Page 15 of Downward Dawg
Face wet from doggie kisses, Mad Dawg fell to his back, laughing.
“Even with nearly getting nutted by Chicken, this is nice.”
His phone buzzed, the normally quiet sound seeming loud in the relaxed atmosphere. Before he could fish it out of his pocket, it buzzed again, then a third time. The smile faded from Elodie’s face, morphing into a regretful expression before he could even look at the device.
“It was nice,” she echoed his words, with a change that signified she understood the summons likely meant he’d be leaving.
The messages were from Denver, and even without reading them, Mad Dawg knew they had to do with the traffic altercation from earlier. He sat, bent his knees, and propped an elbow on each, phone dangling from one hand.
“Ella—I—” He stopped, not sure how to continue. He knew what he needed to say, but his mouth was entirely reluctant to voice the words.
“My bed will be here. I’m not giving it away.” She leaned forward and covered his hand with hers, the warmth and contact a comfortable gesture, as if they’d touched like this for a hundred years. “When the time’s right, things will fall into place for us to be together.”
“When the time’s right?” Clasping her hand, he drew Ella to him, arranging her limbs in his lap. As she nestled against his chest, Mad Dawg found himself hating the need to leave. This wasn’t like anything he’d known in the past. “Ella, you’re one of a kind. You know that, right?”
Her fingers ruffled his short beard, tugging his chin down to press her lips against his. “What a wonderful compliment.” Arms wrapped around her back, he tugged her closer as she wound her arms around his neck. “Thank you.”
“Oh, darlin’. You are no hardship to be around, trust me. I wouldn’t twist myself into a pretzel for just anybody, you know what I mean?”
She laughed in the middle of their next kiss and he captured the sound in his mouth, dipping his tongue inside to glide against hers.
They were both breathing heavily when the phone buzzed again, breaking them apart to stare down at the device dancing across the floor.
“I should go,” he said reluctantly, and she nodded, her hair brushing against his shoulder.
“Just be sure you come back.” Shifting to her knees, she loomed over him, hands cradling his face. “I kinda like you, Dawg.”
He pressed a tiny kiss against the tip of her thumb tracing across his lips.
“I kinda like you, too.”
Chapter Six
Elodie
The midmorning class was just filing out the front door when Elodie heard the back door handle jiggle. She waved goodbye to the last chatty member and bent to swipe a discarded towel from the floor as she turned.
She froze, the happy greeting for Dawg stuck in her throat, towel twisted in her hands.
It wasn’t him. The larger of the two men stalking inside looked a lot like one of Dawg’s friends who’d watched over her last week, but the other man was unfamiliar. Every hair on her body lifted as she went on high alert.
“Hi.” She hated the tones of uncertainty in her voice and pushed more strength into her next words.Never show fear.That had been a hard-learned lesson, but one that she instinctively knew was important to heed right now. “Did Dawg send you?”
“Rich, fuckin’ rich to think that,” the stranger drawled. “No, bitch, Dawg didn’t send us. The fuck?”
“Shut up,” the other man said, and for a moment, Elodie wasn’t certain whether it was aimed at her or the stranger. “Bitches should be fucked and not heard.”
Guess that clears that up.The men’s attitudes reeked of arrogance and confidence.They’re not friends of his.Every warning reminder from Mad Dawg rolled through her mind, and she winced at the knowledge she hadn’t locked the back door this morning.Basic safety 101 and I failed.
“What do you need?” She gestured towards Dawg’s shop through the wall, stalling for time as she tried to come up with a graceful way out of whatever this was. “He’s not open yet.”
“Fuckin’ got eyes, don’t I?” The stranger approached, one foot in front of the other, padding towards her like a big cat. Each step eroded some of her forced poise. She straightened her spine, refusing to show weakness in front of them. “Whole reason I rolled my ass out of bed this fuckin’ early.”
“You’re gonna wanna come quiet. Won’t go well for you if you don’t.” This man, the one she thought she recognized, went to the alarm panel as if he’d been here a thousand times. Flipping open the panel, he punched in a series of numbers. “Okay, we’ve got about a minute. Let’s get her packaged and out of here.”
She had been backing towards the front door, gauging how quickly she’d be able to get to and through the opening.If I can just get outside, I’ll be in the clear.It would be a couple hours before Mad Dawg opened his shop, but there were other businesses nearby. She glanced away from the men for a moment, gaze taking in the empty parking lot. More clients should be arriving soon for the next class.Safety, just through the glass.
The first man, the stranger, rushed at her, dropping one shoulder so he scooped her up and head down over his back. Elodie screamed, fighting with everything inside her until a blinding pain surrounded her head, and everything she could hear was suddenly far away and echoey. “Help,” she yelled, wincing at how the sound amplified the pain in her head. “Help me, please.”
