When Summer Comes. Brenda Novak

      “It isn’t what you think!” Denny argued. “It’s not like they went after that drifter without reason. He tried to sleep in our garage. That’s trespassing. And my dogs just did what any guard dog would.”

      Levi had to find somewhere to sleep at night. Given his situation and the late hour, their story might’ve been plausible. Except the police found his bike on the side of the road, halfway in the ditch, right where Levi said he’d dropped it. And when she’d been at the Gruper rental earlier, she’d seen no blood in the garage—only on the driveway leading to the back porch, suggesting the incident had occurred off-site, and then the dogs had trotted home.

      “That’s not true,” she said.

      The way she’d challenged his explanation didn’t sit well with Denny, who came off as the more aggressive of the two. “How the hell would you know?” His face, with its wide nose, jutted forward. “You weren’t there.”

      These men didn’t act at all concerned that their dogs had mangled someone. All they cared about was the possibility of their own loss.

      “I was at your place this morning,” she said. “I saw the bloody paw prints, Mr. Seamans. They weren’t in the garage.”

      Denny’s eyes narrowed to a razor-sharp point. “You went on to my property?”

      “I knocked first. You didn’t answer.”

      “That doesn’t give you permission to snoop around!”

      Rifle growled when Denny raised his voice, but Denny seemed too angry to care. Maybe he trusted her to hold the dog off. “Because of you, they’re going to put down two innocent pit bulls!”

      “Because of me?” Callie echoed. “You mean because you allowed your dogs to injure someone!”

      “I didn’t even know it was happening!”

      “They’re still your responsibility. A child couldn’t have survived that attack. You didn’t see the number of stitches it took to repair what your ‘innocent’ Sauron and Spike did!”

      “The stupid bastard they bit shouldn’t have trespassed on the property!”

      Callie feared Levi would hear them. She didn’t want him to come out, didn’t want this to get out of hand, so she lowered her voice. “He didn’t trespass.”

      “You don’t know that!” Powell shouted, despite her attempt to get him to speak quietly. “You don’t know anything! You’re just some small-town bitch who’s sticking her nose in something that’s got nothing to do with her.”

      The barn door slid open with a resounding bang. At that point, Callie knew Levi would be joining them. It was too late to hope he’d stay out of it.

      “Time for you to go,” he announced to the Gruper renters.

      Because he wasn’t within reach of Denny’s headlights or the dim circle thrown by her porch light, Callie could only make out his shape, but it was enough to tell her he was striding purposely toward them.

      Denny and Powell swung around. “Who the hell are you?” Denny asked.

      Powell grabbed Denny’s arm as Levi stepped into the light. “That’s got to be the guy. Why else would he be in the barn so late? He tried sleeping in our garage last night, didn’t he?”

      In deference to the cooler temperatures once the sun went down, Levi was wearing a thermal shirt with his jeans. He must’ve gotten it from his pack because Callie hadn’t seen it before. She liked it on him, but she wasn’t too encouraged by how lean it made him look in comparison to the two bruisers on her porch.

      With Denny and Powell distracted by the interruption, Callie raised her gun. She was afraid she might have to head off a fight. But she hesitated to speak up too soon, didn’t want a show of force to cause this situation to escalate if there was still a chance of avoiding it.

      “Calm down,” she warned Rifle who, taking his lead from Levi’s appearance, was growling at Denny and Powell.

      Levi came close—close enough for Callie to see

      the fury in his eyes. Together with the anger chiseled in the hollows of his cheeks, the firm set of his jaw and the thinness of his lips, he looked dangerous despite the fact that he weighed a lot less than the two Gruper renters.

      “I don’t want any trouble.” She had to lower her gun to grab hold of her dog. She wished she could toss her weapon to Levi. Maybe it only shot pellets, but she couldn’t imagine him taking on two men without some kind of defense, especially these men. He had too many stitches, for starters.

      To her dismay, he didn’t allow her the chance to give him the gun. He answered her, but he didn’t even look over.

      “There won’t be trouble, provided these two get back in their truck and drive away.”

      Denny seemed so surprised that this “vagrant” would stand up to him he didn’t react immediately. He glanced at Powell as if confirming that this was just the invitation they’d been waiting for, and Powell seemed to interpret that as a signal to take charge.

      “Look, if you want to get your ass kicked, we’ll be happy to take care of it,” he said.

      “Is that what you came here for?” Levi responded. “A fight?”

      “A fight?” Powell laughed out loud. “I’m talking about teaching you a lesson, loser, about trespassing on other people’s property. Because it looks to me like Sauron and Spike didn’t do half what they should have.”

      The porch railing creaked under his weight as he swung his body over it, but before Callie could even process the threat and let go of Rifle, Powell was lying in the dirt. It all happened so fast she couldn’t tell how Levi had accomplished such a feat. It’d looked as if he’d landed only one punch, but the big guy wasn’t getting up.

      Denny, who’d started down the steps, was now backing away from Levi instead of heading toward him. “What’s wrong with you, man? Are you crazy?”

      “I’m sure there are psychologists out there who would say I am,” Levi replied.

      “Now I know what happened to my dogs, why they got the worst of it.”

      He had no idea what his dogs had done. Levi’s clothing covered the stitches, but Callie kept her mouth shut because Levi was already talking.

      “Your dogs attacked me, and I did what I had to in order to survive.”

      Powell was coming around. “What the hell...what’d he hit me with?” He blinked, shaking his head.

      “Just get up,” Denny told him. “Get up right now.”

      Powell managed to find his feet, but he staggered before he could begin making his way to the truck. Denny waited for him, then hurried around to the driver’s side.

      “This isn’t finished,” he called back to Levi as he climbed in. “I hope you know that. I won’t let some piece-of-shit drifter destroy my dogs. And you’ll pay for what you just did to my friend, too.”

      “You want more, we could finish it right here,” Levi said, but he sounded more tired than threatening. Maybe that was because he knew Denny wouldn’t take him up on the offer.

      The door slamming shut was his only answer. Then Denny threw the truck in Reverse, swung around and charged down Callie’s driveway.

      As his tires churned up the dust, Callie gaped at Levi, who was shaking the pain from his hand. “Did you break it?”

      “No.”

      “You’re sure?”

      “Positive.”

      “Would you know if you had?”

      “I’m pretty sure I would. I’ve broken it before.”

      Rifle