“A couple of hours.” When she’d graduated from high school she’d moved as far from her father as humanly possible, but somehow over the years, she’d gravitated back toward her hometown and wound up living only a few cities away. Jeremy’s house sat a few miles from hers and she kept it up while he was gone. Not that she needed to worry about thatanymore…
“So, what brings you out here?” Melissaasked.
Audra froze, realizing Melissa was trying to pry information from her. No matter how sympathetic or caring the woman might seem, she was still ultimately on Reaper’s side. “Just passing through, that’s all. I need to be back at work next week, so I’d like to leave before then if possible so I have enough time to get Trigger settledcomfortably.”
“What kind of work do you do?” Melissa continued, still stroking Trigger’s fur but staring up at Audra all thewhile.
“I’m an accountant. Boring job. I promise you this has been more excitement than I’ve had in my entire life.” That part was very, very true. The past two weeks had been so tumultuous, she could barely find her footing. Even now, she struggled for sanity in all theunfairness.
“We’ll see how Trigger is. If you really need to get back to work, he can stay here until he’s well enough to bemoved.”
“No,” Audra responded sharply and then had to bite her tongue. “I mean I can call in, if I needto.”
Shit, she sucked at lying big time. She always had. Jeremy used to tease her when they were teenagers that he could never use her to cover for him when he snuck out to see his girlfriend or hang out with his baseball team. And it wasn’t because he didn’t trust her, she just tended to blabber everything. That was a skill she was going to have to change if she wanted to survive in her newlife.
“You don’t happen to have a shower down here, do you? I’d really like to get cleaned up, and I don’t want to go too far fromTrigger.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have showers down here, but there’s plenty of them in our living quarters. If you’d like, I could show you to the guest room and get you some clothes. You could meet Reaper’sfiancee.”
No way! If she did that, she’d have to leave Trigger down here with those men. Even if Diggs was ultimately on her side, he couldn’t fight them all off. “I really don’t want to go that far from Trigger. Is there any way that you and I could carry him up there with us?” Audra thought frantically trying to come up with a plausible excuse. “If I’m going to be staying here at least for a few more days, I’d like to keep him with me, if that’sokay.”
Melissa tapped her chin, her all-too-knowing eyes studying Audra thoughtfully. “I don’t know if that’s a goodidea.”
Desperation urged Audra’s feet around the table until she was standing right next to the doctor. “Please. I really am scared to leave him. I know you say Reaper’s harmless, but that’s not what I saw. I want to trust your judgment, I really do, but what would it hurt for Trigger to come with me and stay in myroom?”
Melissa pursed her lips together, refraining from answering for so long that Audra was ready to scream. If she said no, she would really have no choice. She’d have to go upstairs, take a shower, and rethink her escape plan. But then, that would give Diggs and his team time to regroup and maybe even figure out more abouther.
“Okay,” Melissa said finally. “I understand that you just met all of us, and that the team can be a little scary looking. I guess we can move him upstairs. But we have to be very careful, do you understand? If we jar him or drop him we really will hurthim.”
Good, Melissa was shifting back into doctor mode, something Audra noticed she seemed to do without thought or awareness. “Of course. I can carry him, Iswear.”
Audra rushed to get the carrier before Melissa could change her mind. Then she just stood there, completely unsure what to do next. Were they supposed to rollhim?
As if sensing her hesitation, Melissa said, “Put it on the table beside him. Then we can use the sheet to move him over. Like this.” Melissa gestured at the table, and moved to the head and picked up the two corners of the sheet. “Like asling.”
Bunching the material around her fists, on the count of three Audra helped lift Trigger over onto the carrier. Melissa strapped him down with the brisk efficiency that clearly spoke of her skill and within minutes they were ready togo.
“I’ll carry the front; you take the back.” Melissa wrapped her hands around the handles on thecarrier.
Crap! They were going to leave without the meds!“Umm, where did you say the antibiotics and anti-inflammatories are? I’ll carry them up for you so you don’t have to keep coming back downhere.”
Melissa paused before lifting Trigger. “I’ll get them, you stay here.” She moved to the back of the lab where the stainless steel and glass cabinets stood and opened the doors, pulling out three large bottles and three small ones. She carefully counted pills from each of the large ones and placed them into the smaller bottles, writing on them with a Sharpie that she had produced from her lab coatpocket.
When she returned, she held them out to Audra to show her. “The first one is an antibiotic—he’ll need to take one pill twice a day. Anti-inflammatories are the same. Pain meds he can have every four to six hours if he starts getting toorestless.”
“Got it.” Audra held out her hands, but Melissa dropped the meds into herpocket.
“Okay, remember we need to not jostle him as much as possible. Try to keep the carrier flat, without tilting it.” Melissa grabbed the front handles and Audra did the same at the back, casting Trigger a worriedlook.
I’m sorry, boy. Sorry, I wasn’t here sooner. I promise you I’m going to get you out of here. You’ll be safe withme.
Audra tested his weight, not surprised to find it heavy. German shepherds were not small dogs, and Trigger had trained as much as her brother, until he was puremuscle.
Audra tried to keep up with the maze of hallways as they wound their way out toward the exit, but after a while all the walls and doors looked the same. When they reached the exit, Melissa put her hand on the scanner and entered a code, and Audra realized if she’d allowed them to keep Trigger down there, she would’ve never been able to get him out on her own. There was no way she would’ve been able to find her way out of here, and she sure as hell didn’t know anything about technology. It was obvious this place was locked down tighter than thePentagon.
The door opened, and they began their ascent quietly up the stairway. Before Audra had descended into the darkness with despair, recklessly following a stranger in the hopes of saving Trigger’s life. Now she was ascending the same steps with a half-baked plan for escape from her own personal hell. Of all the places she could’ve ended up, a secret military compound was the absoluteworst.
And the first man she’d been attracted to in years turned out to be a soldier, of all things. Why couldn’t Diggs have been a normal guy, just some Joe Blow working in an office somewhere? They could have met in a bar, had some drinks, and fell madly in love. Moved into a suburban house and raised their two children and lived happily everafter.
