Page 33 of Not Your Ex's Hexes
“Exactly.”
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
“Oh, and little witch?” Damian hated bursting her hopeful bubble with a dose of grim reality. “Rescues like this one don’t always end on a happy note. Just… prepare yourself.”
Her nose wrinkled as she dismissed him. “Sorry, doc. Pessimism may be your go-to emotion, but it’s not mine. I’ll send out the bat signal when I find the puppies.”
She turned, giving him a prime view of her wet jean-clad ass. He gave himself five seconds to enjoy it before returning to the task at hand, navigating around the small mountains of metal and steel.
Rain poured in relentless, thick droplets, occasionally obscuring his vision despite the use of the flashlight. At the end of the fence, he turned around and slowly trekked back, his ears straining to hear beyond the pelting rain.
Rose released a piercing finger-whistle. “Over here! I found something!”
He jogged the line, head whipping around. “Where the hell are you?”
“Here!” Her muffled voice came from a few feet away, well beyond the area he’d directed they’d look. “There’s definitely something over here!”
Rose lay prone in the deepening mud, her upper body obscuredfrom the demolished—and precariously stacked—cars that she’d shimmied under. One wrong move—or hell, a gust of wind—and the damn thing could topple over onto her.
Crouching by her fine, curvy ass, he gently touched her exposed ankle so as not to startle her. “You need to get out of there.”
She ignored him. “I’m almost positive I heard sad little crying. They’re in here somewhere.”
“Seriously, Ro. Out now. One wrong move and this metal Jenga mountain will crush you into a witch-sized pancake.”
Rose gasped. She’d already shimmied herself a few more inches into Death Mountain. “Damian! There’s like six of them!Puppies!They’re soaked and so, so little. I’m not sure they can even open their eyes yet. I just need to squeeze in a little more…”
“Switch places with me.” Damian dropped into the mud next to her and shone his light inside… and sure enough, two feet from the edge of her fingers wriggled six little squirming bundles of pooch. “Come out here and hold the light. I’ll go in and get them.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m already here.” He practically heard her eyes rolling. “And I can barely squeezemyshoulders in here and you think yours will fit?”
“I’ll get Terrance to—”
There was barely enough room for her head to swing his way. Magical static crackled in the air as she drilled him with an annoyed glare, her golden eyes flashing.
Mud coated her chin and cheek, but it didn’t make her any less intimidating. “To what? Take a half hour or more to get here? We’ll be lucky if they last another few minutes, Damian. They’re cold and shivering, and while I’m not an animal expert, I expect they haven’t eaten in a few days. And you, Mr. Broad Shoulders, won’t fit in here. If I slide in another inch or two, I can pass them out to you. Now go get the damn carrier.”
He growled. “Donotmove until I get back with the supplies.”
She opened her mouth to argue. “But—”
“Not. Another. Inch. Or help me, little witch, I will yank you out from under there by your ankles right the hell now.” Damian’s demon pushed dangerously close to the surface, surprising him in their joint need to remove her from danger. “Do I make myself clear?”
“Fine,” she growled back at him. “It makes you a bit of a bossy jerk, but a clear bossy jerk.”
With one final, warning look, he ran back to the truck and grabbed the supplies plus a few blankets he stuffed into the carrier. He’d been gone less than a minute and when he returned, she’d already begun commando-crawling deeper beneath the scrap metal.
“Be careful,” Damian warned sternly. “If anything looks unstable, you get the hell out. I mean it,” he added when he heard her intake of breath. “Sayit.”
“If anything looks shaky, I’ll work quicker to get us all out.” With a coy wink, she shimmied deeper into the mud and muck.
He cursed himself for letting her do this. Hell, for bringing her along at all. Time ticked away, and by the time only her sneakered feet were visible beneath the rubble, Damian fought for each breath. A split second before reaching his breaking point, her calves came into view…
Then her rear end…
And then an arm popped out, a wriggling white lump of fur clutched in her hand.
Damian quickly grabbed the first puppy and after drying him off as best he could, tucked him into the carrier. By the time he turned around, Rose reached out to him with another. Five minutes later, they’d collected all six pups.
