Page 3 of Rescued By the Rebel

I don’t look up from the cats as I continue down the row.

“Winnie!”

“Get them out!” I scream at him, and then I’m being grabbed.

I turn, my eyes locking with a pair of vivid blue ones, and it’s like a shock goes through me as his eyes meet mine. He’s so tall, so much taller than me. The man is handsome, and he looks familiar like I’ve seen him around, but I know I’ve never talked to him before. I would remember that.

“Get out. I’ll get the rest of the cats,” he tells me, and I glance at the row of cats.

I’m halfway through, but the smoke is getting so thick that I can barely see. I cough, squinting against the sting in my eyes.

“Go! I’ll get the rest. I promise.”

Even though I don’t know this man at all, I trust him. I nod and bend down, grabbing a few cats as I race for the door. I suck in my first breath of clean air as I look around at the mess.

What do I do now?

I need to put the cats somewhere safe, so I head over to my car and place the cats in the backseat. I’ll need to try to find crates to keep them in, but for now, this will do. I run around, collecting terrified cats. The man comes running out with three cats in his arms. He’s coughing, his face streaked with ash.

“That’s all of them,” he says, coughing again.

“Thank you.”

We gather the last of the cats and he helps me put them in my car.

“Oh god! What if they go after the other buildings?” I ask, twirling around to look at the rest of my property.

“It’s okay. It’s all safe. I think that we scared them off. They probably weren’t expecting you to still be here.”

“We need to call the police and fire department.”

“I already did when I was running in. They should be here any minute.”

As if on cue, blue and red lights flash across the trees. The firemen get to work right away and I sag back against the car.

“Thank you,” I whisper to him.

I glance over at him, and he nods.

“I’m glad that I could help.”

My mind is replaying all of the events from the last ten minutes. Was it really only ten minutes? It seems like it happened so fast and yet lasted so long.

“Wait,” I say, straightening. “How did you know my name?”

I hadn’t caught it in the moment, but he had called me Winnie.

“Have we met before?” I ask him, and he shakes his head.

“No, but it’s a small town.”

“Oh.”

“I’m Aldis, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you. Thanks again for your help. It was lucky that you were driving by at the time,” I tell him as the police make their way over to us.

“Yeah, lucky,” Aldis mutters, and I frown, but before I can ask him what he means, the police are to us.

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