to see if he would calm himself down, but he didn’t, so she stumbled out of bed and into the living room.
“Grizzly! What’s the matter? Do you need to go outside?”
The dog kept barking, facing the kitchen door.
Why was that door even closed? She always kept it open so she could walk from the kitchen into the living room without having to open it all the time.
Oh God, could someone be in there?
Could it be those same teenagers who had vandalized her house? Maybe they had come back? And what would they do if they found out she was here?
She wasn’t leaving Grizzly to face them alone.
“Grizzly.” She slapped her hands on her pajama pants that covered thighs. “Come here, boy.”
The dog continued to bark at the kitchen.
She was going to have to grab him and pull him out. That was probably not going to go over well with the dog, but she wasn’t leaving him. She hoped he wouldn’t bite her.
“Grizzly, come on,” she said in a loud whisper as she got closer. She slid on a pair of ballet flats that were by her front door. “Come on, boy, we need to go out the back door.”
She was reaching for Grizzly when she noticed the smoke coming from under the kitchen door.
Grizzly wasn’t barking because someone was breaking into her house; he’d been trying to tell her the house was on fire.
She threw the door open, realizing a second later that was probably not the best thing to do, but fortunately, the flame seem to be concentrated over near the table by the window. The edge of the curtains had somehow caught on fire, the flames burning bright in the darkness.
She needed to get this under control before it spread. Would Mrs. Mazille have a fire extinguisher? Quinn didn’t have time to look for one.
She ran over to the sink then stopped. You weren’t supposed to throw water on a fire, right? Or was that for a grease fire?
She knew baking soda and salt were okay and there was plenty of both in the cabinet. She snatched them and threw as much as she could at the flames.
It worked enough that she could grab the broom and yank the curtain rod down, while Grizzly continued to bark.
She knocked it to the ground then began beating the flames with the broom. Within a few seconds, she couldn’t see any more fire, just some residual smoke.
Grizzly kept barking.
“Grizz, it’s okay.” She looked over at the dog. “No more fire.”
When he still kept barking, she walked over to the side door in the kitchen and opened it for him.
He immediately dashed outside. She couldn’t blame him. The poor dog probably thought she was trying to kill him.
She stomped on the ruined curtains to make sure they couldn’t possibly reignite, then she leaned heavily against the counter. What would’ve happened if Grizzly hadn’t been here to warn her? To wake her.
The poor dog was still barking his head off outside. He wasn’t ever going to trust her enough to come inside again.
She walked over to the door. “Grizzly, it’s okay, buddy. Do you want to come back inside the house?”
Grizzly sat a couple of feet from the door barking out into the darkness.
Quinn touched him softly, not wanting to startle the dog into snapping at her. “It’s okay to come back. I promise I won’t let the house burn down around us.”
Grizzly continued to bark, but not at her. He didn’t seem to be upset with her at all. He was more preoccupied with whatever was out there. She turned to study the area herself. Was there something out in the trees? She couldn’t see anything but darkness.
She crouched beside Grizzly and wrapped her arms around him. He stopped barking, but still looked out toward the woods. “Let’s go inside,” she whispered. “If that’s some sort of mountain lion or a bear, I don’t want to wait for it to come eat us.”
She had no idea if there were mountain lions or bears around here, but it stood to reason there could be.
“Please, Grizzly, let’s go inside.”
If not, she’d have to leave him out here. She needed to clean up the mess in the kitchen.
She let go of Grizzly and stood. The dog glanced from the trees back to Quinn. He growled low and slowly stood and turned around, almost reluctantly, and followed Quinn toward the door. He turned once again and barked, loud and deep into the night before he crossed