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Rowdy laughed, glancing down at her again. She was staring up at him, like she liked watching him laugh, and there was suddenly a tension in the air. Following his instincts, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips. It was completely unprofessional, but in that moment, he really didn’t care or think about the repercussions.

She tasted of hot chocolate. Sweetness with hints of vanilla. He would have kissed her and pulled away, but then she leaned in, obviously engaged. Rowdy cupped her head in his hand and shifted his leg, turning toward her a little. The sleeping bag fell away, but neither of them cared.

Annabelle brushed her fingers over his jaw and Rowdy felt the touch in his gut. It shocked him how much he enjoyed it. And how much he enjoyed her lips on his own. And the feel of her in his arms. Incredibly, his stomach was quivering like he was in school or something, kissing his first girl. And his blood was heading south. Annabelle was a delectable armful, and he wanted to lose himself in her.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the light blink off on the back of the King house. With a muttered curse, he pulled back from Annabelle. Her eyes had gone soft and unfocused, and he knew she wasn’t ready to let him go. They had a job to do, though. “Look,” he whispered, turning her chin toward the house.

It obviously took her a minute to understand what she was seeing, then she gasped. She fumbled in the bedding, looking for the binoculars. When she found them, she lifted them to her eyes, adjusting to her glasses. “Someone is coming through the door! He’s backlit,” she whispered.

Rowdy lifted his own binocs, and focused in. Yep, there was a tall, lean kid coming through the door, carrying a bundle of white fur. Once he closed the door behind himself, sealing out the light, the person walked into the back yard and leaned down, putting something on the ground.

Rowdy switched his binocs to night vision, and the scenery lit up. There, on the snowy ground, clear as day, was Cookie. There was a black strap around his muzzle, which explained why he’d been so quiet. Rowdy had suspected a muzzle, but now they had proof. He pressed a button on the side of the goggles, and an inner mechanism snapped. Now, they had photographic proof that Cookie was there. They could call the cops and file a report.

“Oh, Cookie…” Annabelle breathed. She looked at Rowdy, tears in her eyes. “We have to get him.”

Rowdy knew what he should do, but the look in her eyes made him second-guess himself. He looked down at the kid, debating. He didn’t like the inner struggle. “If we approach him, we run the risk of scaring him inside and never seeing the dog again.”

“We can’t let him go. Look at him. He’s lost weight.”

Cookie did look like he’d lost weight, even from the most-recent picture Rowdy had. He pursed his lips and made the mistake of looking at Annabelle again. If he wasn’t disabled, he’d have jumped at the chance immediately. That swayed him. “Fuck it. Let’s go.”

They left all their shit and very carefully made their way down the dark, slippery yard. As soon as Annabelle got her feet under her, she took off in a jog toward the bottom of the yard. Casper was scrolling through his phone as he waited for the dog to do his business, and Rowdy pushed himself into a slow, careful jog. Pain jolted up through his leg with every step, but he kept going. They were within ten feet of Casper when he suddenly jerked his head up at their approach.

“Casper King,” Annabelle yelled. “You give that dog back, right this second.”

Casper lurched toward Cookie, but the dog had already heard Annabelle’s voice, and he was running to the fence, begging to get over. Annabelle reached over but she was too short. Rowdy cupped his hands to give her a leg up, and without hesitation, she jumped over the fence to grab the dog.

Casper knew the gig was up and fear was written across his face. Rowdy leaped over the fence, wincing as he landed on the other side beside Annabelle. He didn’t think Casper would do anything violent, but he wanted to be beside her just in case.

Annabelle reached for the muzzle on the wiggling dog, but he stilled her hand. “Hold on a minute,” Rowdy told her. Pulling out his phone, he snapped a couple of pictures. Then took a couple of pictures of Casper, though the kid tried to turn away.

“Hey, I just found Cookie in my yard,” he said, voice belligerent.

Rowdy barked out a laugh. “Yeah, right. Tell that to the police.”

That really sent a flash of fear across the kid’s face. “No, wait, you can’t…”

“The fuck I can’t.” Rowdy keyed in 911 and sent the call through. He nodded at Annabelle, and she very carefully took the muzzle off Cookie. The little dog wiggled in her arms, licking her excitedly, and she laughed.

It was apparently a very quiet night, because there was a cop walking through the back yard within five minutes of the call. Rowdy gave his report and showed his ID, and Annabelle gave a supporting statement. Then the cop turned to Casper. He gave a completely different report, claiming that the dog had just appeared in his back yard. When the cop explained that Rowdy had evidence of Casper leaving the house with the dog in his arms, Casper’s story began to change.

“Fine, yes, I had the dog,” Casper said, almost in tears. “It wasn’t my idea to take him, though. The bitch on the other side paid me to grab him and keep him. She said after some party I could return him for the reward.”

Annabelle had just posted the reward pictures tonight. “Did you talk to the woman tonight?”

“Yes,” Casper said. “She said an investigator had been asking questions.”

Rowdy’s gaze met Annabelle’s, their suspicions confirmed. That was exactly what they’d needed to hear.

The cop requested to speak to Casper’s father, since it was his house, and Casper went inside to get him. The kid was shaking with fear and nerves, and Rowdy almost felt bad for him. He was over eighteen, though, and old enough to know better. When Tim King came out of the house, bleary eyed from sleep, and he saw Annabelle holding Cookie, he seemed genuinely shocked. When the cop explained why he was there, he looked at his son. “You’re responsible for this?”

Casper seemed to shrink under his father’s angry words, and he shrugged. Tim looked at Annabelle. “Tell Mrs. Dodd that she has my sincere apologies, and we’ll cooperate with whatever she wants to do to my son.”

Annabelle nodded. Rowdy checked with the cop, but they were no longer needed. The report would go to the prosecutor’s office for charges to be filed, and he would make it very clear that Casper was paid by a hostile neighbor. With luck, they would both be charged.

Rowdy helped Annabelle and Cookie over the fence, then swung over himself. As soon as he got home, he would have to take pain pills, because he could already feel the ache settling in. It was all for a good outcome, though.

They let themselves into the Dodd house, but it was quiet. It was after two in the morning, after all, but Annabelle was firm that she wanted to wake Mrs. Dodd. Cookie’s return was too important to wait until morning. She handed Cookie off to Rowdy, who sat at the kitchen table. Cookie sniffed at him, then began to lick him, as if he understood that Rowdy had helped with his return. Rowdy stroked the little dog, smoothing the hair around his muzzle. There was a line in his fur, like the muzzle had been on a long time and rubbed the skin bare. That pissed him off, and he hoped the cop made note of the issue.