Read Online Rescue Me by Catherine Mann - Free Book Online

they’d moved, Trooper had gone with them.
    If they hadn’t taken him, without question, the smart pup would have escaped every fence on the property and tracked them all the way to North Carolina.
    Lacey gave Mike a quick hug before she slid a balancing arm around her daughter’s thickened waist. Mike waved again as he jogged to catch up with Trooper. The crazy mutt was already bounding through the snow, Clementine the three-legged Labrador close on his heels to catch her buddy, the two of them leaving crop circles of paw prints.
    The wind cut through Mary Hannah’s sweat suit and the blanket. She backed away, feeling guilty for trying to escape until she could get used to seeing Sierra’s pregnant stomach. “Sierra, we’ll catch up later. I should let you all have your family time.”
    Extending her arm, Sierra waggled her fingers for Mary Hannah, clearly not taking no for an answer. “You are family. Join us.”
    Mary Hannah surrendered to the inevitable and followed. “For a few minutes. I really do need to change soon.”
    Lacey tugged open the back door for Sierra, her daughter’s ponytail swishing along her back as she waddled ahead up the steps. “I’m so glad you and Mike made it in tonight. Was the drive too awful?”
    â€œSnowy, slow going. God, Mom, I never knew being pregnant meant peeing all the freaking time.” Sierra shuffled toward the half bath tucked under the stairs. “And food, Mom, please,” she called through the closed door. “I’m starving.”
    Lacey opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bag of salad. “Your brother and grandfather aren’t back with the rolls yet, but I can make you a ham sandwich. Mary Hannah? Would you like one, too?”
    â€œNo thank you.” She wanted to leave, but she was a people pleaser. She always did what she was supposed to—and if she didn’t the world went to hell. She dragged in a ragged breath.
    Sierra came back out of the bathroom with a huge sigh of relief and slumped in a chair at the scarred table. “Yes, a sandwich, please.” She trailed her fingers along the cat circling her chair. “With cheese, too. And if there are cookies in that old Santa jar, I’ll do the dishes for all eternity.”
    â€œMary Hannah’s bringing the cookies tomorrow. We’re all running a little behind schedule.” Lacey pulled bread from the bread box—an old-fashioned necessity that kept dogs from counter-surfing to steal a bag. “Today’s hoarding situation turned out to be a lot more involved than we expected. They were running a meth-lab operation out of a home, plus a backyard breeding business.”
    â€œHow awful. Are you two okay?”
    Mary Hannah hugged herself. “It was sad. Beyond sad, really. I’m not sure I’ll ever forget the look in that mother boxer’s eyes . . .” She hesitated, the meow from under the table and the cuckoo clock in the hall filling the void, announcing seven fifteen. “Hopefully we’ll have her here soon. Lacey? And you? Are you all right?”
    â€œI’m fine. I didn’t see the worst of it since I was outside the whole time.” She sliced off a piece of ham and added it to the bread with cheese and mustard. “Then I left early to get back here. I owe Mary Hannah. She carried the brunt of the work helping out Animal Control and the police.”
    She set the plate with a sandwich in front of Sierra along with a glass of milk and a cloth reindeer napkin.
    â€œJust doing what I can and hoping once they clear their systems of the meth, they’ll get the green light to come here.”
    Sierra took a bite out of her sandwich and sighed blissfully as she chewed. “Remember Lucky, the one that ate a teenager’s stash of weed? Once he detoxed from the pot, he was a great, adoptable dog.”
    Lacey tucked away the bread. “A dog that lived