Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“Help!”
We all turned to see a man walking out of the trail with his hands scrubbing at his eyes. “I’m hurt really bad! Someone attacked me.”
“Is this him?” Creed asked.
Constance moved to put herself behind Creed.
Which made me irrationally angry, seeing as my mind thought that I should be the one she looked to for protection.
“What’s going on?” Major asked what we were all thinking.
The man with red eyes stepped out of the trailhead and made a move toward what I assumed was his car, but it also happened to be close to Sage.
Sage’s dog growled, low and menacingly.
Which, of course, set Peanut off to baying.
“Shhh,” I said, patting Peanut’s head. “The grownups are talking.”
Constance snorted.
“Someone better tell me what in the fuck is going on!” Major barked.
The baying started up again.
I clamped Peanut’s mouth shut with my hand and said, “Coco?”
Constance sighed. “I guess I’ll explain everything.”
When she was done, I was going around her car with a wand that Major had somehow produced from nowhere. Creed was looking like he’d sucked on a lemon, and Major was standing stone-faced with his arms crossed over his chest.
Black arrived just as I reached the back of the vehicle, and the wand started going off.
Major and Creed closed in as Black’s cruiser door closed and his footsteps sounded in the gravel of the parking lot behind me.
I reached under the SUV and started to feel around with my hand.
My fingers caught on a small object, and I pulled it off.
“Tracker,” Black confirmed when I brought it up for everyone to see.
Major gave him a quick run-down of everything that Constance had shared, and his face darkened.
As I stood up, my knees protested, popping and cracking as I righted myself.
“Did you find something?” Constance called.
I looked at her over my shoulder and spotted her on the bench with Peanut practically in her lap.
I was glad to see them getting along.
Even gladder to see that she wasn’t scared of dogs after the dog attack this morning.
What a day she was having…
“Oh, shoot.”
My brows rose. “What?”
“I need to tell my mom where I’m at, or she’ll freak.” She immediately pulled her phone out of her coat pocket and placed it to her ear.
The snow started to fall a little bit heavier around us, but none of us paid it much mind as Black took the tracker and examined it.
His gaze flicked up to pepper spray dude, also known as Otto Montgomery.
Black’s feet moved, and he was standing next to Otto in the next moment, looking down at him.
“Why did you put a tracker on her car?” Black asked.
Otto’s eyes flicked over to Constance and his face whitened. “Uh, well…”
“Stalking, harassment, and invasion of privacy are serious crimes. In this state, they can also be classified as a felony,” Black said. “Tell me what I want to know.”
Otto grimaced. “It was just a job. I responded to an ad.”
“What kind of ad?” Black pushed.
He looked at Constance again as if he was imploring her to answer. “Well, are we going to clear this up, or are we going to pretend like you didn’t want this?”
Constance blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
Otto threw his hands up. “You and your boyfriend need to let them know what’s going on!”
Sixteen
Being an adult is like folding a fitted sheet.
—Constance to her mom
Constance
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, weirdo. But I can assure you I didn’t contact you. Nor did my boyfriend, seeing as I don’t have a boyfriend.”
The man who’d been following me looked shocked and his face went slack.
His eyes looked horrible from where I’d sprayed him with the bear spray.
I didn’t feel badly, though. Not with how he’d been about to shoot Possum.
Speaking of Possum, he was currently in the tree above me, refusing to come down because of the dog currently using my lap as a napping spot.
He was giving the dog the stink eye, offended that someone had dared to take his place.
Remembering that I still had another dead fish in my bag, I reached into it, pulled it out, and tossed it into the air in front of me.
Possum swooped down in the middle of everyone, caught it, then disappeared back into his tree to eat.
The silence was deafening as everyone processed what had just happened.
“What, exactly, was that?” Sheriff Black asked.
“The reason I reacted as badly as I did,” Creed muttered. He turned to me. “I’m sorry, by the way. I also can’t believe I haven’t met you yet, seeing as I’ve sent no less than a dozen animals to y’all since y’all got here.”
I waved his apology away. “It’s understandable.”
Black went back to his questioning of the man who’d followed me.
“Start from the beginning,” Black urged. “And don’t leave anything out.”
The man shifted in his seat, went to reach for his eyes, but stopped himself before he could start rubbing them again.