He thought he was stopping for a stray dog in the snow-until he saw what she was hiding beneath her body

guided her away from the porch. “She’s done here.”

Bennett looked toward the boarded window, the sagging roof, the gray yard with its trampled snow. “So am I, for now.”

Back at the cabin, Cal smelled trouble before he opened the door. Not smoke. Not blood. Fear.

Claire was already inside, kneeling by the hearth with one of the puppies separated from the continue reading …