Free Freaks Under Fire by Maree Anderson

her little finger and had any guy she’d wanted? Yeah. It still amazed him. As did the fact she’d chosen to stay.
    Tyler wasn’t the only one affected. His dad’s eyes had a glazed look about them. And was that—?
    Yep, his jaw was agape.
    He blinked, and shot a gaze at Tyler that seemed to say, “Sorry, my bad. But hell, you’re one lucky sonuvagun.”
    Tyler had to agree. And he couldn’t fault his dad for being gob-smacked. Each time he spotted Jay wandering around partially clad, Tyler nearly swallowed his tongue. Or walked into a wall. Or spilled a drink down himself. God only knew how Allen and McPhee and the rest of the all-male painting group managed to put brush to canvas when Jay modeled for them.
    Jay scooped up the necklace she’d left on the vanity unit and fastened it about her throat before flicking the extractor fan switch up a gear to dispel the steam that had accumulated. “I’ve turned the hot water off,” she said. “There’s no point wasting further resources. What’s so imperative that it can’t wait until I’ve showered and gotten rid of all the puppy pee, Michael?”
    Tyler couldn’t help grinning as he watched his dad scramble to kick-start his brain… and cover the fact he’d been caught staring at his son’s girlfriend by loudly clearing his throat.
    “Are you incubating a virus?” Jay asked. “You appear very pale.”
    Tyler’s dad waved away her comment. “Either the puppy has Houdini tendencies and should henceforth be named Digger, or we have a big problem. I’ve a horrible suspicion it’s the latter.”
    Jay’s brow wrinkled and her killer-blue eyes narrowed. “I’m afraid I’m not following you, Michael. If my puppy managed to escape the house and dig a hole in the backyard, I can rectify any damage caused. I fail to see how any hole a pup of its age could possibly dig would constitute an insurmountable problem.”
    “It’s not the hole,” Tyler’s dad said. “It’s what used to be buried in the hole.”
    A chill of presentiment licked Tyler’s spine. Shit. Please don’t let me be right about this. “Could, ah,
Digger
, have buried it somewhere else?” he asked. “Have you checked?”
    “For the record, I am not naming the puppy Digger,” Jay interjected. “And if this missing object that has you both so concerned has been reburied elsewhere in the yard, I’m sure I will be able to locate it for you. All I require is a description—”
    “You don’t think the puppy dug it up,” Tyler said to his dad. “You think it was taken by someone who knew exactly what they were looking for.”
    “Yep. That’s what I think.”
    Tyler rubbed the bridge of his nose, his mind whirling with worst-case scenarios. Nausea churned in his gut. This was bad—real bad. “Fuck.”
    “My thoughts exactly.” His dad pressed a fist to his stomach, as though his gut pained him. His face looked pinched with worry. And Tyler figured that right now, his own expression would be a perfect mirror of his dad’s.
    Jay uttered a noise that successfully conveyed frustration. “Will one of you please tell me about this missing object that has you both so spooked? Or will I have to pick you both up by the scruffs of your necks and shake it out of you? Which will necessitate dropping this towel, thereby causing you both extreme embarrassment.”
    Her attempt at humor missed the mark. Tyler couldn’t look her in the eye. After everything she’d done to keep them safe, the past was again coming back to bite them all in the ass. “Dad found the hand you planted at the explosion site to make everyone think you’d been blown to bits. He brought it back and gave it to me—to prove you were gone. We had a ceremony in the backyard to bury your remains.”
    “And that hand is now missing.”
    “Yes.”
    “Ah.” Jay nodded. “Now I understand your concerns.”
    Tyler wanted to punch his stupid-ass former self in the face. “We thought you were dead. There was no body to