“I don’t know for sure—but it’s ticking, and I’m not taking any chances. Can you get downstairs by yourself while I stash Ernie in the basement?” Her neighbors to the north would be devastated if anything happened to the coddled bichon frise they’d left in her charge while they attended a wedding in Chicago.

“Of course—but you should take cover too.”

“I will.” She tossed the promise over her shoulder as she hurtled down the steps and dashed across her backyard to her other neighbor’s house, the wail of the sirens louder now.

Please don’t let that package blow up while I’m out here, Lord!

With that desperate plea looping through her mind, she zoomed to her neighbor’s back porch, breaking every personal speed record.

Once she slipped through the door, Ernie pranced around her feet with a happy yip, then charged toward his food dish and gave her a hopeful tail wag.

“Sorry, buddy.” She snagged his leash off a hook and swept him up. “You can chow down later. In the meantime, you and I are going to the basement.”

The white fluff ball began to squirm as if he’d been attacked by a band of marauding fleas.

Clearly the word basement did not conjure up positive vibes.

She set her cell on the counter and tightened her grip. “Sorry again, but that’s the best place for us until this is over.”

Negotiating the stairs with a wriggling fur ball in her arms was a challenge—but self-preservation was a powerful stabilizer.

At the bottom of the steps, she snapped on his leash, secured it to the rail, and set him on the floor.

“Chill, Ernie. We won’t be down here for—”

Bam! Bam! Bam!

She jerked, hand flying to her chest as the pounding on the back door reverberated through the quiet house.

Ernie whined, and she gave him a quick pat before starting back up to the main level. “Stay.”

Instead of following her order, the pup clambered up on her heels as far as the leash allowed, almost knocking her off balance in his frenzy to avoid banishment.

Tuning out his plaintive howls, she hightailed it to the back door. A police officer in tactical vest and helmet with the visor down was visible through the window, fist raised as if he was preparing to bang again.

He spoke the instant she pulled the door open. “Ma’am, you need to leave the house. We have a possible bomb next door, and we’re evacuating the adjacent homes.”