Bootsie would like the beach.
Then again, Bootsie liked anywhere just as long as it had me.
This was what I was thinking when my feet went out from under me. I heard and was terrified by the cry I let out and the sounds of Bootsie barking as I went down. I tried to stop, threw my arms out but I just rolled, my body banging against stuff, my coat catching on things, the sting of the snow hitting the skin of my face as I just kept going.
I landed and it hurt because I landed against a tree.
“Ouch,” I whispered, hearing Bootsie’s barking come toward me.
We were far away. We’d never walked this far. I’d never noticed that ridge.
We’d walked too far.
Still, I worried Daddy would hear my cry and Bootsie’s barking.
The tumble made my body feel funny. Tight but tingly. Still, I turned my head to see Bootsie jumping through the snow down the slope I’d fallen over, yapping the whole way.
She needed to be quiet.
Before I could say anything to her, tell her to be quiet, I felt something under my arms then I wasn’t lying in the snow anymore.
I was up on my feet and being turned.
This scared me so much I didn’t move, didn’t speak. Just looked at the heavy plaid shirt in front of me, knowing Daddy would find me. Knowing whoever caught me would call him. Knowing, when they did, Daddy would be mad.
“Quiet, dog,” I heard a firm, low, boy’s voice say and my head tipped back.
Then I didn’t move or speak for another reason.
This was because, right in front of me, his hands still on my sides, was Tucker Creed.
Tucker Creed.
The cutest boy in town.
Chapter Three
Pretty Cat
Present day…
I opened my eyes and felt it.
Shit.
Fuck.
Shit.
Someone was in the room with me and that someone was not Gun.
I rolled quickly over the bed, angling my h*ps so I didn’t roll right over Gun as my hand went to the weapon still holstered on my belt at the small of my back.
I fell over the side of the bed, getting my feet under me and coming up in a crouch immediately, hands up, arms resting on the bed, gun pointed across the room.
I saw him and froze solid.
No f**king way.