I pressed myself to the rough wood, squeezing my eyes shut, praying I didn’t get caught trespassing. I heard a whistle and then a door slam. If my powers of deduction were correct, it had come from the house behind Stephanie’s. My sigh caught against the fence just as a set of teeth sank into my ankle.
“Ahh.” I kicked, shaking the small furball latched on to my ankle with the tenacity of a seed tick. One strong jerk and the dog flew off. The pooch yelped, scrabbled to its feet, and came back for more. High-pitched barks erupted as the five-pound Yorkie launched itself at me again.
“Get!” I hissed, swatting a hand at the beast.
The thing obviously wasn’t open to reason. It kept bouncing at me, yipping, growling, and baring tiny teeth. If I hadn’t been so panicked, I might have stopped to admire the defense the dog was mounting. I might even think it was cute.
But its teeth were razors, and the barking was way . . . too . . . much.
“Shhh!” I waved a hand in front of it, getting another nip in the process. I moved the dog aside with a sweep of my leg, shaking my wounded hand. “Son of a—”
But as Fluffy scrabbled back at me, I noted the carport held only one car—a cute little Lexus RX 350. No truck.
Dang it.
All this for nothing.
Fluffy jumped, teeth bared, and I caught the small dog under its belly, lifting it right before the Yorkie ripped my left leg off. Immediately the little dog started crying horrible little “I’m hurt and dying” yelps that would have broken my heart if my hand and ankle weren’t throbbing.
The back door banged open. “Sunny?”
Oh, holy hell. Stephanie.
“Sunny? Baby boy, are you hurt?”
I heard shuffling and backed into the shadows, still holding the dog I hadn’t found the least bit sunny out in front of me. The thing wriggled and yelped even more. When my back touched the side of the house, I set the pup down. Sunny shot like a bullet toward his owner, still yelping as if I’d bitten him instead of the other way around.
“Aww, what’s wrong, Sunny? Is that mean ol’ tomcat after you again? Come to Mama, baby.”
I closed my eyes and prayed the woman didn’t come out to look for the mean ol’ tom. Please don’t come out. Please. Please. Please.
I shouldn’t have done this. I should have stayed in the car with Ruby, complacent, content to suspect. What had this little venture gotten me? Nothing. Except some dog bites I’d have to explain and a scratch from the oleander bush. Scott wasn’t even here.
The yelping of the dog subsided, only to be replaced by high-pitched barks. Sunny didn’t give up.
“What is it, boy?” Stephanie asked.
Another shuffling sound on the stoop made me cringe. She was going to come out here and look around. Stupid woman. Didn’t she watch horror flicks? You don’t go outside in the dark to investigate unless you have a—
“What is it?” a deeper voice asked.
I slapped a hand over my mouth so I didn’t scream.
It was Scott.
“I don’t know. Probably the cat that’s been getting into the trash cans.” Stephanie sounded like she was closer. Maybe she’d inched down the steps. Trying to take small breaths, I mimicked a statue frozen against the beige siding of the house.
“Come inside, baby. I have to leave in a few minutes,” Scott said, using a voice I hadn’t heard in ten years. It was his flirty “I’ll do naughty things to you” voice. “I found the cherry lube.”
My mouth opened and closed several times. Cherry lube? Really?
“But maybe I should check . . . ,” Stephanie trailed off.
Then I heard a giggle. “Oh, my bad little fox. Move your hand lower. Oh yeah, that’s nice.”
My hands fisted. Screw Fluffy the psycho dog. The only rabid animal out here was me. The urge to attack rose inside me. I’d scratch and bite and . . . beat them with the water hose stretched out across the backyard. I’d tear them limb from limb and . . .
I sucked in a calm, measured breath. Logic had to prevail. I had a tool of reason looped around my neck. Cameras didn’t lie. If I could get the camera out and turned on correctly, I could sneak around the corner and get a shot of Scott and Steph, who if the slurping sounds were any indication, were making out on the back porch. I carefully pulled the strap over my head, my other hand cradling the case so it didn’t bump up against the house. I could hear the dog still growling low in his throat, but the two lovers seemed too caught up in each other to detect my presence.