Page 1 of His Witness To Protect

Chapter One

To any casual observer, there was nothing particularly specialabout Kenzie’s Animal Shelter. It was just one building amonghundreds of others on an unremarkable street in downtown Chicago.

Every time Brie Miller walked the few meters from her home to the shelter for her evening shift, she tried to see the building through the eyes of other pedestrians but could never manage to just write it off or group it among the other buildings. It had always induced a feeling of well-being in her that seemed to grow stronger the longer she worked there.

She didn’t know if it was the charm exuded by the sign flashingKenzie’s!in bright, neon colors every few seconds or theWELCOMEmat on the front step, but there was something about the shelter that always made her feel at home. The homey feeling was intensified once she got to the front doors. Her heart started to race as she thought of all the animals waiting for her inside.

Brie had always had a thing for animals. Having grown up in a small, loving household in Destiny Falls, she could hardly remember a time when animals had not surrounded her. Her dad was a dog lover, and her mom was head over heels in love with cats. They’d both grown to love dogs and cats equally. So, Brie and her brothers had spent all of their childhood living with and caring for pets.

This love for animals did not wane as she grew older; rather, it increased. Now, even though she spent her morning hoursworking as a librarian, she always made sure to clock in a few hours every evening at the animal shelter on her street.

Brie smiled fondly as she thought of the animals waiting inside. Besides being at the library, the best parts of her day were caring for and being around them. She particularly liked the furry, animal smell that followed her home on some nights. There was only one other smell she enjoyed as much as the smell of the animal shelter, and that was the smell of old books.

Part of the reason why she’d decided to work at the library was the same reason she’d opted to volunteer at the shelter most evenings—she could not imagine living each day without being surrounded by either books or animals.

Her job at the library was one of the few things she truly enjoyed about living in the city. The feeling of being surrounded by so much history and so many stories was one she wasn’t willing to give up for anything.

For most of high school, she’d been called a nerd by her classmates. It didn’t help that she’d been chubby or that she’d worn thick glasses, braces, and mousy brown hair, avoiding most school dances and parties, preferring to spend her time either holed up in the school library, nose-deep in a book, or at home, looking after her pets.

The mocking nicknames had stopped after high school, but old habits die hard. The label was something she’d grown to live with, even though it had cost her a lot. It had even cost her a relationship. The memories threatened to bubble to the surface as she caught sight of her reflection in the window of an apartment building a few steps from the shelter. She glanced away quickly, preferring not to trigger old wounds.

It wasn’t that she thought she was unattractive or ugly—she just didn’t think she had the kind of face or body most guys wanted, particularly because of the turn her last relationship hadtaken. Besides being nerdy in high school, her chubby appearance had contributed to the bullying she got from her classmates. Over the years, she’d filled out in all the right places and lost her baby fat.

As she got closer to the shelter, she smiled, her errant thoughts briefly forgotten as she imagined the sound of the animals. Their barks and squeals never failed to put her at ease. Most people found the sounds of animals distracting or annoying, but not Brie. They reminded her of home.

She caught sight of the empty parking space in front of the building and remembered that she’d be alone at the shelter thatnight. The main caretaker, Rachel, who also happened to be Brie’s best friend, had left on a weekend trip, and she usually parked her car just in front of the building.

Usually, Brie assisted Rachel in her duties—performing odd jobs and carrying out minor tasks. She usually did this for a few hours in the evening before heading home, leaving Rachel to stay until her shift ended in the morning.

Since Rachel wasn’t around this evening, Brie would have to stay until morning. She’d never been alone at the shelter at night before, and she was looking forward to it. She’d even brought a book along for when she was done with her duties.

She got to the front of the shelter and was about to let herself in when she noticed that the wooden lock had been tampered with. The handle was almost falling off and was only hanging on by a nail.

Slightly alarmed, Brie pushed the doors open and entered the building, ears perked for any strange sounds. The kids from thehigh school were known for playing pranks and wreaking harmless havoc on the businesses around town. They’d never brought theirmischief to the shelter before, but she supposed it was to be expected.

Squinting in the near darkness, she stealthily walked into the front office, checking to see if anything had been stolen, careful not to turn on any lights and make as little noise as possible in case the intruders were still inside. The front desk, Rachel’s usual workstation, was empty as expected, and it didn’t look like anything had been stolen. All seemed to be in order as she moved deeper into the building. Nothing else seemed to be out of place until she got closer to the storage room.

CHAPTER TWO

All the lights in the storage room were turned on. The back room was partially lit, which Brie could see from the sliver of light coming through the storage room. Brie’s fear grew then because she knew Rachel would never have forgotten to turn off all the lights before leaving on her trip. She took safety veryseriously. More so, they’d hardly ever had reason to use the storage room. It was usually closed for most of the month.

Moving more carefully now, making sure to stay quiet, Brie tiptoed into the back room and looked around for any weapons she could use. She cursed underneath her breath as she surveyed the room, seeing nothing that could remotely serve as a weapon of any kind.

As Brie made her way to the door of the storage room, she thought in a far corner of her mind that she could smell the sharp, metallic scent of blood. She’d barely had time to process this information before she got to the door of the storage room and stopped short.

A man was kneeling in the middle of the room, facing away from her. She couldn’t tell his age with his back turned to her, but the man was shirtless, with eerily pale skin, a head that was shaved completely bald, and a tattoo on the back of his neck.

Shell-shocked, she stared at him for a few seconds and noticed that he was sewing up what looked like a gunshot wound on his thigh. She knew she should probably move and fast, but her muscles and joints had turned to jelly.

“Move!” she silently yelled at herself in her head, but her body refused to obey as she took in the scene in front of her.

Alarmed, she looked at the floor and saw a line of blood trailing from the door of the storage room to where the man knelt, hunched over, oblivious to her presence and obviously in pain.

The longer she stared, the more she noticed that the tattoo onhis neck was a snake. Even though the night was hot, Brie shivered.

She wanted to scream or make some kind of sound, but she somehow knew that it was a bad idea. Something about the stranger made her feel very cold and very, very afraid. Every fiber of her body told her to run. She suddenly wished she’d taken Rachel more seriously when she told her to attend a self-defense class or two. The man in front of her looked like he would not hesitate to hurt or kill her if he had the chance.

Slowly, she inched backward, trying not to make a sound. She took a step back toward the door, turning around so she could see where she was going and glancing back to keep an eye on the strange man in the room.

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