Page 10 of Survive the Night
“What is it?” Hugh pushed away from the tree, all traces of amusement gone. Otto took a step toward Theo, his body on alert. Theo’s serious tone had both of them tense and ready to respond to the latest crisis.
“It’s happening again.” A muscle worked in Theo’s jaw.
“What is?” Otto asked. Like Steve had said, it had been a rough few months—hell, a rough year—for the Monroe first responders, especially the K9 unit. From Theo’s grim expression, whatever “it” was, it wasn’t good.
“One of Jules’s ‘childhood friends’ has arrived.”
In unison, Otto and Hugh groaned.
“Another one?” Hugh asked. The twitch of Theo’s right eye was answer enough, and Otto rubbed a hand over his head. Theo hadn’t been exaggerating.
This was an emergency.
Chapter 4
“Where the hell is she finding these women?” Theo grumbled after Dee had hurried ahead of them, the cat still clutched in her arms. Once Steve had realized that he couldn’t help with Theo’s “emergency,” he’d taken his ladder and headed home.
Theo, Otto, and Hugh followed behind the little girl and her new pet. As Otto eyed the cat, he was just a tiny bit annoyed that the feline didn’t look like he cared that he was being bounced up and down as Dee jogged toward her house. Otto couldn’t even take a careful step down a ladder without the cat trying to leap out of his arms, but Dee could probably take the animal on a roller coaster, and it would be perfectly content.
“Beats me.” Hugh’s voice sounded a little tight, and Otto gave him a sideways glance. The walk through the woods was obviously not doing good things for his injured leg. “Grace told me pretty much everything about what happened with the Jovanovics, but she flat-out said she’s not squealing on the person who helped her hide. She said that’s not information I need to know.” He snorted. “Such a bunch of bull. Grace should know by now that I need to know everything, or else it drives me nuts.”
“Yeah, Jules told me this is another ‘friend from school,’” Theo said.
Hugh gave a bark of laughter. “She’s not even trying anymore.”
“She doesn’t have to,” Theo admitted, and Otto could tell he was trying not to smile. “She knows that I know she’s never met this woman before in her life. Saying that this new…houseguest is an old friend is Jules’s way of asking me not to investigate her.”
“I wouldn’t care, except that someone’s always trying to blow up these women,” Hugh said with a dramatic sigh. “Jules still hasn’t told you why she and the kids are running?”
“No.”
Otto eyed Theo, a little surprised by his partner’s lack of obvious annoyance. Theo was not known for being zen. “Doesn’t it bother you?”
“I do want to know,” Theo said. “It’s harder to protect her if I’m in the dark. She’s not withholding information because she doesn’t trust me, though.”
“Then why hasn’t she told you?” Hugh asked. Now that they were in Jules’s backyard, and the ground was relatively even, his limp was less pronounced. Otto relaxed slightly. It was hard not to yell at Hugh for abandoning his crutches so soon after he’d been shot, or for following them through the woods, or for the hundred other things he did every single day that aggravated his injury. It was much easier to deal with the wounded animals Otto rehabilitated on his ranch, rather than his stubborn-as-hell partners.
“As far as I can tell, she doesn’t want to make me complicit in whatever crime she committed,” Theo explained. “I know her, though. She’d do anything for those kids. If she did something illegal, it was to help them. When she’s ready, she’ll tell me. Whatever her secret is, it won’t make me feel any differently about her.”
They crossed the remainder of the yard quietly. Even Hugh didn’t say a word. Otto wondered if he was shocked into silence by Theo’s uncharacteristic loquaciousness.
“Officers Bosco, Murdoch, and Gunnersen.” Jules stood in the back doorway with her hands fisted on her hips. Although she was attempting to scowl, it was obvious that she was amused. “A cat?”
“Don’t include me in your lecture,” Theo objected, taking the porch steps in a single stride. “I had nothing to do with it…this time.” He slid past her into the kitchen, giving her temple a kiss and whispering something into her ear.
Jules immediately blushed and began to smile, although she tried to hold on to her frown as she eyed Hugh and Otto. “You are never babysitting again.”
“See?” Hugh muttered under his breath, although not so far under his breath that Jules couldn’t hear him clearly. “Told you it’d work.”
Jules laughed, her hands falling to her sides. “A cat?” she repeated. “Really?”
“We couldn’t leave it there,” Hugh said, clomping up the steps with much less grace than Theo had shown. “What kind of horrible people would we be to leave a defenseless cat trapped on a windmill? Worse, if we’d left the poor cat to the mercy of the fire department? They’d be standing around, flexing, posing for calendar shots. By the time they got around to saving it, the poor thing would’ve died of starvation.”
“Hey,” Otto objected mildly. “Fireman Steve’s okay. I appreciated that ladder.”
Stepping back so Hugh and Otto could go inside, Jules looked back and forth between the two. “I have to hear this story. All I got from Dee was something about superheroes and how strong Otto is and how we need to go buy cat supplies. Oh, and something about a tree falling over?”
