Monty barked, causing all of them to stand still and look over to us.
“Awww, is that Monty?” Kitty smiled, stepping forward.
Monty growled, baring his teeth, causing Kitty to stop and look at me confused.
“Kay-” Ty stepped forward, holding his hands up and stopping when Monty barked again. “You need to tell him to heel.”
“What?” I frowned.
“Tell him to heel, he’s guarding you.”
“Huh?” I looked down to Monty, “Oh. Heel?” He turned his head slightly, not taking his eyes off of them.
“Say it more firmly, like you mean it,” Ty said with laughter in his voice.
“Heel.” He sat back on his hind legs but didn’t stop watching them as they sat down.
“Jeez, that’s one scary dog.” Kitty huffed as she sat down.
Ty reached over and kissed me, Monty growling at the intrusion again. “Monty, stop,” I said looking down at him and patting my knee for him to put his head back.
He looked around unsure, but finally put his head back in favor of a stroke.
“Jesus Christ. Kay won’t need no training with that thing next to her, he’d rip someone’s arm clean off.” Luke laughed.
“Exactly!” Evan said from the other end of the room.
“Evan, meeting.” Ty nodded his head at his chair, signaling him to come over.
“I’ll listen from here!” he shouted.
“Get your ass over here.” Ty huffed out, dropping his head into his hands.
“I take it that it didn’t go well?”
“No.” He lifted his head up, his eyes meeting mine. “Wasn’t a thing to be found. Just an old warehouse with nothing inside it.”
“Damn,” I said under my breath.
I saw Evan move closer, taking slow, measured steps as not to disturb Monty. He lifted his head, looked over to Evan, made a noise in the back of his throat and lay his head back down.
“Just sit down, Evan.” I chuckled. “He won’t hurt you.”
“Pffft,” he said as he lowered into his chair slowly.
Shaking my head, I looked back down at Monty and smiled. I’d always wanted a dog.
“So it was a no go?” Evan asked.
“Fuck!” Ty banged his fist down on the table, causing Monty to look up again. “We need to find those girls, why are we hitting dead ends?”
I turned to face him, not knowing what to say. Charlie hadn’t got any closer either, in fact, we were the only ones providing leads for him.
Reaching over, I placed my hand over his clenched fist. “How about going to see the parents of the girl that went missing last. We may be able to find new leads from that.”
“Charlie’s already interviewed them,” Kitty said from across the table.
I looked up at her, her eyes blazing with…something. I couldn’t put my finger on it. She hadn’t been herself lately, I wanted to ask her what was going on but I had a feeling she’d shut me down.