Unleashed (A Sydney Rye Novel, # 1) Read Online Free Page A

manila envelope. “The keys…” Her eyes wandered around the kitchen. “Where are the keys?” Charlene pushed past me and ran her hand over the empty granite counter. “I thought I…Oscar?” Oscar meowed, and she gently moved him over to reveal a ring of keys. Charlene dropped them into the envelope with the papers and passed the whole thing off to me.
    “We can deal with all the details when I get back, or I’ll call you. Oh, and I’ll leave a set of my keys at the front desk for you. You should come and see Oscar about every three days.” The doorbell rang. She froze. It rang again. Charlene moved back into the living room slowly. I saw her hesitate, then, taking a deep breath, she checked the peephole. The tension ran from her body and she opened the door.
    “Hello, Carlos,” Charlene said to a man in a custodial uniform standing in the hall. “Tell Bob not to worry about it for now. I’m going on vacation and will call when I get back. Thanks for coming, though.” Charlene closed the door and turned back to me, a mist of sweat at her hairline.
    “Alright, so you have everything you need,” she started moving me toward the door, “and I’ll be in touch in a couple of days. Thanks. Bye.” The door closed behind me.

 
     
    That Night
     
    That night I brought Blue over to James’s place for dinner. Hugh answered the door. He is a big guy with a wide face, gapped teeth and an easy smile. His hair looks like his mother cut it by putting a bowl on his head. It works for him
    We hugged our hellos in the doorway. Blue put his snout between us and emitted a deep warble. Hugh pulled back, laughing. “Oh, my God, he’s amazing.” Blue stepped in front of me. Hugh laughed again and motioned for us to come in.
    James’s one-bedroom garden-level was filled with boxes, some half-full, some overflowing. Aurora, James’s cat, was curled in a box on a pile of sweaters. She poked her head up when we came in. Her yellow eyes bobbed at the edge of the cardboard, her multicolored ears at attention. Blue walked toward the box. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I warned him as he approached Aurora snout first.
    Aurora sat up and hissed, drool spitting, hurling, splattering out of her. Blinded by the saliva, Blue stumbled back, but not before she had a chance to swipe out and lash him across the nose. He whimpered and scampered back to my side, the scratch beaded with drops of blood. Kneading at the sweaters below her, Aurora moaned and settled back into the box.
    “What a lovely creature,” Hugh said as he headed for the kitchen to work on whatever was making the wonderful smell that floated through the apartment. I walked back to the yard, where James waited with a pitcher of passion fruit margaritas. “Holy shit,” he said when he saw Blue. “You weren’t kidding when you said you got a dog. That thing is huge.” Blue sat on James’s foot and James laughed. “I like him.” He filled a glass for me. The margarita was an opaque orange-red that glimmered in the soft candlelight.
    “So, I acquired a business today.” I sipped the margarita, a perfect mix of fresh juice and jaw-clenching tequila.
    “Acquired a business, eh?” James poured Hugh a drink, then passed it through the kitchen window.
    “A dog-walking business.” James turned back to me, surprised.
    “What?”
    I laughed. “I am telling you that this morning I went to the Upper East Side—Yorkville to be exact—and acquired myself a dog-walking business. But I think there’s something weird about it.” Hugh appeared in the window.
    “What are you talking about? You got a what-walking business?”
    “Dog-walking.”
    “What do you know about walking dogs?” James asked, “Or for that matter about business?”
    “Well, I walk Blue.” James stared at me. “And it’s not really a business.”
    “Wait, wait. You have to start this story at the beginning because you are talking nonsense,” James said. Hugh nodded.
    “Wait a