Maggie Lee (Book 11): The Hitwoman Hires a Manny Read Online Free PDF

over.
     
    “Whoa,” I cried, stumbling backward.
     
    “It’s a dog, not a horse,” God reminded me.
     
    Before I could tell the cat to attack him, the dog licked my face.
     
    “See?” she panted.
     
    “See what?” I asked, struggling to stay upright beneath the double-assault of dog breath and her significant weight. But then I saw it. She was wearing a new collar. “Down!” I gasped. “Get down.”
     
    Leveraging herself off my shoulders, she obeyed my command, and looked up at me expectantly.
     
    “Did Patrick give you this?” I reached for the collar.
     
    “Yes.”
     
    Unbuckling it, I examined both sides and found that a message was written in permanent marker on the inside.
     
    “Value of olives,” I read aloud.
     
    “ That’s helpful,” God mocked.
     
    “Actually it is.” I snatched up the phone. “I told him that Armani would like him since she assigns numerical values to every name and his is worth fifteen.”
     
    “That silly Scrabble tiles thing?” The lizard flicked his tail. “So the code is ‘eight’?”
     
    “Nine,” Piss corrected. “As in cats have nine lives.”
     
    “I don’t think a phone can have a one digit code,” I murmured, inputting numbers, “but if I put in 1-1-1-4-1-1…” The phone unlocked. I grinned victoriously, waving it for the animals to see. “He really did give DeeDee the code.”
     
    She wagged her stub of a tail. “You told.”
     
    “Told you!” God raged. “Told you, not you told, you imbecile.”
     
    I snatched up another throw pillow, which effectively shut up the lizard.
     
    Smiling, I lifted the phone to my ear, and listened to the voicemail message Patrick had left.
     
    “Hey Mags. Sorry I missed ya, but I wanted to let you know I’ll be out of town. Duty calls. Stay out of trouble.”
     
    The message ended. I stared at the phone. “What the hell?” I shook it, as though that could dislodge some additional information.
     
    “Well that frown can’t be good. What’s wrong, Sugar?” Piss wrapped her body around my leg.
     
    “He’s gone out of town.” I sank down onto the couch.
     
    “For how long?” Piss purred.
     
    “He didn’t say.”
     
    “Why’d he leave?” the lizard asked from his enclosure.
     
    “All he said was ‘duty calls’.”
     
    “Legal or illegal duty?” God asked.
     
    I shrugged.
     
    “Gone Patrick?” DeeDee whined pitifully.
     
    “For a while,” I replied, hoping I didn’t sound as pathetic as she did.
    “What about Darlene?” I muttered, cradling my head in my hands.
     
    “Marlene?”
     
    “Darlene with a ‘D’ as in dummy,” God corrected. “The other sister.”
     
    Confused, DeeDee buried her head in my lap and sighed heavily.
     
    Absentmindedly I pet her as I explained, “Patrick was supposed to help me find her.”
     
    “I’m sure he will when he gets back,” Piss purred soothingly.
     
    “Why wait for him?” God scoffed. Before I could tell him to shut up, he added, “You manage just fine without him. Admit it.”
     
    As much as it pained me, I had to agree with the lizard. “I do manage,” I said slowly.
     
    God waved his tail like it was a pompom. “And you can find her without him.”
     
    I hesitated. Could I? “I can try.”
     
    “Excellent!” The lizard clapped his little paws.
     
    I could tell from the side-eyed look Piss was giving me, that the cat was dubious about the plan.
     
    I ignored her, and focused on the lizard’s cheerleading.
     
    “Patrick no?” DeeDee whined pitifully.
     
    “Not this time,” I told her with more conviction than I felt.
     
    The dog looked at my face, worry shining in her dark eyes. “Patrick mad?”
     
    I shook my head. “We’re not mad at each other. We’re just…” I trailed off, not sure what the redhead and I were to each other.
     
    I’d thought we were making progress with our relationship, but this latest development was a reminder of how tenuous a grip I had on him. I wasn’t