Ultimate Courage (True Heroes #2)(5)

Rojas grunted. To be honest, usually it was more about training the owner than it was about training the dog. “Retraining isn’t my favorite pastime.”

“Sometimes it’s worth it.” Forte set a pile of clipboards on the front of the reception desk. “When you’re done with sweeping, can you find some pens?”

Rojas finished up, got rid of the gathered dust and fur, and stowed the broom. Then he started going through drawers on a search mission for the damned pens. “The occasional older rescue with bad habits or a tricky history is worth the effort.”

Actually, he enjoyed working with those. It was time well spent, helping the owner willing to give such dogs another chance.

He liked to think they all deserved another chance from time to time.

“Yeah, you’ve got a soft spot for those.” The clipboards fell with a clatter. Forte cursed. “There’s got to be a better way to do this.”

“We need an admin.” It wasn’t the first time Rojas had made the suggestion.

“Yeah, yeah. Cruz mentioned it.”

Rojas snorted. “And Sophie and Lyn, too. Lyn’s reputation is enough to bring more people in on top of what we’ve already got, so it’s only going to get harder to manage.”

Lyn Jones was a civilian dog trainer with a solid consulting business. She’d come in four or five months earlier on consult to work with Cruz and Atlas, a high-profile military working dog. Both Cruz and Atlas had had it bad for Miss Jones, and she’d developed a strong partnership with Cruz. With her less structured, more psychological approach to working with dogs, they were seeing more civilians come to them for dog training.

Good for the kennels. Maybe not so good for him. The more he had to deal with people, especially the ones milling around in the waiting area before a class got started, the edgier he got. All the frenetic activity, the sudden moves, and random raised voices drove him crazy. Half the time he found himself ready to head for cover, sure something was trying to kill him. The rest of the time he struggled to quell the instinct to take out the potential threats first. This wasn’t a danger zone and, theoretically, nothing was trying to kill him. Or at least he was trying to convince himself of that one day at a time. He’d been getting better, but the hard days still outnumbered the peaceful when it came down to it.

“Business is good.” Forte finished retrieving the clipboards and gave up on keeping them in a neat pile, leaving them spread out across the counter. “I just don’t like to keep all my eggs in one basket, so having some buffer from these training classes doesn’t hurt.”

The majority of their income came from providing well-trained working dogs to both military and law enforcement organizations around the country. They supplied dogs trained to track humans or detect explosives to some private security groups, too, though they vetted those organizations carefully.

“The business plan was your brainchild.” Rojas held his hands up. “I thought it was a great concept when you invited me and Boom here three years ago. It’s come a long way, so if you want to develop more, I’ll follow your lead.”

Forte had started the kennels when he’d returned from his last tour of duty and invited Rojas and Cruz to join him a year later. Cruz’s romantic partner, Lyn, had her own established training company for civilian clients but had been sending additional references their way. All in all, business had ramped up over the last few months but their business administration was nonexistent. They needed an ops person, or department, depending on just how much Forte wanted to expand. The three of them couldn’t stretch to cover it anymore and the bookkeeping was suffering for it.

“You want to keep growing, got to get the support team in.” Rojas came up with three pens. He could’ve sworn they’d opened a fresh box only a week ago. Did the damn things get up and walk?

“I hear you. We’ll get an ad up online, stat. In the meantime, we need more pens.”

Rojas’s back pocket buzzed. Coming to an immediate halt, he yanked his smartphone out of his pants and answered the call. “You okay?”

Boom’s voice came across the line. “Yeah. Dad, can I watch an anime?”

His daughter wasn’t quite back up to speed, but she was a hundred times better than she’d been the night before, and relief washed through him all over again. The pain meds were working, and her broken arm was set and immobilized in a solid cast. He’d kept her home from school to give her some time to rest.

Of course, even with enough pain medications to put down a camel, his daughter was up and bored.

“A what?” Rojas searched his brain for whatever his daughter was asking for.

“Anime. It’s a Japanese cartoon.” Boom had her innocent tone going. Which meant it couldn’t be as simple as all that.

But it was a cartoon. How bad could that be?

He mouthed the term to Forte. Forte held up his hands in a “nope, no clue” kind of signal.

“Why don’t you watch one of the movies I got you for now and I’ll come up at lunch to take a look at these Animaniac things you want to watch.”

“Anime, Dad. Not Animaniacs. Totally different.” Boom huffed. “Okay, but if I can’t watch them this morning, can you bring frozen yogurt for dessert tonight?”

Rojas narrowed his eyes as Forte motioned for him to keep looking for pens. Boom was at the stage where she was big into negotiating. If she didn’t get what she wanted in the first place, she angled for bonus deals to make up for the loss. Still, she’d been a trooper last night at the hospital, and she was doing a good job managing the pain from her broken arm. She deserved a little spoiling. “You got it. Frozen yogurt.”