Why? Who? And what did they have to do with any of it?
Too many questions. She put her hand over her mouth to keep from blurting them out. If she walked up now, it’d stop him and she was not about to pretend she hadn’t overheard.
David sighed. “She looked like she had a good time today. Hated to cut it short.”
It took every ounce of will she had not to lean forward and listen harder. The breeze was blowing toward her, away from Atlas. But if she made any noise now or if the wind changed, Atlas would let David know she was near. And David was one of the best trainers she’d ever worked with. He’d be able to read Atlas clearer than printed text.
“Not sure how to proceed at this point, Old Man.”
She scowled. Atlas wasn’t old!
But then she took a breath and counted down slowly, letting the air back out silently. She’d heard her stepfather call his war buddies “Old Man” the few times she’d been around them. It was a thing, she supposed, and even the passing point of similarity to her stepfather knocked her feelings about Cruz back into a jumbled mess.
“If it were Calhoun or any other soldier, I’d brief her. Give her the details and let her decide. But she’s not a soldier. And she shouldn’t have to worry about these things.” A pause. “She’s a solid trainer. And she’s done you a lot of good. She deserves better than being sucked into whatever shit storm we’re about to go into next. Something is about to break, somewhere. I feel it in my gut and you’ve been on edge all day. We both know it’s coming, whatever it is. And I want her clear before it does.”
“Oh no. You are not sending me away.” She slapped her hands over her mouth. Then wondered how the hell they’d moved while she’d been listening in the first place. Fantastic the way she didn’t even pay attention to what she was doing when she heard epic statements of idiocy.
David and Atlas were both on their feet.
Since there was no sense lurking around the corner, she walked the rest of the way to them, trailing her hand against the chain-link of the kennel so Atlas could snuffle her fingertips.
“Listening long?” David didn’t back away from Atlas’s kennel and she decided she didn’t have any issues with stepping into his personal space.
Being near Atlas was only a partial excuse.
“Well, I still have questions so maybe I didn’t listen long enough.” She lifted her gaze to his.
Steel blue eyes, the color of storm clouds. Wow, but she liked looking into them. At the moment, his brows were drawn over them, giving him a severe expression. She ought to be at least somewhat intimidated by it but maybe she was building up a tolerance. Besides, being here with him was so much better than a couple of alternatives.
He came to a decision while she was pondering those. It crossed his face and then he seemed resigned. “What do you want to know?”
She swallowed. “Everything. Whatever there is. Whatever is going on. Because I’m already all sorts of caught up in it and I think you worry about what it means.”
His lips pressed together in a thin line.
She nodded. “Yeah. You do. And I do too.”
“There’s a certain safety to not knowing the details.” He wasn’t just standing there anymore. He was looming.
And it wasn’t going to scare her. Not anything he’d do. Because there were two men out there who’d already taken her sense of safety and ripped it to shreds. “Only when you’re sitting, waiting, hoping the bad things won’t come to find you. You sent me back here today and I followed your lead because it was the right thing to do at the time. But I won’t be staying here forever. I need to know what I’m facing when I step off this property.”
He opened his mouth.
But she wasn’t done yet. “The man who attacked me already set foot here, so even this place isn’t perfect. Now he’s made bail and he’s walking around free as you please. While you and Brandon and Alex are here with the dogs, there’s a line of defense. Isn’t that the way you put it? But no place all on its own is safe. The dogs are kenneled and you all have to sleep sometime.”
“Never at the same time,” David muttered.
She blinked, caught by surprise. The idea of the men each taking a turn in sleep and being awake was unsettling. Whether it was because they never let go of their military habits or because they were actively expecting trouble, it wasn’t something normal people did. The realization settled over her that Hope’s Crossing Kennels had never been a simple kennel.
This place had always been more, from the first day she’d walked into the office. It and the men who ran it were more than simple civilians with a shared love for dogs. They were men who’d survived hell and come to live with the rest of them again. And their survival skills had never been forgotten or even set aside, only concealed for the peace of mind of the community.