Page 59 of I Hate You More

Lawson shrugged. “Of course. We all need a helping hand sometimes.”

He followed this revelation with a hand plunged deep into his pocket. Extracting a folded envelope, he added, “To be honest, Caleb’s not the one we’re worried about.You, however…”

The smallest of Lawson’s dogs, a scrapper named Gizmo who could never resist a piece of dangling bait, leaped up and grabbed the envelope before Spencer could make a move for it.

“Dammit, Gizmo!” Lawson cried. “We’ve talked about this. Spencer, you’re going to want to read what’s on that. You’d better get it from him.”

Caleb reentered the house in time to hear this decree. Since he was closest to the animal, he made a mad dive to get his hands on the envelope. He failed and crashed into the umbrella stand instead. This set up a round of barking protests from the pile of dogs in the corner and only made Gizmo move faster, which upended one of Caleb’s black bags of clothes and sent dirty socks flying.

Spencer took one look at the scene of mayhem and announced in his deepest voice: “Stop.”

It worked exactly the way he expected it to. The Chihuahua, startled into obedience, dropped the envelope. The other three dogs came to attention at the same time. Even Lawson and Caleb seemed to straighten at the sound.

“Don’t say it,” Spencer warned as he swooped down to grab the crushed envelope. “I already know. All it takes is the sound of my voice to bring everything into order. Dogs listen. Children cry. Cities fall.”

But then he grinned. The sound of his voice also made Ruby laugh, and that was worth all the rest.

“Why, Spencer Wilson. Are yousmilingat me?” Lawson asked.

“Don’t bother,” Caleb said. “He won’t spill any of the sordid details. The only thing I know is that he spent last weekend with Ruby.Allof last weekend with Ruby.”

One of Lawson’s eyebrows lifted into an impeccable arch, but he followed it up with a shake of his head. “Then return that envelope. I changed my mind.”

Spencer glanced down at the crumpled paper in his hand. “Why? What’s in it?”

“A recipe for my great-aunt Ada’s pecan pie. I need it back.”

Spencer moved the envelope out of reach just as Lawson lunged for it. “You’d better start talking, Lawson.”

“I got it mixed up with another envelope. That one’s tax receipts for my accountant. It’s naked photos of me and Sanit. It’s anthrax.”

With such promising treats in store, Spencer wasted no time in ripping the envelope open. He had to bob and weave to avoid Lawson’s attempts to prevent him, but he was smaller and faster. He was also more determined. If something in this envelope related to Ruby, if she was in danger or needed help or—

“It’s a DNA test. A dog DNA test.” He glanced sharply up at Lawson. “You had Wheezy tested?”

Lawson gave up on his attempt to get the paper out of Spencer’s hand. “You said it was what a real friend would do. Behold me in all my real-friend glory. Interesting revelations in there, don’t you think?”

No. There wasn’t anything the least bit interesting or revealing in the test results that Spencer held in his hand. They contained everything he’d suspected from the start: Wheezy was no golden retriever. Oh, there was golden blood in him, definitely, and enough of it to make a convincing show, but strains of Lab, Pekingese, and even a small percentage of Saint Bernard diluted the blood.

“I’m sorry,” Lawson said. “If I’d have known about you and Ruby, if you’d have told me that you didn’t want me to go through with it…”

“What is he?” Caleb plucked the paper from Spencer’s hand and gave it a quick perusal. A low whistle escaped his lips. “Well, I’ll be damned. She’s been playing you this whole time.”

“She hasn’t been playing me. It’s not like that.” Spencer snatched the paper back and ripped it in half. Both Lawson and Caleb watched, silent, as the pieces fluttered to the floor.

“Uh, Spencer? Are you okay?” Caleb asked.

“I’m fine, thanks.”

Lawson cleared his throat. “You know you can’t let that dog enter the show now, right? If word of this got out, we could lose our AKC standing. The rules specifically state that—”

“I know what the rules state.”

Caleb and Lawson shared a look that was impossible to misread. They were pretty sure Spencer had just cracked.

“Maybe she didn’t know,” Lawson suggested, more gently this time. “You said yourself that it’s not her dog, that she’s acting for a third party. It’s possible that this woman she’s working for tricked her into it.”

“She knows.”