Bite Me (Woodland Creek) by Woodland Creek, Mandy Rosko Read Free Book Online Page B

realizing she was a squirrel, and she’d nearly stomped on his head, not realizing he was the snake who had tried to curl his body around hers.
    Yeah, when that cat had come out of the bag, as not funny as it was, they’d both laughed.
    It wasn’t important.
    Alice swallowed her last bite of sandwich, and it went down her throat hard.
    As unimportant as it had been to Jake, those moments with him were what kept her alive, what kept her going when she’d nearly given up.
    Of course, it had been stealing some of Bobby’s pilfered stamps and leaving breadcrumbs behind for the cops, and Jake, to follow that had nearly gotten Jake killed. Maybe he was still mad at her for getting him shot.

  

     
     
     
    Alice hardly slept that night, but when she woke up, her phone said it was a little past six in the morning. She’d gotten some hours in, and had there been a window in her cell, she might’ve seen some sunlight.
    When she turned her head, Jake was already awake. He was sitting on his own cot, his clothes and jacket disheveled, but still on. His hair was all over the place, like he’d run his hand through it multiple times, and the shadow of a beard that he normally had was a tiny bit thicker than it had been last night.
    The dark half moons under his eyes were also very telling.
    “Did you sleep at all?”
    He shook his head. “No, couldn’t.”
    Alice sat up and stretched out her spine until she heard a soft popping noise then sighed, scratching the back of her head. “You want me to keep watch for a bit? You can still get a couple of hours.”
    Jake shook his head and stood up. “No, I’m good.”
    Alice noted the many Styrofoam cups that littered his cell floor. Some had little brown stains along the rim from coffee.
    “So, you just stayed up all night to watch me sleep?”
    She hadn’t meant it to come out like that, because she knew that wasn’t what he’d been doing, and Jake scowled. “I wasn’t watching you sleep . I was keeping you safe.”
    “Right, right, sorry. That’s what I meant,” Alice said.
    And she was touched by that, she really was. She was actually worried she might accidentally show off how touched she really was.
    “I…I guess I forgot you can stay up a long time without sleep.”
    Jake craned his neck to the side and rolled his shoulders. Alice heard the popping noise that it let off. “Haven’t done it in a while, but I should be good for another twelve hours or so.”
    “You haven’t pulled an all-nighter in a while?”
    “Two in a row.”
    “ Two ?”
    Jake smiled at her, a look that made her want to melt into a puddle at his feet. “I’m not exactly out of practice with just one all-nighter. I did plenty of those while I was looking for you.”
    And now her body was warm and tingly all over. Alice had trouble swallowing. “You did?”
    Jake’s smile melted away into something that resembled more of a scowl, and he turned away. “Yeah, and for other cases I’ve worked on. Not a big deal.”
    It was a big deal. It definitely was.
    The cops that were on the morning shift were different from the ones at night. They must be rotating. Jake didn’t seem shocked to see two different people in the station. They must’ve come in and introduced themselves when she was sleeping, and Police Chief Rickman was back, too.
    Alice was glad to see him, probably the first time she’d ever felt such an emotion toward a cop, but he was a familiar face, and so far he hadn’t betrayed them to Bobby.
    So far.
    “Good news, I think,” Rickman said. “Had an officer spot the vehicles you described heading out of town. No telling if all passengers were on board, but it’s likely.”
    Alice sighed at the same time Jake did.
    “Good,” Jake said, and there was a glint in his eyes that Alice remembered from the old days.
    He got that look whenever he was excited about something, having an adrenaline high, or when he got his way.
    “I think he’s gone. He can’t risk staying now