I look up at Murr and tap his leg. “He’s keeping Aggie’s kittens from her. Aggie’s babies.” I point down at Curtis. “Bad man.”
A low, dangerous rumbling starts in Murr’s throat. I know him pretty well and it’s still chilling to hear.
“Hey,” Curtis protests, more nervous. “Shut the fuck up, lady?—”
“Give us back the dog and her babies,” I demand.
Curtis scrabbles under the claws, trying to wiggle free. He yelps, his hands flailing. “He’s stepping on me!”
My heart flutters nervously.
“Good!” Dottie says, arms crossed.
I shoot Murr a worried look, because there’s a thin line between scaring a guy and squishing a guy, and it looks to be a few inches under the dragon’s toes. “Just tell us?—”
“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to control him much longer, Mister,” Rabbit says, moving to my side. She sounds really worried. “He gets nervous if he thinks animals are being hurt, and he can understand everything we’re saying. You might want to tell us where she is.”
“Rabbit, hush,” I begin. “Let me handle this?—”
“Oh my god,” Rabbit continues, feigning terror. “He’s going to do it! Murr, don’t?—”
Murr shifts his weight, and Curtis screams again. “Get him off me!”
Rabbit’s voice raises a hysterical note. “He’s going to kill you! Quick! Tell us! Tell us!”
“Okay!” the man blurts out. “Okay! Just don’t let him kill me!”
She leans over him, screaming. Her tone is so urgent it’s making me panicky. “Tell us where she is! Hurry! We can’t hold him off much longer!”
Murr obligingly growls and shakes his wings, and my imagination fills with the thought of Curtis, popping like a bubble under Murr’s foot. “Guys, wait?—”
“She’s in the vet clinic up the road! Locked in a kennel!” he shouts. “Get him off me! Get him off me!”
Immediately, my daughter stops shrieking and winks at me. She straightens. “Cool. Call him off, Mom.”
Call him off? As if I’m in control of this situation?
I don’t know whose nerves are more shredded—mine or Curtis’s.
CHAPTER 46
DAKOTA
Rabbit and Aggietake off for the vet’s office, after getting some very grudging instructions from Curtis. Dottie and I sit on the hood of a nearby car to wait for them to return. We’re more or less babysitting Curtis, who’s still trapped under Murr’s claws.
Dottie can’t resist being a little mean about it, either. “I bet Murr wouldn’t mind a little snack. He looks hungry.”
“I told you where the dog was,” Curtis yells back at us. “You need to let me go!”
“And we will,” I promise. “Just as soon as they return with Stella.”
“I told you where she was. I don’t have a reason to lie.”
“You have every reason to lie,” Dottie scoffs. She scowls in his direction, as if his very presence offends her. “You’ve been lying since the day we met you. How many other helpless poor old ladies have you robbed?”
“You’re nuts if you think you’re helpless,” he says. “You two have been a problem since the day I met you. All of you.”
“For the record, you came after me and my daughter,” I say. “That’s on you.”
