by Katie Ruggle
When Bean was close enough to touch her belly, he lipped at a stray strand of hay that was stuck to her coat. Sarah laughed out loud, a mix of elation and relief bubbling through her. This time, the sound didn’t startle the horse. He just dropped his head and started to eat hay off the ground.
“You’re going to be fine, Bean,” she said. Sarah just hoped she would be, too.
* * *
Later that night, with Otto at work, the house seemed empty. Sarah lay in the guest bed, trying to sleep, but the wind was too loud. It reminded Sarah of that awful—yet amazing—night when Mr. Espina had blown up part of her home so that she could escape. There wasn’t any rain, though, just the wind and the dark and the creaks of a mostly empty house. She didn’t want to endanger Jules or Grace or any of the kids, but she had a moment when she wished she was back in the tiny bedroom at Jules’s house. At least there were other people to distract her and make her feel less alone.
She turned onto her side and squeezed her eyes closed. Stop, she ordered her brain. She was perfectly safe and just needed to quit dwelling on the fact that the wind was so loud it would drown out any sound of Logan breaking in and creeping up the stairs. She wouldn’t even know he was in the house until he grabbed her—
“Stop!” Sarah sat up abruptly. Grabbing her pillow and the blanket folded over the foot of her bed, she slipped out of the room and tiptoed down the stairs. The windows were uncovered, and the moonlight poured through the glass, illuminating everything with an eerie blue-white light…until clouds covered the moon, and all at once the room went dark.
Her heart pounding at the sudden blackness, Sarah clutched the banister and rushed down the rest of the steps. The clouds passed as she reached the main level, lighting her way to the closet door. She pushed aside the coats and felt her way to the back of the tiny space. When Otto had shown this to her earlier, Sarah had been entranced, loving the secret door to the hidden stairway.
Now, though, her hands were shaking as she fumbled to open the door. What had looked so simple when Otto unlatched it now seemed impossibly hard. She almost sobbed with relief when the back of the closet finally swung open to reveal descending stairs.
Something brushed against her leg, and she jumped, biting her lip to hold back a startled scream. Sarah hurried to find the light switch on the wall next to the stairs, smacking it hard enough to hurt her hand.
The fluorescent bulb flickered to life gradually, revealing Mort sitting next to her. Her relieved exhale came out as a shaky laugh.
“Want to hang out in the bunker with me?” she asked in a quiet voice that still sounded too loud in the empty house.
As if in response, Mort trotted down the stairs. Sarah turned to close the closet door behind her and tripped over something—something that gave an indignant yowl.
Pressing her hand against her chest, Sarah closed her eyes, trying to recover from her second near-heart-attack in less than a minute. “Bob? You nearly scared me to death!”
The cat didn’t seem at all contrite, zooming down the stairs after Mort.
As Sarah closed the hidden door and followed the animals down the stairs, she could feel her nerves settling. The three of them would stay in the bunker for the night. Tomorrow night, she’d be brave enough to sleep in the guest room.
Maybe.
Chapter 11
“Theo.” Otto took the last of the stairs at a lope so he could catch up to his partner. Viggy, Theo’s K9, glanced back at Otto and wagged his tail. Theo was not so happy to see him. After one look at Theo’s scowl, Otto’s original reason for chasing him got pushed back. “What’s wrong?”
Theo’s frown grew even more ferocious. “What’s wrong? Are you kidding me right now?”
“What?” Otto wondered if he’d missed some big news. It was possible, although he’d just returned to the police station at the end of a quiet night shift, and he hadn’t heard anything announced over the radio. Had Jovanovic been spotted in the area? Otto’s heart rate sped up, and he mentally cursed himself for leaving Sarah on her own at his place. He’d shown her how to get into the basement bunker, though. She was smart. If something happened, she’d hide. “Did something happen?”
“Yeah, something happened.” Theo’s sarcastic tone calmed Otto. If there’d been a serious incident, Theo would’ve been direct and to the point. “Some asshole left four puppies at Jules’s house. Apparently, she’s able to sleep through their hungry squeaking—I have no idea how, since they’re as loud as a fire alarm—so I was the one who got up with them. Every. Three. Hours.”
His disgruntled expression almost made Otto smile, although he could definitely sympathize. Getting woken up every few hours had left him feeling like he’d been run over by a truck, which had then backed over him for good measure. He’d slept like a baby that afternoon—except that the dreams he’d had about Sarah had been more of the adult variety. “Sorry. Why didn’t you wake up Jules so she could help?”
Theo suddenly appeared to find the hallway ahead of them so fascinating that he couldn’t look away. “She had an early shift this morning. She needed her sleep.”
“You had the early shift, too.”
Theo’s scowl was back as he abruptly changed the subject. “Shouldn’t you be getting home?”
The mention of “home” reminded Otto of what he’d originally needed to talk to Theo about. He looked around and then jerked his head toward the roll call room. Even though it didn’t look like anyone else was nearby, it was better to be safe than sorry. The cops he worked with could be brutal with their teasing, and Otto knew he’d be handing them solid-gold gossip fodder if they overheard what he was about to ask Theo. “You have a few minutes?”
“Yeah.” Theo glanced at his watch as he followed him into the room. “You only have six minutes before roll call, though, so you’d better talk fast.”
Otto closed the door behind them, and then turned back to see Theo eyeing him curiously. “Thanks. I have…well, a question.”
“Okay. Ask.” Theo half sat on the table behind him, crossing his arms over his chest. Viggy lay down next to him, his head resting on his front paws. Theo’s smirk looked a little too Hugh-ish for Otto’s liking. There was a reason he’d gone to Theo with this and not Hugh. “Well?”
Otto stared at Theo for several seconds, but the words wouldn’t come. “Never mind.”
As he started to turn away, planning to leave the room and take his potential humiliation with him, Theo grabbed his arm. “Hang on. Ask your question. You already stuck me with bottle-feeding your puppies. You can’t drop that teaser and leave. I’m curious now.”
“Fine.” Otto really did want to get someone else’s take on the situation, and he only trusted Theo and Hugh to keep their mouths shut. Since Hugh would torment him unmercifully, that meant he was stuck with Theo. Taking a deep breath, he forced out the words. “I kissed Sarah.”
Theo’s brows shot up. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, he said, “That wasn’t a question.”
“Right.” Otto cleared his throat, his gaze bouncing around the room before finally settling on the whiteboard in the corner. “She’s staying at my place so that she’ll be safe from Jovanovic. What if she thinks…? How do I let her know that she doesn’t have to…?” He trailed off again with a grunt of frustration.
“You don’t want her to think that she has to put out as payment for staying with you,” Theo said baldly, and Otto winced. It sounded as bad out loud as it had in his head.
“Yes.”
“Just tell her.”
Otto shifted uncomfortably. “I tried. It doesn’t come out right.”
“You don’t want me to—”
“No!” Otto raised his hands in horror, cutting Theo off in mid-sentence. “No. I’ll do it. I’ll talk to her.” He’d figure out how to get the words out somehow, no matter how awkward it got. “I just want to k
now, was it wrong for me to kiss her? I mean, I don’t want to take advantage, and she’s so…” He stopped again, annoyed with how hard it was to articulate how he felt about Sarah. She was beautiful and sweet and brave. But she’d managed to escape from her controlling brother, and Otto was worried he was taking advantage of her vulnerable state. He didn’t want her to kiss him out of gratitude for saving her or for letting her stay with him. He wanted her to kiss him because she felt like she’d die if she didn’t—just like Otto had felt outside the guest bedroom yesterday.
“Otto.” Theo pushed off the table, bringing Otto out of his thoughts. “You’re not taking advantage. You’re the least-likely person to ever take advantage of anyone. Tell Sarah you like her, ask her out, and tell her she’s free to say no without any repercussions. If she does say no, then accept it and do your best to move on, so that things aren’t weird for her while she stays at your place.”
“Okay.” Otto blew out a long breath. It was painfully awkward to discuss this with Theo, but hearing it laid out like that helped clarify things in his mind. Otto had a clear plan now. He didn’t have to rehash it over and over until he wanted to smack his head against his squad car steering wheel anymore. “Thank you.”
With a brisk nod, Theo pulled out a chair at the nearest table and sat. Viggy shifted so he was lying closer to Theo’s boots, and Otto had a pleased moment that the dog was doing so well now. It reminded him that, thanks to the recent excitement, he hadn’t been to the kennel to work with his project dog lately, and he made a mental note to stop by on his way home.
“Any sign of Jovanovic?” Theo asked, stretching out his legs under the table.
“Yeah, but not around here. California State Patrol reported a possible sighting, but they lost track of his vehicle before they could confirm.” Otto had a strong urge to hunt Logan Jovanovic down and teach him a lesson. What made it worse was that he was—or had been—a cop. “It’s been a quiet night here.” Too quiet. There’d been way too much time for Otto to stew about the whole situation with Sarah.
“Welcome to winter in Monroe,” Theo said as the door opened behind Otto. He moved out of the way so that Lieutenant Blessard could enter.
“What are you still doing here, Gunnersen?” Blessard demanded.
“I’m on my way out,” Otto said, giving Theo a final nod of thanks. “Just telling Theo there weren’t many calls last night.”
“Good,” the lieutenant said, dumping a stack of folders on the desk at the front of the room. “The chief took eight officers to crisis intervention training in Colorado Springs for the week. Figured it’d be quiet now that most of the town has left for the winter.”
“Eight?” Theo repeated as Sergeant Wesley Gibson walked in and sat at the table across from Theo’s. “With Hugh still out, that just leaves…”
“The four of us.” Blessard gestured around the room, as if it were full of officers. Otto met Theo’s concerned gaze. “We’re down to bare bones here, gentlemen. Now would be the wrong time to get sick.”
“This is a bad idea,” Theo said, and Otto grunted agreement, moving to stand next to his partner. “We’re already down officers. Blanchett just tried to kidnap his sister—”
“And we arrested him,” Blessard said, cutting him off. “The FBI agents will be here in a few days to pick him up, as soon as the judge signs off on his transfer paperwork, and then we won’t even need to feed him. That situation is taken care of.”
“Jovanovic is still out there.” Just the thought of Sarah being at risk—even if that risk was small—made Otto feel sick. He’d been planning to ask some of the other officers to keep an eye on his place while he was at work, but there wouldn’t be any help until they returned from training.
The lieutenant narrowed his eyes, looking back and forth between the two of them. “Jovanovic wasn’t even back in California for a full day before he was spotted. Things are too hot for him. I’m guessing he’ll make a beeline to the Mexican border. If you’re worried about Blanchett’s sister, though, talk to the FBI about protective custody when they’re here.”
Otto was torn. He wanted Sarah to be safe, but he also wanted her close by. “That’s days from now.”
“Enough.” Blessard’s tone was final. “It is what it is. File a complaint with the chief when he returns. Gunnersen, go home and get some sleep. It’s going to be a shitty week.”
* * *
Otto was in a bad mood by the time he got to Nan’s. After Blanchett’s attack, he was wired and on edge. Despite the lieutenant’s reassurance, Otto still felt like it was a bad time for two-thirds of the police force to be sitting in a classroom several hours away.
It made him twitchy. He’d be the only cop on duty for the next four nights, so Sarah would be alone out at his place. It had been hard to leave her the previous night, and he’d been toying with the idea of using some of his personal days. Since he didn’t tend to get sick and didn’t take vacations, he’d racked up quite a bit of unused leave. Now, though, there was no one to take his place. He’d be leaving Sarah unguarded each night whether he liked it or not.
He slammed the door of his squad car a little harder than necessary, and he made himself pause and breathe for a second. It wouldn’t help Xena, the dog he was working with, if he was angry. Putting the whole situation in the back of his mind, Otto calmed his thoughts.
Once his annoyance and worry settled, he walked toward the building where Nan kept the rescue dogs. When she’d bought the property and built the kennels, she’d planned to board and groom dogs. The Monroe K9 unit used her facility when they needed to house a dog, since it was a better setup, with exercise yards and indoor training areas, than the small kennel next to the PD parking garage. Nan had never intended to house an animal shelter, but the closest humane society was almost an hour away, so people started bringing strays and unwanted dogs to Nan. Soft-hearted Nan could never turn them away.
“Hey, Sam,” Otto said as he stepped inside the building. It was only when he was in the warmth of the heated building that he realized how cold it was getting outside. The first big snow of the season was supposed to hit in a few days, and Otto had felt the bite of winter in the air. Jules’s brother, Sam, gave Otto an unsmiling nod without pausing in his work spraying down kennels with the pressure washer. Sam had worked for Nan since his family had moved to town a few months ago. He hadn’t had any experience when he’d started, but he’d learned quickly and was good with the dogs.
A quick glance showed that all the kennels were empty. Zipping his jacket a little higher, Otto stepped back into the cold. The wind had picked up, and it pushed against his back and legs as if hurrying him along. He moved quickly, wanting to get back into the warmth—or at least find a windbreak—soon.
Xena had the same instinct, since she was tucked into her shelter. Holding back a groan, Otto lowered himself to the ground, patiently rewarding her with a tiny treat every time she poked her nose in his direction. The pit bull–Lab mix had gained quite a bit of weight since being rescued in a raid of a suspected dogfighter’s home, but Xena’s ribs were still visible under her short coat. Her muzzle and head were crisscrossed with old scars, and she was missing part of her right ear.
By the time he’d succeeded in luring her out with treats, Otto was half-frozen. He gave her a final, gentle ear rub and slowly shifted away before standing, so as not to startle her. When he reached the gate, Nan was there, waiting for him. She was tall, her rangy frame disguised by multiple heavy layers. Her graying hair was covered in a colorful stocking hat.
“Brrr!” She gave an exaggerated shiver as he approached. “Xena’s coat is too short for this kind of weather. I asked Sam to bring in all the dogs, so Xena will be back inside soon. This wind is ridiculous. I’m nowhere near ready for summer to end.”
“Summer’s been over for a while,” Otto said, glancing at Xena as he closed the gate behind him. The dog watched
him go, and her tail wagged slightly before she retreated back into her shelter. “Now fall is done.”
Nan arched her eyebrows so high they disappeared under her hat. “Thank you for that, Mr. Depressing.”
Otto just offered a small shrug of apology. It might not be cheery, but it was true. Winter was well and truly there, and he had the frozen ass to prove it.
“Do you have a minute?”
The words, so close to what he’d asked Theo such a short time ago, worried Otto. Nan had never asked Otto for romantic advice, and he would be very happy if she kept it that way. They’d discuss dogs, the weather, and occasional town happenings, and that was it. Otto really didn’t want to expand their conversational subjects, especially if it meant hearing about Nan’s love life. She was watching him, though, waiting for an answer.
Trapped, he gave a silent sigh and a slight tip of his head before following her to the main building where her office was. As they crossed in front of the kennels toward the office door, barking echoed and reverberated, bouncing off the ceilings and walls, painfully loud.
Once inside Nan’s small, untidy office, Otto hurried to close the door and muffle some of the noise. Nan moved a stack of papers off the lone visitor’s chair, but he waved her off, preferring to stand. If she was going to ask some extraordinarily awkward question, he wanted to be able to make a quick getaway.
After sitting in her own chair, Nan didn’t seem to be in any hurry to speak. Instead, she picked up a pen and focused on it as she rolled it between her fingers. Otto watched her, curious, but not curious enough to prompt her. If this was about something that was going to be vastly uncomfortable, he’d rather stay in ignorant bliss for a little longer.
“Otto, about Xena…”
“Xena?” He hadn’t expected the dog to be the topic of conversation.