SBC Fighter: Tails Of Love Part 6

She shot through the trailer, imagining the picture of lithe speed she must make, and vaulted through the window over the bath.

Clawdia kept running and didn't stop until she reached the pen where those two dogs were.

"Wake up," she said, careful to keep her voice down.

"Tonight's the night. We've got to act."

From the painted wooden box with a hole cut out in the front for a door, came Madeleine first, then d.i.c.kens. They snuffled and Clawdia was reminded of a former life when she had lived, very briefly, on a farm. Pigs snuffled. Yuck!

"It's nighttime," d.i.c.kens said.

"I wouldn't have known that if you hadn't told me,"

Clawdia said. "I don't know how long it would take to get my person over here if I left it up to him. We have to do something drastic to make him come."

d.i.c.kens yawned so hugely his teeth glittered in a big, white oval with a dark hole in the middle. Clawdia didn't like the way it looked.

"We've had a hard day," Madeleine said. "We're worn out."

"We don't have time for your problems," d.i.c.kens added.

"I'm going back to bed."

"Bark," Clawdia commanded, ignoring his rudeness.

"Bark real y loudly."

Madeleine was horrified. "Why would we do that?"

"Just do it."

"We wil not," d.i.c.kens said. "You want to get rid of us, that's it. That's it, isn't it, Madeleine?"

"Is it?" Madeleine said. "Has al this talk of yours been a plot to make us bark at night and wake up Rose? So she'l decide to get rid of us and you'l have this lovely hil al to yourself again?"

Clawdia was speechless.

"Wel , was it?" d.i.c.kens asked.

"Ungrateful wretches," Clawdia said. "If I wanted to get rid of you, you'd already be gone. I want you to help me for the good of everyone concerned. Now, bark."

"Won't," d.i.c.kens said.

"Bark because there's a fearsome beast hanging around waiting to eat you."

"There isn't," Madeleine said, but her teeth chattered a bit.

"No," Clawdia said. "There isn't. But we want them to think so."

"They won't though," Madeleine said. "They'l just think we're a nuisance. And when they come to tel us off, and Rose says how she's taking us back to the adoption place, you'l be off in your cozy bed again, laughing at us."

Clawdia had a good think. "I see your point. But you're suspicious creatures and you're wrong. I've seen the way Rose looks at you and she likes you. That means you're good for her. That means she's nicer, which wil make Simon want to be with her even more-enough to finally do something about it and get it over with before he drives me mad!" She took a huge breath and tried to calm down.

"Barking won't do it," Madeleine said quietly. "But I've got an idea."

Clawdia didn't recal asking for ideas but she kept quiet.

"We'l dig a hole under the fence and you'l come in. In the morning they'l find us asleep together in our doghouse and then they'l know we want to be together. So they'l get together. How's that?"

"Stupid," Clawdia said without preamble. Asleep together in their doghouse? Holy horrors, what an alarming thought. "It won't work."

"You come in," d.i.c.kens announced. "We'l get ourselves al wet from the water dish, rough up our fur, then set up a ruckus. Once they come running, we go in the doghouse like we're hiding out together. Protecting each other because we got attacked. We'l make the hole under the fence huge, big enough for a tiger to come through."

"You're not normal," Clawdia said. "There aren't any tigers up here."

"A nasty great rac.o.o.n could hurt us." Madeleine spoke in a breathy rush. "Or a mongoose, or . . . a snapping turtle.

What does it matter? They won't know what it was but they'l see us together and take us inside to keep us safe right away."

"And since I belong to Simon," Clawdia said, "and you belong to Rose, they'l have to stay together to look after us."

"Wil they?" d.i.c.kens asked, sounding doubtful.

"Of course they wil ," Clawdia told them and started scratching up dirt at the bottom of the wire fencing.

"Cats are useless," d.i.c.kens said and went nose-to-wire with the fence, spread his back legs, and set to work excavating a large hole the way it ought to be done.

Two in the morning.

Simon stared at the readout on his clock and surfaced from the fog between sleep and consciousness. He hadn't actual y slept at al yet.

Rose was gorgeous. Everything about her was al - woman. If he held her she would be warm and soft- feminine.

He growled under his breath, threw off his twisted covers, and sat on the edge of the bed. "Ask her over for a cup of coffee, or a gla.s.s of wine. On the porch where she'l know she's not threatened."

On the porch of his isolated trailer, surrounded by big, dark trees and with no other living soul for miles around.

Sure, she definitely wouldn't feel threatened in those circ.u.mstances.

It was hopeless.

"You love me anyway, Clawdia," he said and winced.

Who said anything about love? "I did. I must be mad."

"Come on, girl. Off the bed so I can make it habitable again." He patted around near the bottom of the mattress where Clawdia settled each night once she decided she wasn't going to be al owed to go hunting smal critters.

She didn't meow, like usual.

He felt emptiness, the sense of being completely alone, and flipped on a light. No Clawdia anywhere that he could see.

Fifteen minutes later Simon knew his cat wasn't in the trailer. After a further half an hour, he was certain she couldn't be anywhere in the immediate vicinity. If she was, she'd come when he cal ed her. She was good about that.

A tromp to the lane with the aid of a flashlight stil didn't produce his cat. He wished he didn't care, but he did. A lot.

Across the lane moonlight silvered oak leaves and settled a subtle gleam on the roof of Rose's house. She would be sleeping. No way could he either wake her up or try to sneak around her yard looking for a cat. Or could he?

"Intruder," d.i.c.kens said and clamped his mouth shut to stop himself from barking. He ran back and forth, glaring into the darkness.

"Shhhh," Madeleine said.

The hole wasn't finished but Clawdia slithered beneath the fence and popped out on the inside of the pen. "What is it?" she said. "Why are you fussing? We're not ready yet."

"Intruder," d.i.c.kens said through clenched teeth. He pul ed his lips back from his gums and growled deep in his throat. He couldn't keep stil . "Intruder," he yel ed.

"Intruder!" Madeleine echoed, and let out a howl.

d.i.c.kens leaped about, al of his feet shooting into the air at the same time. He hurled himself against the wire with a rattling crash.

"Good heavens," Clawdia said. "You're both mad. Where's the water bowl?"

"No time," Madeleine shouted. "There's someone in the yard. Bark. Hurry up and bark."

Bark? Clawdia narrowed her eyes and listened. This intruder issue wasn't her thing, but she was in their territory so she would go along. She raised her head and yowled as hard as she could.

Rose flung herself from the bed and stood up, her heart pounding.

The dogs were barking.

They'd been quiet every night until now.

Don't put on a light. Whoever was out there would see exactly where she was in the house if a light went on.

Whoever?

She fumbled about for the phone and tried to hit the right b.u.t.tons. At least she managed to il uminate the panel.

The noise got louder, the barking, and the shrieking.

Rose pul ed on her robe, then she held stil and listened.

d.i.c.kens and Madeleine barked and howled, but there was another sound. Wailing and, she thought, snarling.

Another animal was out there.

She tore open the bedroom door.

What could it be?

If there was a coyote out there it could probably climb the fence and get the dogs-her dogs-those poor little things.

There wasn't time to get help.

Running, her long nightie winding around her ankles and slowing her down, Rose rushed through the house to the kitchen. The only weapon she could think of was the garden rake she'd left leaning against the wal just outside. That and as much noise as she could make were al she had to fight with.

She wouldn't do anything stupid, just try to frighten the attacker away.

Sobbing now, she wrenched the door open.

d.a.m.n it!

He'd forgotten about the dogs. They were going mad.

Shoot!

Kicking away the flip-flops he'd shoved on, Simon sprinted for the dog pen, murmuring what he hoped were friendly sounds as he went. "It's okay, boys," he said. Why hadn't he found out their names? "Okay, okay. Good dogs.

Quiet down. It's okay. You want treats? Shut up, you little punks! Shut up, d.a.m.n you!"

He burst around the corner of the house and something hard smashed onto his naked left shoulder.

Rose screamed. A motion sensor flooded the area with light and he saw her, arms raised, hands clutched around the handle of an evil-looking rake-and her eyes shut tight.

She screamed again.

And the rake, this time while he flinched up at its sharp tines, slashed toward him again.

"Rose," he said, grabbing the rake and col iding with her.

"It's me, Simon."

The dogs howled madly and he heard a shril caterwaul.

The woman in his arms clung to him as desperately as he held her.

Rose had never expected to have Simon Falzone, s.h.i.+rtless, shoe-less, his jeans riding low on his lean bel y, sitting in her kitchen.

She had never expected such a thing, or visualized such a thing-but she would never forget it now.

"Are you sure it's okay with you for me to be here?" he said.

Did he have any idea how she felt having him with her?

He wanted to be there, she could feel it in his smile and the open, interested way he looked at her.

"I'm glad you're here," she told him.

His smile widened. "You make good coffee," he said. "I admit I'm addicted."