Page 16 of Hot for Hostage

As soon as the door shut behind her, I regretted telling her to go. I didn’t want her upset with me. Maybe we should’ve asked her to join us.

“We need to move,” Davian said, pulling me out of my worries. “Let’s go.”

When he moved toward Daisy, I called for him to wait.

“We could take the Dog-Mobile instead, if you want to?” I suggested. “It’ll have more leg room.”

Davian blinked back at me.

“The… Dog-Mobile?” His face pinched, as if it pained him to even say the words.

I pointed at the large blue van parked just around the corner of the block. Three huge dogs—a yellow Labrador, a German shepherd, and a Great Dane—were painted on the side, and their happy faces always made me smile.Happy Tails Haven Dog-Mobilewas painted in big yellow letters over their furry heads. “It belongs to the shelter, but if Mr. Sanders says it’s okay, then we can borrow it. He won’t mind.”

Davian eyed the van and cringed before shaking his head a little too quickly for my liking.

“Get in the car, Sadie,” was all he said as he pulled the passenger door open for me.

But I hesitated. It felt wrong to leave things up in the air, and I glanced back at the shelter. What if Gladys called Officer Murdock and things got messy? I didn’t want to go to jail for taking a hostage.

“Maybe I should smooth things over with Gladys first? She seemed worried.”

Davian shook his head. “We need to hurry if you want to get Bear back safely.”

I fiddled with the clasps on my overalls, looking back at the door to the shelter again before sighing and ducking into the passenger side.

It almost felt like Davian was takingmehostage now, but that was just silly.

I was the one with the gun.

who’s the hostage now?

. . .

Davian

The cards were stacked in my favor.

Sadie was a nervous chatterbox during the drive out of the city. She babbled on about the shelter and all the dogs and how one in particular—Mr.Woofkins?—was probably missing Bear terribly. I’d never been an animal person, so that made little sense to me.

I suggested listening to the radio, but apparently the car’s sound system hadn’t worked in six years. Sadie mentioned an incident involving peanut butter and her favorite cassette tape, but she left it at that.

Not that I minded listening to Sadie’s nervous rambling. She’d moved from talking about dogs to her culinary school, and she seemed to love baking just as much as she did the furry mutts.

“But you can’t forget to brown the butter,” she said as I pulled onto a country road. Sometime during the last five miles, she’d begun an unprompted lesson on baking cookies. “It’s what gives that nutty flavor that’s so delicious. My instructor always says ‘once you go brown, your cookies will be the talk of the town’—wait a second. We’re not in the city anymore. You think the kids are out here?”

Part of me was surprised she’d finally noticed we’d left the city.

“We’re not going to them yet.”

“What do you mean we’re not…” She sucked in a breath and watched me with wide eyes. “You’re not driving to an abandoned riverbank to kill me and dispose of my body, are you?”

My brows rose. What would she do if I said yes?

“You’re the one with the gun, Sadie. You’re in charge here,” I reminded her. “We’re just going to my place first.”

“Right,” she muttered under her breath. Her hands clutched the seat belt tight enough that her knuckles turned white. “But I don’t remember agreeing to go to your place. Shouldn’t that be a decision for me—the hostage-taker—to make?”

“I need to get supplies and a couple men for backup if we want Bear back without any problems. I’ll need to switch out cars, too.”

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