“So why didn’t you tell me about the Babes?” Gwen asked as Blayne dumped the pieces Gwen tossed to the floor into the large industrial trash. “Or about your first bout?”

“You know why.”

“Because I’d ruin it for you?”

Blayne looked up from the trash, her eyes wide. “Of course not! I didn’t want you to be embarrassed by me. I know I’m a mess,” she finished sadly.

“Stop saying that. You weren’t a mess. And can I just say you must be made out of rubber, because you kept bouncing back up, completely unharmed.”

Blayne grinned. “The beauty of the mutt. You can do that weird thing with your head and I’m indestructible.”

“What weird thing with my head?” Gwen asked, unclear what Blayne was talking about.

Blayne blinked up at her. “Nothing.”

Before Gwen could push her on that, the full-human couple stepped into the doorway. “How’s everything going here?” the male asked. They were very cute in that earthy, save-the-world, “I’m always green” way, and probably not much older than Gwen and Blayne.

“Fine,” Gwen said. She stepped closer to the wall. “Blayne, we’re going to have to move the toilet out.”

“Okay.”

“Move it out?”

“Yup. And you know you have a severe mold issue, right?”

“We do?”

“Yep.”

Gwen looked into the dark recesses of the walls and quickly stepped back. “Plus, you’ve got a snake.”

The couple stared at her. “What?” the wife asked, looking moments from bolting.

“In the wall. A really large, living, breathing, uh, snake.”

Blayne smiled and leaped forward. “They do?”

“We’ve never had a snake,” the wife said desperately. “It must have been the people we bought the house from. They were hoarders. Had cats, dogs,” she swallowed, “and mice. Frozen ones in their freezer. We just figured they kept the bodies of their pets!”

Then her husband added, “I guess our little Cotton Ball didn’t run away.”

The wife gasped, tears welling, and Gwen reached for her cell phone. “We need to get Animal Control over here and—”

Before she could dial, Blayne reached into the wall.

“Blayne Thorpe! Don’t even think—”

Then Blayne dragged the hissing snake out of the wall by the head. Not only was it hissing but Gwen could now hear rattling as well.

Panicked, Gwen jumped back. “Holy shit!”

The husband got in front of his wife but Gwen never understood the whole waiting-for-a-guy-to-protect-you thing. She was a runner and hopefully the guy could keep up.

Moving wickedly fast, Blayne got a grip along the snake’s body and slammed its head into the ground three times. As the snake lay there, stunned,Blayne pulled out the small hacksaw from their tool bag and sawed its head off. She tossed the body into the trash with the remains of the moldy plaster walls and tossed the head in after it.

While the couple and Gwen watched her in mute horror, Blayne grabbed a flashlight and took another look inside the wall. “Hey!” she called out cheerfully. “A nest!”

That’s when the couple and Gwen took off running.

Sissy stood in the doorway of the office she shared with Mitch at Llewellyn and Smith Security. They rarely used this office with both of them out of the country for the last few months, but it was theirs whenever they came home.

She watched Mitch stare out the window. He was rarely pensive. Not her Mitch, but she couldn’t shake the feeling he was up to something.

As she stepped into the office, Mindy walked by and said, “Mitch, I finally got your mom on the line.

Line two.”

“Thanks.” He turned and reached for the now-buzzing phone, but Sissy slapped her hand over his. “Why is your mother calling?”

“Because she loves her only son?”

“Try again.” His mother rarely called unless there was something wrong or she wanted to see him.

“She’s returning my call. Now do you mind moving your paw?”

“Why did you call your mother?”

“I can’t talk to my own mother just to talk?”

“No.” Sissy’s eyes narrowed. “This better not be about that bear.”

“What bear?”

“The one that Gwen said dragged you around the room like a little boy dragging around his favorite toy.”

Now Mitch’s eyes narrowed and they stared at each other while his phone continued to buzz away.

“Whatever you’re planning, Mitch Shaw—”

Mitch gave a little snarl before tossing Sissy’s hand off his and lifting the receiver. “Hi, Ma,” he said while staring at Sissy. “How’s it going?”

With their job on hold until Animal Control could clear out the rattlesnakes living all over one poor couple’s property, Gwen and Blayne had the rest of the day to themselves unless another job came in. They went to their office to get paperwork done, but it was Friday and, to be honest, the desire to do anything but work got the better of them.

Around lunchtime they ended up in the basement of the Kuznetsov building. Most of their trucks were out on jobs and that gave them a huge space to utilize.

Gwen had Blayne put on her skates, and then she ran her through the drills her mother used to put her through back in the day. Because it was Blayne, Gwen had way more fun than she thought she would. No matter what she told her to do, no matter how many times she told her to do it, and no matter how often Blayne fell on her ass, the wolfdog never got upset, never complained, and always kept that smile.