Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 45284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Buckie yaps when I make him stay, sitting on the opposite side of the yard, a line of drool sliding from his mouth as he stares at the treat in my hand. I’m moving slowly backward, telling him, “Stay, boy, stay…” His legs are twitching in terrier tremors, like he’s on the verge of leaping into action.
“Wow,” Luna says, her voice full of awe that can’t help but cause pride to whelm in me.
I don’t think about the men on the other side of the waist-high fence, two of them yelling loudly as they wrestle, the older man in the wife beater laughing harshly as they roll around. Most of them are drinking, chugging their beers like their lives depend on it.
I glance at Luna, her eyes wide, her smile wide too… and gorgeous as she stares.
It’s easy to think about all the beauty we’re going to share, all the heat and the love, all the closeness as she smiles at me on our wedding day. Or all shiny and sweaty after she’s given me her first child.
“Go, boy,” I say, gesturing at Buckie.
He springs across the yard, yapping happily as I offer him the treat. “That’s a good boy. That’s it. Well done.”
“Good girl, more like,” somebody calls over the fence.
I stand up, my body tensing, like suddenly there’s a structure in front of me ready to be cleared. It’s a structure I’m going to have to work with my dog, my Sergeant, to make safe, clearing the rooms… with my beast to make safe.
But I’m alone. No dog. Just the bullets in my head, the rage between my ears, as this asshole makes a comment about my woman. It’s the man with the bright blond hair, grinning like he’s proud of himself.
Luna’s on her feet, arms folded. Her expression is like somebody’s cutting at her mood, slicing at it like they hate her, wanting to hurt her.
“So funny, Dirk,” she says. “Ha, ha, ha. Leave us alone.”
“Easy, darling. I’m just showing a healthy interest in the local wildlife.”
When I take a step forward, Buckie growls at my side, like he’s ready to charge into combat. There’s a synergy that happens between dog and man when the war starts, and I feel it now with Buckie, the primal pulsing in me telling me it’s time to go to battle. To get some. To make this work. To burn the bastards.
“Don’t fret, old man. I was talking about the dog. Not the lady.”
“Hey, hold up there!”
It’s only the sight of the older man in the wife beater that pulls me up short. I didn’t even realize I’d sprinted right at the fence. I stop suddenly, Buckie yapping around my legs, eager to help me in whatever happens next. That’s one of the most beautiful things about dogs. Once they decide they like you, they’ll follow you wherever you go, even into hell.
“Let’s all just calm down,” the older man says, looking at the younger one with his bright blond hair and his cocky smile.
Even the younger man frowns and takes a small step back.
I must be giving off some major don’t-mess-with-me vibes if they’re responding like this so soon. I can’t stand the thought of them speaking to my woman that way, thinking they have any right to address her with anything but respect. My fists clench, my body twitching savagely as instinct tries to send me right through the fence.
“We don’t want any trouble,” the older man says.
Luna huffs from beside me, drawing my gaze. She’s closer than I realized, Buckie in her arms, the energetic dog squirming around as he tries to get free.
“What is it?” I ask her, my woman with her gorgeously messy hair.
“Nothing.”
“What?” I say, voice firmer.
There’s the violence buried inside of me, nestled deep but bubbling like a volcano, ready to explode out of me as hot fire.
I’m keeping myself contained, I think… but everybody is looking at me like I could blow. They must be able to sense I’m different.
“When we go in, we finish it,” Connor said to me once, his face dusty with dirt and a streak of red across his forehead. “We don’t do half measures.”
“It’s just… come on, Jodi,” Luna says, looking at the man in the wife beater. “You’re always giving me a hard time for no reason, and you, Noah, every time you come over. I’m happy to live and let live. I don’t need to even talk with you.”
“Calm down, missy,” Jodi says, waving his hand.
I step close to the fence, stopping whatever else Jodi was going to say. The men cringe away. There are far more of them than me. I’m surprised they look so afraid, but they must see the darkness in me. The pain is ready to blow every second of every day, and I’m just holding on with everything I have.