She walked up the graveled driveway. If blacktop had ever covered the long stretch, no remnants remained now. Halfway to the house, she was startled by a yipping sound. She glanced around as a small dog that resembled a pug came running toward her on short, chubby legs. Jumping up and down on his hind legs, he shamelessly begged for a pat on the head.
Sloane leaned down and ran a hand over his short fur. Grubby-looking, he needed a bath as much as he apparently needed attention, and despite her better judgment, she picked him up.
He was heavier than she’d anticipated. “You’re a hefty one,” she told him, and carried him to the house. She couldn’t deny having her arms full gave her a more secure, comfortable feeling and she clutched the dog’s warm body tighter against her chest.
At the front door, she paused, nerves overtaking her. Before she could back out and run to the car, she rang the bell. She wasn’t surprised when no sound came out, and after trying once more, she started to bang loudly on the door. To her shock, the door pushed wide open. The dog squirmed and jumped out of her arms, running inside.
“Hello?” she called out, uncomfortable just walking in. But no one answered and so she cautiously stepped over the threshold. The jitters in her stomach were now uncontrollable, but so was her determination to find Samson, as she walked into a dark hallway.
The smell of rotten eggs hit her immediately. Though she lived in an apartment, she’d grown up in a house and Sloane knew a gas leak when she smelled one. The odor that assaulted her senses couldn’t be anything else.
Wisdom dictated she get out and have someone call the gas and electric company, but what if Samson was inside? She called out once more. “Hello? Samson?”
No response.
She glanced around, but from the darkened rooms and obvious smell, the house had to be empty. Anyone home would have gotten out by now, though why they’d leave their pet was beyond her. And said pet had decided to act like a tough guy, running to the top of the basement stairs and yapping like crazy.
“Come on, pooch.” She patted her thighs, calling him with enthusiasm.
He wasn’t impressed.
And she wasn’t leaving without him.
She walked slowly toward him. The closer she came, the more distinct the gas odor became. Get out . The mantra started to run through her head. She intended to heed it, but she had to get the dog first.
“Come on, Mr. Dog, let’s go.” She knelt down, and though his yapping didn’t subside, he did run to her on his stubby legs.
Get out. The thought repeated itself as Sloane grabbed the still-barking dog and started for the exit. She made it outside, as far as the front lawn, when a loud explosion sounded, knocking her to the ground.
Chase figured he’d missed Sloane’s visit to Norman’s by a matter of minutes. Izzy couldn’t stop raving about the new redhead in town, one gorgeous enough to stop traffic on First and one looking for the town loner and eccentric, Samson Humphrey.
This last bit of information took Chase by surprise. The town kids called Samson “the duckman,” because he spent most of his days in the center gazebo talking to and feeding the ducks and geese. No one paid him any mind except for Chase’s mother and Charlotte, both women with big hearts and soft spots for the sullen old man.
He couldn’t imagine what the hell Sloane was doing looking for Samson, but he intended to find out. According to Izzy and Norman, they’d given her directions to the old man’s run-down house on the edge of town. It wasn’t a place any woman should venture alone.
Not because Samson was dangerous. Heck, the older man was as harmless as he was nasty, but the area where he lived was a vacant place where bikers hung out. More than once, his cop brother, Rick, had arrested delinquents or bikers for vagrancy and loitering.
The area was no place for a lady.
No place for Sloane.
Sloane, not Faith. Sloane, the woman he’d picked up in a bar and had hot, wild sex with all night long, before being asked by her stepmother, and wife of a vice presidential candidate, to look after her.
Damn.
When Chase Chandler gave up his quiet life, he did it in a big way. The hell of it was, he still had no regrets.
Plenty of questions, but not one regret. He had a hunch Sloane wouldn’t want the word to get out that she’d picked up a stranger in a bar any more than he’d be publishing his memoirs in the morning’s paper.
But he still had one helluva job ahead of him, making good on his promise to Madeline Carlisle. How he’d keep an eye on Sloane and keep his hands off her at the same time was something even a monk would have difficulty accomplishing.
“Damn,” he muttered, this time out loud.
Pulling his truck in front of Samson’s house, he immediately saw the rental car with out-of-state plates. At least she’d had the sense to cover her tracks the best she could.
Shoving the gear into Park, he stepped out, intending to get inside and see what Sloane Carlisle wanted with Samson Humphrey. He wasn’t prepared to see Sloane running from the house or for the explosion that followed, knocking him briefly on his ass.
When the shock wore off, he stood and glanced up. Flames erupted from what remained of Samson’s place; at the same time, Sloane lifted herself from the ground a little ways in front of him on the front lawn.
Thank God she was okay. He exhaled hard, but his relief was short-lived. A little dog he hadn’t noticed before jumped from her arms to the grass and bolted toward the burning building.
“No!” Sloane screamed, and started back to the flames.
No way could he let her run back inside, so he lunged for her at the same time she dived for the pooch, and they both hit the ground hard.
Awareness came to Sloane more quickly than she’d imagined possible. A hard body covered hers while the whining sounds of the dog came from under her. She didn’t trust the pooch not to dart back into the burning house, so she lifted an arm to let him breathe, while still holding on to his collar.
“Are you okay?” a masculine voice asked. A sexy, familiar masculine voice.
A shiver, having nothing to do with the ordeal, rushed through her. “I think I’m in one piece.”
She had aches and bruises she’d need to assess, but for now she was alive and breathing, while the house she was just inside burned in the distance.
Without warning, she was pulled to a sitting position and came face-to-face with Chase.
Her one-night stand.
Impossible, she thought. “The house isn’t burning and you aren’t real.” She was off balance and confused, a state not helped by the high-pitched sound of sirens wailing in the distance.