Joke’s on You by Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,73

for my cell phone.

It wasn’t there.

I stood back up, using the wall this time, and tried not to think about whatever was wet all over my backside.

Instead, I focused on trying to see through the dizziness.

I nearly hurled when I saw Kerrie nose to nose with Dillan.

I screamed.

“No!” I slammed my hand down on the fence. “Kerrie! Don’t fuckin’ do it.”

Malachi would come.

He would hear.

This place wasn’t that fuckin’ big.

Except my yells went unheard.

I kicked and slammed my fists so hard against the chain link that the bolts started to rattle in the ceiling.

Still, I was stuck inside.

“Goddammit!” I roared.

The dogs next to me started to howl right along with me.

I took a step back and took a running kick at the gate, kicking as hard as I could.

It didn’t budge.

Tears of frustration started to leak from my eyes, and all I could do was hold on to the chain link and stare as Kerrie reached forward and wrapped his hands around Dillan’s neck.

Her face immediately turned red as she tried to struggle and kick.

“Malachi!” I screamed, hoping he would hear. Knowing it was futile. Doing it anyway.

“Kerrie! Don’t!” I bellowed. “Let her go.”

My pleading caused Dillan’s eyes to come to me.

Her face was completely red now, and where she was latching onto Kerrie’s forearms they were slick with blood from her nails.

Her eyes flicked away, likely not wanting me to see death fall into her eyes, and she glanced at the ground.

I watched in horror as Bobo, covered in wires, tubes, his back leg in a cast, and a new bullet hole in his side, crawled across the floor toward Dillan. He smeared blood all along the floor as he went, making tears burn my eyes.

I kicked the cage that I found myself in harder, hoping that with just a little more force, the damn thing would bust open. Bend. Or break. Goddamn something. Anything.

I was wrong. The little four by four cage was stout.

They’d made the fuckin’ cage reinforced for a werewolf, apparently.

Nausea churned in my gut as I watched Kerrie pull one hand away from Dillan’s face and aim his gun at the dog.

Dillan took her free hand and punched Kerrie in the throat.

It was feeble at best. Weak and useless as she gasped for breath and tried to recuperate from her oxygen deprivation.

Kerrie turned his eyes to Dillan, then he placed the gun underneath her chin.

I bent over and threw up, which was how I missed the dog launching himself at Kerrie.

I looked up from puking to find Kerrie screaming, high-pitched and horror-filled.

The dog was latched onto what I assumed were Kerrie’s balls.

The gun hit the floor.

But Kerrie’s grip on Dillan didn’t fade.

He pulled her down with him. Her head slammed hard against the exam table, and then she was lying there, limply, passed out cold.

Or dead.

I screamed again.

A door slammed and Malachi came running down the length of the hallway, his eyes wild.

“Help her!” I screamed. “Help her!”

Malachi ran right past me, gun in his hand, and pointed in the room.

He took a few seconds to comprehend what was going on, then moved quickly to apprehend Kerrie.

Seconds after that, it was all over.

The night attendant, which I would later learn was named Asia, opened the lock using a massive ring of keys.

Hesitantly she let me out, then moved quickly to the side as the gate swung in her direction in my haste to get inside the room across from me.

Uncaring of my wounds, or the still growling dog, I ran right up to Dillan, swept her up in my arms, and pulled her in tight to my chest.

It was only as I was rocking her quietly that I realized that I was accusing the two other people in the room—Malachi and Asia—of whatever shit was spewing out of my mouth.

“Where the fuck were y’all?” I growled.

“The place is soundproofed,” the night attendant whispered. “All the barking.” She gestured to the kennels as a whole. “It has to be soundproofed, or that’s all the customers hear all day every day when they’re out in the lobby. We didn’t hear a thing until we opened the door that led back here.”

I closed my eyes as tears stung my eyes.

“She’s okay.”

Malachi.

I opened my eyes and nodded my head once.

I could feel her pulse, strong and steady, against my hand that was delicately wrapped around her throat. My fingers resting on her carotid.

“She’s unconscious,” I said. “She hit her head on that table as she fell. Then the dog