Page 53 of Survive the Night
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When Sarah got home that afternoon, she expected that Otto would be sleeping. Instead, he was waiting on the porch, Mort and Xena next to him. Her heart skipped when she saw him. That was the hardest part of her job—she didn’t get to spend as much time with Otto. She parked next to Otto’s truck, and then climbed out. The wind cut through her jacket and shirt, and she shivered. Mort trotted over to greet her, but Xena was more tentative, slipping around behind Sarah to poke her cold nose into her palm.
As Sarah headed toward the porch, she had to fight to keep from jogging toward Otto. It was hard. Otto seemed to have a strong magnetic pull that reeled her in whenever she was close to him.
“Hi,” she said as she climbed the steps, the dogs close behind her. “I thought you’d be sleeping. Did you manage to get tonight off?”
He grimaced slightly. “No break for me until the other officers get back from training. I slept earlier.”
“Oh.” She took another step toward him and then paused. Any closer, and she’d be in his personal bubble. It wasn’t that she would mind, but she wasn’t sure how he’d feel about that. “Where are you headed?”
“I’m going to work with Bean. Want to help?”
“Yes.” The word popped out quickly, but a sharp gust of wind reminded her of the cold. “Let me get a few more layers on, and I’ll join you. I can meet you at the barn.”
“I’ll wait.” He moved to the porch support and leaned against it. “Do you have enough warm clothes? I have a stack of things in the bunker. You could take some of those.”
“I’m good.” She smiled at him as she lingered by the door, taking him in. It was silly, since she’d just seen him earlier that afternoon, but she’d missed him. “Besides, your clothes would be huge on me. Remember the T-shirt I borrowed?”
“I remember.” The blue flame in his eyes smoldered.
Her gaze was caught by the heat in his until another cold blast of wind hit her, and she was able look away. “I’ll be right back.” She slipped into the house before she could do something silly like hurl herself into his arms. For some reason, she was as breathless as if she’d sprinted around the house a few times. For some reason, the voice in her head mocked, and Sarah couldn’t blame it. She knew perfectly well what—or who—had stolen her breath. It happened every time she got near Otto.
She hurried to her room and pulled on some layers. When Grace and Jules had encouraged her to buy long underwear and fleece-lined sweatshirts and thick wool socks the first time she’d visited Grady’s, Sarah had thought they were exaggerating what she’d need. It hadn’t been an exaggeration, though. She’d worn every piece of her new wardrobe, especially now that she was at Otto’s, where buildings didn’t block the worst of the wind like they did in town. If it was this cold already, then winter was going to be brutal. With a shiver at the thought, she zipped her jacket over her multiple layers and grabbed her hat before running back down the stairs.
As promised, Otto was waiting for her on the porch. His gaze ran over her in a way that overheated her, making her warm clothes unnecessary. He didn’t say anything, just held out his hand.
She gripped it, loving the gesture, even if it was glove to glove rather than skin to skin. When they reached the barn, he released her in order to open the door, and Sarah felt instantly and illogically colder. As they cut through the barn, Otto grabbed a halter and lead rope off a hook next to the single, oversized stall.
“That’s a huge stall,” Sarah said as she followed him toward the paddock gate.
He gave her a slightly sheepish look over his shoulder. “It used to be two, but Bean and Hortense like to room together.”
“Makes sense.” It was hard to keep her tone even when her heart was squeezed so tightly. The idea that this burly man took out the connecting stall wall so that Bean wouldn’t be as scared was so sweet that tears burned Sarah’s eyes. She quickly blinked them back. “Was Hortense a rescue, too?”
“A couple of years ago, I went on a call for a stolen vehicle case we’d been working on with the sheriff’s department. We found the stolen cars in the barn, and Hortense was in there, too. She was pretty much a mess—wormy, mangy, and so skinny you could see every one of her ribs, but she wasn’t skittish or scared at all.” He smiled as he held the gate for her. “She walked right up to me and started chewing on my jacket sleeve. Her owner was going to jail, and he said he didn’t care if I took her. I just had a squad car there, though, so I convinced the deputy to let me load Hortense into the back of her SUV. Even now, when I see that deputy, she tells me that her squad car still smells like goat poop.”
Sarah laughed at the image, feeling a surge of compassion toward the goat that was now trotting toward them. “You sure have a soft spot for animals in need.” And people. She pushed away the thought that he might just be interested in her because of her situation. If that were true, though, he’d have gone after Jules or Grace. Her sad story paled in comparison to theirs.
He shrugged slightly as he dug in his pocket for a treat. “I think every animal deserves to feel safe.”
That simple statement hit Sarah hard. Until she’d run to Monroe—no, until she’d moved in with Otto—she had never felt safe. Now that she’d gotten a taste of it, she knew that she would fight with everything she had to keep that feeling—for her, and for everyone she was coming to love. She couldn’t think of how to respond to him, how to express her thoughts, so she stayed quiet. As she watched him feed Hortense, she leaned against his other side, wanting that contact, that connection. He put his arm around her, drawing her closer, and she wallowed in his touch, in his kind and protective nature. At that moment, she decided that she was going to enjoy every second she was given with him. Even if she was forced to run, if she was ripped away from the first place that had offered her security and friends and freedom, she didn’t want to leave with regrets.
“I want to…” She trailed off, distracted by what she saw in his hand. “What on earth are you feeding Hortense?”
“Cheetos.” He gave her a lopsided smile. “They’re her favorite treat.”
“Of course they are.” Now that the mood had changed, she decided to keep her revelation to herself. “No one can resist that orange fake-cheese stuff. Wouldn’t, I don’t know, some kind of vegetable be healthier?”
“Probably. I figure a few won’t hurt.”
“That’s true.” A movement caught her eye. “Bean is very sneakily headed this way. Does he get Cheetos, too?”
“Carrots,” he said without looking at the horse standing just six feet away from them. As Bean sidled a little closer, Otto put a chunk of carrot on his palm and extended his flat hand toward the horse. Stretching his neck so he could reach without stepping closer, Bean took the piece of carrot and then retreated several feet to chew it as he watched them warily.
“Is he rideable?” Sarah asked, leaning more heavily against Otto.
“Yes, but we’re taking it slow. I want him to enjoy work, not to fear it. No reason to rush things. We’ve got time.”
