The Walls of Troy by L.A. Witt

Author:L.A. Witt [Witt, L.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-03-14T06:00:00+00:00

~*~

As we walked into the house, Troy said, “I’ll set him up in a guest room, Dad.”

Dalton glanced at Troy as if he hadn’t expected the offer, but then he shrugged. “Thank you.” To me, he said, “You’ll be all right for the evening? Is there anything else we can get for you?”

“No, it’s fine.” I shook my head. “Thanks, sir. I’ll just get some rest.”

“Good. Good.” He patted my shoulder. “Take it easy for the night. That’s an order, MA1.”

I laughed. “Will do, sir.”

Troy showed me to one of the bedrooms on the third floor. I went in to take a shower, and when I came out, he’d put fresh linens on the bed.

“I, um.” He cleared his throat. “Should I go?”

“You don’t have to. Maybe we should talk.”

He gulped. “Okay.” He gestured at me. “How’s your head?”

“It’ll heal.”

“You want some ice?”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I’d better put some more on it before it starts hurting again.”

“Okay. I’ll be right back.”

He left, and I sank onto one of the two armchairs in the room and closed my eyes. I was exhausted, but at the same time too wired to even try to sleep yet. And sleep wasn’t going to happen anyway until Troy and I had discussed a few things.

Dull footsteps caught my attention. I opened my eyes, expecting Johnson or the admiral in the open doorway.

Not Talos.

He stood for a moment, just staring at me. Then he lumbered into the room. I sat up, drawing back against the chair, and he stopped, cocking his massive head.

Don’t look him in the eye. Don’t let him know you’re scared. Dogs can sense that.

Right. Don’t let him know he scared me. Because that ship hadn’t already sailed a long fucking time ago. And it was sailing again as he came closer, because my heart was going a million miles an hour as his heavy paws thudded dully on the carpet.

I didn’t know what I expected to happen, but it definitely wasn’t for him to rest his head on my leg, his tags crunching quietly beneath his neck.

Swallowing hard, I slowly lifted my hand. He watched it but didn’t move. I held my breath as I lowered my hand onto the back of his neck. When that didn’t send him into a violent fit of snapping and barking, I cautiously stroked his short, coarse fur.

As I did, an image flashed through my mind of him standing over me after I’d been dropped. My head had been spinning and throbbing, my heart pounding, and suddenly there’d been this huge animal beside me.

And now here he was again, standing here quietly with his massive, heavy head on my leg.

My heart started beating faster. Anything could have happened out there tonight. What if the fucker had been armed with something more than a Taser? What if he’d said to hell with sending a message and just dropped me with a bullet in the back of my skull? What if the dogs hadn’t chased him off when they had?

I ran my thumb along Talos’s soft ear.

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