That thought had her remembering what else this bad guy might have been into. Women. And that was scary too. She also remembered how Caleb found his tipster dead in the Dumpster in the back alley of this property, and that was nothing she wanted to get close to either. She worried about his instructions. She knew she was here to pick him up, but what if he didn’t show? What if he didn’t call to reschedule the time for pickup? Was she supposed to leave—without him—at the end of the two hours?

  “What the hell?” she muttered out loud. “What have you got me into?” she murmured.

  Caleb snuck along the backside of the hill, coming down behind the ridge, until he could walk all the way around there. He stopped in the cover of a copse and studied the dogs. He was close to one of the big dog shelters, and all the dogs were chained up. Most of them looked to be pissed or angry, some of them quite likely well past rehabilitation. But he didn’t know that for sure. He studied the one separated off to the side, who was lying down, looking forlorn, possibly even injured. He called out softly, “Beowulf?”

  The dog’s ears twitched, and slowly he lifted his head and looked behind him. And Caleb gave a very light whistle that he would have used in the military. The dog immediately struggled to his feet, and he realized the dog had one injured back leg. From what, Caleb didn’t know. But that’s why Beowulf was separated from the pack like that. The other dogs would have attacked him and taken him out.

  Only the strongest would survive, particularly if they had been trained that way.

  The dog limped as close as he could and then stopped because he was chained up. Swearing at the chain, Caleb considered what it would take to break it. He studied the way it was attached to the metal post and wondered if he could pull the metal post out quietly. Asshole and his crew weren’t taking any chances in what they considered their property, and somehow that dog, as far as this asshole was concerned, was his.

  Caleb looked around the area, still in hiding, figuring out the layout here, when a guard approached the dogs.

  He threw in chunks of meat, and the four dogs ripped it to shreds. Caleb didn’t know what kind of meat it was, but, in his heart, he was afraid it was a leg bone, as in, a human leg bone. He swore at that thought. Then the guard came over to look at the injured dog and laughed. He had a rifle over his shoulder. He sneered. “You’ll be fed to the dogs next,” he said. “Piece of shit, you are. And he had such high hopes for you.”

  The guard shook his head and went to pick up a stick to beat the dog with it. The dog snarled and tried to fight back, but he was badly enough injured that the guard landed the first blow on Beowulf, but, before the second blow made contact, Caleb ran an arm lock around the guard’s neck, shutting off his voice, as he dragged him into the brush at the far corner of the dog pen out of sight. He knocked him out, at least he thought, but the guy jumped to his feet.

  But when Caleb hit him the second time, he went down, hitting several small rocks. This time he stayed down. Caleb bent and placed a finger on his neck and realized that the guy’s neck had snapped with the fall. Caleb tried to feel sympathy for him, but it was a struggle. Caleb took up the dead guy’s rifle, put it over his shoulder, and grabbed the guy’s shirt, putting it over his, disguising himself as the guard. Caleb grabbed the guy’s hat too. Caleb checked the guard’s pockets for keys and found some, hopefully for these pens. Luckily one of them opened Beowulf’s pen where he’d been placed.

  Caleb casually walked to the injured dog, whistling to him ever-so-softly, hopefully to stop him from panicking over the guard’s outfit, and slowly bent and undid the collar around the dog’s neck. The dog snarled and hissed at him, but Caleb kept talking to him in a long low calm voice. As soon as he had him free, Caleb called Beowulf to him.

  The dog visibly hesitated, arguing with himself, but, considering this was his one chance at freedom, when Caleb walked out of the pen through the back gate, the dog came with him. After that, it was a matter of trying to get the dog to run. He watched Beowulf’s progress, knowing he and the dog were in danger of being caught, and Caleb wouldn’t likely be questioned but would take a bullet. Finally he reached down, not giving the dog any choice, picked him up in his arms, and raced toward the hillside.

  But, as he bounced over the hilltop into the silence, behind him he heard a voice down below, yelling and raising the alarm. Now Caleb knew that the hunt would really be on. He stopped to catch his breath, and the dog looked up at him. Caleb put Beowulf down and asked, “Can you run?”

  The dog whimpered, and Caleb nodded at him and said, “I know, but we got to do this, buddy. We got to do this.” And together they headed cross-country on the far side and ran as far away from the men as he could and as far away from the tracks as he could. A creek was up ahead, and they needed that to help mess up their tracks—unless the bad guys had tracking dogs, and that would be bad news very quickly.

  But now Caleb had some firepower, and that was a whole different ball game. With the dog at his side, they crossed the country as fast as their legs would carry them. Again he bent down, picked up the dog, and ran with him in his arms, but, this time, Caleb raced as fast as his legs would pelt out the miles underneath him—because he knew their time was up, and they would have men and dogs all over them in a heartbeat.

  He crossed the creek, running downstream a good while—at least a mile, a mile and a half—and let the dog have a good drink. At that point in time, Caleb cooled down and had several drinks too. Then, on the other side, Beowulf seemed to pick up a little bit of energy. Both a little cooler now, they raced across the open field. Caleb had to get Beowulf to the trees on the other side, where they had cover. By the time they threw themselves into the copse on the other end, he heard voices.

  He stopped to catch his breath and turned to look behind him. Men were in the bush on the far side, but nobody pointed in Caleb’s direction. With the dog trembling at his side, Caleb had the two of them stay among the trees; he pulled out the rifle, using its site to figure out just how many were here. Three were on this side, and he couldn’t see anybody else, except one had turned away and was walking back.

  “Are they giving up?” he murmured. He hoped so, but he didn’t expect it would be easy. If the bad guys gave up on this side, somebody would still come after Caleb and Beowulf on the other side of the border. This asshole’s operation was that big to warrant this, in Caleb’s mind, not even knowing for sure what the asshole did. Caleb didn’t know how to get out of this permanently. But he had to get the dog out of here because it would be the next to die. No doubt that it already had been marked for the kill. And, even worse, Beowulf would be fed to his comrades out there.

  Caleb waited and watched, but it looked like they were in the clear. He quickly sent a text to Laysha. Out free and clear. She immediately responded with a thumbs-up. He smiled at that. He texted back. Give me 25.

  She gave him another happy emoji, and he turned to look at the dog and said, “Now we need to get the hell out of here for good.” But the dog, at this point, no longer fought him and seemed to trust him, which was a good thing, because they had a long way to go, and Caleb needed that assist. With the dog in tow and him watching every step they made, the two of them headed toward the cantina. He was afraid to come in too close and wondered seriously about looking for another location. Just when he decided that was the answer, a truck drove past, close enough that he saw it was full of gunmen.

  Instead of texting, he grabbed his phone, called her, and said, “Get out of there now.”

  “Where do you want to meet up now?” she said calmly.

  He thought about it for a second and said, “Head to the border.”

  “I’m not going home without you,” she said.

  “Head to the border, and I’ll call you with a new location,” he said. “We’re surrounded by gunmen everywhere. I need you out of that cantina and fast.”

  “I already am. As soon as you told me to move, I moved.”

  He could feel some of his stress draining away. “Good, head back to the border. I’ll circle around and see what other location we can arrange for a pickup.”

  “What shape is the dog in?” she murmured.

  “Not good, his back end is injured,” he said.

  “Poor thing.”

  “Even worse, I think the man they shot and killed was fed to the other dogs.”

  “Oh, God,” she breathed into the phone.

  “I think Beowulf was marked for being food the next time too.”

  “But that’s so wrong,” she said.

  “Maybe, but that’s where we’re at.” He studied the country around him. “I’ll go cross-country and head for the bush and see if I can come back around on the border.”

  “A lot of ranch territories around here.”

  “There is, and that’s good because we need as much open space as we can get,” he said.

  “Okay, I’ll drive toward home,” she said. “I’ll find a place to settle in off to the side. As soon as you have some idea where to pick you up, let me know.”

  “Will do,” he said, and, at that, he hung up. He turned to look at the dog and asked, “You ready, Beowulf?” The dog looked up at him and gave a tiny sharp bark. “Good enough,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  And he picked up the pace and headed toward Texas. They had a lot of miles to go, and cross-country would be the easiest on both of them. He just wanted to make sure that Laysha got out of there safe and sound.

  Otherwise he’d have another reason to come back and to really raise Cain. Caleb had hoped to get the dog away and to leave the asshole alone. Set the cops on him maybe, if that would do any good. But, if that asshole touched Laysha? Well, all bets were off. Caleb would go in and make sure every one of them paid.

  Chapter 13

  Laysha had made it sound like all was fine, but it certainly wasn’t. She was being followed, and she didn’t like it one bit. It didn’t seem to matter what she did, she couldn’t shake him. She didn’t know who it was or why he was following her, but absolutely nothing good was about this scenario. As she headed toward the border and flew across it, the white truck came into Texas right behind her. She headed through some of the busiest areas of town, pulled in through parking lots and back out into main streets, doing anything she could to shake him. And just no luck. She swore, pulled into a busy restaurant, and sat in the parking lot.

  The vehicle pulled in and parked near her. And it sat, just waiting. She didn’t even know what to do. She wanted to ask for assistance, but she wouldn’t leave the truck and her dogs. Yet sitting here made her an easy target too. She waited and watched to see what her stalker would do and then wondered if she could get close enough that she could get a picture of the driver. She pulled out her phone and set it to Camera. With the dogs lying confused beside her, she hit Reverse and backed up until she was parked crossways, right in front of his cab, and started taking photos.

  At that, the vehicle drove forward, hitting her driver’s side door.

  She just smiled and took more photos as he yelled at her. She took as many as she wanted, knowing that the rental vehicle would take a beating. She hoped that Caleb had taken insurance out on it. But the noise he created had others coming out of the restaurant to see what was going on. And, with that, she pulled forward, toward several men. She stopped and pointed out the vehicle that had followed her, yelling, “That vehicle followed me all the way from Mexico, and I am terrified.”

  The men immediately headed for the truck, and, as if seeing that the tide had changed in her favor, the driver hit Reverse and took off. The men came racing back. One said, “I’m a cop. Did you get any photos of them?”

  She nodded, immediately typing in his email address as he spouted it off for her. She quickly texted him several of the best of the photos. She looked at him with relief. “Oh, my God,” she said, “I was so scared, I didn’t know where to go.”

  “Well, that was pretty brave what you did,” the cop said. “Some people would say it was also stupid as hell.”

  She winced. “I know. I just didn’t know what else to do. I figured, if I went home, he’d follow me there, and that was the last thing I wanted.”

  “Well, we’ve got photos, and we certainly have witnesses now. Plus, his front end is damaged, from hitting your rental,” he said. “I’m putting out a BOLO to see if we can get the guy picked up. You’ll need to come to the station so we can file a report.”

  “Then you want to watch the border,” she said. “I wondered if it had something to do with that murder in that empty house.”

  He looked at her in surprise. “What do you know about it?”

  “I was one of the pair who found the body,” she said, shaking. “And, ever since then, I’ve had several strangers come to my house in the middle of the night, and one shot at us.” She mentioned the detective’s name handling the case.

  “He’s a friend of mine. I’ll contact him.”

  “Could you do that?” she asked. “I’m starting to go into shock, I think.” She held up her hand, shivering badly.

  “Go home,” he said. “We’ll contact you there. You’ll be fine.”

  “Maybe,” she said, but she knew she couldn’t go home until she picked up Caleb. “Maybe I’ll drive somewhere and get a coffee. I’m scared to go home now.”

  He nodded. “Hopefully we’ll find this guy right away. I’ll contact Ansel, and we’ll get back to you about it.”

  “Good,” she said. “I hadn’t realized, but a friend of mine said that the rental house backed up to the house owned by that nasty drug-running, dog-killing, women-selling asshole on the Mexican border.”

  “Huevo?”

  “Yeah, apparently. I looked it up on the map, and the properties back up to each other.”

  He stared at her in surprise, his look calculating. A thought then came into his head. “You know, that almost makes sense.”

  “Well, I’m not sure,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking anything about it. I drove past the place because I felt so bad for the dead guy,” she said. “Then I remembered what my friend said.”

  “I’ll have to look into that,” he said. “We’ve been after that Huevo asshole for a long time.”

  “When I was just there at the nearby property, I heard gunfire,” she said. “I don’t know how long it takes to hear gunfire, but I was just walking around the back of the rental property, and I heard something in the distance.”

  “Huevo’s wanted for at least a half-dozen murders. We’ve just never found any proof of any bodies.”

  “Well, if he keeps a pack of dogs, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he feeds the dead people to the dogs,” she snapped. “He’s just an asshole to do that.”

  “That would be wrong,” he said, “but it’s not a bad idea.”

  “It’s a terrible idea,” she said. “Those poor dogs.”

  “Maybe,” he murmured. “But it’s smart on the criminal’s part.”

  “Maybe, but just to think of him doing that? I mean, the animals wouldn’t know the difference between what they’re eating, and they would be quite happy to chow down on some guy just because this asshole doesn’t like them.”

  “Very true,” he said. “Go home. We’ll handle it.”

  “Okay,” she said with relief, and she pulled away and slowly drove forward. She’d given him as much information as she dared, without getting Caleb into trouble. And, even so, it wasn’t that easy. She wanted to call Caleb and to see how he was doing but didn’t want to get him into more trouble by calling him at the wrong time. But no way in hell was she going home. Not now. Not with this going on.

  Not without Caleb.

  Caleb knew he’d put at least ten miles on his body because he could feel it. His joints screamed, and his injuries ached, but, as he looked down at Beowulf beside him, the dog was in worse shape, and he was still going strong. Caleb loved that grit, and this animal was game for whatever, as long as it got him out of that hellhole. As they traveled, Caleb talked to Beowulf, asking him how the hell he got into that mess.

  The dog barked every once in a while, making Caleb laugh. He could feel something going on in the background of the world around him, as if his instincts were saying that trouble was up ahead.

  He pulled out his phone and, without breaking stride, texted Laysha, asking if she was okay. She sent back a quick message.

  Yes.

  But it came back short and fast and made him nervous. He called her, trying hard to keep his breathing even. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.

  “I am now,” she said with relief. “Am I glad to hear you.”

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “I was followed,” she said and quickly explained what had happened.

  He could feel his insides congeal. “Now that’s not good news,” he snapped.

  “I don’t want anyone following us home,” she said, “but I did end up getting some help from people standing nearby, and I was lucky enough that a cop was one of them.”

  “Good,” he said. “I’ll send a message to Ansel and ask him to look into it,” he said.

  “I also told the cop about the shot that I heard. He said they’d been after the asshole for several murders but hadn’t found any bodies.”

  “That’ll be an interesting thing to consider,” he said quietly.

  “Well, I hope so. I didn’t want to let on what we were doing, and I didn’t want the dog to be brought up, in case you wanted to keep that out of the news. But I did want the cops aware that the property with the dead guy was really close to this asshole Huevo’s compound.”

  “Right, and that’s a good point,” he murmured.

  “Are you running?”

  “Yes, the two of us are.”

  “Oh, good,” she said. “I thought the dog was too badly hurt.”