Greyson (The K9 Files) - Dale Mayer Page 0,43

my lost energy.”

“All right then,” she said. “We’ll go have a nap and come down in a little bit.” He watched as she headed up the stairs, then he crashed on his back, his feet up on the armrest and his head on a throw pillow, then pulled out his phone. She’s gone to have a nap, and I’m standing guard. We need to find this guy before he comes back again.

Chapter 10

Upstairs, Jessica still couldn’t leave her son alone, so she tucked him into her bed and stretched out beside him. He never even woke after collapsing on top of the dog. That’s what she needed—a dog that could go from being half-wild when attacking somebody to being absolutely comfortable, even wanting close contact with a toddler like that.

But her thoughts couldn’t keep going around in circles because she was too damn tired. With an arm wrapped around her son, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

She woke after just a few minutes with that same sense of shock and realization, only to realize that Danny was still right beside her. She snuggled back on the bed, cuddling him a little closer, knowing that this would be something she had to live with for the rest of her life. She owed Greyson so much for recovering her son, but she didn’t have any idea how to thank him.

There he was, lying on the couch downstairs to make sure that nobody came in so they could sleep. And that’s when she realized that he probably wouldn’t sleep at all. As long as she was sleeping, he wouldn’t relax.

She shook her head at that. How completely different men could be. No way her ex-husband would have ever done that. He would have said he would stay awake, but he wouldn’t have. He would have just waited for her to crash, and then he would have crashed too. But somehow she didn’t think Greyson operated like that.

As she lay here, she thought she heard somebody coming up the stairs. She stiffened, her gaze on the doorway. And there was Kona, dragging her rope behind her, coming upstairs. The dog went into Danny’s room first, not finding him there, so Kona came into Jessica’s bedroom. Kona stopped at the doorway, raised her head, and sniffed. Then, as if sensing that both of them were here, she laid down in the open doorway.

On her heels was Greyson. He looked over at Jessica and smiled.

She whispered, “Was she checking on Danny?”

Greyson nodded and whispered back, “Looks like it.”

Kona gave a happy sigh, her tail thumping on the floor.

“She really is looking out for him, isn’t he?”

“I think so, yes,” he said. “So how come you’re not asleep?”

“I was,” she said quietly. “Then I woke up, scared that he was gone.”

Greyson nodded sympathetically. “I hear you, and that might happen for a while,” he said, “but you need to rest.”

“So do you,” she shot back. And then she couldn’t sleep anymore. She yawned, and, sitting up, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed. “I guess that was my ten-minute power nap.”

“It was actually about forty minutes,” he said, chuckling.

She looked at him, surprised, then over at the clock on her night table. “Wow. I had no idea.”

“Exactly,” he said. “So it’s all good.”

She nodded at Danny and then said, “I want him to get more sleep, but I don’t want to leave him up here alone.”

“What if we leave Kona up here?” he said with a motion toward the dog, who had now sneaked a little farther into the room, and lay at the foot of the bed.

Jessica smiled, then walked over and bent down with her hand out. Kona sniffed, then nuzzled her hand. Enchanted, she scratched her gently. “She really is beautiful, isn’t she?”

“Yes,” he said, “she really is. Inside and out. And extremely well-behaved.”

“Dang it, I still didn’t think about food for her,” she said.

He hesitated and said, “I need to go out and get dog food, plus a collar and a lead for her, and I could pick up some groceries for us too.”

“Or,” she said, “we could wait until Danny wakes up, and we could all go.”

He studied her face for a long moment and then smiled. “We can do that too.”

She beamed up at him. “Thank you. I just—” And her voice fell away.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, reaching out. Just then his phone rang. He looked at it and said, “I’ve got to take