A Wild Ride (Jessica Brodie Diaries #3) (11 page)

Right? I think I heard that somewhere…

Hands shaking harder, I dialed Adam as I made my way downstairs. Fred was in the living room at a window, growling louder than I had ever heard him. Ever.

Adam’s phone rang out.

To call Gladis or not to call Gladis—what the hell could she do? She couldn’t even hit Lump with a tennis ball and all her people were 800 years old!

Police?

What would I say—
Hello, officer, I’ve been reading mysteries without my boyfriend and my dog started growling. Could you come have a look? I’ll lock myself inside until you give the all-clear, mmmkay?

I called Adam again. Then Lump. Then Adam. Then Lump.

I figured if they were together I would be really,
really
annoying about now.

Fred stopped growling again. The silence was absolute. No crickets. No night birds. The people in Gladis’s house could probably hear my heart beating.

Where the hell are the crickets?

“Jessica, what the fuck do you want?” Lump asked angrily on the next call.

“Um, hi, not sure, but—“

“Are you drunk?”

“N-no.” My voice was shaking.

Fred sprinted through the house. I turned my body to face the back door, where he started growling in fluctuating, angry noises. Another jolt of pure terror flashed through my midsection.

“Can I talk to Adam?”

“Are you serious right now? Why do you want to talk to Adam?”

“I was just wondering how serious it is if Fred growls? I can’t remember exactly what William said.”

“Jess, he’s a damn dog. They growl. We’re right in the middle—“ Lump made a sound like a distant
Ow!

“Jess.” It was Adam. “Did you say Fred was growling?”

“Y-yeah. Is that bad? Are you at the Big House?”

Fred came back to the living room, his growl taking up all the breathing room in the house. He leaned his lithe body against my legs, his back looking like a black, short-haired porcupine.

“I don’t know if there is someone there—I didn’t see anyone—but Fred has been growling off and on.” I took a breath. “I’m scared, a little.”

“You sound more than a little scared. Tell me what happened.”

I started to, but before I got very far Fred took off running. Halfway through the house, he dramatically changed directions, heading right back for me. If a dog could scream out a growl, Fred would’ve been doing it.

“Is that Fred?” Adam asked, fear ebbing his words.

“So it is bad,” I whined.

“It’s okay, Jess. It’s fine. Are you inside?”

“Yes. Doors are locked. Didn’t see anyone.” Fred crossed to the front door, which was about five feet from where I was standing.

“Jess, we’re going to head to you, okay? Everything is probably fine. It is probably a couple kids wantin’ to take a dip in the pool.”

“Yeah,” I breathed.

Fred was standing in front of the door, staring at it, body poised, growl turned off.

The door handle jiggled.

“Oh God the door jiggled. The door just jiggled. Oh holy fuck. I gotta run. I gotta get outta here. I can’t be here. Not again. Can’t do this again!”

“Fuck! Jessica, calm down. It’s okay, just—“

“Hi Jess,” Lump said in
calm voice
. She’d talked me out of a bad choice trying a drug once using that voice. She knew I responded well to it. She was almost right.

Fred was on the move, as silent as a ghost, following something as unseen as a ghost around the perimeter of the cottage. How he knew where they were, I didn’t know. I also didn’t follow.

“Lump, what does it mean when the growl is off?”

“I don’t know, Je—“

“PUT ADAM BACK ON!” I whisper-screamed. I didn’t need
calm voice
, I needed to know what the hell was going on.

“Hi Jessica.” Adam was working on being calm for me; probably getting coached by Lump. “Fred growling means there…might be someone outside.”

“Adam, someone just fucking jiggled the God-damned door handle, then started walking around the place. Someone is def—“

A large shape passed by the far window, barely darker than the night beyond.

“It’s no kid, Adam,” I whispered, my focal cords tightened.

“How do you know?” Adam asked worriedly.

“Saw a shape. I have my running shoes. I should run.”

“
No!
Jess, no! Betsy, she wants to run—“ There was a pause, which I filled by watching Fred follow the shadow to the rear of the house. “Running would probably be the last thing to do, Jess. You are locked in with Fred. You are safe. Betsy is calling the police and we are on our way as we speak. We are in the car. We’ll be there shortly.”

I nodded, not wanting to voice that this was the third time Adam would not make it in time. And this time, I didn’t have William to save me.

Fred barked from the back of the house.

“Did Fred just bark?” Adam asked in a near panic.

“Yeah, at the back of the house. I should run. I should. I’m fast. I have my shoes—“

“
Jessica-you-will-not-run!
Trust in Fred. The police are on their—“

Lights, sirens—the world turned white, bright lights streaming through the windows like spot lights. Disembodied voices yelled, shouting directions. Two shadows jiggled through my window, one getting smaller—off to the Big House. One bigger. Coming here.

“Why me?” I asked, covering my eyes against the glare.

“I don’t know, Jessica. Why can I never help?” Adam answered in the same voice.

The glass back door—
my
back door—shattered.

“I don’t hear Fred…” My voice trailed off, overtaken by blind, numbing panic.

A shout echoed through the front door.

Then, out the back, sounded a vicious, fierce, louder than a gunshot, wet growl. And screaming. A man screaming so loud and high it didn’t sound like a man anymore.

In a daze I walked that way. I walked toward my dog, probably dying. Toward a man, surely dying.

“JESSICA! JESSICA TALK TO ME!!”

It was Lump. For the first time she sounded just as panicked as Adam. As my inner thoughts.

“I’m here,” I said through numb lips into a phone clutched by numb fingers. I was only so tough, after all. I could only go through so much. And this was one time too many. I was spent. All done. This time, I just didn’t give a shit anymore.

“Do it for William, Jessica! Keep it together for William!” Lump was yelling at me from a different world.

“Do what?” I asked stupidly, staring at a man lying on my kitchen floor with his throat shredded.

“There’s so much blood.” Spilling out. Inching across the tile floor in a smooth, shimmering pool. Crawling along the cracks, reaching out to my feet. “It’s ruining the floor.”

“She’s lost—
GO FASTER
!” I heard through my fog.

A man’s feet came into view. My eyes traveled up a body a mile high, landing on calculating, steel blue eyes. If he was taken aback by the body at his feet, he didn’t show it.

I waited for my calm bubble of survival, but it didn’t come.

“Too much,” I said to the man, who had taken one step toward me. His balance wavered as his foot hit the slick tile coated with blood.

“Sorry honey—wrong place at the wrong time.” He sounded like a West Coaster. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I wasn’t expecting you. Wrong place at the wrong time.”

The phone clattered to the ground. Lump didn’t need to hear this. Not this. I had been trying to avoid something like this since I got to this damn state, and so far narrowly missed. But luck eventually runs out. My safety blanket was in another state.

“Well shit,” I said, watching the cool headed man working his slow way around a dying man. There wasn’t much room in this part of the entryway, and most of the floor space was filled with a body, blood or urine. Or a disgusting mixture of all three.

“I guess I better go out fighting, huh?” I said dejectedly. That was the name of the game, wasn’t it? That’s what heroes always did? They didn’t write stories or sing songs about people that just laid down and died.

Before I knew how I’d gotten there, I had a giant knife in a steady hand led by a buzzing brain. I was not at the wheel. With Dusty, both times, I had been. I grabbed onto calm, rational thought with him. Not this time.

The large man with a giant barrel chest was advancing on me. He looked sad. Shaking his head, he said, “Sorry baby doll, but I have to. I didn’t think I needed a mask—you’re never here. But as the Texan’s say, I ain’t going back to the pen.”

“That’s a terrible accent.”

Up came a gleaming gun. My eyes honed in on a black hole in the middle of a gleaming silver circle. The end that went
bang
was pointed at me.

I did the only thing I could think of. I screamed as loud as possible…for Fred. I called his name with every ounce of breath in my body. With my fear lending my voice a higher-than-normal pitch, and urgency giving my voice power, I screamed. And hoped.

And then a blast blotted out all thought.

Followed by that vicious, wet growl.

Then the screaming.

I did close my eyes, then. I closed my eyes and wished for death. I’d had enough.

Chapter Six

“She’s coming to.”

It was Adam. His voice was close to my ear.

My eyes fluttered open. Adam was carrying me. I closed my eyes again.

I felt a warm hand on my arm. A woman’s hand. Lump, then. Her hands were always warm. Great circulation.

“Are you okay, Jess?” Lump asked quietly.

“Don’t know. Is Fred okay?”

“Yes. He is walking next to us. He has some gashes, but he’ll be okay. Are
you
okay?”

“Don’t know.”

“Can you think about it and let me know? We’re walking out to the paramedics, but maybe I should run ahead?”

“I have my running shoes on. I should’ve run.”

“Yes. I’ll just run ahead. See you there in a jiff.”

I closed my eyes again.

I came to as my butt hit the grass next to a police car. There were feet all around me, some with black shiny boots, some with white sneakers, and an assortment of other kinds, mostly not trendy.

A scratchy brown blanket was draped over my shoulders.

“Second time I get this blanket,” I told no one in particular. “They should invest in better fabric.”

Someone sat next to me. By the smell, it was Adam.

“Do you
hate
deodorant?” I asked without really caring what the answer was. He must have known, because he didn’t say anything.

I looked out at all the people flocking around. Police were talking to a few people, mostly Gladis’s employees that stayed in the house. A group of paramedics were loading someone into the back of an ambulance—I couldn’t see if the head was covered or not.

I felt another body next to me, panting. I put my hand on Fred. He was wet.

“Oh my God!” I jumped up, my mind clearing like a windshield wiper had just come through. “
Fred!”

He whimpered.

Adam moved around me, staying close, and looked closely at Fred.

“
Jesus Christ,
” he said quietly. He looked up at me with fear in his eyes.

“Did he get shot? Did
I?”

“It’s okay, Jess.”

“Check Fred—I heard the gun go off, Adam. Where did the bullet go if not in me?”

Adam stared at me, frozen in place. I could barely make out his eyes with all the glare and shadows, but I could see defeat. He needed to give up this foolish vendetta to protect me, and it looked like he’d just realized it. Obviously the protection award went to Lady Luck, who I would never call a bitch ever again as long as I lived.

“Check Fred,” I insisted. Sometimes people just needed a job.

Adam did as he told until Lump came over. Then he just kinda…sat down. Not gracefully, or in control—he just half fell over onto his butt and looked at Fred.

“Did he get shot?” I asked again, louder.

“Betsy—“ That was Gladis, sounding so in control of this situation she might have planned the whole thing. “I have a vet here for Fred. Bring him over.”

Lump bent to Fred but Adam stopped her. “No. Have them come here. He’s hurt.”

“Did he get shot?” I asked again, really trying to hold back the tears. I was pretty sure at this point that I didn’t get that bullet.

“How bad?” Lump asked, bending over the dog. Then, “Oh shit. No problem. Jessica, this is no problem. He would stand if I asked—he’s a dog. They are superhuman. I’ll just run and get the vet and we’ll deal with this real quick!”

“I give up, Adam. I don’t want to do this anymore.” I laid down on the grass and closed my eyes again.

The first sight I saw Denise peering down at me. I was lifted—Tom this time—and put onto the back of an ambulance. The Davies lawyer—forgot his name—was standing guard over me.

For some reason that made me feel extremely good.

“Jessica, we are just going to get you looked at, okay?" the lawyer informed me. "Betz said that you have been through a trying ordeal, so we are just going to have you looked over.”

Lump and Gladis, in control when the world was falling down around them.

I nodded my ascent and let the paramedic look at me, but all he found were bruises when I hit the floor. Less for photographs this time.

Thinking of photographs, I asked, “How’s Fred?”

“Fred is Willie’s dog?” the lawyer asked Tom. He got a nod.

Denise said, “Fred is being looked at by one of the best vet’s in the city. The vet’s van is here. Fred is going to be okay. He’ll have to have a few stitches and he’ll be out for a while, but he will be okay.”

“He saved my life.”

“Yes, dear. He is a very good dog.”

“Did he get shot?”

“No, dear. The bullet missed.”