Page 102 of Keep You Close

“What do you mean, give it time?”

“The wound on his arm from the bite got infected. And I guess he didn’t seek treatment because he didn’t want to answer questions. He went septic. And… died.”

“Oh,” I said, my breath whooshing out of me so fast, I felt dizzy. I took a step to the side, lowering myself down onto the couch. “Oh, wow.”

“It’s not your fault,” he was quick to say, coming closer, his boot stomping a bit across the floor, something that happened more when he was tired. And he’d likely been up all night. “You know that, right? It’s not your fault he’s dead.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s his fault,” I added, looking up at him. “He attacked me. Samson did what he had to do to defend me.”

“Exactly. This was all his doing. I just… I don’t want you to feel any guilt about it.”

“I don’t.”

“Good,” he said, reaching for my hands as he sat next to me. “Do you have any questions?”

“Um…” Did I? Was there anything left to wonder about? “Do you know how he found me?” I asked, since that had been what was niggling at me, the fact that I thought I’d been so darn careful.

“It seems like he called every fucking vet in a several state radius, poking for information. We figured maybe he asked for vaccine records, then asked to confirm the phone number on the account once he finally found Samson’s vet.”

It was so simple.

I guess I figured it was some super computer hacker type thing.

Nope.

Just my dog’s records.

And a madman determined to find me.

If I’d named Samson anything more generic—Charlie, Max, Buddy, Cooper—maybe he never would have found me at all.

But, then again, maybe it was better this way.

I didn’t want to feel relief at someone’s death.

The thing was, I knew that so long as Joss was breathing, he was never going to stop coming for me.

Not even if I was with another man.

This was the only kind of permanent closure that could be found for the situation.

And I was going to let myself feel relieved about that.

“You okay?” Atlas asked, head tipped to the side as he watched me.

“I was just thinking…”

“About?”

“Two weeks from now,” I said.

“New Years?” he asked.

“Around there, yeah.”

“What about it?”

“Maybe we could go somewhere,” I said.

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