Ella eyed the small bed, wondering if she was really going to sleep there. She wanted to go home, but then again she didn’t want to be alone. Not now. Maybe not ever again?
Her attention found the Lieutenant again and she watched him. His face was screwed up like he was trying to make a decision or work something out in his head. She didn’t want to burden him anymore. She didn’t know how, but she could tell he had her best interest at heart. He just wanted her safe. If he wanted her to stay, maybe she would stay. Just for the night. She’d figure something more out in the morning. Besides, she didn’t want to give him a hard time.
Not after she had lied to him.
Ella winced, wanting badly to come clean, but not knowing where to start. She hunched in her chair and turned her attention back to the dogs, running her hands through their fur, kneading their strong neck and back muscles, letting the feel and the demeanor of them soothe her.
Dogs were the best people, she knew that. Life would be a lot easier if she only had to deal with animals for the rest of her life.
Ella woke up with a start, blinking against the early morning light. She’d slept in the chair with her feet up on another chair and it had been uncomfortable, but she felt rested. Someone had draped a blanket over her during the night. The big cop, it had to be.
She dropped her feet to the ground, smiling when she saw the two huge black dogs there, both awake, both with their heads on their paws, watching her protectively. She was halfway in love with them already.
“Hi,” she whispered and the one with the white figure 8 on his left shoulder shook his head and barked out something that almost sounded like hello. She smiled. “Neat trick, boy. Who taught you that?” She ran her finger across the strange marking on his shoulder, wondering if it was a brand of some sort. She’d never seen an all-black dog with such a strange marking on only one spot of its body. The other dog had one, too, in the exact same spot. His looked like a bomb dropping from the sky. She could see no other white spots on either one of them.
The two dogs stared at her with quiet intelligence, then glanced at each other. Two strange voices filled her head.
… Bet she is …
… don’t say … Trev… needs to …
Ella shook her head and banged her palm against her forehead. No new voices allowed, damn it! Both dogs looked at her and she swore she saw alarm on their faces. She bit her lower lip and petted them each with one hand, scratching under their chins. “Sorry. Just ignore me. I’m crazy sometimes. But your─” She frowned. “Boss? Master? Lieutenant? He doesn’t need to know, ok? So don’t rat me out.”
The bigger one with the white bomb on his shoulder opened his mouth and his tongue lolled out. He looked at the other dog and Ella swore they were smiling.
Master … like overgrown circus …
Ella shot to her feet, pressing her hands to her temples. NO! She stepped over the dogs and paced around the bed, trying to deny she was hearing more voices. Both dogs scrambled to their feet also, watching her closely. “It’s ok, puppies. Don’t worry about me. I’m … I’m. I just have to pee.” She ripped the door open and ran across the hall, shutting that door and doing her thing, then she stared in the mirror at her rumpled hair and sallow face. Sleeping in a chair sucked.
She slapped water on her face and tried to calm her hair with her hands, then brushed her teeth with her finger. She had to go home. Like now. She needed clothes, she needed to feed the cats, she needed to retreat back into her drama and keep her craziness away from people who had jobs to do. People like Lieutenant Burbank. She sighed and wondered if he had a girlfriend. Probably. Or maybe a wife and five or six kids. She hadn’t thought to look for a ring because she was a complete idiot about most things, men especially.
Ella exited the bathroom and found the smaller black dog with the figure 8 on its shoulder and the tuft of white on the end of its tail sitting outside the door waiting for her. She touched its head and smiled at it. What a good dog. Maybe she should go to the pound, get herself a dog. Someone to be there, to protect her. But what would the cats think?
She padded down the hallway in her bare feet, listening to one of the police officers talk. She recognized the voice as one of the officers from yesterday. Not the big lieutenant. Officer Adin, the one who had been so nice to her.
“Troy, don’t bullshit a bullshitter. There’s no way the Bears are going all the way this year.”
Ella heard the big dog whine and it sounded like a laugh to her. She smiled at how vocal the dogs were. She loved it. Were they trained to be like that or was it natural? She knew huskies talked a lot but the two dogs didn’t look like huskies. They were too big, too thick and had the wrong color eyes.
The hallway ended and she stepped hesitantly out into the living area, the slightly smaller of the dogs at her heels. Officer Adin was at the stove, in uniform, frying something that smelled like bacon, and the bigger dog sat on his haunches next to him. The dog’s eyes met hers as she entered the room. Ella’s stomach rumbled in hunger but she ignored it as she looked to her right. The second officer she had assumed Adin was talking to was not in sight.
Officer Adin’s back was to Ella. He shook his head at the frying pan and kept talking. “See, we ain’t got the dream team─” The bigger dog barked once, sharply, causing Officer Adin to whirl around, spatula held high. “Oh, hi. Did we wake you?”
Ella shook her head. “Um. Sorry. Where is Lieutenant Burbank, please?”
“He had to go to his office.”
“I need to talk to him.”
The officer dropped the spatula on the counter. “What do you need, sweetheart? I can help you.”
Ella pursed her lips. “I need to go home.”
Officer Adin shook his head. “No can do. The boss says you gotta stay here for now, until we know what happened yesterday.”
“Sorry but, am I under arrest?”
Officer Adin looked at her strangely. “No.”
“Ok then, I’ll get my shoes and go. Thank you for your help.”
“Wait! No, ok, let me get Lieutenant Burbank on the phone. You talk to him. He’ll kill me if you just walk out of here.”
Ella’s eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms over her chest, watching Adin. Within a few minutes he handed her the phone.
“Hello?”
“Mrs. Carmi,” the smooth voice with the slight New York accent she recognized as the big cop said. “I really need you to stay there. That’s why I left the-ah-the dogs with you. They are going to help Officer Adin keep you safe.”
“Safe from what exactly, Lieutenant?”
He didn’t speak for a moment. “I thought we covered this last night.”
She sighed. “Did we? I thought we didn’t say much of anything and I let you get away with it because I was scared. But in the early morning light, last night’s fears seem less grounded. I don’t even know who I’m hiding out from, or why he would want anything to do with me.”
His voice lowered dangerously. “You aren’t safe from that-that criminal just because the sun is shining. Don’t fool yourself.”
Ella stared at the phone and a sick dread filled her. She wondered if she told the Lieutenant about the man with the barbaric voice, if he would know who she was talking about. She pressed on anyway. Unless someone was going to tell her something, she wasn’t going to just sit around and let them do their thing while she sat in a room and stared out the window. “Still, I have a life, Lieutenant. I have things I must tend to. If you’re so worried about me, maybe you could place a squad car outside my house.” She tried to hold it in but she couldn’t. “Sorry, that’s just how I feel.” Argh.
The silence on the other end of the line filled her with hope and trepidation. She hadn’t expected him to consider it. What if she had one of her episodes? She didn’t need a police officer witnessing it.
“You really shouldn’t be alone,” the Lieutenant said and she heard something in his voice. Something that scared her. Could she really afford to turn him down? He spoke again. “Look, I’ve got some things I need to do today away from the station. Errands. You have some too, yes? Maybe we could help each other out. You stay with me. And then tonight I’ll bring you back to the safe house and you’ll sleep there again. Just until we figure out what’s going on.”
Ella’s heart pounded at the thought of seeing the big cop again. The big
handsome
cop. At the thought of spending the day with him. She took a moment to make sure there was no eagerness in her voice. “When will you figure out what’s going on?”
“My team is working on it now. The best males on the force. As soon as I know something, you’ll know something.”
Ella doubted that, but he knew what to say, that was for sure. “When will you be here?”
“I’m leaving now.”
***
Ella sat on the couch next to the window, watching the driveway, trying not to admit to herself how excited she was, completely refusing to think about why the police lieutenant was really coming to get her.
When his big red truck pulled in to the driveway, she blushed as their eyes met through the window. She stood and ran to the bathroom before she peed her pants with her completely inappropriate excitement. She was so lame.
When she worked up the courage to leave the bathroom, both dogs were sitting at the door looking up at her. “Good boys,” she whispered. She squatted down to pet them, burying her face in the fur of first one, then the other. “Help me out, ok. I really like your Lieutenant. I know he’s probably married or taken or not impressed by twenty-five-year-old women who’ve never held down a job or learned to drive or even fit in at school or her own family, and I can accept that, but at least keep me from embarrassing myself.” One of the dogs licked her face and whined while the other pressed his head against her chest. “Thanks, boys. You’re such good doggies.”
She stood and the dogs pressed against her, their backs reaching almost to her waist. God, she loved a big dog and these were the biggest she’d ever seen up close. She drew strength from them and made her way out into the living area.
He was there, leaning against the door frame, wearing similar, but not the same, clothes from the day before. Dark blue khakis, black boots, a t-shirt that stretched invitingly over his muscles, along with his badge and gun at his waist. He looked positively yummy and she felt faint for a moment. She bit her tongue, hard, tasting iron in her mouth. What in the hell was wrong with her?
“Hi,” he said, pushing off from the wall and smiling at her. The other officer seemed to have left.
Oh God, the smile made him look even more handsome. She felt for the dogs. They were there, by her side, their soft fur providing a sort of touchstone for her.
“Hi,” she smiled back. He looked at the ground and she looked out the window, then snuck a peek at his left hand. No ring. No tan line. But the hand itself was big, strong-looking, sexy as shit if you were into guy’s hands, which she most certainly
was
. If he held her hand, his big hand would dwarf hers. She licked her lips and wished fiercely that it would happen, even as she knew it never would. “Your dogs!” she said, trying to fill the silence with something, anything other than her awkwardness.
“Hm?”
“Thank you for leaving them with me. They made me feel safe. They are
so
well-trained.”
A grin crossed his face and he looked at the dogs. “Aren’t they? We had to work with them for months. Years, really. And yet they still sometimes don’t get the harder commands. But still, they are just dogs.”
Ella cocked her head, feeling like she was missing something.
“Trent, Troy, come!” Lieutenant Burbank called, and he seemed to almost be laughing.
The bigger dog growled and rushed forward and bit the lieutenant on the shin, right through his pants.
“Ow! What the f─”
The dog trotted back to Ella and sat down next to her.
“Oh my goodness. Did he bite you? Are you hurt?”
The lieutenant grimaced and narrowed his eyes at the dogs. “No, it’s nothing.”
“Is that a hole in your pants? Did he really bite you?” She backed away from the dogs, nervous at the turn of events.
“Don’t worry. Please. It’s a joke. Their─ah─their handler likes to play jokes on me like that sometimes. He really actually can be a dick,” he said, glaring at the big dog whose mouth was open and his tongue out, looking as amused as a dog could look. The other dog was staring at the floor and as Ella watched he shook his head, left, right, then back again, like a disgusted human would. She blinked and backed up until she ran into the wall.
A rush of words crossed her brain.
Hampster-humper… don’t … that again …
Cat-fucker … deserved …
Kibbles-n-bits …
Enough!
Ella pressed her hands to her forehead and whimpered. The man and the two dogs both looked at her, concern on all their faces. This was it. She was cracking up once and for all. The big cop was going to have a front row seat. She felt her cheeks heat and her muscles tighten with the strain of trying to hold it all back.
She slid down the wall and landed on the floor with a thump.
Trevor ran to the woman but by the time he reached her she was already holding out her hands. “No, I’m fine. I’m sorry. Just give me a second to sit here. It’s been a rough few days.”
He veered off and went to the fridge instead, opening it and finding a sparkling water inside. He took it to her and knelt next to her. “Here, drink this, it will help.”
Trent and Troy had climbed into the woman’s lap as best they could and she seemed to be trying to cradle both of them. At least she didn’t look scared of them anymore.
She took the drink, then cocked her head at him and she did look better. The color was back in her cheeks. She took a long drink then gazed at him. “Did you call the dogs Trent and Troy?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“What strange names for dogs.”
“Yes well, police dogs and all that. Who knows who names them and why.”
She nodded and took another drink. “Which is which?”