Karly's Wolf (Hollow Hills Book 1) by Maren Smith, Penny Alley Page A

sweet,” she said defensively.
    From the passenger seat, Puppy groaned. Arching both eyebrows, Gabe suddenly tossed back his head with another barking laugh. “Puppy? You named him Puppy?”
    Wondering why she was being singled out, even more defensively, Karly asked, “What’s so funny?”
    A low, ominous growl rumbled from the car, and Gabe responded instantly, raising his hands in placating surrender. He also dropped his laughing brown gaze and backed from the car.
    “Not a thing, ma’am,” he said, trying to get his mirth under control. “I just would have thought a big boy like this would be more of a Capone or a Cujo, or something. But big boys can be puppies too, can’t they? Especially where pretty women are involved.”
    Uncomfortable, Karly shut the back of the car and approached the driver’s door instead. Not wanting to look like she was running, she didn’t get in right away. “Am I in violation of something?”
    A flicker of surprise moved over Gabe’s face. He looked at the car, his smile softening slightly before he added, “Not that I’m aware of. I’m just being friendly, that’s all.”
    Karly wasn’t ready for friendly. Not from strange men, and definitely not from strange policemen. “Then I can go?”
    “Sure.” Gabe took another backwards step, easing away from her car as if giving her plenty of room to flee.
    Not that she was fleeing, Karly told herself. She was just going home.
    “You take care,” Gabe said as she got in behind the wheel. She clutched it with both hands so he would not see how badly she was shaking when he bent down, giving her another of his unassuming smiles through the driver’s window. “Mama Margo said to tell you hello.”
    She didn’t look at him. She was being rude and she knew it, but Karly was nervous and she couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t even make herself tell him to bid Margo thank you for the basket and that would have been completely normal. But no, she shoved the key in the ignition instead and quickly rolled up all the windows. She drove away slowly, but she probably looked like she was running anyway. Gabe watched her until she lost track of him in the rearview mirror. She was back on Old Bueller and halfway home before she remembered the newspaper she forgot to pick up.
    “Damn it!”
    She thought about going back to town, but she didn’t think she could handle another run in with either Colton or Gabe. It was likely neither meant her any harm. Margo knew them and she didn’t think Margo would send people who would hurt her to bring her sandwiches or to keep checking on her, but her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Her stomach felt so tangled and tight, she thought she might actually throw up, and when her cellphone rang, the sharp tones startled her so badly that she jumped half out of her skin.
    “I forgot the newspaper,” she said, without bothering to check the number. “What should I do? Should I go back and get one? I’m so scared, Beth. The local cops keep talking to me and—”
    “You’re fucked,” Dan growled into her ear, his voice as cold and as sharp as knives.
    Karly’s throat seized so hard she choked. The next thing she knew, the car was fishtailing to a stop in the middle of the narrow dirt road. Without realizing it, she had slammed the brake pedal all the way down to the floor mat.
    She sat behind the steering wheel, shaking hard, staring straight ahead without seeing anything.
    “You want to run from me, baby? Fine, but there’s no place in the world you can hide that I won’t find you. You think you’re scared now? Wait until we’re face-to-face. Serve me fucking divorce papers? No, ma’am. ‘Til death do us part. That’s what you promised, and that’s what I’ll have. In every nuance and meaning of the word now, you…are…fucked.”
    Karly didn’t have to hang up. The connection went dead in her trembling hand.
    Seconds bled into minutes.
    She couldn’t move. She couldn’t see. She