Page 3 of Fierce: Sawyer

She used Fred as her tool when she was dating someone. If the guy was scared of her dog...he was out. If Fred’s hair stood up around a guy, he was gone from her life too.

Even if a guy passed the first two tests, if he wanted her to leave her dog alone all the time and didn’t think of Fred as a member of the family, he had no place in her life either.

Once Fred was ready to go, she opened the door to her townhouse and walked out of the development and a few blocks over to a park. They had a fenced-in area where Fred could run loose. Fred did scare some other dogs, but most people were used to seeing him there now and knew that Fred was well behaved.

It was early for a Saturday morning, so she didn’t expect as many dogs to be here yet. But she wanted to get her walk in and hit the park by eight.

She was enjoying the cool morning breeze and thinking of the large hot chocolate she was going to buy on her way home. She’d get Fred a treat too. They had some peanut butter cookies there and she’d split it with him.

She heard a yell from behind, turned her head and saw a man in a gray hoodie with it up over his head coming her way carrying a purple purse. He was running at her, and she had nowhere to go before he plowed into her and she went down on her hands and knees, her palms scraping the concrete.

Fred was growling and yanking at his leash and would be dragging her along too if she didn’t let go of it.

“Shit,” she said, knowing she’d never catch up with her dog who was giving chase to the asshole that just hurt her.

“Are you okay?” a man by her side asked.

She was getting to her feet and he helped her up. “Yeah.”

He didn’t say another word and took off after the other man and her dog. He was in running gear and had a lot of speed to him.

Faith had no choice but to follow along to the sounds of the barking so she could get her dog back. The last thing she needed was some kind of liability that Fred attacked the guy...who attacked her.

She’d lost sight of her dog but saw the second runner going up over a hill on the grass and followed.

Not only was she not as fast, but she was completely out of shape despite being skinny.

She finally saw them off in the distance when she got to the top. Fred still gave chase and caught up, knocking the guy down.

“Shit, shit, shit!” She was dashing as fast as she could, but the other man giving chase was on top of the hooded man with his knee in his back and putting his arms behind his back.

Looked like he wasn’t afraid of Fred either. Interesting.

She came to a skidding halt. Fred barking and growling away, the second runner pulling the first one up and holding onto his arms, a phone to his ear. All she heard was the name Brennan and a badge number.

Must be her lucky day a cop was running and witnessed the whole thing.

She was bent over gasping for breath as her run had all but done her in. “Call this dog off before he bites me,” the man being held by Brennan said.

“It’s not my dog,” Brennan said.

“It’s mine,” Faith said. “I’m not sure I want to call him off.”

Brennan looked at her and smirked. “He’s not going to biteme, is he?”

“Nah,” she said. “He likes you because you took care of the guy who knocked me down.”

She stood up at this point positive she wasn’t going to pass out from being winded. The hooded man was squirming and every time he moved Fred growled even more.

She finally put her hand on Fred’s head and her dog sat, quieted down, but didn’t take his eyes off either of the men.

“Impressive,” Brennan said.

“Thanks,” she said, then lifted her hand and noticed the blood. Both of them actually. She looked down and the knees of her cotton joggers were torn and some blood was seeping out of them too.

She had to look like a mess and her cuts and scratches were starting to sting.

“Jesus, Brennan,” she heard a minute later when an officer came running over. “Even on your day off you’ve got to be the hero.”

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