The Phoenix Read Free Page B

unequivocally successful.
    “Yes,” he acknowledged slowly, wondering how the chocolate company needed to use Ranger Security services in a “surreal” way.
    Or his services, rather.
    “I’m assuming even though you’ve been out of the country the better part of the past year you heard about Ms. Marigold Betterworth leaving the bulk of her fortune to her—”
    “Dog,” Jay finished, chuckling, struck again by the absurdity of it. He shook his head. “Yes, I do remember that. The news made it all the way to Baghdad. What’s a dog supposed to do with— How many million was it? Two? Three?” He laughed under his breath. “Unbelievable.”
    “Five-point-three, to be exact,” Jamie said. Something in his tone derailed Jay’s train of thought and made him pause.
    “That would buy a lot of dog biscuits,” he said levelly. A dreadful premonition prodded his belly. A horrible suspicion took hold. Surely to God he wasn’t going to have to provide protection for a dog. And not even a proper dog, if memory served. Not a Lab or a golden retriever. No, he was certain it was one of those teensy toy breeds women toted around in their purses. Delicate, fragile and of no practical purpose whatsoever.
    “As you can imagine, the family wasn’t pleased with the terms of the will.”
    He supposed not. He couldn’t imagine that the pioneering members of the family that had started the company would have been too happy with the decision either, but who was he to judge? How people ultimately spent their money wasn’t his business.
    But he suspected how Marigold Betterworth had decided to spend hers was going to be.
    Payne opened a file and handed it to him. “That’s Truffles,” he said. “The canine heir.”
    He’d been right. It was a Yorkie. Dark brown with caramel markings around its button nose and dark, inquisitive eyes. A pink bow sat perched between its alert little ears and a diamond-studded collar circled its small neck. A platinum tag in the shape of a chocolate truffle dangled from the collar and its name had been elegantly engraved in fancy script upon the surface.
    “Yesterday, while outside for her regularly scheduled exercise, she vanished from the estate.”
    “Dognapped?” Disbelief washed through him. Definitely surreal.
    Payne nodded. “A ransom note arrived within three hours of her disappearance.”
    This just got better and better. “Their demands?”
    “Two million by the end of the week or they’ll kill the dog.”
    A flash of anger made him scowl. Bastards. It wasn’t the dog’s fault that her owner had left her with millions of dollars. In fact, given that Marigold had decided that the dog was more deserving than the family…what exactly did that say about them?
    “Which, as bad as that is, actually tells us something about the dognappers,” Payne added.
    Intrigued, Jay levered a brow. “How so?”
    “Because if they were familiar with the terms of the will they’d know that if Truffles dies of anything other than natural causes, the entire fortune—everything—goes to a variety of animal shelters across the country. The family will get absolutely nothing. Not a single red cent.”
    Wow. That was certainly one way to make sure that the animal was cared for. “And the family is aware of this?”
    “That’s who hired us,” Guy said. “Andrew Betterworth, specifically. His sister, Taffy, is in Brazil on some sort of new age self-discovery tour. But, as you can imagine, they are particularly desperate for the safe return of the dog,” he drawled.
    Jay looked at the file once more. “Leads?”
    Payne winced. “None, I’m afraid. No microchip. Mrs. Betterworth thought it was cruel. The collar was equipped with a GPS device, but it was put on a neighbor’s dog as a decoy.”
    Jay glanced at the collar again. “I’m surprised they didn’t find some way to keep it. It looks quite valuable.”
    Jamie snorted and absently scratched his chest. “Only if eighty grand is