Greyson found himself beyond offended and angry at this loser’s attitude, but now he wondered if she realized that, as a single mom, a lot of the male population saw her as an easy mark. How sad if they did. Any mom like that deserved respect, not to be trashed or looked at as a cheap lay.
When the neighbor went inside, Greyson just shook his head, more determined than ever to make sure he caught the dog. But, if the dog took a little bit of this guy’s garbage and dumped it everywhere, Greyson wouldn’t be terribly upset. He was sick at the thought of guys like that preying on a single woman like Jessica.
He’d left his vehicle parked down at the other end of the block, just walking gently up and down the alleyway. He would whistle for the dog every once in a while. As he was coming back, and the darkness had settled, when he had crossed Jessica’s backyard again, Greyson heard a rustling in the trees.
Immediately he stepped up and looked over the gate, expecting to find the dog. Instead he watched a man skulking up the trees. He studied the stranger, dressed all in black with a balaclava over his head. Definitely not good news. Especially in the hot and humid evenings of Hawaii.
He reached over the gate and unlatched it, gently pushing it open. Just as he did so, Jessica opened the back door and stepped out. She was singing a lullaby to her son, walking the patio, completely unaware of the stranger sliding up to the side of the house. From where Greyson stood, he could see just the outline of the man against the patio.
He quickly clicked the gate closed and slid up the side of the fence. He didn’t want to scare away the intruder; Greyson wanted to capture him. Otherwise this would never end. If she had a stalker, the only way to stop it was to nab him.
As he watched, she paced along, quietly singing and walking her son in her arms. Obviously Danny didn’t want to go to sleep tonight. As she went closer to where the intruder was, Greyson’s heart bounced into his throat. He wanted to race around to the front and grab the guy, but that wouldn’t work. Her intruder could have taken Jessica and Danny hostage by then.
As she strolled back over to Greyson’s side again, he gave a small wave, but she didn’t see him. As she turned and headed back toward the other side of the veranda, the stranger came around the corner and grabbed her. She screamed, but what happened next was the complete opposite of what Greyson thought would happen.
As the stranger reached for her, a black streak came ripping through the trees at the far end and leaped onto the veranda, going right for him as he grabbed Jessica and Danny. Greyson heard the dog growling and then the man screaming when Kona latched on to the man’s wrist, using her military training she had learned.
Greyson arrived next on the veranda, grabbing Danny and Jessica. She was frozen from the first attack and stunned by the actions of the dog and now Greyson’s presence. She stared up at him, shocked.
“It’s okay,” he murmured. “Let me handle this.” Danny started to cry just then. Greyson motioned to her. “Take him up to bed,” he said. “Let me deal with the dog and the intruder.”
“Who is he?”
He shook his head, his gaze on the dog and the stranger. “Go,” he ordered. “I’ll figure it out.”
When he heard the glass door close behind him, he walked up as the stranger desperately tried to kick Kona to get away.
Greyson walked over and gave the guy a hard clip to the jaw. The man collapsed on the ground. Then Greyson stepped over the intruder and crouched closer to the dog, saying, “Kona, release.” His tone was hard and left absolutely no leeway for the dog to argue. But the dog growled and glared at him. “You’re right,” Greyson said. “He was attacking that woman and the baby. And I know what you were trying to do. That’s why you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood, isn’t it, girl?”
Kona’s ears lifted and tweaked at the sound of his voice. But she didn’t let go of the intruder.
He said, “Look,” and he lifted the man’s head by the hair, letting it drop with a heavy thud to the veranda floor. “He’s down and out—it’s okay. Kona, release.” She relaxed ever-so-slightly. Instead of growling at Greyson, she just looked puzzled. “Let him go,” he ordered.
This time she released her grip on the man’s arm. Greyson quickly rolled the stranger over, pinned his hands behind his back, kicked off the man’s shoes and grabbed both socks, tied them together, which he then wrapped around the intruder’s wrists, holding the intruder in place. When he looked at the dog, Kona was lying down, whining. He reached out a hand for her to sniff, then gently scratched the top of her head and down around her ears. “That’s a good girl,” he said. “That’s a very good girl.”
Her tail started to wag like crazy.
He looked up at the glass doors to see Jessica standing there, her hand over her mouth. He motioned at her to come outside.
She opened the door slowly. “Is it safe?”
“Yes,” he said. “I don’t know who your intruder is,” he said, “but Kona was trying to save you and the baby.”
She looked at him and at the dog and said, “Seriously?”
“Yes. I think that’s why she’s been hanging around here,” he said. “If you think about it, she’s been guarding you, just watching. This is quite likely the man who hit your car that day.”
He pulled out his cell phone, and, turning on the flashlight, Greyson rolled over the stranger and pulled the balaclava off his face. She gasped. “Oh, my God, it’s him.”
“I think Kona knew that this guy has been hanging around your place,” he said. “She’s a hero, and she worked hard to save you tonight.”
Before he could react or could warn her that it might not be safe, she bent down into a crouch, threw her arms around Kona, and buried her face into the dog’s rough.
Greyson could hear her whispers.
“Thank you so much, Kona. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Kona’s tail went crazy, and she rolled over, still in Jessica’s arms.
Laughing, he said, “Kona, you don’t look all that fierce now.” He reached over and scratched her gently on the neck and chest. He gave her a good belly rub too. “I think those crazy hard days are over now, girl.”
“Absolutely they are,” Jessica said. “I don’t have any dog food though, but I’m sure I’ve got something in the house.”
“What you need to do,” he said, “is go call the cops.”
“What about Kona?” she asked. “We don’t want the dog to be picked up.”
“Do you have any rope?” he asked. “I’ll make a lead and put it on her.”
“I might have something in the garage,” she said.
“First the cops,” he said firmly. “Then go to the garage and see if we’ve got something I can use to restrain her.”
“Do you think she’s still dangerous?”
“No, but, if she’s the model of a well-behaved dog on a rope,” he said, “the police won’t have any argument with me keeping her.”
Chapter 6
Jessica didn’t even know what to say. She stared out in the darkness around the house and then back down at the intruder. “I guess he’s not saying anything, is he?” she whispered. She didn’t even know why the hell she was whispering, but it just seemed like anything above a whisper would disturb the peace. And that made no sense. She gave a half maniacal shout of laughter. “Dear God,” she said, “here I’m worried about being quiet, when I need to have the cops come and haul this asshole away.”