Page 113 of Ravage
Regardless, I have to find him first.
And I do have an idea. One that Portia, Kellan, and Jackson will hate, but it’ll work. I can set myself up as bait. He needs me as a step in his initiation process or whatever to become a board member, so I know he hasn’t stopped trying to find me as well. That means I’ll just need to make myself more readily…kidnappable.
My pen scribbles across the notepad with possible ideas and locations where I’d most likely be spotted and appear vulnerable. I add a note in the corner that Jackson and Kellan need to be distracted with something else.
I’ll also need a plan for how to get away once he has me and I have information that will guide me to other board members.
Loud scratching echoes from my apartment door. I pull my gun from its holster and aim it there while slowly approaching it.
I peek through the peephole.
No one's there.
My skin crawls, and I shudder. A ghost, perhaps? What if that invisible guy wasn’t dead?
No, he was dead.
There’s a small whine, and I look down through the hole as much as I can. A dog?
I open the door partway, gun still ready in one hand, and see that it really is a dog scratching at my door.
He’s only a foot and a half high, but his coloring is beautiful. Light gray with mottled black and white. His face and legs have tan and then a white chest.
“Wrong door, puppy. This isn’t your home.”
I check up and down the hallway to make sure no one will jump out and surprise me while I’m distracted and then squat down to hold out my hand for him to sniff. “Can I pet you? You look so soft.”
The dog woofs softly, then rushes between me and the door to hurry inside my apartment.
“Shit, hey!” I spin around and hunt for where he went. I catch him biting the throw blanket on the back of the couch and gasp. “Stop that! No! Bad dog!”
He gives me an odd look, and then he’s growing and changing. His limbs lengthen, snout sinks in, and the fur recedes. I stare open-mouthed at a naked Kit on my couch, the blanket barely covering him from his torso to his upper thighs.
“What the hell?”
He grins at me and pops up just enough from the couch to wrap the rest of the blanket around his ass before falling back into it. “Surprise!” he shouts with his hands out.
The dog toys in his apartment. The abundance of dog fur. His playful energy. And I hadn’t seen a dog while I was there. “You’re the dog,” I say aloud as it all clicks together.
“I’m a dog. Not sure I can count myself as the dog.”
“So, you’re a shifter, then.”
“Yup!”
“Well, that explains a lot.” I sigh and set my gun back on the counter. “Why did you show up as the dog? I could’ve shot you.”
He pouts. The resemblance smacks me in the face, and I can’t believe I didn’t realize it the first time I met him. “You’d shoot a doggy?”
“Of course not. Not on purpose, at least. I wasn’t expecting anyone.”
Kit stands, using one hand to hold the blanket in place while his other hand starts touching anything and everything in the room while he walks around. “It’s safer for me to travel as a dog. Less chance someone might recognize me. And people are nicer to me and give me pets and lovings.”
“Oh. I didn’t realize you were on the run. Who’s looking for you?” I lean my elbow back on the counter and follow him as he openly scopes out my apartment. Everything in it belongs to Elias and came with it, aside from the clothes I stole and a few personal items in the bedroom, so I’m not sure what he could be looking for.
He shrugs. “Oh, you know. Nefarious folks.”
His attention zeroes in on my notepad, and I slap my hand over it. He chuckles and keeps moving.
