Chapter 7

He was there, at her house, and he had puppies.

Sarah leaned against the wall outside the living room, frantically fanning her face. She needed to cool her hot cheeks, or he’d instantly know how much he affected her. Dee chattered about the puppies, and listening to her calmed Sarah down. Blowing out a silent breath, she squared her shoulders. Stop being silly and get in there.

Pivoting around the doorjamb, she ran straight into what felt like a wall. Bouncing off a hard body, she started to fall backward, but Otto caught her arms in an iron grip and held her upright. Sarah swallowed a groan. Of course she had to run into Otto. A dignified entrance was too much to ask.

“Sorry,” she said as he released his grip. Even after he moved his hands, she could still feel the ghost of his fingers warming her skin.

He dipped his chin, not saying a word. Sarah had run their encounter at the store through her brain a thousand times, until she worried that she’d just made the whole thing up, that the trauma of escaping her brother had forced her into some fantasy land where beautiful, dog-loving Viking lumberjacks thought she was pretty. Tearing her eyes from the way his tanned skin stretched over his cheekbones and jaw, where a hint of stubble marred the smooth texture, Sarah turned toward the puppies. She desperately needed a distraction from the man in front of her.

“Oh!” she exclaimed when she saw them, moving over to where Jules, Grace, and the kids sat on the floor. Each one of Jules’s siblings held a puppy, although Jules and Grace looked as if they wanted to steal one of their own. Sarah sat on the floor between Dee and Jules, reaching out a finger to stroke the puppy Dee was holding. “They’re like little furry sausages.”

Dee’s puppy blindly rooted against her middle, making squeaky grunting sounds. The little girl laughed, tucking the puppy closer. “I think this one’s hungry, Otto.”

“They’re almost due for their next feeding,” he said, and Sarah felt heat bloom in her belly at the sound of his gravelly voice. He had a distinctive way of speaking, as if picking each word carefully, and it made her want to listen to him for hours. He could read the dictionary to her, she decided. She’d expand her vocabulary and get to hear that wonderful voice at the same time. “They eat about every three hours.”

“Can they sleep with me tonight?” Dee asked Jules.

Tipping her head toward the cat that was perched on the back of the couch, looking affronted at the entire situation, Jules said, “Don’t you think Turtle might be a little hurt?”

Dee gave the cat a sheepish look. “Sorry, Turtle.”

“I’ll k-keep them,” Sam offered. “That w-w-way they w-won’t w-wake anyone d-downstairs.”

“Sure?” Jules sounded concerned.

“Yeah. N-no school tom-morrow.”

Not looking convinced, Jules absently started petting the puppy sleeping in Ty’s lap. “You have to get up early to work at the kennel, though.”

“I’ll do it.” Sarah was surprised to hear herself volunteer—what did she know about taking care of dogs? It wasn’t as if she’d ever been allowed to keep one. “I don’t have to go anywhere tomorrow, so I can sleep after Otto picks up the puppies.” She glanced at him, unable to keep her gaze off his face. Even puppies couldn’t keep her attention when Otto was in the room. “You’ll need to show me what to do, though.”

Otto walked all of them through preparing the formula in the tiniest bottles Sarah had ever seen. They looked like something that would come with a doll. After Otto fed one of the puppies for a minute, he handed the dog and bottle over to Sarah. She felt oddly nervous that she wouldn’t do it right, especially in front of Otto, who was so incredibly competent. It was trickier to bottle-feed than she’d expected, and the puppy flailed, searching blindly after the nipple slipped out of his mouth for the third time.

“Here.” Otto reached around her, his chest to her back, and put his hands over hers. Sarah stopped breathing as he guided her hands, one on the bottle and one on the puppy. “Rub the sides of his head like this.” His breath brushed her cheek, warming her skin. Exhaling in a rush, she forced herself to concentrate on what he was showing her. The puppy was sucking enthusiastically, and she gave a wondering laugh.

“This is amazing.”

“Yeah. It doesn’t seem that way at two in the morning, though.”

Sarah huffed another quiet laugh. Even though she had gotten the hang of feeding the puppy, Otto didn’t move away. Instead, he shifted his hands so they were wrapped around her forearms. It reminded her vividly of the feel of him gripping her waist, the way he held her with such care and strength, as if she was something precious. Looking down at his hands, at the way they covered almost her entire arm from elbow to wrist, she knew that it was too late to save herself from hurt—she was already addicted to his touch.

The puppy grunted as he ate, drawing her attention. Even as she marveled at the tiny creature eating so voraciously, milky bubbles forming around his nose and mouth, Sarah was hyperaware of Otto’s warmth, of the way his body wrapped around hers. Unable to resist, she allowed herself to subtly lean against his chest. He was so hard and warm against her back that she shivered a little, delighting in how amazing it felt to be in his arms. His grip on her tightened for just a moment, as if he’d felt her tremble, as if he knew how much touching him affected her. Her heart thundered so hard in her chest that she wondered if he felt that, too.

“Otto,” Dee said, and Sarah was brought back to reality with a snap. “Could you help me?”

He moved away, and Sarah’s back and arms felt cold. She couldn’t help but sneak glances at Otto, at the gentle way he taught Dee how to hold the puppy and the bottle. She shivered a little—from disappointment rather than pleasure that time. He was so careful and patient with Dee. It made Sarah like him even more, but it also made her wonder if she’d imagined his response. What if he’d just been teaching her how to feed the puppy? The heat, the attraction… Had he felt it, too, or was he just being kind to a friend of Jules’s?

Sarah glanced over at Jules and saw that the other woman was grinning at her. Raising her eyebrows in question, she gave Jules a what? look, but she only got a wider smile in response. Something about the look made her blush, though. When she looked over at Otto again, she saw him quickly turn his head away.

That speedy movement made Sarah’s insides do a little jump. Had he been sneaking glances at her? It could’ve been that he was simply curious about the newcomer, or that he found her odd, but a tiny bubble of hope still formed inside her.

Could her lumberjack Viking with a soft spot for puppies possibly have a soft spot for her, too?

* * *

The grunts and squeaks woke her before her alarm did, and Sarah groaned into her pillow before squinting at the clock. She’d only gotten to sleep for fifty-two minutes that time. Why had she volunteered to take the night shift?

The puppies’ tiny noises increased in volume, and Sarah sighed as she rolled out of her warm nest of a bed. She’d volunteered because she’d been entranced by Otto and the furry sausages. That golden glow had dimmed after the ten p.m. feeding, been tarnished even more by the next one, and now, at just after four a.m., all warm and fuzzy feelings were pretty much gone.

Grabbing the handle on the top of their crate, she unplugged the heating pad and carried them down to the kitchen. She tried to mix and warm the formula with her eyes closed, but Sarah quickly found out that was a bad idea when she spilled milk replacer all over the counter.

“Shoot,” she whispered, reaching for a paper towel to mop it up.

“Want a hand?”

Sarah jumped a foot and knocked over the bottle, spilling the little bit of formula remaining.

“Sorry.” Grace gave her a sleepy smile as she crossed the kitchen to where the puppies were frantically paddling their uncoordinated limbs, trying to find the source of their breakfast.

Cleaning up the last of the mess, Sarah smiled back. “No need to be sorry. I’m just…jumpy.”

“Understandable.” Folding her long legs beneath her, Grace sat on the floor in front of the puppies. “You should’ve seen me my first week or so here. I was scared to leave the house.”

As she prepped more milk replacer, Sarah gave Grace a curious glance, not able to imagine the other woman living in fear. She seemed too confident, too self-assured, to be anything other than majorly kick-ass. “Really?”

“Oh, yeah.” Grabbing an old but clean towel from the pile Sarah had put on top of the dog crate, Grace spread it over her lap. “It took a pep talk from Sam before I managed to go into the yard.”

“From Sam?” Sarah laughed, incredulous. The teen was so guarded and quiet that she couldn’t imagine him giving a pep talk.

Grace looked up from the pile of puppies she’d pulled into her lap, where they squirmed and crawled, still searching for their food. “I know, right? I think it shocked the fear right out of me.”

As Sarah laughed softly, Jules walked into the kitchen, a huge yawn taking up her entire face. “Hey, Sarah. Oh, hi, Grace. Didn’t see you down there.”

“Good morning, sunshine,” Grace said.

“Sorry, Jules.” Four bottles in hand, Sarah sat down next to Grace. She’d found it easier to prep four separate bottles. That way, she didn’t have to worry about how much each puppy got. They could suck down the whole thing and, as long as she didn’t double up and give one puppy two bottles, it worked pretty smoothly. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t.” Jules took a seat on the other side of Grace. “A very annoying alarm clock did. I’m opening today.”

“Does it bother you? Opening?” Grace accepted a bottle and started feeding one of the puppies.

“A little, but it helps that my stalker hangs out in the parking lot until Vicki or Megan arrives.” Jules also grabbed a bottle and a puppy, and Sarah gave an internal sigh of relief. With three of them feeding, this would go faster. She might even manage to get an hour and a half of sleep before she was woken up again. Picking up the largest of the puppies—whom she’d mentally been calling Bruce—Sarah popped the nipple in his mouth.

Belatedly, Jules’s words registered in her sleep-deprived brain. “Wait. Your stalker?” Her voice shot up in alarm, and the puppy startled. Sarah rubbed his head in silent apology, and he concentrated on sucking down as much milk replacer as possible in the shortest amount of time.

“I’m kidding.” Jules gave her a smile. “I’m just talking about Theo.”

“Oh.” Sarah felt a little silly for not immediately getting the joke, but she knew that everyone living at the house had been sent there by Mr. Espina. That meant that Sarah wasn’t the only one who’d had something bad happen to her, something that forced her to run away from everything she knew. Still, she asked, “Why would opening bother you?”

Jules grimaced. “Some really bad things happened when I opened for the first time.”

“Oh.” That answer just made Sarah more curious, but she didn’t want to push if Jules didn’t want to share. After all, it wasn’t really her business.

With a dry laugh, Grace said, “Bad? Yeah, I’d call getting locked in the walk-in cooler and almost getting blown up pretty bad.”

“Wait. What?” Forget any of that not-her-business nonsense; this sounded too interesting not to hear.

Jules waved a hand in dismissal. “I’ll tell you the whole story sometime. Right now, though, I want to talk about Otto.”

“Oh yes! We do want to talk about Otto,” Grace echoed as Sarah felt her face heat.

“I saw some interesting looks going back and forth between the two of you yesterday.” Jules looked like she was holding back a smile. “What’s the story there?”

“No story.” Sarah pretended to concentrate on Bruce, although he didn’t need any help eating. After a second of silence, though, she couldn’t stand it and peeked at Jules. “What looks?”

Jules’s grin broke free. “I’m pretty darn sure the big guy is smitten.”

“He’s not.” Now Sarah couldn’t hold back her own smile. “Is he?”

“Hugh thinks so, too.” Grace leaned forward until her puppy squeaked in protest. “Sorry, sweetie. It’s just a very interesting bit of gossip.” Once the dog was eating happily again, she looked at Sarah, her eyes alight. “Do you and Otto have a thing?”

“Oh no.” Her face was so hot she could’ve warmed the puppies’ formula on it. “We’re not… I mean, it’s not a thing, really.”

“Do you want it to be a thing?” Jules asked.

“Yes.” The truth was out before she thought, and she blushed even hotter. “No. I don’t know. I was pretty sheltered in my old life. There wasn’t really any opportunity to meet…well, anyone. This is all new to me. I don’t really know how I feel. Plus, I’ll be leaving eventually—or sooner than eventually—so I shouldn’t get involved, right?”

Jules met Grace’s gaze and both women made the same rueful face. “You’re asking the wrong people,” Jules said. “I knew I shouldn’t get involved with Theo, but I didn’t have any choice. It just…happened.”

“Same. Only with Hugh, of course.” Grace looked at Sarah. “If you were planning to stick around, would you be interested?”

“In Otto?” She dropped her gaze to the puppy again. “He’s really sweet.”

“Yeah, he is,” Grace and Jules said in unison, and then laughed.

“And he’s gentle.” Sarah realized that she was smiling. Just the thought of Otto made her happy. “And he’s so beautiful. And big.”

When Grace and Jules started giggling, Sarah couldn’t help but join them.

“Morning.” Theo’s grumbly greeting distracted them as he made his way into the kitchen, followed by his K9 partner, Viggy. Sarah jumped and immediately blushed, wondering how much of the Otto conversation he’d overheard. He seemed like his usual mildly grumpy self, so she hoped they’d been talking quietly enough that he’d missed the juicy parts. Sarah assumed his shift started early like Jules’s, since he was already dressed in uniform. Leaning down, he kissed the top of Jules’s head. “You should’ve woken me.”

Tipping her head up, Jules accepted another kiss, this one on her lips. “How you can sleep through my obnoxiously loud alarm is beyond me. Puppy?”

“Sure.” Settling down on the floor, Theo accepted the last puppy and bottle.

Sarah’s pup had finished eating, so she put him on Grace’s lap with his littermate so she could get some warm, wet paper towels. As she massaged Bruce’s belly, simulating the mother dog’s tongue to get him to go to the bathroom, Sarah made a face. “This is my least favorite part.”

With a snicker, Grace said, “At least human babies don’t need any help with that. They just go freely.”

“Ew!” Jules giggled, scrunching her nose. “There’d be a lot fewer people willing to have babies if we had to lick them.”

At Theo’s disgusted expression, Sarah joined the other two women in laughter. Joy bubbled up inside her. What a difference Mr. Espina and a few days had made. She couldn’t remember the last time, in her old life, when she’d truly belly-laughed. It felt good to be happy.

* * *

Later that morning, the knock on the door made Sarah smile. She hurried into the entry, feeling giddy despite her sleep-deprived state. The previous night had been brutal. By the time she’d fed and cleaned all four puppies and tucked them back into their heating-pad-warmed crate, she’d only managed to get an hour or two of sleep before the alarm went off and she’d had to start the whole process over again. After the four a.m. feeding, when Jules, Grace, and Theo had helped, things had gotten easier. Grace, a visiting Hugh, and the kids had assisted with the next two, but Sarah still hadn’t been able to do more than grab quick naps. The prospect of seeing Otto woke up her clouded, sleepy brain, though. It also created an entire herd of butterflies in her belly.

They’d be pretty much alone, too. Sam had gone to work at his kennel job, Grace was running errands with Hugh, and Jules had dragged the rest of the kids outside for a Saturday home improvement project, despite their complaints. Jules was unsympathetic to their pleas. It was supposed to snow any day, and she was determined to clear away the remains of the old burned-out barn before everything was covered in a blanket of white.

The idea of being alone with Otto was both nerve-racking and glorious. The last time hadn’t gone so smoothly, but Sarah was hopeful that this time would be different. After all, the ice had been broken. Jules and Grace seemed certain he liked her. Maybe he’d even ask her out. The thought made her swallow back an excited sound as she hurried to the front door.

Her fingers fumbled a little with the locks, but she finally managed to get the dead bolts and chain unlatched. Swinging open the door, she felt her smile fall away.

Aaron stood on the porch.

No. No, no, no, no, no! The word echoed over and over in her head. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. She’d just broken free, just started a new life. It couldn’t end already.

“Alice.” Her brother’s mouth curled up in a smile that wasn’t reflected in his flat, cold eyes. “You’ve put me to a lot of troub—”

She slammed the door. Her hands were clumsy on the lock, slipping against metal, as an angry shout from outside made her joints go weak and loose, like a marionette. Finally, though, she managed to turn the dead bolt, giving a quiet sob of relief at the click as it seated itself. The second lock was easier, but she left the chain hanging where it was. She had to get away.

Turning, she sprinted down the hallway, yanking the phone Mr. Espina had given her out of her pocket. Her sweating fingers fumbled on the screen, but Sarah finally managed to hit Send.

“Why are you calling me, you nutball?” Jules laughed as she answered. “I’m in the backyard. You could’ve just yelled out the back door.”

“Jules! My brother’s at the front door.” Fear made her voice thick. Sarah dashed through the kitchen toward the back door. “He found me. Oh God, he’s found me already.”

“Ty, Tio,” Jules said. Her voice was hushed and muffled, as if she’d lowered the phone slightly, but Sarah could still hear her urgent words. “Take Dee into the woods. Sarah, get out here. I’ll wait for you.”

“No!” Despite her protest, Sarah was so tempted to run out and let Jules help her, but that would only put Jules and her family in danger. She locked the single dead bolt on the back door and hoped that would hold—at least for a little while—if Aaron came around back. “Run, Jules! Get the kids away from here. I’ve locked myself inside.”

“That won’t stop him for long.”

Sarah knew that, but hearing it out loud was still terrifying. Her heart thundered in her chest, so hard that her pulse throbbed. “It won’t need to. As soon as you promise to hide in the woods with the kids, I’ll hang up and call the po—”

The sound of breaking glass made her flinch, almost dropping the phone. Sarah sucked in a ragged breath. It had come from the front of the house. Jules had been all too right when she’d said the locked door wouldn’t stop Aaron for long.

He’d broken in.

“Sarah? Sarah!” Even though Sarah knew Jules’s voice couldn’t be heard all the way across the house, she still winced at how loud it sounded in her ear. “I’m calling Theo.”

The phone went silent, knocking Sarah out of her terrified paralysis. She ran for the back door again, automatically dropping her cell in her hoodie pocket. As she fumbled with the dead bolt, desperately wishing she hadn’t locked it moments earlier, she saw movement outside. Someone was walking between the trees bordering the backyard.

No! Go back! she mentally shouted, sure that it was Jules heading back to the house to help her. The dead bolt opened with a thunk, and Sarah yanked open the door. Before she could cross the threshold, Logan Jovanovic stepped into the open, heading toward the house—and directly toward her.

With an indrawn gasp, Sarah jerked backward, silently closing the door before he spotted her. Aaron was at the front of the house, and Logan was coming through the back. She was trapped.

Stop! A commanding voice in her brain broke through her panic. It wasn’t over. There were other options. If she couldn’t go out the doors, then she’d have to find a window. The police were coming. Otto’s face flashed in her mind, and it gave her courage. She just needed to keep herself safe until Otto arrived. He’d never let Aaron or Logan take her.

Locking the back door again, Sarah forced herself to move to the kitchen doorway. Her heart was racing, and air felt thick in her lungs, making it hard to breathe. She was certain that Aaron was standing right outside the door, waiting for her, but she couldn’t stay in the kitchen. There was no place to hide, and Logan was coming.

Gritting her teeth, she peeked through the doorway. No one was in the hallway, but the front door was wide open, one of its beautiful stained-glass windows shattered.

Moving silently, Sarah darted into the dining room, feeling hunted. It was almost worse that Aaron wasn’t standing there, waiting. Now, she had no idea where he was. He could be around any corner, through any doorway. Her heart rate sped up until the beats started to blur together, and it was a struggle not to gasp for air.

Knock it off, the stern mental voice scolded. Get to a window and get out. Otto will be here soon. She clung to that thought. She’d dealt with Aaron and Logan before, and she’d survived—and escaped. Now, she had friends. She had help, something she’d never had before Mr. Espina had offered to help her. She just needed to hide or escape until her new friends arrived.

The windows in the dining room were the crank-open type, and she knew she couldn’t fit through the opening—even if she wasn’t caught trying to open it. She needed to get into the library. There were two windows in there with sashes that slid up. She’d be able to squeeze through one of those.

“Alice.”

Aaron’s raised voice echoed through the house, freezing her in place.

“You’re just making this worse for yourself, Alice.”

The dining room went gray around the edges as she struggled to breathe. His voice was getting closer. It sounded like he was right outside. Her frantic gaze darted around the dining room, but there weren’t any hiding places, just an uncovered table and chairs.

She was trapped.