making the woman smile.
My apartment was open and airy with comfortable furniture and two bedrooms. “I really don’t need much. The flashy stuff isn’t my thing.”
Lil nodded. “Smart. I don’t need a lot either. Where do you keep her kenneled during the day?”
“In the guest room.” I led her down the short hall, tennis shoes squeaking on the floor.
“What’s her name?”
“I haven’t given her one yet. I was hoping her personality would show itself.”
“Well, that’s your first assignment. If you’re keeping this dog, give her a name.”
I nodded, opened the door. Huddled in her open-doored kennel, she was folded into a small ball. All black brindle, with cropped ears laid back tight against her massive head, she missed nothing as we entered. “She doesn’t like to come out of there. Especially when someone is in here with her. I come home and check on her, and she’ll wait till I leave the room before she emerges. She’ll leave it to eat and do her business on the pads, then she turns around and goes right back in. And I already learned if I shut the door to it, she’ll do her business in the kennel if she has to. I didn’t want to have to give her a bath as scared as she’s been. As long as the door stays open, she won’t do her business in there. So, I took out everything of value and now it’s her room.”
“Mmm.” Lily scanned over the monster of a dog and took everything in. “I’ll need to get her out of the kennel, but I’m already seeing two things. First, she’s not a Pit mix. She’s a Cane Corso.”
Huh. “Never heard of that breed.”
“It’s an Italian Mastiff breed derived from an extinct breed called Molosser. Actually, all bully breeds come from Molosser. Even the little guys like Frenchies and Boston Terriers.” Her voice was soft and even, soothing, as she spoke. “Corsi are a working breed with highly developed guardian instincts. Very loyal, but they need firm, positive reinforcement combined with continuous socialization to be good family pets. A lot of people want Corsi because they have the ‘tough’ look. However, when people don’t have the skill set or knowledge to handle a powerful breed with guarding instincts, bad things happen.”