Savannah tried to speak. Cole covered her mouth with his good hand and pushed her face into the leaves.

Curtis shut off his engine. He came out of the squad car and looked inside the Honda.

Cole lowered his head to avoid being seen, and kept his cheek pressed to the ground until he heard the sheriff knock on his front door.

Savannah murmured something again. Cole pushed her face deeper into the leaves. “Shh. Shut up!”

Curtis peered through the trailer’s windows, then turned and looked toward the woods. Cole had no doubt that the sheriff knew he was being watched. He also knew that Curtis wasn’t about to give him the pleasure of watching him snoop around the place like a blind man in search of his ass.

The sheriff was already on his way back to the squad car when Savannah’s wiggling became convulsive.

“Hold still!” Cole hissed. He had to climb onto her back to finally restrain her, but by then her struggle had betrayed their position.

“I know y’all are out there,” Curtis hollered, “so you might as well just come on out, make this easier on all of us.”

They froze. Cole felt Savannah’s heart stammering in sync with his own.

A minute passed.

“Fine, then,” Curtis said. “We’ll do this your way. I’m not gonna stand around here all day and play hide and seek with you. But just know that before the day is out, I’m gonna have both of your butts down at the station house, so help me. And I can assure you it ain’t gonna be pleasant. Y’all have now officially broken the law, I hope you realize that.”

Cole didn’t exhale until the engine fired back up. Curtis’s car peeled away, kicking up clumps of dirt behind it.

When it was out of sight, Savannah sank her teeth into Cole’s hand.

“Ow! What was that for?!”

“Get the hell off of me!”

“What’s the matter with you? Why’d you have to start squirmin’ around?”

“I said get off, you asshole!”

Cole rolled off her. “You just got us busted.”

“Well, forgive me, but I don’t appreciate being tackled to the ground and having a wild animal crawl all over me.”

“Trust me, I took no pleasure from it, sweetheart, so don’t flatter yourself.”

“Not you, you idiot! The other animal. That thing!”

Cole turned. The animal she was referring to lay a few feet away. “It’s just a damn house cat. What’s the big deal?”

“Well, I didn’t know it was a house cat, did I? My face was being mashed into the dirt. But the thing was crawling all over my legs. For all I knew it was a snake or a wolverine or something. You really know how to treat a lady, don’t you, Logan?”