Secrets of the Frostbound Cottage: An Urban Fantasy Story by Heather G. Harris & Ella Stone

Author:Heather G. Harris & Ella Stone [Harris, Heather G. & Stone, Ella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hellhound Press Limited
Published: 2025-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

‘Before you go,’ I said to Gazza, ‘there’s a perp upstairs. He shouldn’t cause you any trouble – he’s unconscious and I’ve already cuffed him.’

The two officers exchanged a look.

‘It wasn’t my fault,’ I protested, raising a hand in my defence. ‘He came at me first.’

Gazza smirked. ‘For someone so petite, you seem to leave an awful lot of people unconscious.’

‘What can I say?’ I shrugged. ‘It must be my sparkling personality. It clearly overwhelms them.’

The grizzled cop chuckled. ‘Well, whatever you’re doing, keep doing it. And don’t worry – we’ll get this little Pom-Pom back to his owner now.’

‘BonBon,’ I corrected.

Tanya cradled BonBon in her arms. The tiny dog, with its ridiculously fluffy coat, looked thoroughly pleased by the attention and wagged his tail frantically. It was a far cry from the animal who’d been cowering in its cage when I first arrived.

‘Wasn’t he in the car?’ I asked curiously, noting how closely Tanya was now holding him. ‘I thought you didn’t like dogs?’

‘He was lonely,’ she protested. ‘And I’m not sure he counts as a dog, does he? He’s more like a living teddy bear.’ She had a point: BonBon did look more like a teddy bear than the golden retriever puppy I was holding.

‘Looks like that one’s yours,’ Tanya teased.

‘Oh no, she’s definitely not mine,’ I said quickly. ‘My life is not conducive to having a dog. I’m going to take her over to the animal handlers.’

‘Good luck with that,’ Gazza said, motioning behind me. I turned to see the red tail lights of three large vans pulling away. ‘I’m pretty sure they said they were completely full,’ he added. ‘And they seemed to be stressing over how they’re going to home so many puppies.’

I glanced down at the soft golden ball in my arms. There was no denying it, she was one of the cutest puppies I’d ever seen, not to mention the most fearless. And the love that resonated from her when she looked at me was so strong that you didn’t need a hint of magic in you to feel it. I couldn’t imagine it would be hard to find her a home: families, older people, young couples – thousands of people would love her. Anyone but me.

‘Could you take her?’ I asked in a last-ditch effort to palm off responsibility for the pup. ‘You could see if anyone at the station would like her?’

‘I’d love to.’ Gazza gave an exaggerated sigh. ‘But bringing her in will mean a week’s worth of paperwork and we just don’t have time for that. Trust me, she’s better off with you.’ He slid me a look that wasn’t as sly as he thought. ‘Or you could just leave her here to fend for herself…’

I gritted my teeth. He was obviously goading me; we all knew there was no chance that I’d leave her, but that only left me with one option.

‘Are you sure you don’t want to drop this one back to his owner, too?’ Tanya said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.