The little one. Neither dog was small for the breed. “They’re practically carbon copies.”
“Like I said, they know their names.” He nodded at the house. “C’mon.”
Laura followed Gordon up the hill. By the time she got inside, pain pelted the nerves in her shoulder.
Gordon cleared the newspaper and coasters from the coffee table in front of the couch. “Sit here. Take off your clothes. I’ll go get the first aid kit.” He left Laura alone with Ed and Eddie.
Both dogs watched her with keen eyes while she wiggled out of the sweatshirt and peeled it down her injured arm. Blood glued together the layers of clothing underneath. She reached the long underwear but couldn’t get the buttons undone to loosen it enough to take off and gripped it by the collar and pulled it over her head.
The movement pulled the material tight around her injured shoulder, setting off a whole new range of agony.
Laura dropped the bloody shirt on the floor and kicked off her borrowed boots. She tossed her jeans on top of them.
She kept on her bra and underwear and sat on the edge of the coffee table.
The dogs shifted their attention past Laura.
“I’m going to give you a little pain killer so you won’t tense up too much.” Gordon set his bag of supplies on the couch and picked through it.
“Can’t I just have some Vodka?”
Gordon made a disgusted sound. “Under no circumstances will you use that kinda foul language in this house, do you hear?”
Laura grinned.
“Vodka… I should make you go get a switch off the willow tree out back. Vodka…” He showed her the syringe. “Now be still.”
The sting from the needle was snuffed out by the lava of painkiller, then it, too, faded.
“Now.” Gordon walked around in front of her. “You thought about what you’re gonna do with this mess Denton stirred up?” He picked up her arm and planted his boot on the table beside her thigh.
“I have no idea who’s involved. Brown, Mason, and Keiths seemed right at home with the topic.”
“They should have never even made it to the first test.”
Laura couldn’t argue.
“How long do you think you have before the Senate sends out people to look for them?”
“A couple days at least.”
“So maybe three before they go looking for you.” Gordon gripped her forearm with his right hand and massaged her upper arm with his left. Even when he dimpled her muscle, his touch was a ghost.
“I’m not as concerned about the Senate as I am their plan to set a bunch of curs loose on the public. That and the possible reason the one cur deviated from its trajectory. The implants they’re using may or may not have failed, but if more followed suit?”
“Why do you think it did?”
Now that Laura hadlet the cur out of the bag. “I think Dr. Dante is an Urja.”
Gordon lifted an eyebrow. “Why the hell would you think that?”
“Because Paul Dekker bit him and he survived.”
Gordon grunted. “Fair enough.” He slid his hold higher on her arm. “Still hurt?”
“No.”
“You sure?”