In Safe Hands (41 page)

Startled by the daydream, he shook it off and tried to distract himself by belatedly trying to place her dialect. She'd mentioned Arkansas, but her drawl didn't match.

“Where are you from again?” he asked. It was only then that he realized his question would've seemed random and abrupt. Her surprise morphed into that same hunted look she'd had at the diner, and he swallowed his disappointment at the reminder that she
was
hiding from something—hiding and, apparently, dragging her family along with her.

“Arkansas,” all of them chorused—all except the hulking, oldest boy who protectively stepped closer to Jules, watching Theo warily. Theo narrowed his eyes. Their quick, in-unison answer just screamed that it was a lie. Something was not right about the Jackson family, and Theo felt an itch to investigate—an itch that had been dormant for a while. It surprised him, that urge to ask questions and figure things out. He hadn't felt anything but rage and sorrow and numbness for two months. He wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. If he opened himself up again, he was stepping down the road to heartache. Feeling nothing was easier, less painful. In fact, it was probably smart to leave this jumpy, lying little family. Now.

Before he could escape, though, the girl's eyes lit up. “A dog!”

As Theo started to turn, Viggy shot past him, heading straight for the huddled family. The small girl stepped forward, hands outstretched.

“Stop!” Theo barked, not sure if he was talking to the dog or to the kid. In the scant seconds it took for Viggy to reach the child, Theo's stomach twisted. With Viggy acting as unpredictably as he'd been, Theo had no idea how the dog would react. He just knew it wasn't going to be good. “Viggy, here!”

The dog didn't even glance at Theo. His focus was locked on the girl, and he shot toward her, as straight as an arrow to a bull's-eye. Visions of vulnerable flesh bitten and bleeding flashed in Theo's mind, and he lunged after Viggy. His fingers brushed the harness strap across Viggy's back, but the dog scooted out of reach, twisting around the little girl's legs, stretching up to…lick her face? Giggling, the child crouched down to the dog's level, using both hands to scratch his ruff.

It took a stunned moment for the dog's action to sink in to Theo's brain, for the lack of screams to register and the roar of blood in his ears to ease. The other kids, unaware of Theo's earlier terror, circled around the girl and dog, reaching to pet Viggy, who rolled onto his back to get his belly scratched.

Theo took a few breaths, still feeling the rush of adrenaline coursing through him, burning away the numbness. His current state of alertness felt uncomfortable but also kind of, well,
good
. He closed his eyes for just a second, enjoying the flow of blood and the hard beat of his heart. It felt like his body was finally thawing after being frozen for a long time.

“What's his name?” Reluctant warmth filled Jules's voice. Theo's heart rate increased a little more, and he frowned, his eyes snapping open.

Quit lusting after the squirrelly waitress
, he told himself firmly. His body didn't listen. “Viggy.”

“He's your dog?” the little girl asked, smiling up at him from her place on the floor next to Viggy. “I'd like a horse, but a dog would be good, too. We can't get one yet, though. Jules says we need to focus on keeping all of us alive before we add any dependents.”

An audible inhale from Jules caught Theo's attention, and he looked at her sharply. What about the girl's statement had upset Jules? Was it the implication that they didn't have much money, or had Jules meant “survival” in its most immediate form—were their lives in danger? He examined her face closely, but Jules flushed and dropped her gaze to the dog.

“Is he?” The little girl urged, and Theo's focus shifted to her again.

“He's my…” He paused just a second. “He was my friend's partner.”

The oldest boy looked up from his position crouched by Viggy's head. He'd been scratching the dog's upside-down ears, and his hand stilled as he spoke for the first time. “H-he's a p-p-police dog?”

“Yes.” Viggy waved a paw, urging the teen to continue, and Theo gave an amused grunt. The blissed-out dog, sprawled on his back with his tongue hanging out, was a completely different animal than the stressed, unhappy creature he'd been since Don's death. Theo felt a twinge of gratitude for the family who'd returned the dog to his previous self, even if it was only for a minute or two.

One of the twins regarded Viggy with interest. “Is he trained to find drugs, then? Or does he chase after the bad guys and take them down?”

For the second time in as many minutes, Theo felt the foreign urge to smile. He managed to contain it. “Explosives. And the second one. He's a dual-purpose dog.”

“He sniffs out bombs?
Awesome
.”

Theo's gaze slid to Jules, and he saw she was regarding him thoughtfully. “Did you need something?” she asked.

The question confused him at first, random answers bouncing around in his head. There were so many things he needed. He needed peace, he needed Viggy to get over Don's death,
he
needed to get over Don's death. Theo might even need Jules. He knew he wanted her. “What?”

“Why are you here?”

Feeling caught, he rubbed a hand over his mouth before answering. Even that extra couple of seconds didn't give him time to think of a good excuse for his presence, so he just blurted out the truth. “I wanted to check on you.”

She flinched, and Theo grimaced. That hadn't come out right.

“Your house is isolated,” he tried explaining, searching for the right words that would erase her hunted look. “You're out here alone.” Great, now he was sounding like a psycho stalker. “I just wanted to make sure you were safe. I was…” He shifted uncomfortably. “I was worried.”

After regarding him in silence for a few awkward seconds, Jules smiled. The fearful, timid waitress he'd met at the diner was nowhere to be seen, and he found he couldn't look away. The sight of Jules and the kids and a happy Viggy made his lungs tighten, and he forced his head to turn toward the stove again. The smoke had stopped, and it was time—past time—for Theo to go.

He opened his mouth to tell Viggy to heel, but he closed it again. The dog's normal reaction was to ignore him and curl into a miserable ball, and a part of Theo—a rather huge part—didn't want this family to think his dog was unhappy with him.

“We'd better go.” He focused on the younger girl. “Do you want to help bring Viggy outside?”

“Yes!” Her face lit, and she jumped to her feet. “C'mon, Viggy!” She ran out of the kitchen, the twins following. Theo watched as the dog bounded after the kids, his tail up and wagging hard. It was the first time in a long time he'd seen Viggy without his tail tucked between his legs.

“Thank you.” At the sound of Jules's voice, Theo turned from the now-empty doorway. “For being so nice to them.”

Theo blinked. He'd been nice?

“I'd really like to get them a dog,” she continued, speaking faster. Her drawl and quick speech blurred her words until they were almost unintelligible. “It's just that, as you can see,” she waved at the oven with an unconvincing laugh, “we have so much to do with the house and getting the kids started at school and with my new job and everything, it's just better that we wait to get a pet. That's what I meant about not wanting to get a dog right now. You know, what D said that I said, and I'm
so
babbling right now, so I'll just be quiet.”

Her words ended abruptly, and she stared at Theo, her panic returning in an almost visible flood. Theo was a little disappointed. He hadn't missed the squirreliness. Plus, her rambling monologue had just convinced him that the reference to “survival” hadn't meant merely food and shelter. This family was in trouble. “D?”

“Yes. Deirdre.” She took a quick breath, as if she was about to launch into another speech. When the oldest boy—the only one not to run outside with Viggy—shifted slightly closer to Jules, she closed her mouth with an audible click and gave Theo a strained, closed-mouth smile.

Theo's gaze shifted to the teen. “What's your name?”

“Sam.” There was no stutter that time. Theo met his eyes, and the boy looked back. There was something in his stance—a hidden flinch, a sense that he was torn between running and throwing a punch—that was troubling and familiar. Theo had seen something very similar when he'd interviewed abuse victims.

Theo's gaze moved to Jules. Although he could've been mistaken, could've been influenced by this stupid attraction he was fighting, he was pretty sure she wasn't the abuser. The protective attitude Sam had toward her didn't fit.

“You're all siblings?”

“Yes.” Jules's chin tilted in a slightly belligerent way that Theo noted with interest. The gesture made him pretty sure her answer wasn't entirely truthful.

“And the twins' names?”

“Tyson and Thomas.”

Her entire body was braced, as if she was waiting for a blow. After regarding her silently for a moment, Theo took a step back and gestured toward the doorway into the hall. “I should get Viggy.”

Exchanging a quick glance, Jules and Sam walked out of the kitchen ahead of Theo. Sam gave a few worried looks over his shoulder, but Jules kept her gaze fixed ahead, her spine a little too straight.

Happy, excited shrieks greeted them as they walked through the still-open front door. The three younger siblings had found a fallen tree branch and were playing fetch with Viggy. The stick was so long, it threatened to bowl over anyone in the dog's path, and the kids had to dodge away, laughing.

Jules sighed audibly. “Sam-I-Am, we're going to have to get them a dog, aren't we?”

Despite her long-suffering tone, she was smiling, and Theo found it hard to pull his gaze from her face. Tense and serious, Jules was hot. Happy, she was…more than hot. Theo forced himself to turn toward Sam, who'd made an amused sound that wasn't quite a laugh. Both were watching their younger siblings with the same expression, a look that Theo had a hard time interpreting. There was love and worry and a ferocious protectiveness and so much more written on their faces, their emotions so naked and raw that Theo, feeling like a voyeur, cleared his throat and glanced at the kids playing with the Malinois.

Viggy was acting like a different dog. No, that wasn't right. He was acting like the dog he used to be. The usual grief and guilt started to twist in his gut again, and Theo turned abruptly toward his SUV.

Only after he raised the back hatch did he turn back to the family. “Viggy.” His voice was too harsh. Theo knew that, even before Viggy's tail dropped from its happy carriage and tucked between his legs. “Load.”

As the dog cowered, the kids went silent. Regret flooded Theo, filling him with a caustic burn that was all too familiar. Theo clenched his fists and took a breath, and then another. It was one thing for Hugh or Otto to see the mess that Theo and Viggy had become. For whatever reason, though, Theo didn't want these kids to have to witness the wreck that Don had left. He especially didn't want Jules to know. Why he cared what the squirrelly waitress thought was beyond him, but he couldn't help sending her a sideways glance to see how she was reacting.

Although her smile had disappeared, Jules didn't look scared or upset. Instead, she was looking back and forth between Theo and the dog with a thoughtful expression.

“He doesn't want the fun to end,” she said lightly to her siblings. “Why don't y'all help get him into the car?”

The kids immediately dove into the game, running toward Theo's Blazer while calling Viggy to follow. After a few seconds, he perked up slightly and trotted after the children. When he got closer to the SUV, he slowed, his whole body seeming to shrink in on itself.

Theo moved away from the open hatch and watched as the kids crowded around the back of the SUV, urging Viggy to jump inside.

“Load.” The word came out too loudly, making the kids and the dog jump and look at him anxiously. Theo gritted his teeth, sucking in a breath through his nose before trying to moderate his tone. “The command is ‘load.'”

The three kids relaxed and returned to their efforts. “Viggy, load!”

Reluctantly, as if Viggy was just as loath to return to the reality of grief and loss as Theo was, Viggy jumped into the rear compartment. One of the twins—Tyson, Theo was fairly certain—lowered the hatch door. The ease with which these children had gotten the dog to relax and play made Theo envious. At the same time it raised a flicker of hope that the dog would someday be the happy, confident Viggy he used to be.

“Thank you.” His words were stiff, but they were lucky he'd managed to say anything at all. Theo felt his lungs tighten. This family—the hot waitress and dog-whispering children and their not-quite-hidden flinches—was starting to wake something inside of him. His emotions were bleeding through the armor he'd built to contain them, and it was making it hard to breathe. He needed to leave.

After a single step toward the driver's door, he paused. “The stove fire is under control?”

Jules grimaced. “Yes. All that's left is the cleaning.”

“Have it checked before you try to use it again.” The suggestion came out more as an order, but Jules didn't look offended. She did appear tired and a little sad as she gave him a forced smile that could have meant anything. Theo was pretty sure it wasn't the response he wanted, though. “Something could've been damaged by the fire, and that thing is ancient. You don't want to mess around with gas. Have your landlord get it checked.”

“Okay!” Jules held up her hands, palms out, in a gesture of surrender. “I'll have someone look at it.”