Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
The moment she was at my side, I started to jog, too.
My jog turned into a run when I got to the trailhead and couldn’t find her in either direction.
The only thing that led me right was the sound of Lou’s claws clicking somewhere farther to the left than where I could see.
“Shit,” I muttered to myself, and headed that direction.
I didn’t have to run far before I came to a sudden halt.
If I hadn’t seen what I did with my own eyes, I would think that there was something seriously fucked up about this situation and turn around.
Yet I knew Katy…ish, and I knew that if she was of sound mind, she wouldn’t be standing in a field with mud up to her ankles, surrounded by fucking deer.
Yes, that was right. Surrounded by deer.
She was standing in a field, mud staining her white nightgown from her ankles to the ground, and she was looking at me blankly.
Almost as if I’d interrupted her.
Was she sleepwalking?
“Katy?” I called, placing my hand down on both dogs’ heads.
They were each quivering in excitement. I doubted that either one had been this close to a wild animal before, and German Shepherds were curious by nature.
This was likely unheard of for them to remain still while there was such a delicious distraction standing only feet away from them.
“Katy,” I repeated again.
She didn’t move a muscle. Not a twitch. Not a deep inhale. Nothing.
She just stood there, looking ominous.
“Stay,” I called to Sister.
I didn’t know if Lou would follow my directions or not, but I was going to pray that he would.
Because if he spooked these deer, they could literally tear Katy apart if they weren’t careful.
Luckily the moment I moved toward them, my booted foot sinking all the way past my ankle in the mud, they started to turn and walk away.
Not run, either.
It was almost as if they knew that the dogs were being good just because they weren’t running away, because had they ran, I was sure that the dogs’ alpha instincts would have taken over and they’d have pursued whether they wanted to or not.
That was a dog’s nature—and specifically, a German Shepherd’s in particular.
My other foot sank into the mud, and I was within arm’s length of Katy when she started walking toward me, again not noticing that I was inches away from her before she hit me smack in the chest.
The moment she felt my body, something inside of her seemed to break, because she started to scream.
And scream.
And scream.
Blood-curdling—I’m about to die—screams.
I placed my hand over her mouth and whispered softly in her ear, telling her who I was in a vain attempt at calming her down.
She didn’t.
The only thing I could think to do was let her go, and the moment she was back on solid ground, and my hands were off of her, she stopped.
It was like a light was switched off, because the moment I was no longer near her, her voice stopped the awful racket, and she started back the way she’d come as if she hadn’t just scared the absolute shit out of me.
Lou looked at me accusingly, and I shook my head.
“I didn’t do a damn thing to her, boy,” I told him. “You saw me.”
He gave a rumbled growl and started back in the direction of where Katy was now walking—now back up the steps that led to the apartments.
“Hey, Mama,” a voice called out from ahead of me.
“Leave her alone,” I growled.
My growl was offset by the dogs at my sides, and the man that’d just spoken so suggestively toward Katy held his hands up in surrender.
“Just seeing what all the racket was about, man. No harm, no foul.”
I could tell he’d thought that I’d done something to the woman, and it sickened me that he wasn’t going to call the police or tell someone that he thought there might be a crime being committed.
Fucking gross, filthy piece of trash.
I made a mental note to look for the man tomorrow but didn’t dwell on anything as I made my way back up the stairs and followed Katy back to her apartment.
The moment she was inside, she collapsed onto her bed, mud and all, and was deathly still moments later.
Mother. Fucker.
The moment I walked into her bedroom, I wondered what I should do. Should I leave her like that and go back to my apartment? Should I leave her at all?
I chose to stay. It might be a really bad idea, but for now, I wasn’t comfortable leaving her by herself. I needed to know if this was an isolated episode, or if this was something that happened all the time, and to do that, I had to wait until she was up.
***
“What’s going on?”
She sat up in bed, and I was worried that this was another episode.