Page 20 of Absinthe Dreams
I growl wordlessly, my hands shaking. Is he kidding me right now?
Me: No, you did my dad a favor by agreeing to interview me. I EARNED my job. And I increased profit margins by twenty percent in the two years Iworked there. I don't owe you anything, and I damn sure won't lie to your wife about you being a creep. I respect her. But you can go to hell.
Me: Do not contact me again, or the next place I go with your messages is to my dad and then to the cops.
I don't give him a chance to respond before I block the number, my heart hammering.
"What an asshole!" I growl.
Thanos pauses mid-sniff to glance up at me…which means he doesn't see the cat scurrying down the side of the tree, as if I startled it out of the branches. But he does hear it as soon as it lands in the bushes behind him. They rattle and snap as the cat rushes off to safety.
Thanos jumps, yelping like the cat is trying to murder him. Before I even have a chance to react, he's running just like the cat, racing across the park like his life is in imminent danger. And the leash is still looped around my waist.
He practically drags me, my feet skidding across the grass and over roots.
"Thanos!" I shout. "Thanos, stop!"
He doesn't hear me, or if he does, he doesn't listen. He's in full panic mode. The leash cuts into my wrist. My shoulder throbs.
"Thanos!" I cry again, desperate to get him to stop before he yanks my arm from the socket or breaks my wrist.
I'm not sure if the pain in my voice is what breaks through his panic or if he just decides that he's no longer in immediate danger, because he stops running. Literally just…stops.
I stumble, my ankle twisting before I land on my ass in the dirt. For long moments, I just sit there, groaning. Trying to catchmy breath. My ankle twinges. My arm hurts. And dammit all, maybe Trystan was right.
Iamgoing home demoralized and defeated.
From the looks of it, so is Thanos.
"Come here, buddy," I whisper softly, calling him over to me.
He skulks toward me with his head hanging low and his tail between his legs before he crawls into my lap. His tongue licks all the way up the side of my face in a silent apology.
"It's okay," I murmur, burying my face in his fur. "It's okay, big guy."
He huffs quietly as if to say it's far from okay. And he isn't wrong. But that isn't his fault. He's just a dog, a frightened, anxious dog who spent too much time in a warzone and still hasn't figured out that he never has to go back again.
"What the fuck?" Trystan growls as soon as I limp into the kitchen. He immediately tosses his dish towel, hurrying toward me. Two plates rest on the kitchen table, his laptop nowhere in sight. The whole house smells like bacon. "What happened?"
"Cat in the park," I grumble.
"Jesus, baby. Did you get into a fight with it?" he asks, scooping me up to carry me to the table.
"What? No, of course not. It scared Thanos, and he took off running. He ended up dragging me. I twisted my ankle." I glance down at the dog, who is curled up on his bed, his head on his front paws. "My shoulder hurts too. But it's not his fault."
Trystan sighs softly, easing me down into a chair before kneeling in front of me. His fingers close around my ankle, lifting it onto his knee to examine it. I fight the urge to shiver as he traces a fingertip across my bare skin. "How bad does it hurt?"
"Not bad," I mutter. "It's definitely not broken." It's not even really swollen. It just aches a little. I'm sure it'll be fine in a few hours.
"You should get it checked out anyway."
"It's fine, Trystan. I just need to rest it for a few hours. Same for the shoulder." I shift my gaze from my ankle to my wrist. There's a very obvious leash-burn around it. "My wrist probably needs cleaning up, though."
Trystan's lips purse when he sees it. He immediately hops up, striding toward the sink to grab the first aid kit Wyatt keeps tucked beneath it. "You aren't walking him at the park alone anymore, princess."
"Obviously," I grumble. "I didn't think I was going to get him stopped for a minute there. Poor guy freaked out. Honestly, it was Donny's fault."
Trystan drops to his knees beside me, meeting my gaze. "What happened?"
