by Harley Tate
Lainey retraced her steps, shaking her head as she stopped in front of Jerry. “He’s gone.”
Jerry’s brows rose. “How? I thought you said he was injured?”
“He is.” She held up her hands. Even in the moonlight, the stains of dried blood were visible.
“We should split up and search.”
“Meet back in ten?”
They hashed out a quick plan and each took off, Lainey to the south and Jerry the north. She canvassed driveways and front yards and found no evidence of Keith at all. She stopped in front of the van. Bear barked behind the glass, his paws on the dashboard as he nosed the windshield.
“Of course!” Lainey rushed to the door, shaking her head at her stupidity. If anyone could find Keith, it would be Bear. She grabbed the dog by the collar as he hopped down to the ground and knelt in front of him. “Keith’s out there and he’s hurt. Can you find him for me?”
Bear nuzzled her face.
“That’s a good boy. Find Keith, okay? Find Keith.” She stood up and let Bear go. The dog took off, nose to the concrete, as Jerry loped toward her.
“What the—”
Lainey cut him off. “He’s going to find Keith.”
Jerry swore. “And wake up the guys with the guns in the process?”
Lainey shrugged. “Do you have a better idea? Without some way to stop the bleeding, Keith’s a goner. He might be passed out already. If we keep searching, we’ll waste too much time. Bear can save him.” She swallowed. “I know he can.”
“Then we better keep up.” Jerry pointed to Bear’s disappearing form down the street. They caught up with Bear as he turned down a driveway and ducked inside a carport. With his nose still hovering an inch above the ground, he squeezed through a half-open gate and into the backyard.
Lainey and Jerry followed, but the gate resisted. It took both their combined effort so shove the rusted metal wide enough to ease inside. As soon as they tumbled in, Bear yipped.
Keith lay on the weedy grass, arms thrown out to his sides. Bear licked his face and nosed his side, circling around as Lainey rushed over. She felt his neck for a pulse. “He’s alive, but unconscious.” She patted him on the cheek. “Keith! Keith, wake up.”
No response.
Jerry searched the immediate vicinity, hands running over the ground. “Got the gun.” He picked it up as Bear barked.
“Bear, no!” Lainey tried to shush the animal, but he barked again at Keith’s inert form. “Shh! It’s okay, Bear, He’s just sleeping.”
The dog didn’t listen. Again he barked before pawing at Keith’s limp shoulder.
“Shut him up, Lainey.”
“I can’t!” Lainey tugged on Bear’s collar, but he shook her off. She reached for him again, but he darted out of the way, barking the entire time. “It’s no use. Help me get Keith up. Maybe that’ll calm him down.”
She reached beneath Keith’s arm as Jerry bent to do the same. Together, they hauled him into a sitting position. Bear practically bounced beside Lainey, darting in to nose Keith and pulling back as she grunted with effort.
Keith’s head lolled forward as Jerry hoisted him off the ground. Lainey struggled to help, her legs threatening to buckle as her knees knocked together. At last, they managed to stand. As Lainey wobbled, Jerry took on more of the load, shrugging Keith’s upper body away from Lainey. They set off together, one step at a time, toward the gate.
Bear stuck to Lainey’s side as they neared the entrance to the carport. Lainey reached for the gate, pulling to increase the gap as Jerry held Keith mostly upright. Digging her heels into the dirt, she tugged with all her might. As the gate scraped along the ground, Bear sunk into a crouch and flattened his ears. A growl rumbled up from his throat.
Oh, no. “Bear!” Lainey began, but there was nothing she could do. The dog was through the gate and into the carport before she could say a word to stop him.
“I can handle Keith. Go get Bear.” Jerry hoisted Keith toward him and leaned against the low brick wall.
Bear barked again, followed by a fierce snarl. Whatever he’d encountered on the other side of the gate, he needed Lainey’s help. If anything happened to that dog, Keith would never forgive her.
“Grab the gun.” Jerry held it out, butt first. “If there’s trouble, don’t hesitate to use it.”
Lainey took it, gripping the metal tight enough to stop her hand from shaking. Without another word, she rushed through the gate and into the carport.
Chapter Twenty
LAINEY
Jerry’s Neighborhood
Altadena, CA
Thursday, 4:00 a.m. PST
“Bear!” Lainey rushed through the carport, eyes focused on the writhing ball of fur on the sidewalk.
A man shouted. Something metal glinted in the moonlight. Lainey held the gun in both hands, pointed at the ground.
“Bear!” She shouted this time, but the dog ignored her, intent on the man pinned beneath him. Lainey closed the distance between them, only stopping when she risked being hit by the man’s flailing legs.
Had he just been out for a walk? Did Bear attack an innocent man? The man shifted and a metal bat rose above Bear. It came down with a thick whomp across the dog’s shoulders. A growl rose up from Bear’s chest as he dove for the man’s throat.
The man swung the bat again, but missed. It clattered against the concrete. Lainey didn’t know what to do. Her eyes kept darting from Bear’s head, to the bat, to the man’s legs. At last she shouted, “I’ve got a gun! Drop the bat or I shoot!”
The guy didn’t drop the bat. He swung again, missing Bear by inches. Firing into the air might get the man’s attention, but it would also alert the entire neighborhood to her presence. She had to get Bear out of there.
“I swear to God, I’ll shoot you dead! Drop the bat!” She inched closer, sidestepping to gain a visual on the man’s face.
He practically snarled at her as he spotted her. “As soon as I get this damned animal off me, you’re next!” He swung again and Lainey reacted on instinct.
“Bear! Down!” She barked out the command, imitating Keith’s tone in serious situations. Bear immediately complied, dropping to all fours as the bat swung over his head.
Lainey aimed at the man’s chest as she rushed forward. “Drop it!”
He refused, sneering as he rose up and readied to swing. A hard enough impact and the dog would die.
Not an option. She stared at the man as the bat came forward, exhaled, and pulled the trigger.
The gun kicked, throwing her hands up in the air as she stepped back in shock. The echo of the shot seemed to hang in the air along with the smell of a fired round. Lainey gasped. What have I done?
The bat clattered to the ground and Bear slinked toward her in a low crouch. The man fell back onto the sidewalk, one hand gripping his chest. Blood bloomed across his fingers. Lainey stared in horror, transfixed, as Bear leaned against her leg.
“Lainey!”
She blinked and turned to find Jerry half-carrying, half-dragging Keith toward her.
“We have to get out of here.”
“Right.” She operated on autopilot, stepping over to help Jerry steer Keith’s unconscious form to the van. Bear stuck to her side, limping with every step. He waited as they opened the doors to the van and dumped Keith inside.
Lainey motioned for him to hop up, but he whined, unable to jump. She bent to help him, picking up his front two paws and setting them onto the van’s floor before picking up his back legs and doing the same. Once inside, Bear curled up beside Keith, ears back and tail tucked. He was hurt and it was all her fault.
As she stood there, shouts rang out up the street. Jerry was already in the driver’s seat, waiting for her. “Get in!”
His shout pushed her into action and she climbed over Keith and Bear in the back and leaned out to shut the rear doors. Jerry took off before she made it to a seat. He drove with no headlights all the way around the neighborhood to come at his place
from the opposite direction. Not seeing any activity, he backed in, stopping with just enough room to operate the rear doors.
As soon as they opened the back, Lainey coughed. “What is that?”
Jerry grimaced as he met her at the open doors. “I’m pretty sure it’s smoke.”
“From where?” She sniffed at the van. “The engine?”
“Smells like wood smoke, if you ask me. Maybe someone’s cold and they started a fire.”
Lainey raised an eyebrow. “Houses up here have fireplaces?”
“Fair number of chimeneas.”
Lainey shrugged it off as they eased Keith out of the van and into the house.
Owen stood at the door, holding it open for Lainey and Jerry to struggle through. One look at Keith unconscious and Owen lost it. He yanked his glasses off his face and use them to point at the three of them. “Is he? Tell me he isn’t—”
“He’s not dead.” Jerry heaved Keith’s limp form onto the couch and staggered back. Gripping his thighs, he sucked in a few lungfuls of air. “Cut his leg and then tried to hide. Had to sap his strength dragging himself out of the way like that. Passed out from the pain, is my guess.”
Bear limped over to his owner, favoring his left front side.
“What happened to him?”
“Bat to the shoulder.” Lainey followed Bear, making sure the animal made it onto the couch to lie beside Keith without too much trouble. “He attacked a guy on the street.”
“One of the thugs who broke in here?”
Lainey wished she could say yes. “I don’t know.”
“So he just went after him?”
Lainey’s heart picked up, beating in anxious rhythm. Everything happened so fast. She hadn’t had a single minute to process what she’d done. Was he dead? Dying? Had she really killed a man? Owen’s questions didn’t help. She sucked in a breath and let it out in a huff. “I can’t believe Bear would do that.”
“But you don’t know?”
Lainey hesitated, fighting in vain to maintain her composure. “I couldn’t let him hurt Bear. Not again.”
Owen tilted his head. “What are you saying?”
“She shot the bastard.” Jerry checked the lock on the front door before moving to the windows and confirming the locks were secure and the blinds down. “We have to assume they’ll be coming for us.” He strode across the house, extinguishing the lantern propped on the coffee table as he went.
Owen stood in the middle of the room, saying nothing. At least without the light, his expression remained hidden.
Lainey called out to Jerry in the kitchen. “Do you have any first aid supplies?”
“I don’t know if they left us any, but you can check. Would be in the pantry.”
After a quick check of Keith and Bear, Lainey felt her way to the kitchen. Jerry sat on a stool, one finger pulling down the blind to the back door. He squinted into the night.
“Thank you for coming with me.” Lainey’s voice sounded quiet and far away, almost childlike.
“Of course. Just wish we’d found him sooner.”
So did she. Lainey ducked her head and pressed her fingers to her eyelids. Breaking down wasn’t an option. Keith and Bear needed her. She pulled out a mini-flashlight and used it to search the pantry. Nothing. The best she could cobble together was a quarter bottle of vodka and one of Jerry’s old T-shirts. Clean cotton beat Keith’s blood-soaked pants any day.
She headed back to the couch and set to work, ripping Keith’s pants away to expose the cut. The tissue around the wound swelled hot and puffy and blood oozed from the gash. Bits of glass still stuck to Keith’s skin and Lainey grimaced as she poured the vodka over the gaping wound.
Keith groaned.
“If I’d known all it would take to wake you up was a bit of pain, I’d have tried that earlier.” Lainey picked a piece of glass off Keith’s skin and he tried to pull away. “Stop that. You’ll make it worse.”
“What the—” He came to, blinking back the dark and palming his face with a meaty, discombobulated hand. “Where are we?”
“Jerry’s. You passed out. We found you and hauled you back here.” Lainey shook her head. “Bear found you.”
Keith shifted and placed a hand on Bear’s back. The dog growled, soft but clear. “Hey, buddy. What’s wrong?”
“He attacked a man out on the sidewalk.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“A kid from the apartment?” Keith struggled to sit up. “Someone else?”
“We were still with you in the backyard, trying to get you upright. We got hung up on the gate when Bear took off. By the time I got out there, he’d pinned the guy on the ground.”
“If he pinned him, how’d did he get hurt?” Keith blinked a few times, still pushing back the confusion of blacking out.
Lainey dabbed at his wound while she spoke, hoping to distract him with the pain. “Baseball bat.”
Keith stared at her for a long moment as she continued to work on his leg. She plucked another piece of glass from the wound, but he didn’t even wince.
“A. Baseball. Bat.” Keith enunciated each word. “You let my dog be attacked by a man with a bat? He could have died.”
The words hurt not because they were harsh, but because they were true. She’d stood there and watched while that guy swung the bat. She let Bear get hurt. If she’d shot first… If she hadn’t hesitated. “I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t want to shoot an innocent man.”
“No one who swings a bat at a golden retriever is innocent.”
Lainey wiped at her face, thankful for the darkness.
“Why was he even with you? He was safe here.”
“He hopped in the van. I wasn’t thinking straight. I—”
“You could have left him in the vehicle.”
He was right about everything. Tears fell hot and fast on Lainey’s cheeks before dribbling down to land on her borrowed pants. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t—”
“Lay off, Keith.” Jerry’s voice echoed from the kitchen. “Lainey took the first clear shot available. Hit him square in the chest. The jerk’s probably bleeding out all over the street as we speak.”
She covered her mouth with the back of her hand as more tears fell and snot leaked out her nose. Bear shifted toward her and nuzzled her hand. A sob escaped her lips. “I’m so sorry, Keith.”
“Can he walk?” The words came out clipped and bitter.
She focused on the facts. “He’s favoring his left front shoulder.”
“We need a vet.”
“You need stitches.”
“I’d settle for sleeping pills for both of you.” Jerry strode into the living room and approached a front window. “I can’t hear a thing.” He lifted the blinds high enough to reach the window crank and opened it a fraction.
The stench of smoke assaulted Lainey’s nose and eyes and she blinked.
Keith coughed. “Where’s that coming from?”
Jerry shut the window in a hurry. “Out front, but I don’t see anything.”
“It smelled like smoke when we pulled in, but not like that.” Lainey turned toward Jerry. “There’s nothing out there? No neighbor burning trash?”
“Not that I can see.”
Owen clicked a flashlight on and headed toward the front bedroom. A moment later, he called out. “Hey guys?”
“What is it now?” Jerry sounded like an exhausted parent after a long day.
He returned a moment later, flashlight bouncing across his face as he held it up. “It’s not sunrise for another hour, right?”
“Your point?”
He glanced back at the bedroom. “Then I think we have a serious problem.”
Chapter Twenty-One
KEITH
Jerry’s House
Altadena, CA
Thursday, 5:30 a.m. PST
Keith shifted on the couch. His leg burned with the pain from the vodka and the air hitting his open
wound. Blood oozed from the massive gash. He leaned forward and peered at the weeping flesh. Not good. From his estimates, it would take twenty stitches, maybe more.
How much blood had he lost? If he moved too quickly, the room stayed behind and it took a moment for his vision to catch up.
Bear moved beside him and a pang of fear gripped Keith’s heart. Had the dog broken a bone? Sprained his shoulder? Something worse? He’d been harsh to Lainey, too harsh, he knew. But putting the dog in danger just to find him wasn’t worth it. He’d rather have bled out on the grass and kept Bear safe.
Lainey moved away, wiping her face with her sleeve as she followed Owen into the bedroom to eye whatever he’d found.
Jerry took the opportunity to perch on the edge of the couch. “I meant what I said.”
“About?”
“You know what. That woman risked her life to go back and find you and when she got there you were gone. If you’d stayed put, Bear never would have left the van.”
“I don’t follow.”
“We searched all over for you. When we had no luck, Lainey pulled Bear out of the van and told him to find you. He did. If it weren’t for Lainey, you’d be stuck out there all alone.”
Keith frowned. “You should have left me and kept Bear out of it.”
“Right. And you would have what, revived and walked all the way back to my place on your own two feet?” Jerry crossed his arms, content to have spoken his mind.
Keith shifted and pain shot through his leg. As much as he hated to admit it, the older man spoke the truth. Walking with an open, bleeding gash wasn’t possible. Doing so with the threat of armed kids on his tail even more unlikely. He only wished no harm had come to Bear. He reached out and ran his thumbs over Bear’s forehead as Owen and Lainey rushed back into the room.
“Owen’s right.” Lainey’s voice was cut with fear. “There’s a fire. Looks massive.”
Jerry stood up with a start. “A wildfire?” He rushed into the bedroom and Owen followed.
Lainey hung back, across the living room from Keith. He could barely make her out in the dark, but it didn’t take Superman’s vision to see she was upset.
