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He sprinted straight into the fence, wildly grabbing at the leash. His fingers wrapped around the nylon. Hands full, there was nothing to use to cushion the impact with the fence. The pointy ends of the iron jabbed into his chest and arms. He dropped his weight, so he didn’t flip over the fence, but that only made the iron point into his stomach harder. Fuck, that was going to bruise. He grimaced and bent his knees some more, doing his best to not pitch over the fence. But damn it, he had the dogs. He had his in with Robin.
He’d take the bruises and scratches if it meant he could stop following her around at all hours of the day.
It was time to move on to the next part of the mission.
Too bad this was the part he dreaded.
A not so delicate snarl ripped through his moment of elation right before teeth sank into his sneaker.
“Ow, hey!”
Okay, it didn’t actually hurt. More like it surprised him.
He peered through the bars at the two dogs.
The second dog bounced around his heels, snarling, watching its friend try to violently shake Harper’s foot.
“A for effort, little guy,” he muttered.
Harper grabbed the fence with the hand still wrapped up in the leash. He pushed up and back, careful to not unintentionally squash any little paws.
The biter of the two clamped down harder.
“Hey, now. That’s not very nice.”
Harper slid his hand down the leash, taking in the slack until he could hold the little savages as far from his feet as he could. He twisted his foot, extracting his sneaker from the jaws of the more aggressive one. Thankfully, the little thing didn’t have an impressive bite force, otherwise, this would be a much different story. Instead, he was fairly certain the shoe was just about ruined.
“You aren’t cute at all. You’re hell hounds, aren’t you?” he asked the two dogs.
Harper rubbed his stomach. He could still feel the press of all the metal spikes, and it wasn’t pleasant.
One dog bounced into the other and they spun to face-off, tails wagging as if they were having a grand old time. He was clearly forgotten for the moment.
Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.
Harper glanced up as Robin closed the distance. Her light brown eyes were wide and her face creased with worry. Breathless, she stopped and bent forward, hands on her knees. Her ponytail cascaded over one shoulder, almost to the ground.
“Oh my God. Thank you!” she said between breaths.
The little savages howled and lunged at her. Clearly, he wasn’t the only one on their shit list.
“Wow, there.” Harper quickly pulled the snapping pups back and chuckled. Crap. And these were pets? “Friendly little guys you’ve got.”
Robin straightened. Her long ponytail flipped over her shoulder and he caught the end of a dramatic eye roll. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. They’re brats, I know. They only behave for my step-mom.”
Harper grinned at her. “They must keep you on your toes.”
“Yes.” She held her hand out. “Thank you again, so very much. They tripped me up, and I lost the leash.”
Harper couldn’t think of a good reason to keep the leash. The moment he passed the dogs to her, he needed to find a new way to stay in her orbit.
He held out the leash. “Added a little excitement to my day.”
Robin’s eyes went wide. “Oh no…”
“What’s wrong?” Harper glanced about, searching for some new threat, his instincts kicking in.
“Your shirt…”
