Page 106 of Wanted

Something brushes against the back of my hand. Aiden pinches the hem of my shirt and shoves the leashes back in my hand.

Because the longer we stand here, the more clear our predicament becomes. Dillon has no intention of letting us go. He’s determined to force me to go with him, and it’s apparent Aiden isn’t willing to stand by and let that happen.

The problem is, Dillon has a weapon, and we don’t. And the only way Aiden will stop him is by sacrificing himself to give me time to run.

That outcome is unacceptable.

Aiden.

Me.

The dogs.

Who would Jude choose to sacrifice if he were here to pick himself?

Nausea churns in my stomach, threatening to leave my breakfast all over our shoes. I bite the inside of my cheek until I taste the familiar metallic tang.

With a sudden tug, the leashes slip from my hand.

Ashe lunges forward with a snarl as the tension releases, and Remy follows. Dillon’s head whips around, a girlish scream in his throat as he’s caught by surprise. His arm swings up, high, as Ashe sinks her teeth into his forearm and Remy bites his leg.

Then the gun goes off.

26

Jude

My heart threatens to burst as the terrified golden retriever attempts to twist free from the catchpole. Her devastated cries echo in the small building where she’s been living for the past five years. She bares her teeth, licking her muzzle as white foam leaks from her mouth. Strangely, she reminds me of Frankie when I first found her. Minus the copious amounts of drool. And Frankie didn’t try to run as much as she tried to force me away with her words.

The memory thaws a portion of the icy dread in my veins from earlier.

“Hey, Lee.” I whistle. “Help me with this one.”

He jogs around me to ready the next kennel. We only have two left. They’re both females, and the abuse on their bodies from repeated breeding is evident. Makes me fucking sick to think about how someone could push an animal to such limits for purely selfish motivations. I can’t wait to finish up, take these girls out of here, and get back to my pack, to the dogs that save me as much as I saved them.

And to see her.

It was wrong the way I left this morning. I know that. I knew it the minute I got to the edge of town. The boys were following me in Corjan’s SUV, and after I counted to twenty, twice, I fought against the urge to turn around and continued to follow the highway north. Aiden orchestrated enough of a scene this morning, and I didn’t want to create another.

The way he so casually dropped the L-word felt like a thousand paper cuts across my flesh. Frankie’s beautiful brown eyes held so much weight I thought I would be crushed by the hope in them. It fucking scared me.

It fucking healed me too.

Because that hope is contagious, and for a guy who’s never believed in the concept of love, I trust her enough to take that risk.

I just have to work up the courage to say the words out loud. Even if it takes counting to a million. Frankie’s worth every number that flashes through my head. I’d do anything for her.

Lee sets the kennel close so that I don’t have to coax this girl far, and in minutes, we have her locked and loaded in the van with the others.

I wipe a bead of sweat from my brow with the back of my arm. “One left.”

Lee fixes his baseball cap, the green logo signifying the Little League team he coaches. “She won’t be easy.”

We both look at where Corjan’s crouched next to a hole in the floor. At some point, the wood rotted away, and the dogs made a nest of sorts beneath the floorboards in the crawl space. The owner put up mesh wiring around the outside of the shed so they couldn’t escape but didn’t bother to patch up the hole. Our final catch is a growling, snarling mess down there in the dark. It’s going to take some strategic planning to cut her loose.

“What do you think?” I ask Corjan as I approach.

“She’s too scared for food. The space is only about eighteen inches wide.”

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