minute I owned it, but while Junction, California, wasn’t a small town, it wasn’t a big city either. Six years after the fact, everyone remembered the place.
They called it the McKinley Murder House, which was awesome and didn’t give me nightmares at all. The old scars on my palms burned, like they needed to remind me of their existence. As though I could ever forget about them.
I shuddered and glanced around me. A mugger wouldn’t go after a guy in a crappy suit, right? It had to be obvious I barely had twenty bucks to my name. Still, the image of a shadowy figure with a knife wouldn’t leave my mind. I picked up my pace, even though speeding up was probably going to leave me panting in a block or two.
When I heard the pained whimper, it was like someone had dunked my head underwater. My heart jumped like it was trying to escape my chest and run off without me, and the rush of blood whited out my vision and hearing for precious seconds.
One moment I was walking down the street, the next I was in the kitchen, grabbing a knife by the blade as it slashed toward me. Toward us. I stopped and took a deep breath.
No.
I was on the street. On the street.
There was another whimper, this one followed by laughter, and that helped snap my brain back into gear. The sheer cruelty in the sound made me want to surge forward, though whether it was to escape or throw myself into the middle of whatever was happening, no one could say. Especially not me. I didn’t have the best track record when it came to self-preservation.
I craned my head around, trying to find the source of the noise, and in the wan light from a nearby streetlamp, I could just make out the scene halfway down the alley I had been passing.
There were two figures standing there. One was braced against the brick wall with one hand, and as I watched, he jerked a foot forward into a patch of darkness the lamplight didn’t reach. The movement was immediately followed by that high whine, and more laughter.
Was he kicking a dog?
What the hell?
“Hey!” I shouted, like the most unintelligent person ever to wander through a shady part of town after dark.
Yeah, so the guy was probably armed or something, but who the hell went around kicking dogs? It was too late to rethink interjecting myself anyway. I just had to be as loud and obnoxious as possible and pray to gods I barely believed in that they were easily intimidated. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, you assholes?”
One of the men—the kicker—put his hands up. “Just having a little fun. No harm, no foul.”
Another whine came from the lump of darkness on the ground, and the guy reached out and shoved it with one foot, as though to shut it up.
“No harm my ass,” I growled at him. “Get the hell out of here. Right now, or I call the cops.” I whipped my phone out of my pocket and brandished it like a weapon.
The guy, it turned out, was really big when he pushed away from the wall and drew himself up. I hated big guys.
Okay, well no, I found big guys hot. And also terrifying. Needless to say, that complicated my love life. On my best day, I’m five-eleven. In lifts.
Yeah, fine, five-ten.
I did still have my ace in the hole, though. Assuming this guy was just some drunk asshole harassing animals, he probably wasn’t armed. While I wasn’t exactly armed, I did have my sturdy wooden box of, um, Dad.
For once in my life, luck was with me. The man’s friend put a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s just go, huh? It doesn’t matter.”
The guy grumbled and waved a hand at me dismissively. “Fine. Whatever. Fucking loser.”
The two of them turned and headed toward the opposite end of the alley, away from me. I held my breath as I watched them go.
The big one who’d been kicking the dog stumbled, definitely drunk.
I glanced down at the patch of darkness where the dog was still cowering. “Sorry about that,” I whispered in its direction. “We’re not all assholes. Hope you’re okay, buddy.”
I’m not too proud to admit that I turned sideways and sort of crab-walked my way out of the alley. There was no way I was turning my back to those guys, drunk and leaving or not.
It took about three