Sit! Stay! Speak! Read Online Free

needed to gain weight. There were several places on his body that had been stitched up, and the damaged ear had been repaired, leaving half of it. Every inch of his body seemed to be covered with a scratch or a stitch. Despite his pitiful appearance, his black-and-white coloring was beautiful. He had a little black circle around one eye on his otherwise white face and muzzle. She wanted to pet him but was afraid she’d hurt him—so much of him was broken open and raw.
    She stroked the top of his head, staring at his mangled ear. It looked like it had been torn off. Several places on his skin had bite wounds and tear marks. It didn’t make any sense to her. Why had someone shot him? Why had someone dumped him? More importantly, why had Dr. Dixon not seemed surprised to see a dog in such terrible shape?
    Addie realized it wasn’t just the pain of the stitches that was causing him to shake. It wasn’t just the new house, the new bed, the new surroundings. He was terrified of her. He was terrified of what she might do to him. She thought about everything she’d heard about pit bulls over the years—the locking jaws, their genetic predisposition to be vicious, and how many communities had banned them. After she’d left the wounded puppy at the clinic, she’d rushed home and done some research on pit bulls, and she now knew enough to know that the first two, at least, weren’t true at all. Looking at him, at his sweet face, she couldn’t imagine that he would hurt anyone.
    It was then that she noticed he was no longer shaking. He had fallen asleep beneath her touch. “I think I’ll call you Felix,” she whispered. “That name means ‘lucky’ and that is for sure whatyou are.” Addie was ecstatic to have found Felix. She could always take him back to Chicago with her when she was done selling her aunt’s house, but she was happy that she wouldn’t be totally alone while she was here. Even with the bite marks and half an ear missing, he was the cutest thing she’d ever seen.
    She thought about what “back to Chicago” really meant. Most of her friends were married with children and living in the suburbs, something she and Jonah swore they’d never do after they got married—leave the city. Yet here she was, miles away from everything and everyone she loved. Jonah wasn’t with her. She was alone.
    Addie glanced down at Felix. Well, maybe she wasn’t entirely alone. Maybe this dog was kindred. He looked an awful lot on the outside like she felt on the inside. She had a feeling that Felix wasn’t the only dog to have been dumped bleeding and struggling for his life. There was something fishy going on in the town of Eunice, and Adelaide Andrews was determined to get to the bottom of it, but first she had to get ready to meet Wanda since she’d agreed to go to the fair with her and her son. There had been no use trying to get out of it—she’d figured out quickly that Wanda was not a woman to be argued with when she made her mind up about something.
    She checked the time on her cell phone and stood awkwardly in front of the bathroom mirror. Just like almost everything else in the house, the mirror was a throwback to another time—another life. She remembered standing in front of this mirror every day the summer she was twelve, wishing she was back home in Chicago with her mother. But now Chicago meant old memories; it meant Jonah. She shook the memories from her head and began to focus on tonight. And tonight, she looked okay, she guessed.Her long blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and her thick, blunt bangs fell across her forehead, resting just above her eyes. She liked her hair this way—it pretty much always looked the same, but that meant there was less of a chance she could mess it up. She was wearing a blue-and-white gingham sundress with her favorite pair of white Chuck Taylors. Addie loved