Second Chances (Nugget Romance 3) by Stacy Finz Read Free Book Online Page B

continued to tack the list to the back wall. But he heard it again. This time the noise, a painful whimper, was louder. Colin got down on the deck and listened through the floorboards and heard scratching.
    Someone or something was down there. Colin grabbed a flashlight from his toolbox, hiked down the embankment, and swept the light over the crawl space.
    “Anyone in there?” he called.
    Another whimper. This one more pitiful than the last.
    Shit! The last thing Colin wanted to do was crawl around in a hole twenty-four inches tall. He could get one of the guys. But then he’d have to hand in his man card and leave his balls at the door.
    “Hey,” he called back under the deck. “Do you really need me to come in and get you? Or can you come out on your own?”
    He got his answer in the form of a yelp. Then a wounded cry. Colin did another sweep with the flashlight and saw nothing, which meant whatever he was dealing with was jammed way back there, farther than Colin wanted to go. Hell, he didn’t want to go in at all. Every time he looked at the crevice, it got smaller and smaller. Darker and darker. Even with the flashlight.
    He took off his jacket because it had suddenly gotten so hot that Colin couldn’t breathe. “How you doing in there?”
    “ Errrrr ,” came a weak cry.
    “Okay. I’m coming in.”
    He crawled in halfway, but quickly came back out, his heart pumping so hard that he thought it would explode out of his chest. “Breathe,” he told himself, and for the next few seconds concentrated on the exercises the therapist had taught him.
    “ Errrrr .”
    “Okay, chill. I’ll be there in a few seconds.”
    He got on his hands and knees and inched his way back in, using the light to guide him. The joists and beams felt like they were closing in, smothering him, as if someone were holding a pillow over his face.
    Inhale.
    Exhale.
    Inhale.
    Exhale.
    Focus.
    Task.
    Straight ahead.
    “Where you at?” Colin called into the darkness.
    “ Errrrr .”
    A few feet away, huddled next to a deck post, was a black-and-white fur ball. “You okay?”
    The dog, which looked like some kind of shepherd, let out a long whimper and thumped its tail like it sensed Colin was a friend, not a foe.
    “There better be a good reason that you made me crawl through hell.”
    The dog made another high-pitched, “ Errrrr ,” then cocked its head to the side.
    The mutt was a mangy thing. Scrawny and disheveled. And if Colin wasn’t mistaken, the animal’s belly was matted in blood.
    To keep from spooking the dog, Colin slowly reached out his hands, getting a wet-nosed sniff and a few tentative licks for his trouble. Sticking the flashlight in the waistband of his jeans, Colin gingerly lifted the animal, crawled back out, and didn’t stop until he saw blue skies.
    “We made it.” Colin gasped for breath and tried to regulate his breathing as the dog licked his face. “Knock it off. That’s gross.”
    Once his pulse returned to normal, Colin used the sunlight to closely examine the animal—a male—and found a nasty cut. Maybe from barbed wire; he couldn’t tell. But the raised incision was oozing blood and looked infected. Colin put his jacket back on, hefted the dog into his arms, and carried him to his truck.
    “Whaddya got there?” Jack, one of the workers, finished a soda, crushed the can, and chucked it into the Dumpster.
    “An injured dog. I found him under the house. You know where there’s a vet around here?”
    “Nearest one’s in Graeagle. Right there on Main Street,” Jack said, coming over to pet the patient. “He’s bleeding, poor dog. Here, let me put some Tyvek sheeting on the seat of your truck.”
    “Thanks,” Colin said. “You guys okay with me taking off? I’ll come back later and close up the openings before the snow hits.”
    “Sure.” Jack checked his watch and smiled. “It’s practically the weekend anyway. You want me to call the vet, let him know you’re coming with an