Chapter 2 - The Bloody Harness
I stared at the silver lighter in Roman’s gloved hand.
The air in the pet store suddenly felt entirely too thin to breathe.
Roman noticed my pale face and walked slowly back toward me.
He demanded to know why I recognized the object.
I swallowed hard and admitted that it belonged to a corrupt narcotics detective I used to date.
One of Roman’s guards stepped forward and warned his boss that this could be a police setup.
Roman raised a hand, silencing his men instantly.
He looked down at Titan, who was still pressing his heavy body against my leg.
Roman revealed that Titan had not just run away during a walk.
He explained that Titan’s handler had been brutally murdered in an alley three blocks away.
The killer had slashed the handler’s throat and tried to steal the dog.
I looked at Titan’s expensive leather harness again, my hands trembling.
I pointed out the raw, bloody skin beneath the dog's shoulder and the torn inner seam of the leather.
I told Roman that someone had desperately tried to cut something out of this harness before Titan escaped.
Roman’s eyes darkened dangerously.
He knelt beside the massive Cane Corso and carefully slid a tactical knife under the damaged leather seam.
Titan growled softly but allowed Roman to slice the harness open.
A small, waterproof plastic capsule fell out of the lining and bounced onto the bloody linoleum floor.
Roman picked it up and crushed the plastic casing between his fingers.
Inside was a highly advanced GPS tracker and a micro-recording device.
Roman looked at the flashing red light on the tracker.
He stated that the device was actively transmitting our exact location to a restricted police server.
Before I could even process that information, a strange beeping sound began echoing from the front counter.
May you like
I turned my head and saw a small digital timer strapped to the underside of my cash register.
The timer was glowing bright red, counting down from ten seconds.
