Page 5 of Rescued By the Rebel

“I didn’t know that you were having problems here,” I murmur, and she frowns.

“Why would you?” She asks, and I blink.

“There’s been other fires and stuff around town. I’m just surprised, I guess.”

“You think that it was the same guy?” She asks, and I shrug.

“Maybe. I’ll figure it out. I promise.”

She nods, and I can see that she’s dead on her feet. Tonight has taken a toll on her.

“Come on. You’ll stay with me until we get this figured out.”

“What? No, I’ll be fine at my place. What I need to do is figure out what to do with all of the cats. My place isn’t big enough to take all of them.”

“I’ll take them,” I blurt out before I can think it through.

“You’ll take them? There’s like fifteen cats.”

“I’ll foster them. Until we can rebuild their space here.”

“Really?”

Do I really want to foster fifteen cats? No, not really, but this could be my opening with Winnie. After tonight, she’ll at least know me, but if I take the cats, I can ask her to come over and help with them. We can get to know each other then, and maybe I can make her fall in love with me.

“Yeah, Red, really. You’ll just have to come over and help me with them. I don’t know the first thing about taking care of cats.”

“Deal.”

“You can’t stay here. Or at your place in town. It’s not safe. The man who came here knows who you are, and they could go there next.”

“I should stay here in case they try to hurt any of the other animals,” she argues, and I shake my head.

“It’s not safe,” I repeat. “I’ll get the police to drive by and check on the place a couple of times overnight.”

She finally relents and nods.

“Fine. I need to go home and pack a few things.”

“Let’s go. I’ll follow you to your place.”

Just like I do every night, I say to myself.

She nods as she climbs into her car, and I close the door before heading over to my bike. I swing my leg over and climb onto my bike. I pull out after her and smile.

Sure, this might not be how I wanted to get Winnie to move in with me, but I’ll take what I can get.

And I plan on getting my girl.

FOUR

Winnie

Aldis’s house is nothing like I expected. I had figured that he would live in some converted building somewhere downtown. I thought it would be edgy, bare, and littered with motorcycle stuff.

Instead, I follow his motorcycle to a quaint-looking two-story house that’s close to the animal sanctuary. In fact, it’s just three miles down the road.

The house is in good condition with what looks like a fresh coat of white paint on it. It has a wraparound porch and reminds me of that house from The Notebook.

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