The dog lifted his head but kept prancing forward as a car came around the curve toward him. Panic seized her chest, releasing its grip only when the vehicle slowed and turned down a side street. The too-smart-for-his-own-good canine perked his ears up and looked in that direction. Ohmygosh, he’s blind and following sounds. She had to catch him. She had to. If he got out of the subdivision and found a main road—
She whistled and jumped up and down, hoping her feet would smack the pavement and divert his attention. “Charlie!” He turned and took three slow steps toward her.
Good boy! She whistled again and patted the front of her thighs.
The long-legged retriever mix lowered his head, wiggled his raised butt, barked, and darted in the opposite direction.
“No, no, no!” Spider immediately gave chase, hollering his name as often as her winded lungs could manage.
He thought they were playing a game. Oh, for the love of—!
At least the dog was running in circles, not straying outside the neighborhood. She had no idea how long they ran up and down the suburban street lined with a mixture of classic Georgian, English cottage and modern-styled houses. It was mid-morning, and no one had come outside to see what she was blabbering on about. Geez. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. What kind of neighbors were these?
Honestly, she would have been thrilled if someone had called the cops on her. Maybe then she could at least get help.
“Char…Char…Charlie!” Winded, she had to slow down until she was barely moving at all. Hands on her thighs, leaning over, she watched helpless as Charlie plowed headfirst into a neighbor’s bushes. Startled, he hunched low and took slow, careful steps around the hedge. His tongue dangled out of his mouth, but otherwise, he looked ready to resume his marathon sprint. What the heck did Hannah feed that dog? Crack cocaine?
One step. Two steps. Spider inched closer. Charlie turned, and she used all of her reserves to leap toward him.
Yes! Their bodies collided, and she rolled with him onto the grass, the forty-pound dog using her as his personal cushion, not that she cared. Not as long as she had a tight grip on him.
She laughed in triumph and then groaned when a wet tongue found her mouth. Ewww. Disgusting. Doggy slobber. So gross.
It took a few more minutes of her wrangling him on the neighbor’s lawn to get into a position where she actually could pick him up. New rule. The dogs were going to wear their leashes twenty-four seven while they were under her watch.
She’d once thought she might like to have a dog, but uh uh. Not anymore. Cats were sooo much easier than dogs.
The two of them lumbered back to the house and collapsed together inside the fenced yard. Oh, thank heaven. Now she just had to figure out how to get back inside the locked home she was supposed to be protecting.
Chest heaving, she lie sprawled in the grass for a few minutes, thinking about it.
Man, she had to pee.
Pushing herself up on her elbows, she considered each of the windows. She’d already checked most of them except for a few. Her gaze fell on one. The bathroom. Had she locked it back after cracking it open last night when someone whose name rhymed with Costello had pooped mushy stuff in the floor?
Remind her to never give him part of her burrito again. Ever.
Struggling to her feet, she glared at Charlie as she made her way to that side of the house. He was happily prancing about the yard again as if the past hour had never happened. Insane dog.
Spider nearly burst into tears when she saw through the pane that the window wasn’t latched. Yes! She pushed it up as far as she could, lifted herself up, and…
Holy blazes!
A pulsating siren startled her so much she squealed and fell backwards, landing flat on her butt in the grass.
“Oh, no, no, no.” The house’s high-tech smart alarm system was programmed to automatically arm itself after fifteen minutes if the doors and windows remained inactive. Zach had warned of that at least a dozen times. It was a new system he was testing for clients of his private security firm.
It took Spider a few tries to pull herself up so her waist was aligned with the windowsill. A pair of almond-shaped eyes were there waiting for her when she did. Perched on the sink, Abbott’s black and white feline body was drawn back and ready to spring as he stared at the opening in the window.
“No!” Spider yelled at him as she grappled to lift her left leg up. “Don’t even think about it, mister.”
With a growl, the cat took a leap in the opposite direction and darted through the bathroom doorway as she managed to get her leg over the windowsill. She was half in and half out. Basically. Almost. Her foot was inside the bathroom anyway. That was progress.
“Hello?” a man’s deep voice called from not too far away. “Everything okay back there?”
Oh, for the love of Pete.
Straddling the window, Spider wiggled, trying to swing her other leg over and into the bathroom. Much harder to do than she’d expected. Her left side was pressed to the pane of glass on the outside of the house. No matter how hard she pushed, she couldn’t get the window to raise high enough to let her maneuver inside.
The house phone began ringing, and seconds later, the alarm stopped. Well, that was something at least.
Furry legs grabbed onto Spider’s calf inside the house.
“Hello?” the man called again.
“Uh, yeah! We’re okay.” Still trying to shove the window up, she glanced down and saw Costello humping away at her leg.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
She tried to jostle the dog off, which only managed to get her stuck in a more awkward position. Uh. She was wedged in there pretty good now.
The back fence moved inward. Spider reached a hand out and screamed, “Don’t let the dog out!”
A man she didn’t recognize grabbed Charlie’s collar just as the dog ran toward the gate. That dog must have some superpower for detecting openings he couldn’t see. She’d swear her life on it. Her body sagged against the window frame on a loud sigh of relief that he hadn’t escaped again.
The stranger snapped the gate shut behind him and gave Charlie a generous rub on both ears. Spider snorted when the dog lapped the man’s face with his tongue. Some guard dogs these two were.
“Are you sure you don’t need help?”
Seriously? He wanted to help her now?
The guy lifted his delicious chocolate gaze, which widened when it found her. He swore. “Are you stuck in the window?”
She stifled a groan. He would have to be a total hottie, wouldn’t he?
Please, someone shoot me now.
Noah West rubbed the playful dog behind its ears and considered the sight before him.
Young woman, scantily dressed. Half in, half out of the window at a house where he knew she didn’t live.
He probably should have called the cops like he’d almost done when he’d looked out the window and seen the unfamiliar redhead chasing the dog up and down the street. He’d been sleeping when he’d heard someone yelling “Chaaarrrlie!” over and over outside his bedroom window. By the time he’d fumbled into his jeans and found a shirt, his neighbor’s alarm had been shrieking out the formula for a migraine.
He lifted a hand and scratched at the heavy stubble on his cheek.
He’d had a late night—something that was becoming more and more common lately—or else he wouldn’t have been home right now. He wished he hadn’t been home right now.
For one, his house gave him the creeps, and he wasn’t even convinced the sounds he’d been hearing, the objects he’d seen moving, meant he was roommates with Casper the not-so-friendly ghost. There was always a logical explanation for that stuff, but until he figured out what it was, he preferred to avoid the place. For another, he needed to be working right now, not playing hero to a young damsel in distress.
He cleared his throat and approached cautiously. She’d probably locked herself out, but you never knew.<
br />
“Name’s Noah. I live across the street.”
Her body was shaking unnaturally, as if she were having spasms or doing something really, really naughty with that windowsill. He was afraid to ask.
“Spider.”
He jerked back. “Where? What kind?”
“No, my name is Spider. I’m a friend of Zach and Hannah’s. I’m house-sitting, and I got locked out.”
He hurried over and shoved the window further up, giving her some extra space to move. Through the opening, he spotted a furry blond mutt humping her other leg.
A startled bark of laughter escaped his control. The girl—Spider—narrowed her eyes at him before maneuvering the rest of her body through the widened opening. She tumbled onto the floor with a thump and a squeal.
“You okay?”
She lifted a hand and waved back at him dismissively as she found her feet and scurried out of the room. A few seconds later, the ringing telephone stopped. He could hear her talking, but he couldn’t make out what she said.
The blond mutt’s head popped up in front of him before he could lower the window again. Weird-looking dog, but she sure was cute. He reached a hand up to pet her, but the creature growled and showed a long snout full of some serious-looking teeth.
Whoa. The window slid down with a hiss as Noah jerked his hand back and let it fall. The dog’s barking grew muffled as the animal disappeared into the house.
The back door ripped open, and the ginger-haired girl poked her head out. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine. Thanks for your, um, help.”
He nodded and tried not to stare at her shapely legs when she stepped onto the back deck. She was only wearing skimpy shorts and a tank top that left little to the imagination. Perky breasts pressed against the light green shirt that read “Gamers do it all night.” He focused on her feet. Blue toenails. That was kinda hot.
“Excuse me, sir,” a gruff voice called out. “Do you live here?”
Noah turned and saw a uniformed officer pushing his way through the fence. He reached and constrained the other dog before it had a chance to get out again.
The gray-haired cop’s face was set in grim, stern lines as he approached, one hand hovering over the gun holster at his hip.
“Eeek!”
Both men turned toward the woman who’d made the sound.
“Emma?” the officer asked.
She was doing her best to cover her front with one arm while her other hand tugged the hem of her shorts down. “Hi Jack. How’s it going?” She fidgeted from one foot to the other.
Emma? He thought she’d said her name was Spider.
The officer returned his confused look to Noah. He unsnapped his holster. “This guy bothering you?”
Noah released the dog and stepped back. Last thing he wanted was to give the officer more cause for concern.
“No!” The girl risked a step forward. “He’s a neighbor. He came over to help.” She heaved a sigh. “I got myself locked out and the alarm went off when I was crawling through the window and—”
The officer hiked a thumb in Noah’s direction. “This his house? Does your daddy know you’re here?”
“What?” She shifted a look between the two men. “No. I’m house-sitting for my boss. He just got married and is on his honeymoon.” She gestured toward Noah and spoke her words slowly. “This man is their neighbor. He came over to help. I already told you that.”
Officer Jack settled both hands on his hips, his lips twitching as his gaze looked her up and down. “Got yourself locked out, huh?”
“Please don’t tell my dad.”
“I gotta call this in, kiddo. You know that.”
“Yeah, but do you have to mention my name?”
Noah hooked his thumbs on his belt loops and hung back. If he hadn’t thought the situation interesting before, he was fascinated now.
The officer shook his head, but smiled. “All right. Verify the homeowner’s information for me, and I’ll try to keep your name out of it.”
She rattled off a few details about Hannah Dawson—now Hannah Collins—while the officer scribbled them down. Wasn’t anything Noah didn’t already know. Hannah was a pretty nurse who’d lived here for about a year. Her then boyfriend—husband now—had moved in a couple of months ago.
The cop glanced up and returned his attention to Noah. “I’m gonna need to see your identification, son.”
Clenching his jaw muscles, Noah pulled out his wallet and handed over his driver’s license. He’d had the ID updated a few weeks ago. He matched the dark-haired picture of himself perfectly. While the officer jotted down his information, Noah glanced toward the enticing girl. He tried to guess her age. Late teens, he thought. Cute. Had great legs. Probably jailbait, his luck.
He realized in a fleeting moment of self consciousness that he was behaving like a true male member of the West family, trying to judge how easy it would be to take a woman who’d caught his eye to bed. Well, so what? She had to be at least eighteen if she was staying here alone. This was a woman who stirred his blood, and there was no fighting heredity. Noah intended to find out more about her.
The officer grunted and handed the ID back. “Thanks for coming to help, Mr. West. Why don’t I walk you back to your house now?”
Not that he needed the escort. Didn’t take a genius to read this situation.
Noah tipped his head toward the young woman anyway. “I live in the two-story stone house if you need anything while you’re here. See you around, Spider.”
She flashed him an awkward wave. “Seriously. Thanks for your help!”
Officer Jack followed him to the edge of the yard before saying, “You lived around here long, Mr. West?”
Noah sighed and turned to face the man. Last thing he needed was to capture the attention of a snooping cop. “No. I’m renting the house across the street. Moved in a couple of months ago.”
The cop squinted against the early afternoon sun. “Tell you what. That young woman in there is special. Make sure you don’t get any ideas while she’s here. Got that?”
“Sure.” He held back the smile that would have betrayed the fact it was too late.
“Good.”
The officer started to move away, but Noah couldn’t resist asking, “Her dad is a cop, right?” It was the only thing that made sense. It would be a helluva reason to keep his distance, but then again, he loved a good challenge.
Jack nodded, but a smile played at his mouth as he opened his car door and looked back at Noah. “Not just any cop. Chief of police. You have a good day now, you hear?”
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Copyright © Angela Campbell
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Something Wicked: HarperImpulse Romantic Suspense Page 25
