“That’s why we’re here. It’s you we have to convince. You need to stop what you started, or I’m going to lose my dogs.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t change what they did. No one wins in these situations, least of all the animals. But I saw the results of what happened. You can’t tell me they didn’t attack.”
“It isn’t what you think!” Denny argued. “It’s not like they went after that drifter without reason. He tried to sleep in our garage. That’s trespassing. And my dogs just did what any guard dog would.”
Levi had to find somewhere to sleep at night. Given his situation and the late hour, their story might’ve been plausible. Except the police found his bike on the side of the road, halfway in the ditch, right where Levi said he’d dropped it. And when she’d been at the Gruper rental earlier, she’d seen no blood in the garage—only on the driveway leading to the back porch, suggesting the incident had occurred off-site, and then the dogs had trotted home.
“That’s not true,” she said.
The way she’d challenged his explanation didn’t sit well with Denny, who came off as the more aggressive of the two. “How the hell would
you
know?” His face, with its wide nose, jutted forward. “You weren’t there.”
These men didn’t act at all concerned that their dogs had mangled someone. All they cared about was the possibility of their
own
loss.
“I was at your place this morning,” she said. “I saw the bloody paw prints, Mr. Seamans. They weren’t in the garage.”
Denny’s eyes narrowed to a razor-sharp point. “You went on to my property?”
“I knocked first. You didn’t answer.”
“That doesn’t give you permission to snoop around!”
Rifle growled when Denny raised his voice, but Denny seemed too angry to care. Maybe he trusted her to hold the dog off. “Because of you, they’re going to put down two innocent pit bulls!”
“Because of
me?
” Callie echoed. “You mean because you allowed your dogs to injure someone!”
“I didn’t even know it was happening!”
“They’re still your responsibility. A child couldn’t have survived that attack. You didn’t see the number of stitches it took to repair what your ‘innocent’ Sauron and Spike did!”
“The stupid bastard they bit shouldn’t have trespassed on the property!”
Callie feared Levi would hear them. She didn’t want him to come out, didn’t want this to get out of hand, so she lowered her voice. “He didn’t trespass.”
“You don’t know that!” Powell shouted, despite her attempt to get him to speak quietly. “You don’t know anything! You’re just some small-town bitch who’s sticking her nose in something that’s got nothing to do with her.”
The barn door slid open with a resounding bang. At that point, Callie knew Levi would be joining them. It was too late to hope he’d stay out of it.
“Time for you to go,” he announced to the Gruper renters.
Because he wasn’t within reach of Denny’s headlights or the dim circle thrown by her porch light, Callie could only make out his shape, but it was enough to tell her he was striding purposely toward them.
Denny and Powell swung around. “Who the hell are you?” Denny asked.
Powell grabbed Denny’s arm as Levi stepped into the light. “That’s got to be the guy. Why else would he be in the barn so late? He tried sleeping in our garage last night, didn’t he?”
In deference to the cooler temperatures once the sun went down, Levi was wearing a thermal shirt with his jeans. He must’ve gotten it from his pack because Callie hadn’t seen it before. She liked it on him, but she wasn’t too encouraged by how lean it made him look in comparison to the two bruisers on her porch.
With Denny and Powell distracted by the interruption, Callie raised her gun. She was afraid she might have to head off a fight. But she hesitated to speak up too soon, didn’t want a show of force to cause this situation to escalate if there was still a chance of avoiding it.
“Calm down,” she warned Rifle who, taking his lead from Levi’s appearance, was growling at Denny and Powell.
Levi came close—close enough for Callie to see
the fury in his eyes. Together with the anger chiseled in the hollows of his cheeks, the firm set of his jaw and the thinness of his lips, he looked dangerous despite the fact that he weighed a lot less than the two Gruper renters.
“I don’t want any trouble.” She had to lower her gun to grab hold of her dog. She wished she could toss her weapon to Levi. Maybe it only shot pellets, but she couldn’t imagine him taking on two men without some kind of defense, especially
these
men. He had too many stitches, for starters.
To her dismay, he didn’t allow her the chance to give him the gun. He answered her, but he didn’t even look over.
“There won’t be trouble, provided these two get back in their truck and drive away.”
Denny seemed so surprised that this “vagrant” would stand up to him he didn’t react immediately. He glanced at Powell as if confirming that this was just the invitation they’d been waiting for, and Powell seemed to interpret that as a signal to take charge.
“Look, if you want to get your ass kicked, we’ll be happy to take care of it,” he said.
“Is that what you came here for?” Levi responded. “A fight?”
“A
fight?
” Powell laughed out loud. “I’m talking about teaching you a lesson,
loser,
about trespassing on other people’s property. Because it looks to me like Sauron and Spike didn’t do half what they should have.”
The porch railing creaked under his weight as he swung his body over it, but before Callie could even process the threat and let go of Rifle, Powell was lying in the dirt. It all happened so fast she couldn’t tell how Levi had accomplished such a feat. It’d looked as if he’d landed only one punch, but the big guy wasn’t getting up.
Denny, who’d started down the steps, was now backing away from Levi instead of heading toward him. “What’s wrong with you, man? Are you crazy?”
“I’m sure there are psychologists out there who would say I am,” Levi replied.
“Now I know what happened to my dogs, why they got the worst of it.”
He had no idea what his dogs had done. Levi’s clothing covered the stitches, but Callie kept her mouth shut because Levi was already talking.
“Your dogs attacked me, and I did what I had to in order to survive.”
Powell was coming around. “What the hell...what’d he hit me with?” He blinked, shaking his head.
“Just get up,” Denny told him. “Get up right now.”
Powell managed to find his feet, but he staggered before he could begin making his way to the truck. Denny waited for him, then hurried around to the driver’s side.
“This isn’t finished,” he called back to Levi as he climbed in. “I hope you know that. I won’t let some piece-of-shit drifter destroy my dogs. And you’ll pay for what you just did to my friend, too.”
“You want more, we could finish it right here,” Levi said, but he sounded more tired than threatening. Maybe that was because he knew Denny wouldn’t take him up on the offer.
The door slamming shut was his only answer. Then Denny threw the truck in Reverse, swung around and charged down Callie’s driveway.
As his tires churned up the dust, Callie gaped at Levi, who was shaking the pain from his hand. “Did you break it?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
“Would you know if you had?”
“I’m pretty sure I would. I’ve broken it before.”
Rifle whined and sat down, letting Callie know there was no need to continue restraining him. She sighed as she straightened, feeling weaker than ever now that the excitement was over. “What’d you
do
to him?”
He stared after their red taillights. “You saw it.”
“But it happened so fast.”
“Just because a guy can lift weights doesn’t mean he can fight,” Levi said with a shrug.
“Where did
you
learn to fight?” She put the pellet gun aside. “In the military?”
“There’s no need for martial arts when you have a lethal weapon.”
She thought of Kyle and how rude he’d been earlier—and was glad he hadn’t pushed Levi too far. “You had to learn somewhere.”
He didn’t explain. “If you want me to leave instead of painting the barn, I’ll understand.”
“There’s no need for you to leave. They were the ones who got out of line, not you.”
“But as long as I’m here, they could come back.”
“They could come back, anyway. And it looks like I’ll be safer if you stay,” she added with a grin. “I doubt my pellet gun could’ve done what you just did.”
“Rifle could’ve handled them.”
She watched her dog lick Levi’s injured hand and wag his tail as if he’d just found a new hero. “I’d prefer he not have to.”
A dark spot was growing on Levi’s sleeve. “You’ve torn out some of your stitches.”
He glanced down. “It’ll be okay.”
“We can’t leave it like that.” She waved him forward. “Come on in.”
She applied a couple of butterfly Band-Aids to act in place of the torn stitches. Then she changed the dressing and got a blanket out of the linen closet.
“What are you doing?” he asked when she made a bed on the couch.
She was providing them with a little insurance that Denny and Powell wouldn’t be able to jump him while he was sleeping. “I think it’s better if you stay inside tonight.”
“You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I won’t if you’ll do me this favor,” she said.
* * *
It was late when Levi woke up. He could tell by the color of light streaming through the windows. The exhaustion of the past few days had caught up with him, but where was Callie? Was she still in bed?
He lay without moving, enjoying the peace and quiet while listening for her. At first, he heard nothing. But after several minutes, she whistled to her dog outside.
Yawning, he scratched his head, then winced at the pain caused by such a small action. Thanks to the miles he’d had to push his bike, the dogfight, the stitches, the lack of sleep and the confrontation with the two bodybuilders, he was banged up. Every muscle was sore. But it wasn’t the first time he’d ever woken up like this. When he’d lived at home, feeling as if he’d been hit by a truck had been a common occurrence.
Pain is weakness leaving the body.
How often had his father said that? And how many times had he made Levi prove it?
Unwilling to think of Leo and all his talk about becoming the best, he sat up and waited for his head to stop pounding before getting to his feet.
When he finally walked outside, Rifle came racing toward him. Levi couldn’t help tensing at the dog’s approach, but he’d lived with the threat of physical danger his whole life—if not in the ring, then at home, with a father whose hair-trigger temper could explode for almost no reason. Levi wasn’t about to let one incident with dogs make him cower in fear, especially because he’d always been a dog lover. After his mother took off with his sister, it was his dog who’d given him enough love to get him through the next ten years.
Fortunately, Rifle merely barked a hello. Then he circled, acting eager to lead the way to his master.
Levi motioned for the dog to start off. “Fine. Go.”
With another bark, Rifle loped toward the barn, but he didn’t stop at the entrance. He trotted through the middle and out the other side to where Callie was lying on the ground with a camera.
“You’re taking pictures of dirt?” Levi asked as he approached her.
Lowering her camera, she looked up at him. She was wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a white T-shirt top, which was no longer clean, due to all that scooting around. “See? I’ve found an anthill!”
The excitement in her voice surprised him. “An anthill.”
“Yeah.” A bead of sweat rolled from her temple as she smiled. “I’ve been getting some
great
shots.”
He indicated the camera. “This is your hobby?”
“My profession. I have a studio in town. Reflections by Callie. We do a lot of weddings. But lately I’ve been shooting nature.”
He recalled the impressive photograph hanging in the kitchen. “That spider by the table.”
“Is mine, yes.”
“It’s nice.”
She seemed gratified. “Thanks.”
“So how often do you go into your studio?”
“I used to go every day. But...I’m taking the summer off.”
“To photograph nature.”
“And to say goodbye.”
He studied her carefully. “To whom?”
Sitting up, she tilted her head so that the sun could hit her face. “To this place. It belonged to my grandparents before they died. I spent a lot of summer days and weekends here when I was growing up, have a lot of fond memories.”
“That’s why you’re living out here alone?”
“That’s right. Why?”
He hesitated to put what he was feeling into words. He sensed that something was wrong, something beyond having to sell a piece of property that had been in the family for years. But he didn’t really know Callie and could easily be mistaken. He hoped he was. As much as he was determined not to feel anything, he appreciated her kind heart. He’d never experienced much gentleness. Not until he met Behrukh.
Maybe that was why he’d been foolish enough to get involved with her. He’d returned to her father’s store again and again, to buy gum, candy, bottled water, anything he could think of. He’d never been with a woman before and his hormones were running rampant.
“Who’s taking care of the studio?” he asked. “Or did you close it for the summer?”
“We couldn’t miss bridal season. So I have an assistant—more like an apprentice, I guess—who’s handling things for me.”
“While you work out here, taking pictures of nature and getting the farm in shape.”
“Basically.”
She wasn’t wearing any makeup. He got the impression she’d climbed out of bed, pulled her hair up and headed outside. But he liked her this way. She looked fresh and dewy and soft.
Suddenly, he craved some of that softness. A moment of tenderness. A respite from the bitterness that had left his own heart so hard. It felt like forever since he’d lost himself inside a woman.
But the only woman he’d known in that way was dead because of him. So was the baby she carried—
his
baby.