Page 45 of The Guy Who Fake Dated Me

“Hey, guys, maybe you could keep your distance,” I said.

Both the dog and the guy holding the leash ignored me.

Victoria shied away from the huge animal’s snout.

The little one got to her ankles and started to bark.

“Come on.” I gave the woman in charge of the rat dog a glare.

She was looking at her phone.

The big dog’s nose got closer and closer to Victoria, and I flinched when it moved from Victoria to the cat.

“No!” Victoria yelled.

The cat growled again and pain registered on Victoria’s face.

“Back off,” I said as I grabbed the dog’s harness and pulled him away. The poor animal looked like I’d hurt his feelings.

Then the little dog, for sure part chihuahua, jumped up on the bench.

Victoria screamed. Whether it was from surprise or because the cat was now hissing and swiping at the chihuahua I didn’t know.

What I did know was that her scream startled every animal in the area.

The big dog jumped back. I still had a hold of his collar and got yanked away.

The little dog doubled down on aggression and started growling and barking. It didn’t matter the size of the animal, when they bared their teeth, it was scary.

The guy with the camera rushed over.

“Get away from me!” Victoria shrieked. She shot to her feet.

As I’d predicted, instead of jumping off her, the cat climbed Victoria like a post so it could escape into the tree branches above.

The other women started screaming.

“It’s going to kill her!”

“Someone hit it with a tranquilizer!”

“Grab the leash!”

At this point, I wasn’t sure which animal they were targeting. The cat had made it to the tree, the two big dogs had rushed Victoria, circling her and barking. The little one was yapping like crazy from the bench. This put a whole cluster of people and animals all in a four-foot circle.

The only animal that hadn’t gone insane was the medium-sized dog, who watched what was happening with mild interest. His keeper was still taking pictures.

Time to get Victoria out of this. I moved forward and grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”

“No!” It was more a bloodcurdling scream than anything else. She pointed. “The leash.”

I hadn’t noticed before, but the cat’s leash had tangled in her hair and now made a tether from her to the cat, who was trying to get farther away but failing because he was now attached to Victoria.

“Hold on.” I tried to get closer to her, but the two big dogs threw themselves between us, intent on chewing out the cat.

Or maybe just chewing on the cat.

“I’m going to die,” Victoria whimpered.

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