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“Say when and I’ll be there”
Now that sounded nice, she thought, knohat hepushing at the limits of their business relationship just a little when her cell rang She pulled it out of her pocket and glanced at the screen “Fayrene,” she told Sa on?”
“There’s a fire at the storage center” Fayrene’s voice was frantic “It’s the rabbits”
Dellina went cold “No,” she breathed “Where are you?”
“On et ahold of Ryan He’s flown out to an installation site and won’t be back for a couple of days” Her voice was thick with tears “The rabbits”
“I know,” Dellina told her “We’ll get there in time”
CHAPTER SEVEN
SAM FOLLOWED DELLINA’S frantic instructions as they headed into town She was pale and shaking All he’d been able to get out of her was, “It’s the rabbits” A sentence that didn’t make sense What rabbits? He’d never seen rabbits in town
The closer they got, the ed the streets Dellina tapped i out”
He barely had ti along the sidewalk He swore, then pulled into the first parking space he found and sprinted after her
As he did, he are of dozens of people running in the same direction He also noticed the smell of smoke in the air Seconds later he heard sirens All of whichin the opposite direction hat looked like piles of white fur in their ariant rabbit heads tucked under each arm
Sarabbed her ar on?”
Her eyes ide, her expression frantic “There’s a fire at the storage place that stores all the rabbit costumes” He must have looked blank because she added, “Every Easter families dress up in them and there’s a parade It’s a tradition”
Tears filled her brown eyes “I used to walk in the parade withhappen to the costumes Do you have any idea how many memories are in those costumes? They last for years We have to hurry We have to help!”
Then she took off again Sam stood on the sidewalk as the street filled with people carrying costuiant rabbit feet It was strange and funny and
He sao with a pile of costued toward her and took the costu down her cheeks
“Thank you,” she said, her voice thick with ee everything If you could just carry those to the park”
“Sure”
He held the costumes easily as the woman went off to help someone else
He followed thecrowd and found himself in Pyrite Park by the lake Several deputies were there along with city officials Order had been restored and people were laying costurass so they could air out
Sam put his dohere directed, then stepped back to study the odd site of a couple of hundred rabbit costurass on a su large heads with bodies Others were doing the sahtly horrific Like a shot from a movie
Sam helped several more people with their piles of costumes He spotted Dellina and walked over to her She stood with her ar shell-shocked
He wanted to tell her they were just costumes and could be replaced But he knew they were much more than that Somehow these ridiculous bits of fake fur and plastic had beco, he pulled her into his embrace and held her close
She leaned against hi her cheek to his shoulder
“It’s so awful,” she whispered
“They’re all safe now After they air out, they’ll be fine”
“I know It could have been much worse, but still”
He kissed her forehead, then led her back to his car “You live in a really weird little town,” he told her
She h “I do and I love it One day you’ll love it, too”
Not enough to rush into a burning building and rescue rabbit costu before
SAM GOT BACK to the office an hour later He headed directly for the locker roo out of the ones that srabbed a towel from the stack and headed for the showers
Score had been remodeled to the partners’ exact specifications The offices were large, the colors neutral and the locker room was a combination of pro-sports-tea shoere kept stocked with high-quality products, the water was extrahot and there was plenty of rooate if they wanted
So it was no surprise to step out of his shower and find Kenny and Jack lounging on the benches by the lockers Sa off and walked to his locker
“There was a fire,” Kenny said conversationally “We’ve been getting calls There are rabbits in danger What do you know about this? Should we be worried?”
“Is Larissa involved?” Jack asked “She has to be Rabbits are just like her Is she rescuing the to have fifty rabbits in my house?”
Because whatever Larissa was involved with, she dragged Jack along Sa He knew they weren’t romantically involved Larissa was the partners’ private masseuse, but she was Jack’s personal assistant She also allowed hiot in the thick of things for him
He’d often wondered how she kept her distance, e in her eyes, but then it was gone He figured if Jack wasn’t worried, he wouldn’t be, either
“There weren’t any rabbits,” he started, only to be interrupted by Taryn walking into the locker room
He’d already pulled on briefs, but didn’t bother covering up Taryn had seen it all before, with all of the s in the stea nad Instead she objected to what the moist heat did to her hair
“Someone set fire to a bunch of rabbits?” she asked as she approached “And you saved them?”
Sam pulled on a pair of jeans “Rabbit costumes,” he corrected “There were rabbit costumes Hundreds of them”
His three partners stared at him blankly
“Hey, I can’t explain it, either,” he told them “They have a parade every Easter and people dress up like rabbits”
Taryn frowned “Bunnies,” she murmured “I read about it in the Acorn handbook It’s a tradition Our girls will be in the parade next year”