I turned to him, but I was absolutely speechless. My mouth hung open, tears tracking down my cheeks. There would be a ton of footwork, I’d need to call the ASPCA and the county sheriff and, and...my brain was on complete overload. “This is them. This is a name and an address and not just a suspected location. Authorities can chase down an actual lead on a person or people. Find where the dogs have been moved. SPCA might be able to get someone in undercover. These motherfuckers are going to get prosecuted.” Finally, I noticed Shaw watching me with an amused smile on his face as I babbled incoherently. “Brody, did you just save these dogs?”
“No, darlin’. We’re going to save them together. As a team. We’re a team.”
I squealed and latched on to his neck. “Fuck yeah, we are!”
His laugh was a balm for my soul.
“I need to give you something else, Lil. And I need to give it to you before I try to plead my case, because I need you to know it doesn’t come with strings.”
Fishing several folded papers from his back pocket, he plucked out a piece of yellow legal paper and handed it to me. “This is given freely, Liliana. It’s yours. Whether you and I are together or not.”
I stared at the lined sheet, the scribbled names and numbers, flipped it over and the back was covered, too. “What is this?”
His shoulders rounded, his brows drew together as Brody focused on the sidewalk. “The real reason I came.”
“What about all that?” I waved a hand in the direction of the building.
“That was a byproduct. When I talked to Mariana yesterday, I started putting things together, and as I made calls to people on that list, I found myself in the right place at the right time, is all. I called Darius to ask about my medical file. He’s the one that noticed the cortisone shots.”
“I should have told you Trey worked for the Bulldogs. I didn’t because—”
“Because you didn’t want it to affect how I treated the good doctor.”
I nodded.
“It was smart. Much smarter than I would have been had I known. I already didn’t like him, and he knew it. I’m worried about the harassment, though. Has he bugged you since you’ve been here?”
I breathed out a sigh. “Nothing I couldn’t handle. Honestly, I think Dick took advantage of him, too. My stepdad knew I’d never consider marrying Trey. He told him what he wanted to hear.”
“Imagine that. Dick. Lying.” He huffed out a laugh, nudging my knee with his elbow. After a beat he nodded at the paper. “I didn’t want you to have to give up everything you love to do what’s right. Last night on my way here, I called every athlete, agent, team owner, celebrity, and philanthropist I know who happen to be dog lovers.”
I recognized several of the names on the list. “Brody...”
“I told them about the shelter, that it needed funding.”
When I figured out what the numbers meant, I about fell off the bench. Gripping his shoulder, I dug my nails into the muscle. “Brody!”
“You’ve got your funding, Lil. Enough to get the doors open, I think. You can tell Dick to take a flying fuck. Go back to the Unruly Dog if you want. You don’t need this team’s money, and you sure as hell don’t need to put up with Dick.” Brody’s smile was sunshine through the clouds. “You’re gonna get your shelter, darlin’. And you better get to work, because you’re gonna have a whole bunch of mill dogs that need a place to crash for a bit while they get their feet under them.” He opened a much smaller piece of paper. The one the commissioner had given him, and when he flipped it over, I nearly fainted.
“Here’s your start-up capital.”
So many tears. I could barely see to count the zeroes. Six. All lined up behind the number five. The check was from the league, not the commissioner.
“I don’t even know what to say. I can never...” I was a shaking, breathless, babbling mess. The sheer joy that poured through my very soul was alive and warm.
I jumped on Brody. I mean, like, jumped, jumped. A flying tackle leap that he wasn’t expecting and that knocked us both off the bench into the grass.
“Oww.” He rubbed the back of his head with me sprawled across his chest. “You throw down a pretty good hit, Costello.”
“Got it from my dad.” I’d never felt so light.
No, not true. I had, once. When Brody told me he loved me.
He laughed, sucked in his breath as I buried my nose in his neck, breathed in deep.
“Thank you,” I whispered, letting my lips brush his neck. This big, beautiful, tenderhearted man. “Why, Shaw?” I expected him to say because he loved me, or because he wanted to make me happy, or to apologize for the way he treated me. But what he said was the most perfect response I could have hoped for.
“For the dogs. Because it’s the right thing to do for the dogs.” He’d flipped my world upside down with a piece of legal paper and I was quite sure Brody Shaw had one of the most genuinely kind souls I’d ever know. Human or dog.
“If this is the reaction I get with that check, I can’t wait to see what you do when you open this one.” He kissed my temple and held a second check in front of my face.
I bit the inside of my lip. Sat up on my butt.
“Lily, what’s wrong.”
What was wrong was that money wasn’t going to solve the issue between Brody and me. As I stared at the second cashier’s check for five million that was from Brody’s personal account, I knew we hadn’t fixed the problem. Not really. We were only covering it up.
“I can’t take that from you. I can’t do this again.”
Sitting up, he dusted off his hands. “I thought you might say that. Which is why I’ve prepared a rebuttal.”
“Huh?”
“I’ve had a while to think. Really think. About my own issue. It’s not about money.”
Cocking my head at him, I lifted a brow. Are you losing it, buddy?
“I mean, don’t get me wrong. Money comes into play a lot, but it’s more than that. People want to use me. For my money, for my name, for my influence. When they’re up front with me, like you were the first time we talked about the mill, it’s not an issue. I don’t mind buying things for the people I love, giving money and lending my name and time to a cause. It’s the underhandedness I can’t get my head around. The people who try to worm their way into my life, or Photoshop my head onto somebody else’s body because I have the deep pockets.”
Ahh. I got that. “Or sue you for six figures because they weren’t smart enough to read CC’s body language and got nipped.”