“Yeah,” I mutter darkly. “I hear it.”
Lightning strikes in the distance, basking the property in white light.
And that’s when I see them.
Two pit bulls chained near the side of the house adjacent to a rusted awning.
Both dogs immediately rise.
One begins barking and snarling furiously toward the trees.
“Shit.”
Cassidy’s attention snaps to them.
The second dog lunges against the chain, growling into the storm.
Lights inside the house alter.
Movement crosses one of the windows.
I grasp Cassidy’s arm before she can move.
“Wait.”
The barking intensifies.
One of the men inside shouts something as a chair scrapes noisily across the floor.
Then the front door swings open.
Warm yellow light pours out on the porch.
A huge man steps outside holding a beer bottle in one hand while shielding his eyes against the rain with the other.
He squints out into the darkness at the barking dogs.
My hand fastens around the gun.
Cassidy goes perfectly still, her leg brushing mine.
The man spits off the porch.
“Shut the fuck up!”
The dogs continue barking viciously at the tree line.
Toward us.
He starts down the porch steps lazily and clearly annoyed.
Rain drenches him as he stomps across the mud toward the dogs, muttering curses under his breath.
Twenty feet.
Fifteen.
Ten.
