Page 86 of Vetted for Vengeance
But well enough to tell me I’m not the only one digging.
Whittle Fund.
I never looked into what that was. I only searched to find the proof these men were worthy of my table. In, out, done.
I didn't expect the staff to follow me home with a pack of dogs.
But this time I'm doing it properly. This time it isn't about the itch growing under my skin. It's about protecting the man I…
The man I have become inconveniently fond of.
This isn’t about the puppy farm.
It never was.
I told myself it was. Built an entire justification for it.
But the truth is simpler.
Someone threatened what’s mine.
And now I’m going to remove the threat.
There is no paper trail to follow from the brothers to the Whittle Fund. But I have the means to track people, even if I only know their surname.
There aren't many Whittles. It only takes a few clicks to find out who interests me.
Peter Whittle. Most men leave trails. Ego demands it.
Whittle doesn’t.
What little I find is curated, like he knows exactly what the world is allowed to see.
That makes him dangerous.
Not untouchable.
Just… worth doing properly.
His criminal record is clean, but he's been under police observation before.
Charges for illegal dog fighting. Case dropped.
Charges for running an illegal gambling operation. Case dropped.
The police know what this man is doing; they just can't prove it.
Luckily, I don't need proof.
My moral code is more than happy with ‘close enough’.
Close enough is that Whittle is running illegal dog fights and taking bets on the winners.
Close enough is that the brothers were involved in shady dog breeding nearly ten years ago when they opened the puppy farm.
Close enough is my mind concluding that the brothers gambled and lost. And now they are paying Whittle around eight grand each month to cover their debts.
Eight grand a month for ten years is one heck of an interest rate, but what started as a desperate predatory loan has been very profitable for the brothers over the years. They were probably more than happy to keep paying with the personal profit they were bringing in.
