Head Above Water (Gemini: A Black Dog #2) Read Online Free Page A

leapt onto my made bed where he proceeded to roll until my sheets were a tangled mess.
    “Wow.” Dell snicker-chuckled. “I can’t believe you fell for the old rub my belly shtick.”
    “There’s one born every minute,” I grumbled, trailing after him. “What does he think he’s doing?” Shimmying on his back up and down my bed, paws kicking in the air—that wasn’t normal warg behavior. Was it?
    “Um, if I had to guess…” she stood and backed a safe distance away, “…I’d say he’s marking territory.”
    “Raise one leg, Graeson. I dare you.” I stomped over to my table and rolled up an old sales flyer for a chain store three states away. “One drop on anything that belongs to me, and I’ll load you up and drive you to a vet for a few corrective snips. You’ll spend the rest of your life squatting when you have to pee.”
    “It’s a good thing your nose isn’t better,” Dell singsonged.
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” The sales paper hit the floor. “No. He didn’t.” I bolted down the steps and really looked at the Airstream’s wheels. Liquid glinted on the rubber and glistened on the grass nearby. I leaned closer and inhaled. Ammonia . “I can’t believe he hosed my trailer.” A similar glint drew my eye to the wheels of my truck, which shined. “And my truck?” Sure enough, it too had been splashed with Graeson’s golden stamp of ownership. “I’m going to kill him.” Standing out here among his conquests, I wrinkled my nose. “As soon as he finishes washing the stink off my stuff.”
    Cackling merrily, Dell shucked Graeson’s shirt, flung it at me and skipped backward toward the woods. “I need to head home and check on Meemaw. Her arthritis is flaring up something awful. See you later.”
    “Hey,” I called after her retreating back. “What are the odds of me arranging a meeting with the Garzas?” The pack witches had performed the divinations to track Charybdis’s movements. I would give my eyeteeth to get my hands on that information for my case file. “They live around here too, right?”
    “The Garzas are…complicated. I can’t guarantee a meeting, but I’ll ask.” She twisted her bottom lip then released it with a pop. “They made a pit stop on the way back from Mississippi. That much I do know. I’ll reach out once they get home.”
    More delays, but hunting Charybdis was a bunch of hurry up and wait . “I appreciate it.”
    She lifted a hand in farewell. “No problem.” Then she was gone, and I was alone with Graeson.
    Circling around the trailer, I clomped up the stairs, grabbed the handle on the screen door and pulled. It didn’t budge. I jiggled it again. Locked. From the inside. Sitting on the laminate flooring of my entryway, the wolf gazed out the mesh at me through clear, guileless eyes.
    “I guess you understood what I said about squatting when you pee, huh?”

Chapter 3
    I ’m not too proud to admit I bribed my way back into my own home. The cost was a packet of gas station beef jerky from the glove box emergency kit in my truck. Graeson was happy to nudge the door open and take his prize from me with gentle teeth. He was even happier as he trotted to my bedroom and made himself comfortable while smearing drool and meaty juices on my sheets.
    I retreated to the table where I could keep an eye on the wolf. I was sitting there, back to the wall and legs stretched out on the cushion in front of me, eating a bowl of soup I didn’t taste thanks to the frantic thought loop whirling through my head, when a couple of rapid knocks rang out.
    “Cammie,” Isaac boomed from the porch. “Groceries.” He opened the screen with his pinky then backed through it. “Here. I forgot to tell you. This arrived before we left Three Way.” He dropped a bubble mailer on the table with a Wink, Texas return address, and it was all I could do not to snatch it up and tear into it then and there. This could be it. My first real look at Charybdis. Stepping