If you haven’t read the Prologue yet, check it out.

Chapter One

Count On A Dog 

Eighteen Years Later

Faith O’Malley clipped the leash on the harness of her big shepherd mix, Fred. “Ready for our walk?” she asked the only commitment she had in her life.

You could always count on a dog. That was what she told everyone. Male or not. Though she was happy he was male and when her family—especially her Aunt Jolene—asked why she couldn’t find a guy, she could reply she had one.

Woman’s best friend was in her mind and she was pretty content that the close to one hundred-pound dog loved to be by her side.

Everyone was hooking up in her family and finding love. With her aunt’s help. But Faith wasn’t going to fall for it. She was the last one standing and was going to stay that way for a long time. 

Unless she found someone on her own and then she’d rub it in all their faces. 

Fred barked once, not even a loud one. She’d trained him well to do what he was told and when. To protect her if need be, but it never was needed. That she’d got Fred a month after moving into the townhouse she’d purchased three years ago at least made her father more comfortable with her living alone.

She used Fred as her tool when she was dating someone. If the guy was scared of her dog…he was out. If Fred’s hair stood up around a guy, he was gone from her life too. 

Even if a guy passed the first two tests, if he wanted her to leave her dog alone all the time and didn’t think of Fred as a member of the family, he had no place in her life either.

Once Fred was ready to go, she opened the door to her townhouse and walked out of the development and a few blocks over to a park. They had a fenced-in area where Fred could run loose. Fred did scare some other dogs, but most people were used to seeing him there now and knew that Fred was well behaved.

It was early for a Saturday morning, so she didn’t expect as many dogs to be here yet. But she wanted to get her walk in and hit the park by eight.

She was enjoying the cool morning breeze and thinking of the large hot chocolate she was going to buy on her way home. She’d get Fred a treat too. They had some peanut butter cookies there and she’d split it with him. 

She heard a yell from behind, turned her head and saw a man in a gray hoodie with it up over his head coming her way carrying a purple purse. He was running at her, and she had nowhere to go before he plowed into her and she went down on her hands and knees, her palms scraping the concrete. 

Fred was growling and yanking at his leash and would be dragging her along too if she didn’t let go of it.

“Shit,” she said, knowing she’d never catch up with her dog who was giving chase to the asshole that just hurt her.

“Are you okay?” a man by her side asked.

She was getting to her feet and he helped her up. “Yeah.”

He didn’t say another word and took off after the other man and her dog. He was in running gear and had a lot of speed to him.

Faith had no choice but to follow along to the sounds of the barking so she could get her dog back. The last thing she needed was some kind of liability that Fred attacked the guy…who attacked her.

She’d lost sight of her dog but saw the second runner going up over a hill on the grass and followed.

Not only was she not as fast, but she was completely out of shape despite being skinny.

She finally saw them off in the distance when she got to the top. Fred still gave chase and caught up, knocking the guy down.

“Shit, shit, shit!” She was dashing as fast as she could, but the other man giving chase was on top of the hooded man with his knee in his back and putting his arms behind his back.

Looked like he wasn’t afraid of Fred either. Interesting.

She came to a skidding halt. Fred barking and growling away, the second runner pulling the first one up and holding onto his arms, a phone to his ear. All she heard was the name Brennan and a badge number.

Must be her lucky day a cop was running and witnessed the whole thing.

She was bent over gasping for breath as her run had all but done her in. “Call this dog off before he bites me,” the man being held by Brennan said.

“It’s not my dog,” Brennan said.

“It’s mine,” Faith said. “I’m not sure I want to call him off.”

Brennan looked at her and smirked. “He’s not going to bite me, is he?”

“Nah,” she said. “He likes you because you took care of the guy who knocked me down.”

She stood up at this point positive she wasn’t going to pass out from being winded. The hooded man was squirming and every time he moved Fred growled even more.

She finally put her hand on Fred’s head and her dog sat, quieted down, but didn’t take his eyes off either of the men.

“Impressive,” Brennan said.

“Thanks,” she said, then lifted her hand and noticed the blood. Both of them actually. She looked down and the knees of her cotton joggers were torn and some blood was seeping out of them too. 

She had to look like a mess and her cuts and scratches were starting to sting.

“Jesus, Brennan,” she heard a minute later when an officer came running over. “Even on your day off you’ve got to be the hero.”

Brennan snorted and let go of the guy. “Asshole here mugged a woman on my run this morning. I wasn’t going to just let him get away.”

“I don’t have a purse,” the guy yelled. 

“Then why were you running when the woman yelled?” Brennan said. 

“You had a purse,” Faith said. “I saw it. It was a small leather purple tote bag. I thought it was funny and didn’t go with your gray hoodie as you ran toward me.”

“Nice catch,” Brennan said to her. “I’m sure he ditched it when I was checking on you.”

“The five seconds it took for you to ask if I was fine and run off?” she asked sarcastically.

“Hey,” he said, smirking. “I helped you up.”

“I guess.” She squatted down and told Fred. “Where’s the bag, Fred?”

“It’s my bag,” a woman said, coming up to them. “He ripped it right out of my arms.”

“We’ll have someone search for it,” the officer said. “We need you to come down to the station. You too,” Faith was told. “Brennan, you know the drill.”

“Unfortunately.”

Faith turned to the woman. “If you don’t mind Fred sniffing your hand, he could find it faster, I’m sure.”

“Anything to get it back,” the woman said. She held her hand out, Fred sniffed it for a minute.

“Find the bag, Fred,” she said and clapped her hands, then winced in pain.

“I’m going with you,” Brennan said when Fred started to pull her back toward the way they’d all been running.

“I can’t keep up with him,” she said, being yanked along. She didn’t expect Fred to do that to her.

“Give me his leash or let him go,” Brennan said. 

She handed the leash over and was shocked that Fred took off in a run, Brennan’s long legs easily keeping up. 

Damn, he had a lot of muscle on him now that she was getting a good look at his body.

He had a knit hat on his head, probably keeping his head warm from the sweat chilling him.

There was a scruffy beard going on that she found oddly sexy when she never had before.

Fred’s barking got louder and she caught up to them by some bushes. She took Fred’s leash and Brennan went into the brush, found the bag and brought it out.

“I’m sure we’ll get the guy’s DNA on this, but I don’t need it. I know what I saw.”

“Me too,” she said.

“Which is why you need to come down and give a statement too. Can I give you and Fred a lift back home? He can’t come in though I’d love to see what he thinks of our guy,” he said, laughing. 

Not afraid of Fred and Fred sure the heck wasn’t afraid of Brennan. So far, so good. If she was thinking along the lines of a date. Which she shouldn’t be since she’d told herself it was better to keep to herself rather than get more comments from her family or be disappointed yet again.

Right now she was more concerned about the stinging cuts and the aches her body was feeling and how she must look like the hot mess express.

“If you don’t mind,” she said. “I need to clean up.”

“I should take you to the hospital,” he said. “I didn’t even think it.”

The two of them walked back to where the woman and the cuffed mugger were waiting with the other officer.

“I’m fine,” she said. “Nothing some rubbing alcohol and ointment won’t take care of. Some aspirin for my bruised pride.”

“Are you sure?” he asked again.

“I’m sure,” she said.

The officer took off with the mugger and she walked with the hot-looking guy back to his vehicle with Fred. The woman whose purse had been stolen was told where to go.

“Will he ride in the back okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said, opening the backdoor of the black SUV and noticing some food wrappers in there. Fred was going to have a field day. 

She got in the front with Brennan, told him where she lived and then turned her head when Fred had an empty drink cup stuck on his snout. The slurping noises were her dog’s tongue trying to get something out.

“Crap,” the guy said, turning and pulling the cup off her dog. “Sorry about that.”

“No problem. Just hope it wasn’t old dairy. I don’t want to clean that mess up.”

“No,” he said. “Probably black coffee or a soda. Never anything more than that.”

She held her tongue over the fact there were more wrappers in the front seat she had to move aside too.

“I’m the third building on the right, the end unit.”

He pulled in front of her townhouse, she and Fred got out, Brennan following her. “I’ll bring you back to the station with me,” he said.

“I can find it on my own,” she said. “Then you’d have to bring me back again. Don’t worry, I won’t skip out.”

He hesitated a second. “I didn’t think that, but now I do. I’ve got to make sure I get the collar for this one.”

He was laughing and since this was more excitement than she’d had in a long time, she figured why not?

“Okay, come on in,” she said, and he followed her into the house. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. If you want something to drink or whatever, the kitchen is down the hall. Just help yourself. Fred won’t stop you.”

Faith ran up the steps, laughing, knowing Fred wouldn’t leave Brennan alone in her place. 

She undressed quickly, washed up her hands and knees, bit back another few curses when she put the rubbing alcohol on them and then applied the ointment to her knees with some Band-Aids.

She did the same with her hands and just hoped the bandages stayed on enough for the ointment to not ruin her shirt if it transferred.

She ran back downstairs, went into the kitchen and saw Brennan with a bottle of water in his hand and a cookie from a jar.

“Damn,” he said. “These are out of this world.”

“Thank my brother,” she said. “He’s a chef and likes to bake. I saw him yesterday and he gave me a box of cookies to take home.”

Her older brother did love to spoil her. She’d run over to talk to him about an idea for Christmas for their parents. Liam and his wife, Margo, were such a perfect fit for each other. Their wedding less than two months ago was just another event where she had to listen to her aunt going on and on about her being the only one single.

Even her cousin Ivan had a girlfriend. A serious one, and her aunt was driving everyone nuts trying to find out when Ivan would get engaged to Kendra. She hoped it was a long time so that the attention would still stay off of her.

“Hope it was okay to take one.” Fred barked and Brennan grinned. “Fine. Two. What a snitch.”

She started to laugh. Fred had never behaved like this before with a stranger.

“It’s fine. I can’t eat them all anyway. Do you need to change or anything before we go?”

“No,” he said. “I didn’t get as dirty as you. Your dog did all the work.”

“He’s a good boy,” she said to Fred, getting down on her knees and putting her face next to her beloved companion. She got some licks on the cheek as a reward and turned to see if the hot guy in her kitchen would think it was gross. He was too busy putting his hand back in her cookie jar for another triple chocolate cookie.

She supposed he deserved it.

She gave Fred a biscuit the size of her palm, Brennan reaching in and doing the same, and then they left to go to the police station.

It felt odd for some reason without her dog with her. Quiet too.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

She tried not to giggle over the fact this all happened and he didn’t even know her name. “Faith O’Malley,” she said. That was it. Nothing more. No more conversation.

It didn’t take long to get to the station, Brennan parking and them getting out together.

She was brought to where she needed to go and got to listen to all the men laughing and congratulating him on a good catch for his day off.

There was tongue-in-cheek in it for sure.

“I’ll be back,” he said and left her with another officer.

“That Sawyer, he’s a lucky dog,” the officer said. 

“Sawyer?” she asked.

“Sawyer Brennan,” the officer said. “Detective Brennan. The man you just came in with. I said he’s a lucky dog, but the truth is, I’m hearing it’s your dog that gets the collar for the day.”

Faith laughed, then thought to herself, what an idiot thinking his name was Brennan. Good thing she didn’t address him as that, or she’d look like even more of a fool.