Read Online Justice for Laine (Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Book 4) by Susan Stoker - Free Book Online Page B

yours, I’m not gonna steal it back before you can get it.”
    Pleased when the dog slunk toward the food, Laine kept backing away. She stayed about twenty feet from the dog the entire time and smiled when she sniffed her offering and then wolfed it down, never taking her eyes from Laine.
    Feeling as if she’d won a gold medal in the Olympics when the mangy mutt wagged her tail, Laine smiled and took a step toward her.
    Startled anew at her movement, the dog whirled and took off around the side of house.
    “Darn.” Looking around—for what, Laine had no clue—she shrugged and followed where the dog had gone. There was no one out there. There were a few clumps of trees here and there, but for the most part the land was empty and desolate. There was no way she could just leave the dog and puppies. Even though she hadn’t seen any signs of other dogs or of the puppies, there had to be some around. Most likely in the barn. Laine had no idea how she’d get the frightened animal, or any puppies she might find, in her car, but felt she had to try.
    Rounding the back of the house, she saw the dog sitting about a hundred yards into a large pasture. She was sitting on her haunches now, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Laine ducked under the rail of an old wooden fence and climbed through after the dog. She spoke to her as she walked, keeping her eyes on her, trying to portray friendly vibes.
    “It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. You look like you need some help. Those mats can’t feel good, right? I can bring you to a lady who can shave those things right off. You’ll feel two hundred times better once they’re gone, promise. And food. Oh, as much as you can eat. Your babies will get the care they need too. You’re probably tired of them nursing, yeah? They’ll get their own food and you can get healthy again. I don’t know what kind of dog you are, but I bet you’re beautiful under all that muck, aren’t you? I might be able to find something else for you—”
    Laine’s words were cut off as the ground under her gave way and she screamed, terrified, as she fell. The pain radiating up from her ankles as she landed made her knees immediately buckle, and she fell onto her butt into about half a foot of water. The boards, which had been covering whatever she’d fallen into, bit into her skin and made her groan out in pain as she sat there for a moment trying to process exactly what had just happened.
    Laine could feel the darkness creeping in at the sides of her eyes from the pain in her ankles, but she closed her eyes and tried to breathe deeply until the sensation passed. When she thought she was past the danger of fainting, she opened her eyes and looked up, needing to know just what the hell she’d gotten herself into now.
    She could see the blue sky and the light fluffy clouds she’d thought so pretty ten minutes ago above her head . . . way above her head. She was probably around twenty feet down, with no way of climbing out. There were no hand holes or steps leading up. She was in some sort of shaft . . . if she had to guess, she thought maybe it was an old well.
    It smelled musty, as if it’d been covered up for a long time. Laine sneezed three times in a row as the mold in the air tickled her nose. She put her hand on the side of her tomb to test the strength of the walls surrounding her. The dirt flaked off in her hand. It was more like clay, but Laine could see as the walls went upward, the clay made way to drier dirt. Hell, she was lucky she wasn’t buried alive. She knew as well as anyone how dangerous these old wells were. With the droughts they’d had recently, many wells were drying up and even collapsing because of the lack of water in the soil.
    Laine half sighed, half sobbed, not believing how stupid she’d been. All of her attention had been on the dog, and not on where she was walking. Laine knew better. She’d been trained on how to recognize the signs of abandoned wells