Page 140 of Beware of Dog

“Shep will hate it.” She surged forward and hugged her sister. “That’s wonderful. Thank you.” She squeezed tight. “For everything. I love you.”

Raven kissed her cheek. “I love you, too.” She pulled back, and tears sat bright on her lashes, but didn’t fall. She smiled. “Which is why I absolutely won’t make the two of you run the birdseed gauntlet. When you get the chance, take your man and slip away, alright?”

Cass nodded. “Thank you.”

The chance came about twenty minutes later, when Shep escaped her brothers and was pouring a drink at the folding table buffet set up against the split-rail fence that separated lawn from forest.

“Hey. You wanna leave?”

He set his drink down untouched. “Fuck yes.”

When she reached for his hand, he snatched hers up, and took off up the path at a jog. Cass lifted her skirt with her other hand and laughed as she tried to keep up.

Shep’s cabin was one of a dozen such scattered up the long, gradual slope that rose steadily behind the house. It was an ambling, picturesque bark chip path, a pleasant walk during good weather when she was wearing boots or sneakers. But it was cold, the air sharp in her lungs, and she was in heels, and the way seemed much farther in the dark.

Halfway there, amidst the tree trunks and the oil-spill shadows, she tugged his hand and said, “Wait, wait,” hand pressed to the stitch in her side.

“Shit,” he said, and stopped, and swung around to check on her. “Sorry, baby, you good?”

“Yeah.” She laughed. “Let me catch my breath a sec.”

“Miles started talking about Dungeons & Dragons and when you said ‘let’s go,’ I couldn’t get outta there fast enough.”

She laughed again, and brushed her hair back. She’d taken the veil off earlier, and all the dancing had shaken loose a few bobby pins.

Shep reached up to tuck a thick lock behind her ear, thumb lingering on her jaw afterward. It was a three-quarter moon, and the trees hadn’t leafed out yet, so the moonlight offered a glimpse of his fond, tender expression.

“Hey,” he said, quietly.

“Hey.”

“I know we’ve been together all day, but…”

She smoothed both hands up his chest, over the buttons of his shirt, feeling the warmth of overheated skin beneath. “I know.”

The kiss felt almost psychic: they decided to do it at the same time, and met in the middle, both straining toward each other. This one wasn’t as chaste as the one in front of everyone; his tongue slipped between her lips and she gripped his cut in both hands and opened her mouth; made a breathy, encouraging noise that he swallowed.

A laugh bubbled up in her throat, and ruined the kiss.

Shep pulled back, smiling, and pressed their foreheads together. “What?”

“We’re married.”

“Yeah. I was there.”

“Shep, we’remarried.”

“Yeah.” He tipped her head with pressure from his thumb, and deepened the angle of the next kiss.

Oh, he was so good at that. He was—

Crack. Crack. Crack.

The pain registered first. A bright hot jolt through her chest, just under her collarbone. And then she understood what the noise was. Gunshots.

Her hands slipped off his chest, though she didn’t want them to. She tried to warn him:someone’s shooting. But all that left her lips was a dull murmur.

“What?” Shep was yelling. Why was he yelling? “Baby. Babe.Cassie. What…what the fuck?”

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