Donna Joy Usher - Chanel 01 - Cocoa and Chanel by Donna Joy Usher Read Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t sure how I felt about the attack part, but then I thought about Mum and realised maybe a dog that attacked on command wasn’t such a bad thing.
    ‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘How much is it going to cost me to board him here?’ I was crossing my fingers and hoping it wasn’t going to be too expensive. Hairdressing hadn’t paid well, and most of my wage had gone on clothes. Now I was without an income and pretty much all of my savings had gone to fund my police training.
    ‘Well seeing as how we don’t officially board animals, perhaps a carton of beer would do it,’ he said.
    A carton of beer? That I could afford.
    After we had made a time for me to learn how to train Cocoa, Susie and I headed back to the mess. I was helping myself to a slab of potato bake oozing with white sauce and cheese when Rick appeared by my side with two plates, each containing a portion of steamed fish and some vegetables.
    ‘What’s this?’ I said in dismay as he handed them to Susie and me.
    ‘If you want me to train you, you have to eat what I tell you to eat.’
    ‘But there won’t be enough energy in this to get me through another work out,’ Susie whimpered. Her plate had been piled high with roast chicken, potato bake and roast pumpkin. ‘I need some carbohydrates.’
    ‘This is carbohydrates,’ Rick said, gesturing at the broccoli. ‘Besides,’ he continued, looking at me with a grin on his face, ‘Sergeant Moores has advised the cooks of your dairy and gluten intolerances.’
    I pulled a face at him as I contemplated the ramifications. No more ice-cream? No more custard? No more cake? Oh well, there was always the jelly.
    We ate our nutritious dinner and then headed over to the gym. I was feeling a little nervous at the thought of the training session. It hadn’t been so bad when Susie and I had been training ourselves. We had warmed up on the running machine – at a pace that allowed us to talk, and then randomly moved around the weight equipment.
    It was better and worse than I thought it would be. Better because he tailored a weight program for each of us to follow, worse because he mentioned a guy named Sam a few times and it became obvious that Andy was right. He was gay. Perving at him just didn’t give me the same satisfaction any more.
    The weeks flitted by with our new routine. Between lessons, study, dog training and physical training I didn’t even have time to go clothes shopping, which was good as I couldn’t afford it. Plus, we had started weapons training, which took up a serious chunk of my concentration as I tried to shoot the target, and not one of the other students.
    I wasn’t sure why, but Sergeant Moores had backed right off since the farting incident. I waited in fear for Nastacia to get me back for my accidental spying but as the weeks went by and she didn’t I started to relax. I caught her watching me a few times, a strange expression on her face but she never confronted me. In the end I surmised they had gotten bored with tormenting me. I didn’t care why; I was just relieved things had taken a turn for the better.
    Susie’s clothes started to hang off her, and even mine were a little loose. We were measured up for our new uniforms, and even though the shoes were a disaster, I was proud to wear mine around campus. It meant we were almost there, almost policewomen. I couldn’t wait to see the look on my Mum’s face at our graduation ceremony.
    She had been released from hospital but Andy said it was fine for Cocoa to stay there – I think he had a soft spot for him, and I was enjoying having him near me. Although I almost had heart failure when I went to visit him and found him joining in on the police dog training.
    They were teaching the dogs to attack, and the trainers had padding on their forearms which they fed into the dogs’ mouths on the command. The padding was black and furry and I had an awful feeling one of the other dogs would mistake Cocoa for it and tear him