Page 107 of Wanted

“Do we wait until she crawls out on her own?” Lee asks.

The option tears me down the middle. Helping scared, helpless dogs used to be my entire life’s mission, but the thought of being away from Frankie that long… “Could take hours.”

“Yeah.” Lee crosses his arms. I wouldn’t doubt if both my brothers currently had similar thoughts. This used to be a lot easier when we were all unattached bachelors with nothing better to do.

My phone rings. I dig it out of the back pocket of my jeans. “What do you think about cutting the wire and going from the outside?” I ask before hitting the green button.

“Hello?”

A crackle comes across the line, followed by a distorted voice. The words aren’t clear.

“Someone there?” I ask.

What sounds like a dog bark breaks through the static before I’m met with dead air. “Hello?” I try once more, knowing the line is cut.

I hang up. “That was weird.”

“Who was it?”

“Not sure. There wasn’t a number listed.”

“Anyway, I was saying—”

My phone rings again.

“Christ. Hang on.”

I punch the screen with my finger and bring it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Jude.”

The feminine voice sounds like it’s coming from underwater. “Cort?”

The line crackles, cutting off her next words.

“Hang on. I think I have bad service.”

“Where … you?”

“I’m about an hour north with Corjan and Lee. We’re bringing back some sick dogs.”

“… need… back… Frankie…”

“Sorry?” I shove my palm over my free ear and dip my head. “You’re breaking up, Cortney. What about Frankie?”

“I said you… get… bad.”

My pulse spikes at her using Frankie and bad anywhere close to the same sentence. “Dammit, Cort, I can’t fucking hear you.” The slight edge of panic has my brothers stopping their conversation to listen.

I turn my back and move a few paces away as a bead of sweat rolls down my spine.

“Frankie… hospital… been shot.”

Frankie.

Hospital.

Shot.

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