I’ve got no problem being alone, but being alone in someone else’s house is new. Not in a good way. I walk through the kitchen, wondering if someone is coming back, but from a window, I get a glimpse of the outside world. The weather is as bad as the note suggested, and the vehicle lights fading down the driveway only confirm what I know.
Sergey Petrov just fucking deserted me—taking his girlfriends, his second-in-command, his fucking staff—during a goddamn snowstorm. What a gutless prick.
In a perverse way, though, a small rush of relief and happiness chases away some of my fear. Some. Because while this house is gorgeous, it’s also big, and I don’t know the noises it makes or where anything is.
I focus on getting some much-needed rest, like it’s my little reward for being brave. The first thing I’m going to have to do is check that I’m safe, and that means pretty much working through every room, opening every cupboard, because then I know nothing is going to jump out and scare me.
Starting in the kitchen, I try the door handle to outside and have to lock it using the key left in the lock, then the deadbolt above it. I check the window, too, since it’s right there.
It takes a long time, but I work through the staff’s side of the house and find myself in the part of the house where it changes from a work zone to a home. Nalla stays with me, not making a noise, but her friend has disappeared. Though it’s nice having company, I’m also glad she doesn’t talk; the silence is golden.
I kind of figure since she’s a guard dog, she’ll go ballistic if she thinks something isn’t right, so I get bolder with each room we clear. Which might be why, when we get to the entrance, I fling open the double doors. I have no clue what I was expecting to find, but it certainly isn’t the Arctic blast that nearly knocks me off my feet.
The cold here is fucking glacial, unlike the “cold” back home, and the sky is as bleak as shit. It’s really hard to figure out the time of day because so much of the light is lost under a blanket of heavy, dark clouds.
I get distracted wondering if it is night or day and shiver my butt off when something shifts on the very edge of my periphery. I go to take a step outside to investigate further when I’m physically stopped by both dogs.
The black one does his shadow walking thing again, scaring the shit out of me when he appears from nowhere to stand in front of me with the other one. They make me stop and see what is now coming our way.
Dogs burst out of bushes, and from around places I couldn’t see, swarming closer by the second. These are the dogs people warn you about—bullmastiffs, pit bulls, and Rottweilers, all as big as ponies and acting wild.
They come in so fast, my head is still stuck on figuring out why there’s so many and what is going on, but eventually my fearcatches up and I start hauling ass. I don’t have much ground to make up, but it’s going to be down to the wire.
“In. Now!” I scream at both the dogs next to me.
Though the black dog flicks his ear, a sign he heard, he doesn’t move his hairy ass. I thought Nalla heard me, too, but instead of following me in, she does a spin so fast I get dizzy watching her, and then she’s off, charging down the stairs.
With my head in the game, I’m acutely aware I need to save myself, but I feel torn knowing Nalla is out there. I fling myself past the stupid double doors and start trying to close one of them as the sounds of a vicious dog attack ring out. While Nalla is going into battle, by the sound of it, the winds start howling and icy snow, or maybe it’s hail, hitting Sergey’s house from all angles, adding to the intensity.
I manage to shut one door and lock it down using the floor bolts and start to put my weight behind the second door. A lucky lull in the wind means this one is much easier, and before it shuts, I scream through the opening to the outside like a banshee. “NALLA, INSIDE, NOW!”
My throat hurts, and I’ve never been so assertive, but I needed to be loud to be heard over the howling wind and the fighting dogs.
The black dog is so close, I can feel his fur brushing against my leg. I take a step to block him from racing outside, but the fucker nips my hand. I go to give him a mouthful, but a flash of color has me widening the gap to let Nalla through.
I slam the other door shut even before I make sure she’s inside, my foot stomping on the bottom latch, my hand pushing another latch upward at the same time I flick the lock, so the door shuts properly. She yaps, and I’m worried I caught her tail. But she’s not yapping at me. The black dog’s hackles are raised, and he makes the loudest roaring sound I’ve heard in my life.
It stops me dead in my tracks, and I start looking for a new place to hide to avoid another dogfight. They circle each other, darting in and out—there’s teeth flashing, fur flying, and the noise is as intimidating as the wild dogs outside.
And then, when it’s getting louder and faster, Nalla drops her head and her legs collapse under her. The black dog keeps dashing in, past her, nipping at her, barking in her face.
I think she’s hurt, but I force myself to watch them until what I’m seeing makes sense. She submitted to him, and he’s still fucking pissed off and amped up, but it’s burning out fast and the nips change. She closes her eyes, and he rushes forward, licking over her snout and face.
He’s wound up and feisty still, but it’s coming from a place of utter terror because the big guy absolutely adores and idolizes her.
I’ve never been so jealous of another living thing in my life.
Chapter Fourteen
KADE
“Jesus, it’s a fucking blizzard. Are you going to be able to land?” I have to yell.
The straining sound of the engine is high-pitched and constant, I’ve got a pounding headache.
We flew into a shit storm, and it’s been a long flight without a break. I think I’m past actually hearing the roar of the wind anymore, but the engine is whining, annoying the crap out of me and making me antsy as hell.
The snow and hail hitting the cockpit from all directions only adds to the noise, twisting all the BS that I’m in over my head whispering through my thoughts like a slow song.
