Chapter 33 Jagg
JAGG
Moonlight shimmered off her hair as she stared back at me, cheeks flushed.
She felt it too.
Whatever had just happened between us was mutual. I knew it in my bones.
A second passed as I debated a flurry of half-formed actions through my head.
One, pulling her into my arms and kissing her again.
Two, tearing off her clothes and making love to her right there on the riverbank.
Along with these erotic thoughts, I felt the unprecedented desire to ask her if what had just happened was okay.
Should I apologize? Had I gone too far? Was she going to turn me in for inappropriate behavior?
The world around me slowly began to register again.
The rushing water, the evening breeze, the break-in at her house.
I inhaled and broke the silence by getting back on track with the reason we were standing on the riverbank in the first place, a reason that somehow seemed less impactful than what just happened between us.
“You have no other dogs on your property, right?” I asked, a tremor in my voice giving away the fact that I had not fully recovered from the kiss.
“Right.” She replied quickly, thankful for the change of subject. Apparently I wasn’t the only one thrown off. Good. That made me feel better.
“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen now. We’re going to go back up to the house and I want you to go directly into my Jeep. The police will be here soon. Don’t enter the house, don’t touch anything. Get in the Jeep and stay there. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she responded without a fight, much to my surprise. “But my dogs…”
I looked at the cages and opened my mouth—
“No. Jagg, I’m not locking them up and leaving them down here. If you want to put them in the cages, I stay with them. Or, they come with me. Those are your two options.”
There she was. That hot-headed, stubborn Sunny I knew. Damn it all to hell.
“Fine. They can come up too, but they don’t go into the house either. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“Will they stay with you? By your side? I repeat, they cannot go in the house.”
“Yes. I promise.” She grabbed a handful of leashes from a box hanging on the side of the cage. “I’ll tie them up next to your Jeep, next to me.”
“Are you sure because I don’t want to have to deal with—”
“I got it.” She snapped, squaring her shoulders.
“Okay.” It was then that I realized that Sunny was more of a partner than a victim at that moment. I could count on her to do as I said, not fall apart, not cause extra strain and stress on a crime scene.
The respect, tripled.
The sexual attraction, ten-fold.
“Alright. Let’s go.”
I started down the riverbank but when I didn’t hear steps behind me, I stopped and turned back. Sunny was staring at Brutus.
“What’s wrong?”
She looked at me,” I… ah…” then back at the pit. “I don’t know what to do here.”
“With what?”
“I don’t let Brutus run with the pack. Like I said, he’s a loose cannon, and if he attacked—”
“Game over?”
She nodded. “Exactly. Not even Thena could hold her own against his weight and jaws, especially at her age. Although she’d put up a hell of a fight.”
“I don’t doubt that.”
We stared at the mutt, his gaze locking on mine as it always seemed to when I was close.
“I’ll take him.” I said.
“You’ll what?” She gaped.
“I’ll let you guys go ahead and we’ll come up a minute later.”
“I… no.”
“You think I can’t hold my own against those jaws?”
“I have no doubt you can’t.”
“Well. Challenge accepted then.” I focused on the dog, but didn’t stretch out my hand. We were about to find out if two alpha males could make it up a hill together.
“No, Jagg, listen. It’s not time to be all macho male. If anything happened…”
“Don’t worry. I won’t sue you.”
“Gee, thanks, but that’s not what I meant.” She heaved out a breath. “Fine.”
“Good.” I handed her my gun. “Take this.”
“I don’t need it.”
“Take it or this isn’t happening. We left yours in the house. As long as you don’t wield it like a damn sword this time, take it.”
She rolled her eyes, then stuffed it into her waistband. “You’ll have to be slower with Brutus. His shoulder wears quickly.”
“We’ll be fine. I’ll be less than ten seconds behind you. If you see anyone, shoot. This is your land, your home, your dogs. Protect it.”
Her eyes narrowed into steely strength. She nodded.
My heart kicked.
Damn, this woman. I was falling. Hard.
“Go.” I said, despite all the things on the tip of my tongue. “Go.”
She stepped past me, commanding Athena, Tango, and Max to follow. I scanned the woods ahead of her, wanting to be by her side but knowing she wouldn’t leave Brutus alone. She had her gun and her guard dogs. She was going to make it up that hill.
I turned to Brutus, still standing in his cage and doing what he did best, staring into my damn soul.
“Okay. Brutus. My name is Max—actually, Jagg. Here’s what’s going to happen.”
The dog blinked slowly, unimpressed.
“You’re going to follow me up the hill, calmly, nicely, staying at least two feet away from my nuts and my jugular. In that order. Got it?”
He glanced at Sunny in the distance, then back at me.
“I might not have a mouth full of fangs but I’ve got some jujitsu moves that will wrap your balls around your neck quicker than you can say the word neuter.” I was selling myself to a dog. And also—what was my obsession with balls?
I checked Sunny’s silhouette fading into the tree line.
“Alright, kid, it’s go time.” I unlocked the gate and pushed it open. “I don’t know Sunny’s commands, but… come. Follow. Whatever. Don’t eat me.”
I turned my back on him in a ridiculous act to prove my fearlessness, then started walking. After a few steps, I glanced back and almost jumped when I realized the thing was right on my heels. I hadn’t even heard his paws against the rocks. The dog truly was like a phantom ghost.
We started up the hill, my head on a swivel, my focus ahead where Sunny was making her way up. My boot caught a root and I stumbled, causing a blow of pain through my back. I glanced back at Brutus, now three feet behind me, his head hanging low, a slight limp in his step.
I kept moving.
“Fight through it.” I grit my teeth, addressing the dog as much as myself. “Fight through the pain.”
I glanced back again. His limp was worse.
“We don’t do pain, Brutus. Push it aside and keep moving. Pain is for pussies. You’re no pussy. I’m no pussy. Fight it.”
I swear he snarled as he lifted his head, but I’ll be damned if his pace didn’t quicken. I slowed, though, scanning the woods from side to side so he wouldn’t think I was doing it for him. A few seconds later, he caught up and was by my side again.
“I’ve decided I’m going to call you Brute.” I looked down at him.
“Why, you ask? Because two syllable names are for pussies, too. Max, Jagg, Brute. One syllable. Strong. Manly.” We walked a moment. “Don’t tell Sunny about that two syllable comment.”
His limping had deepened and I had to fight from kneeling down to check him out, or even scooping him into my arms.
We crested the hill and stepped out of the woods, where Sunny was staring up at the word CUNT sprayed-painted across her back windows.
She glanced over her shoulder as we approached.
My heart broke at the pain in her eyes.
Together, we stood silent, gazing up at her vandalized home, four dogs at our feet.
“Who would do this?” She whispered in disbelief.
I chose my next words carefully. It was time.
“You said you left the dogs in the house, right? When you went to Gino’s to pick up dinner, you left them inside your house?”
“Yes. I always leave them in when I go anywhere. Excluding Brutus, during the daytime only. Like I said, he stays in the cage and I bring him up before bed.”
I let her comment linger, wondering if she’d come to the same conclusion I had.
She did. Smart woman.
“Oh my God.”
I didn’t say anything, wanting to hear it from her own mouth. Honestly, a part of me hoped she’d have a different conclusion, a different opinion. But I knew in my gut, there was only one. And it unnerved the hell out of me.
“The inside of my house was vandalized. My dogs would have attacked anyone who stepped foot past my front door.” She gasped, looking back at the house, then to me, her eyes round with fear. “Jagg. At least one of my dogs knew whoever did this.”
I looked at her, that knife in my gut twisting deeper.
“It’s time to talk about your attack in Dallas, Sunny. It’s time to tell me about your ex-boyfriend.”
“Why?”
“Because Kenzo Rees was just released from prison.”