Page 17 of Things We Hide from the Light
I locked my hands on Lina’s hips and got ready to pull.
“No, the nice man is just giving me a hug from behind. He’s not freaking you out with his scary vibes at all,” she continued.
“I don’t have scary vibes,” I complained.
“Nash, if your fingers dig in any harder, I’m gonna have bruises. And not the fun kind,” she said.
I glanced down and found my fingers white knuckled on the curves of her hips. I loosened my grip.
“Good girl!” Lina said and I leaned down, trying to see what was happening. But I was hindered by my shoulder and the view was blocked by the aforementioned shapely ass.
“I’ve got our sweet girl all snuggled up in a good grip,” Lina reported. “There’s just one problem.”
“What?”
“I can’t wiggle out and hold on to her. You’re gonna have to pull me out.”
I stared down at her ass again. I was going to have to be real careful how I wrote up this incident report or Grave would have a fucking field day with it.
“Come on, Chief. I won’t bite. Get me out of this disgusting swamp before I start thinking about rabies and fleas.”
I had two options. I could stand up and drag her out by the ankles, or I could pull her back by the hips.
“Just so you know, I’m picking the option that will do the least amount of damage to your lower back.”
“Just grab a handful and pull.”
“Fine. But you stop me if you get uncomfortable or if the dog starts to freak out.”
“Jesus, Nash, I’m giving you consent to haul me out of this drainage pipe by my ass. Get to it!”
Wondering how a brief mental health exercise had gotten me here, I grabbed her hips and yanked them back against my groin. I barely managed to bite back a groan as Lina’s torso slid out of the drain.
“Everything okay?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“All good. She’s a sweet little thing. Smells like a bag of fertilizer, but she’s friendly.”
I took a firmer grip on her hips. “How do you know she’s a she?”
“Pink collar under all that grime.”
I hoped to hell that wasn’t a car engine I heard on the road. “I swear to God if anyone drives by…” I muttered.
“Come on, hotshot. Show me what you’ve got,” Lina encouraged. The dog gave an excited yip as if agreeing with her heroine.
I inched backward on my knees, then dragged her hips back into me. Again, the perfect curves landed in exactly the right place. But this time her head, arms, and the dog slid free of the pipe onto the frozen grass. She was on knees and elbows, ass to crotch with me. My heart hit triple time and I felt light-headed for reasons that for once had nothing to do with anxiety.
A snazzy little Porsche SUV crossed the double line and pulled over behind my vehicle. “Need any help there, Chief?” Naomi’s best friend, Stefan Liao, smirked behind the wheel.
I looked down at Lina, who raised her eyebrow at me over her shoulder. It looked like I was mounting the woman on the side of the road.
“I think we’ve got it handled, Stef,” she called back.
Stef flashed a little salute and grinned wickedly. “Well, I’ll just be on my way to tell everyone I see how Chief Morgan starts his Saturday morning.”
“I’ll arrest you for being a pain in the ass,” I warned him.
“Looks like you would know, Chief,” Stef said. With a wink and a wave, he drove off in the direction of town.
