Page 37 of Rebel (Renegades 2)
Ping-ping-ping.
A rolling growl started low in Rodie’s throat, followed immediately by a vicious barking spurt. Rubi jumped. Fear skidded down her spine. Someone was out there. Rodie was never wrong. And he had his paws pressed against the glass now, his bark growing angrier.
Heart thumping, Rubi reached for her cell in her shorts pocket and realized she’d already changed for bed.
Feeling like an idiot, sure it was nothing but some late-night beach walkers, Rubi bent to conceal herself behind the kitchen cabinets and scurried back into the living room. When she reached for her cell on the coffee table beside her laptop, it was already ringing.
She looked at the display: Wes.
“Jesus fucking Christ. ” Relief and frustration merged. She pressed Answer and said, “Is that you giving my dog a heart attack?”
“Dude,” he said, the word filled with utter disbelief. “You have a dog?”
It felt too damn good to hear his voice. “A dog who’s going to rip off your face when I let him out those doors. You scared us. What is wrong with you?”
“He can have what’s left of my face,” he said, whatever the hell that meant. “And I didn’t take you for a pet person. Maybe a cat, you know, some furry little princess, but a dog? Really?”
His total shock made a laugh bubble from her chest. “You asshole. ”
She disconnected and walked toward the glass doors, where Rodie was snarling and barking. She reached down and curled her fingers into his collar, glancing through the glass. The sight of Wes’s face shocked an ugly sizzle of fear through her chest. She jerked the door open.
“What the hell happened? Are you okay?” Rodie was still growling and dragged Rubi out onto the deck. “Rodie, no! Shit, Wes, are you okay?”
“I’m okay, baby. ” He sounded tired. Resigned. “It’s old news. I thought Lexi would have told you about it by now. ”
“She’s been busy all day fitting an entire wedding party, then went out to dinner with the family. What happened to you?”
“Nothing important. Let Rodie go. He’ll love me. ”
She didn’t have a choice. Rodie pulled from her grip. “Rodie,” she warned, “be nice. ”
She watched carefully, ready to grab him again as Rodie approached Wes in a partial crouch, the hair on his back prickled into a stripe from shoulders to tail.
“Hey, boy,” Wes said, his hand extended through the deck railing, not the least bit unnerved. “Aren’t you handsome?”
Rodie growled low in his throat while cautiously sniffing Wes’s hand. Wes was shirtless, wearing some kind of loose dark pants with a drawstring that hung entirely too low on that sculpted abdomen. And there was another bruise on his side.
“My God. I leave you alone for a day and look what happens. ”
“I know, right?” Wes grinned up at her. “The only solution is to never leave me alone. ”
The thought that he might not have gotten into a brawl if she’d met him at Lure instead of taking space made Rubi’s stomach bunch. “Please tell me Bolton didn’t do that to you. ”
His laugh was heavy with yeah-right attitude. “If he had, he’d have gone to the ICU instead of jail. ”
That dark streak he flashed every now and then never failed to shoot hot lightning through her body. Yet, in the next second he was cooing to Rodie like he had a heart as soft as a cloud.
“Jail?” she said. “Why didn’t you use your bribing magic to keep him out?”
“Because security called the cops, and the cops found a bag of coke on him. No bribing him out of that. As soon as I saw uniforms, I stepped back and washed my hands of the fucker. I might be slow, but I’m not stupid. ”
“What’s going to happen to filming?” Rubi asked, immediately calculating the hit Renegades would take with a stall like this.
“Jax is working on it,” he said while patiently letting Rodie smell him. “That’s it. I probably look kinda scary right now, don’t I? Are you keeping your mama safe? What a good boy. ”
His voice was smooth and light and calm. Within two minutes, Rodie’s tail went from still as stone to a slight wag. Then his tongue lapped out against Wes’s hand in a taste test. Rubi was about ready to do the same.
“What do you think?” Wes asked, his grin growing. “Your mama seems to like the taste of me. ”
