Seven Years

“I’m alone, she’s alone,” Naya quickly said, smiling with her ruby lips. She stepped a little closer to him. “Were you on your way home? Sorry if we pulled you back on duty, officer. Can I make it up to you?”

She batted her lashes and I gave her the look. Not that she noticed since her eyes were eating up Mr. Undercover Cop.

Without writing down my name or any additional information, he tucked his little notepad in his back pocket. “I’ll go down and have a talk with them. If they bother you again, give us a call and you can come down to the station and file a formal complaint. Have a good evening.” He tipped his head and walked off.

“Damn,” Naya said, slamming the door. “He was kind of hot, and so not into me.” She put her arm around me. “But he sure had his eyes all over you.”

“Yeah. In a creepy way.”

“I’m going to have to put in a personal request for Officer McNeal next time,” she said with a giggle. “I’d love to rub my hands all over his head.”

“Which one?”

She slapped my arm and feigned a shocked expression. “A little seasoned by the look of salt and pepper in his hair, but I bet I could crack a smile on that stern face of his. Try to get some sleep, and don’t forget about my party on Tuesday.”

Naya shut the front door behind her. “Lock it!”

I turned the bolt and wondered how I could possibly forget about the party she reminded me of at every opportunity. That night, I slept with a pillow over my head.

The music downstairs went on until four in the morning.

Chapter 6

The next day, I found Naya’s cell phone on the floor by the sofa. I decided to swing by the strip club and drop it off since she had tiny conniptions whenever she misplaced it. I never understood how a man could walk into a strip club on a Sunday and not turn into a puff of smoke as soon as he crossed the threshold of the establishment.

Club Sin was on the far end of town and I had a few other errands to run, one of which included laundry. I stuffed two large bags of clothes into the trunk of my car. We had a laundry room in the apartment building, but it was dark and had only one door. The Laundromat I frequented had televisions, ample seating, and a few classic arcade games in the back. I felt safe in there and it gave me time to read my magazines or paint my toenails.

Her phone was tucked in the back pocket of my shorts along with Austin’s card, because I planned to call him on a phone that wasn’t mine so he wouldn’t have my number.

And wasn’t that childish?

Before going to a strip club on a Sunday, I made a detour over to the cemetery because something had been bothering me, and that was the possibility of having left a whiskey bottle on top of my brother’s grave. I parked the car on the little pathway and walked across the stretch of high grass until I reached his marker. There were a few blades of grass on the plaque, so I dusted them away, but no signs of a whiskey bottle or vomit.

Thank God.

That’s when every muscle in my body froze.

A merciless snarl stirred the balmy air behind me. A prickling sensation touched the back of my neck and I slowly stood up and turned around.

A menacing dog with matted brown fur bared its sharp canines at me. Dog? Who was I kidding? It was too big to be a dog. With cautious steps, I backed away.

My throat dried up as it paced in my direction with stiff shoulders, malicious eyes, and a drip of slobber dangling from one side of its mouth. Could I take down a dog? Maybe kick it or punch it? Shit. What if I got rabies? Wasn’t that a bunch of shots to your stomach?

Then I remembered all the stories about people attacked by dogs who ended up with their faces torn off.

Without batting an eyelash, I spun on my heel and leapt for a branch on the tree beside me. I swung my legs up just in time as he snapped his massive jaws, then climbed as high as I could, as if Mr. Big Bad Wolf could grow arms and come up after me.

It felt like thirty minutes had crawled by, and the dog continued to circle restlessly around the tree like a soldier. The unrelenting heat planted frightening thoughts in my head that I might die of thirst in a cemetery. Could I live off leaves and bark? My fingers clawed at the trunk and I shifted my hip uncomfortably on the angled branch where I squatted.

Then I remembered the phone.

Very carefully, I reached around and pulled Naya’s phone out of my back pocket. I dialed her work but no one answered. The thought crossed my mind to call the police, but I had reservations about calling 911 over a dog. The city was full of crime and car accidents, and after Wes’s crash, the last thing I wanted to do was take a cop away from helping out someone in serious need.

Although, being stared at like a T-bone steak felt pretty serious.

I put the phone in my mouth and pulled Austin’s card out of my pocket. Maybe now was a good time to talk and by then, the dog would be gone.

He immediately answered, which took me off guard.

“This is Cole.”

I mentally wrestled with the thirteen-year-old inside me who wanted to hang up on him.

“Austin?”

After a brief pause, I heard the sound of rustling sheets. “I wondered if you’d call.”

“So, talk. Now’s your chance.”

His voice was kind of soft and growly, like he’d just woken up. I could hear his skin rubbing around, as if he were stroking his face with a tired hand. “I don’t want to do this on the phone. You pick a place and I’ll meet you there.”

I snorted. “I’m a little tied up at the moment.”

My foot suddenly slipped and I lost my balance. A piece of bark tore off the tree and the dog barked ferociously. I pulled my leg up and resumed my squatting position.

“What’s going on?” he asked in an alert voice. “Where are you?”

“I called so we can talk, Austin. I don’t know if we should continue accidentally running into each other before I finally want to kill you. Was it that easy to cut ties with us? We’ve moved on with our lives, but I think I’m entitled to an answer. Losing my brother was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through, but you were like family to us. You didn’t think we’d care that you just took off without a word?” I licked my salty lip and waited for an answer.

When he spoke again, the tenor in his voice gave me chills. “Where the fuck are you?”

“Up a tree. I’m at the cemetery with a dog eyeballing me like I’m a meaty bone. Guess I’m in the right place if something goes wrong, huh?”

The line went dead.

Did he just hang up on me?

I was so upset that I threw the phone, which was a completely stupid idea because now I’d lost my chance of calling animal control or 911, thanks to my temper. I cursed and thumped my head against the trunk, which roused another bloodthirsty snarl from the dog below.

“Oh, shut up!” I yelled.

That pissed him off. He stretched out on his hind legs and showed me how tall he was. His predatory eyes were enough to make me hug that tree even tighter, and I was never a tree hugger.

He didn’t just look mean, he looked mad.

Time drifted by with no signs of life in the cemetery. A couple of ants bit me on the ankle and I continued scratching it as the heavy afternoon sun became a scorcher. Sweat trickled down my brow and my upper thighs