Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,76

up her household goods that morning. “Could you help me?”

“Sure. What do you need?” Then he laughed as Rusty climbed into Jana’s lap to sniff the stranger. “Ooooh. Barb roped you into adopting one?”

Jana put an arm around Rusty. “This one did the roping.” With some help from a good-looking Intuit rancher. “I wasn’t thinking about the logistics of getting her things after getting her.”

“You need everything?” he asked.

“Doubled. One for home and one for work.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You’re bringing her to work? Will … they … agree to that?”

“They will.” She hoped.

He studied Rusty a moment longer. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

And he was, with two crates for a medium-size dog, bowls for food and water, and a sack that held who knew what else.

“We don’t keep food here,” he said when he finished loading up the back of the vehicle. “I called the feed store since the people working there are collecting animal food from the houses. They’ll bring some over to the sheriff’s office. Not sure if you’ll be expected to pay for it since it’s not food for you, but you’ll figure it out.”

“Thanks for your help.” Jana drove to the sheriff’s office and parked. Then she looked at Rusty, all bright, hopeful eyes and wagging tail. “I sure hope Virgil doesn’t look at you and think I brought him lunch. Stay.”

Getting out and closing the door before Rusty could follow, she hurried to open the back and get the crate out.

“What’s that?”

Jana jerked in surprise, then looked over her shoulder at Yuri Sanguinati. “It’s a crate.”

“And that?” He pointed at Rusty, who was climbing into the back.

“That’s a dog.”

Yuri looked at Rusty, looked at the crate, and finally looked at the sheriff’s office. Grinning wide enough to show his fangs, he lifted the crate out of the vehicle and said, “You get the rest.”

“I could have done that,” Jana said. She could not afford to appear weak.

“I’m sure you could, but it would have been hard to open the office door if you were holding this instead of the smaller items.”

Practical, not condescending. She hadn’t realized she had such a big chip on her shoulder, had to stop hearing the echoes of instructors and fellow cadets telling her she wasn’t strong enough to be a cop. She had been hired for this job because Simon Wolfgard had seen something in her that he thought would suit this town and the sheriff. She’d better start showing everyone she was worthy of being hired.

“Thanks. I hadn’t intended to pick up a dog today. It’s thrown me off stride.” She hurried to open the door and point to the spot near her desk where the crate could go. By the time she dumped the bowls and sack on the floor and rushed out to fetch the dog, who was barking like crazy, she discovered the Others, in the form of a big-ass Hawk, had already found her new friend. Or found something of interest. It seemed to be ignoring the dog—which was good—as it worked out how to open the other crate.

That was not good. Some of the dogs Barb looked after were Hawk-size meals, and if Hawks or Eagles learned how to open the crates …

Jana opened the passenger door, picked up Rusty, who squirmed and barked to warn everyone that there was danger, danger, danger, and took her inside the office. Sliding the leash’s loop up a leg of one of the visitors’ chairs, she hurried out to her vehicle—where the Hawk was now comfortably perched on the tailgate, surveying the part of the town square that was visible from the sheriff’s office.

“I have to close up the vehicle now,” Jana said.

The Hawk eyed her, and she wondered if this one could shift to a human form that she would recognize as a new resident of Bennett or if this was one of the terra indigene who couldn’t—or wouldn’t—take a form so many of them considered an enemy rather than just a rival predator.

The Hawk flew over to a recently installed hitching post at the edge of the square. Several hitching posts had been added to accommodate the horses and horse-drawn conveyances. Around the square, the grassy side was now parking for horses, mules, and donkeys. The building side of the street was parking for cars. So far there weren’t many horses or cars coming into the business district, but having both using the streets was a concern that should be brought to