“She found a stray dog?” Damon asked.
“Yes, a puppy,” Glory said.
“I attempted to kill it, but she was like a wild animal, sir, I couldn’t kill it.”
Damon sat back in his chair. “Where is she now?”
“In her bedroom,” Glory said. “She is … she would like the vet to come and check it over.”
He shook his head. “I’ll go and deal with it,” Damon said. “You may leave. Glory, I need a word.”
James left the office after giving a lingering look to Glory.
She didn’t look in James’s direction. Damon made a note to keep an eye on that situation. The maids in his service were all protected. He’d ordered the men to never cross that line. When he was a boy, his father had been furious after one of his guards had raped a woman. She had attempted to kill herself, and because of this, his father made an example by chopping off the man’s dick and allowing him to live. He had to serve in the brothels, always being close but never allowed to touch.
The man was still alive to this day, serving women he could never have.
“Yes, sir.”
“How … is she?” Damon asked.
Glory looked up at him and then quickly bowed her head.
“You can look at me.”
“She seemed distressed when James went to kill the small pup.”
“It was out in the cold, and it would probably die anyway.”
“Milah is … she’s not happy about the death of the kitchen staff.”
“She knows?”
Glory nodded. “She asked when they would be returning.”
“Of course she did.”
“I don’t think she is anything like her father or the Russo men, sir.” She bowed her head again.
He was starting to see that, but he wouldn’t make the same assessment quite yet. The Russos were known liars and manipulators.
“She has asked about her father again. About what he has said.”
“She has?”
“I don’t know what to tell her.”
“Tell her that her father’s message is to see me,” Damon said, getting to his feet. “You’re dismissed.”
Milah had fast become a thorn in his side.
He made his way out of his office and went straight to her room. Milah looked up as he entered. She lay on the bed, a huge bundle by her side, and he saw her wrap her arms around it protectively.
“You brought a mutt into my house?” he asked.
“It was cold. I would like a vet, please. I … she…”
“Enough of this. Give the damn vermin to me.”
“No,” Milah said. She pulled the dog into her arms. “I’m not going to let you kill her. She has done nothing wrong. I won’t let another animal get hurt.”
Damon frowned. “Another? I have not killed an animal.”
Milah looked up at him, and he was surprised to see tears in her eyes. “It’s nothing.”
“Tell me.”
“Why? So you can mock me? So you can laugh at how stupid I’m being over an animal?”
“So I can decide if I want you to keep the fucking thing!”
“My dad killed my last puppy!” Milah screamed. Her face screwed up as the puppy in her arms started to shake. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She cleared her throat, kissing the top of the puppy’s head and then looking up at him. “My mother had gotten me a puppy as a birthday present. I was ten years old. My dad didn’t want me to have one, and he was furious. He … beat my mother for going behind his back, but in the end, I was able to keep it. She was a beautiful Labrador, so happy with life, and one day, we were playing, and I don’t know what happened. He came outside where we were laughing and just having fun and right there in front of me, he shot her,” Milah said. “And then he tossed her in the trash as if she was nothing. I couldn’t do…”