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OUT IN THE pool house, Nikolai sat at the living room window, staring out. The room was dark. The garden was dark. His mother was asleep in the second bedroom, and Masha had passed out earlier that night.
He’d never seen anything like these dogs. Skinny, he thought, like foxes but taller, with longer legs. It was a pack, six of them, and they scared and darted, scampered and fed right there on the grass and deck. They were sniffing and eating the bits of hamburger and cheese-filled pretzels that Boris had scattered through the grass.
Nikolai’s eyes popped open wide when the black dog bounded over the bushes.
Strong and lean, he had spots of white and a black patch around his eye like a pirate. This must be Bandit, he thought, the dog Masha walked and watched when the family went on vacation.
Bandit galloped along the pool deck, barking and striking out at the coyotes. Nikolai watched as the animals scattered.
Seconds later, they all doubled back and formed a circle around Bandit, darting in, then darting back out, scratching, biting, crying.
Earlier that night, Dr. Parks had opened the windows in her bedroom. They looked out over the backyard. It was orange blossom season, the time of year when her backyard erupted with the scent, sweet and thick, and she wanted to let the smell waft in. The snarling and wailing woke her up.
“Bandit?” she said, rolling from bed. She scurried to the window and saw the canines out by the pool.
Downstairs near the door, Shev stood quietly, prying batteries out of the second alarm panel.
“Bandit!” he heard, and looked upstairs. What the hell was Boris doing? He needed to shut the fucking dog up. Now.
Dr. Parks ran down the hall, toward the stairs.Dammit, Bandit,she thought.When did you learn to pry open doors? And how did you get through the mudroom door?
Shev bent over, unplugged the panel, looked left and right, and moved past the stairs and into the living room. He slipped behind a large potted tree in the corner next to the door. The doctor ran down.
“Bandit! Dammit!”
Clearly, she was alone in the house.
He could kill her right there, from behind, before she reached the backyard. This was his chance, as good as any, but bedrooms were always the better choice, and, unlike Boris, he’d only ever killed once. He emerged from behind the plant, left the living room, and craned his neck past the stairs, catching a glimpse of the doctor’s nightshirt as she ran to the kitchen. He was too late. Would she stop to disarm the alarm first? He hated when plans got fucked up.
The doctor burst through the patio door, into the brisk night air. Barefoot and frightened, she veered to the right, onto the garden path, screaming.
“Shoo!” she shrieked, waving her hands. “Shoo! Shoo!”
When she got to the pool deck, three of the coyotes scurried away, but one jumped at Bandit, and a fourth and fifth hovered nearby. They were much smaller than she thought they’d be, and skeletally thin, so with every pathetic jump attack, Bandit mounted a gruesome defense, his poundage and teeth no match for these pups.
“Shoo!” she cried, waving her arms. She ran right into the fray. “Go! Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!”
Then, overhead, shots rang out.
Pop-pop-pop
The doctor screamed and fell to her knees.
“Oh, my God!” she cried to no one, as five of the coyotes bolted up the hill and disappeared into the grove.
One was left. Injured, it lay on the grass, dying or already dead, shot in the head and in the belly. Bandit circled her warily, sniffing and whimpering, limping.
The doctor looked up and around the yard.
“Oh, my God,” she said again. “What was that? Where are you?” She’d never heard live gunshots before. Where had they come from? She didn’t see a soul.
“Who’s there?” she cried. “Where are you?”
And then her gaze landed on a twelve-year-old boy. She figured he was twelve or thirteen. In the dark, he stood alone on the deck, in T-shirt and sweatpants, barefoot like she was. He was impossibly handsome and pale as a ghost, with a swath of sandy-blond bangs in his eyes.
Intelligent eyes. Calm. Reassuring.
“Did I scare you, sorry,” he calmly said. “Are you all right?”
