“Have fun,” Leigh said, heading for the door.
“You too,” Valerie called out with a laugh as she grabbed the bags from the drawer and headed outside.
Roxy hurried eagerly to her side as Valerie stepped out onto the covered porch. Giving the German shepherd a pet, she promised, “I’ll feed you in a minute. Just let me collect all your little gifts from last night and this morning first.”
Roxy barked and pressed against her side, eliciting a smile and another pet from Valerie. She didn’t think the dog understood what she’d said. Well, except perhaps for feed. She was pretty sure Roxy understood that word. But her not understanding had never stopped Valerie talking to her before. She’d had whole conversations with the German shepherd, pouring out her troubles and cares to the dog. Roxy always watched her, bright-eyed, and tongue lolling, giving the occasional bark. She appeared just happy to have her attention. It was part of her charm.
“So,” Valerie said, starting across the yard in search of Roxy treasures. “What do you think of Anders? Should I agree to be his life mate or not?”
Roxy barked and raced a little ahead before stopping to peer back at her.
Eyebrows rising, Valerie followed and paused when she saw that the dog had stopped beside one of her treasures.
“Is that a yes I should, or no I shouldn’t?” she asked as she collected the doggy deposit, and Roxy barked and moved away, sniffing the ground as she went and then she paused again and looked back at her expectantly.
“Good of you to be so helpful,” Valerie said dryly as she reached her and bent to scoop up the deposit in front of the dog. She spent the next couple of minutes following Roxy around, cleaning up after her. She was pretty sure they were on the last one, when Roxy suddenly paused, head up, ears pricked, and then she charged forward and around the house.
“Squirrel,” Valerie muttered and shook her head. That was usually the only thing that made the dog react like that. Tying the top of the bag, she whistled for her, and then started around the house. She turned the corner just in time to see Roxy jogging around the front of the house in hot pursuit of whatever furry little critter had caught her attention.
“Dumb dog,” Valerie said with exasperation, hurrying after her. She was exhausted and eager to get back to bed, so of course that’s the day that Roxy decides she’s a hunting dog.
Roxy had nosed the garage door open and was slipping inside by the time Valerie came around the front of the house. Cursing, Valerie rushed to the door and pulled it open.
“Roxy?” she called, frowning into the dark garage. Tossing the bag of dog waste in the garbage pail just inside the door, Valerie felt around for a light switch on the walls on either side of the door. If one of the big, automatic garage doors for the cars had been open it would have offered more light, this door merely cast shadows everywhere.
“Dammit, Roxy where are you?” Valerie said testily giving up on a light switch. She couldn’t even hear the German shepherd moving around and the dark and silence was starting to spook her. If she knew where the panel was to open the big doors, she’d be opening them both at that moment.
Sighing into the silence, Valerie eased back a step, considering closing the garage door and then opening it and calling Roxy again. Perhaps the fear that she might be left here would lure the dog out, Valerie thought and was about to step outside when there was a tinny clang in the back corner of the garage. Roxy had knocked over a can of something. Valerie took a couple steps forward, calling her again.
Impatient to get back inside and go to bed, Valerie walked further into the garage, moving carefully between Lucian’s van on her right and the shelves lined with tools, pool cleaner, paint, and various other miscellaneous items on her left. She was halfway along the van when the garage door suddenly closed behind her.
Freezing, Valerie turned slowly toward the van in the darkness, ears straining.
“It was the wind,” she assured herself in a whisper.
“No it wasn’t.”
The voice came from her right and very close. It startled a gasp out of Valerie and sent her heart pounding. It also made her whirl and run blindly in the opposite direction. Valerie had only taken half a dozen steps when she was caught by the hair and jerked back against a very wide, very hard chest. She immediately caught a whiff of a musky scent she’d forgotten but immediately recalled.
“Igor,” she breathed, horror washing over her. He was alive.
“Igor?” he asked, sounding nonplussed.
“Where’s Roxy?” Valerie asked grimly.
“Dead,” he barked, and countered, “Where is Ambrose?”