Page 24 of Bodyguard By Night

Ransom

And Then Chaos Walked In

I parked my Jeep Gladiator under the makeshift carpark. I’d done a skeleton build this winter just to have something against the ridiculous level of snow, but it definitely needed more. I was pretty sure those were the words that should be bolted to the front of my house.

Needs more.

For now, the two-car garage around the side was my workshop. Brushing some snow off my Jeep was a small price to pay.

I was tempted to go into the garage and lose a few hours to woodworking. I was building a desk for Rachel for a wedding present from Clay—not that he knew it yet. She needed space for all her shit. How I knew this? My best friend bitched to me about her taking over his office every day.

What shedidn’tknow is we were making over one of the bedrooms into an office for her. Clay figured he was going to just order a desk unit and be done with it. I didn’t know Rachel like he did, but I understood her.

She needed something more personalized. And Clay would get some extra bonus points. He deserved them. I was glad he’d finally gotten his head out of his ass about making a future for himself, instead of what his grandfather thought he should have.

A hard lesson all of us had to learn. Some of us were still learning.

And that was enough of that.

I slammed the Jeep’s door and crossed the lawn. It was a sad excuse for one, but I’d been lectured about planting grass seed too early by the resident plant lady, Sarah Manning. Central New York could have snow into May.

That was heinous, but as it was April and we’d just had seven inches a week ago, I believed her.

Sarah was Laverne’s sister, but she was a bit more persnickety. Like a cat who might slash or purr depending on a change of wind. I liked her.

She was as mercurial as her sons were affable. Unless there was a bar fight to be had. The Manning boys like to play as hard as they worked. I was getting to know a whole lot more people since I’d planted my flag in Turnbull.

I still wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

I wiggled my fingers against the inevitable swelling in my knuckles before I grabbed the banister. I hoped I had a bag of peas in the freezer.

It was the only thing they were good for.

My porch light was on, highlighting a snoozing dog. I’d sort of inherited him when I bought the old house. Not that he’d come inside, but he looked intimidating and kept most people away.

Win-win and worth the dog food.

I clomped up the stairs, bouncing on the top one when it squeaked. Dammit, another addition to the list. This place was a fucking money pit.

I dug out my phone and added a note to the house app that Clay had asked me to beta for him.

Now that he was Mister Marriage, his work was starting to skew toward families. We were actually working on a safe home setup that had better security than the ones on the market—at least when he could pull himself away from his soon-to-be bride.

I opened the lid on the bucket of kibble I kept on the deck and Midnight’s ears perked, though he didn’t lift his head. Just a big ass satellite ear twitched to listen for the metal dish getting filled.

He was a massive mutt of a dog who was probably part Malamute and part German Shepherd. Someday I’d get a swab in his mouth and do one of those DNA things.

Not that he was my dog, but he was a question. And I hated questions.

I dumped two scoops of food into his dish and checked his water bowl. He must have been playing frisbee with it again. It was covered in dirt and slobber.

Midnight grunted a little while getting up. I knew how that was. I ruffled the fur around his scruff, then brought the water dish in with me and cleaned it along with my mug from this morning. My house was tidy. Rachel called it spartan, but I just didn’t like clutter.

Nor did I like company, so she didn’t have to look at it.

I filled the dish with water, then brought it back out. As usual, the dog hoovered his kibble down as if I didn’t feed him three times a day. I set the water down, but he was only interested in food. He flopped back onto the deck with a disgruntled moan and stretched out on his side.

Nice life if you could get it.