Jenn McKinlay - Due Or Die

“And he led you here?” Carrie asked.

“Yep, he ran right to the shed,” Sully said. “I had to park and follow him. I heard you banging, and I saw the lock on the door was fastened. I tried to yell to let you know I was there, but you’re a noisy bunch.”

“You should have heard our dinosaur roar,” Lindsey said. The three women laughed at his bewildered look.

“Anyway, I knew something was wrong, so I went back to my truck to get my crowbar and managed to bust the lock off.”

“Our hero,” Beth said, and she gave him a one-armed hug.

“No, I’m just the muscle,” Sully said. “He’s your hero.”

He reached over with his large hand and gently ruffled Heathcliff’s ears. Heathcliff barked and licked his hand as if in agreement. Lindsey couldn’t help but laugh.

“Well, let’s go get you a nice big, juicy steak,” she said to the puppy as she put him down on the ground. “Would you like that? Would you?”

Heathcliff danced on his feet and hurried over to Sully’s truck. The door was still ajar and he jumped inside ready to go.

“Well, that settles that,” Sully said. “I have a spare padlock in my truck.” He fished a lock and a key out of the storage box in the back of his truck. He handed the key to Carrie and said, “I only have the one key.”

“That’s all right,” she said as she pocketed it. “It’s probably for the best.”

The women watched as Sully closed the door and put the new lock on. They all headed back to the parked vehicles, where Heathcliff still sat in the truck, his tail thumping against the seat.

“Come on, Heathcliff, we’re going home with Carrie,” Lindsey said as she patted her leg in a gesture for him to come.

Heathcliff stayed where he was and kept wagging.

“It’s all right,” Sully said. “I’ll give you a lift.”

“And I’ll take Beth home and meet you there,” Carrie said.

Lindsey turned to see both Carrie and Beth make shooing motions at her with their hands. They were matchmaking now ? Seriously?

She shook her head and climbed into Sully’s truck, wondering if the cold had caused her friends to suffer some brain damage.

Carrie fired up her car, and she and Beth gave her a grin and a wave as they shot out of the parking lot. Yep, definitely brain damage.

Heathcliff made himself right at home between Lindsey and Sully on the bench seat in the vintage pickup truck. Lindsey was just happy to feel the heat cranking out of the vent thawing out her toes and fingers.

Sully climbed in and drove them out of the lot, but then stopped to run back and close and lock the gates. She was so grateful she could have cried, because the thought of going back out in the cold was almost more than she could stand.

He climbed back in and rubbed Heathcliff’s ears before he put the truck into drive. “This is some dog you’ve got.”

“Yes, he is,” Lindsey said, and she wrapped her arms around the puppy, grateful for his warmth. His tail thumped against the seat, and she wondered if he had been as terrified in the book drop as she had been locked in the shed.

“Well, you’re never going to have to worry about being thrown away again,” she whispered in his ear. “You have found your forever home-with me.”

He thumped his tail harder, let out a bark and licked her chin.

“I take it you’re keeping him?” Sully asked.

“Yes,” she said. “If he’ll have me.”

“Are you kidding?” He laughed. “That dog is crazy about you.”

“Good, because I feel the same way about him.”

Sully turned and smiled at her. “Lucky dog.”

Lindsey felt the bottom fall out of her stomach, so she turned and looked out the window in a feeble attempt to keep her cool.

It was late. The center of town was quiet. The drifts from the plows had been pushed back to the edges of the road, leaving six-foot tall mounds that lined the road like a wall of white. Lindsey wondered how long it would take for all of it to melt. She hoped it happened soon or she would be walking to work for the next few weeks.

Sully pulled up in front of her house. The car that Kim and Kyle had arrived in was parked out front. While Lindsey held the door for Heathcliff to leap out, Carrie pulled in behind her.

Kim and Kyle and Nancy all came outside. Concern was etched in the worried lines of their faces.

“Mom, what took you so long? We were starting to worry,” Kim asked as she reached out to help her mother up the steps.

“Oh, well, we got locked in the shed,” she said. “Pretty silly, right?”

“What?” Nancy asked. “Good grief, you could have caught your death. I have some stew in the Crock-Pot. Come in and eat, you, too, Sully.”

“Yes, ma’am” he said.

Lindsey picked the meatiest chunks out of her stew and diced them up for Heathcliff. He was wagging so hard while eating that he was making a strong breeze with his tail.

Lindsey then attacked her own bowl. Nancy gave them heaping portions, with a chunk of fresh-baked bread. It was the best food Lindsey had ever eaten.

Neither she nor Carrie spoke while they ate, leaving Sully to tell the tale of how he’d found them. When they finished, Carrie explained that they had been taping up boxes when the door slammed shut.

“And locked?” Kyle asked. “Mom, I don’t want to freak you out, but that was no accident. Someone locked you in there on purpose.”

Carrie studied her son for a moment and then her daughter. Lindsey could tell she was trying to decide what they could handle. She gave a small nod and then said, “No, I don’t think it was an accident.”

Kim gasped. “You think someone tried to kill you?”

“No,” Carrie said. “But scare us, yes.”

“It worked,” Lindsey said. “I think they were counting on someone coming back to check on us when we didn’t arrive here and we would have been saved, but it all could have gone so very wrong.”

She and Carrie both shuddered.

“We need to report this to the police,” Sully said. “Chief Daniels will want to know.”

“Can we call him in the morning?” Lindsey asked. “Right now I am too tired to think of anything but sleep.”

She gathered her bowl and picked up Heathcliff’s plate from the floor. Nancy took them from her and said, “No, no dishes for you. Go to bed.”

Lindsey would have argued but a yawn stopped her.

“I’ll walk you up,” Sully said. He picked up Heathcliff in his arms, and the dog let out a big tongue-curling yawn of his own. He snuggled against Sully as they made their way up the stairs.

Two flights of steps had never seemed so long, and Lindsey felt as if her legs were made of lead by the time they reached the top.

Sully took her key and unlocked the door with one hand while still cradling the weary dog with the other. He pushed it open and followed her in. Lindsey switched on the main light, and Sully put Heathcliff down on the sofa. Then he made a cursory sweep of her apartment, checking all of the rooms and the windows. It made Lindsey feel oddly comforted, which she suspected was why he was doing it.

“All clear,” he said. He paused in front of her and handed her keys back. He planted a swift kiss against her hair and said, “Sleep well. You’re safe now.”

He closed the door behind him, and Lindsey immediately missed his presence in her apartment.

“Lindsey!” he called from outside the door, making her jump. “Lock the door behind me.”

“Oh, yeah, right,” she said. She locked the dead bolt.

“Good night,” he called, and she heard him move to the stairs.

“Good night,” she answered. “And thanks.”

In a few moments, she heard the front door open and shut, and she desperately wished she’d had the nerve to invite him to stay, even if he spent the night on her couch.