“I’ve often wondered if I should open up a rescue myself,” she said, “but I’m afraid I’ll be inundated with dogs that I won’t want to give up.”

  “Anytime you want to open your heart and your door,” Sandy said, “let me know. Because sometimes the stories are just enough to break all our hearts.”

  “I have a home myself now,” she said, “and five acres.”

  “That’s enough room to take in some strays,” she said, “but, when you think about it, we all need space and food to feed them too.”

  “Exactly.” Laysha sat down in the waiting room with her four. They hated the vet’s office, like most animals. Graynor sat very close to her, but she kept a hand on his head and neck, gently stroking him. “It’s okay, buddy. We’re not here for you. It’s Beowulf that’s struggling.”

  By the time Caleb came out, a serious look was on his face.

  “I don’t like that look,” she said, hopping to her feet. “How is he?”

  “Well, the bullet did a little more damage than I suspected,” he said. “They’ll keep him here overnight, and we’ll see what he’s like in the morning.”

  “Stitches, surgery?”

  “Both. We just got the bullet out, but we had to knock him out.” He showed her a small pill bottle with the bullet in it. “For the cops.”

  “So that makes sense to keep him overnight then,” she said, frowning. “I wish Beowulf didn’t have to though. I wanted him to come home.”

  “You and me both,” he said.

  “But they don’t generally keep him if nobody’s here.”

  Caleb nodded. “The vet said he had another overnight patient, so he was staying here anyway. So it just made sense to keep Beowulf too.”

  “Fine,” she said, not liking the decision.

  He smiled at her and said, “Any reason not to keep him here?”

  “Only that I’m a mother hen,” she said, “and I don’t want to see him left alone.”

  “Oh, don’t even bring up the tear-jerker stuff. I’m leaving the dog here,” he said, “and you know that I’m really not good with that.”

  “I know,” she said, giving him a cheeky grin. “You’d put a cot in the same room and stay here too, if the vet would let you.”

  He looked at her, his lips quirking. “The trouble is, I know you would too.”

  “Yep,” she said, “furry family is family.”

  “Yeah, but you keep making me expand mine to include humankind.”

  She laughed out loud at that. “I do, indeed, but you will survive.”

  “How about these guys? Do they need anything while we’re here?”

  “To leave,” she said bluntly. “This is not their favorite location.”

  “Well, just like doctors and hospitals aren’t any place that most of us like,” he said, “Beowulf has taken it fairly well. But he’s sleeping solidly now.”

  “And he needs that as much as anything,” she said. “It was a pretty rough ride home.”

  “I know, and I need to go home and rest myself,” he admitted.

  “Good enough,” she said.

  They say goodbye to the receptionist, who was even now locking up the office. Laysha reloaded her dogs and they headed home again.

  “I sure hope we have food at home for dinner,” she said, yawning. “We missed lunch.”

  “Well, we had lunch or brunch or whatever,” he said, “but it’s well past dinnertime, and we need to get home and get another coat on that floor.”

  She groaned. “God,” she said, “not sure I have the energy for that.”

  “We’ll check it out when we get home,” he said, “but I suspect that it’ll be more than ready for the next coat.”

  “Wouldn’t be so bad just putting down another coat,” she said, “but we got to sand it first.”

  “And the sanding, as you well know, gives it such a perfect finish.”

  “It doesn’t matter how much you’re trying to make me feel better about doing this,” she said, “it’s still a lot of work.”

  He chuckled. “It is, indeed, and you love every minute of it.”

  “Except when I’m exhausted,” she admitted.

  He looked at her and asked, “Over the shock of being followed and alone?”

  “I will be fine,” she said with a shrug. “It is what it is.”

  “Maybe, but that isn’t necessarily an easy thing to go through.”

  “No, it sure wasn’t.” Changing subjects, she said, “I’m sure we can find something to eat. If we find some energy, we will do the floor. If not,” she murmured, “I’m heading straight to bed.” And to emphasize her words, she yawned a huge noisy yawn. She collapsed against the seat.

  “I think it’s more the stress than anything. That’s usually the killer,” he said in agreement.

  As he drove back home carefully, she looked around. “Do you always now look behind you to see if we’re being followed?”

  “Unfortunately, yes,” he said with a nod. “Not the way you want to live, but, after you’ve been followed once and gotten through a scary scenario, you always wonder, worry, if it’s happening.”

  As he drove up to the house, she looked and said, “And you set it up so that we’d know if somebody was here while we were gone, right?”

  He nodded. He helped her out of the vehicle and waited while she got all the animals and walked up to the front. He checked the front door and then held up a hand to stop.

  She looked at him and whispered, “What’s the matter?”

  “You’ve had an uninvited visitor.”

  She stared at him, while he checked. Then he turned and looked at her and said, “I’ll take Graynor with me, but I want you and the other dogs to stay here, while I do a check of the house and bring my rifle inside.”

  She nodded slowly. “You want to bring my shotgun back down when you come?” she murmured.

  “Will do,” he said. And, with that, he disappeared inside. He checked the living room and made a quick pass through the entire downstairs, thinking he heard something upstairs. He looked down at Graynor. “What do you think, bud?” Graynor sat at the base of the stairs, staring upward. Caleb nodded. “Yeah, that’s my take too.”

  He studied the stairs, the old handrails and banisters might squeak, but the base that they were on should be solid. He moved slowly toward the stairs and then climbed them. He motioned for Graynor to stay, but the dog wasn’t having anything to do with it, which meant there really was a threat upstairs.

  Worried that Laysha would come in after him, he quickly sent her a text to stay outside and to stay hidden from sight. He moved slowly and steadily up the stairs. As soon as he could peek around the landing, he shuffled onto the railing, grabbed a hold of the upper railing on the second floor, and pulled himself up and over at the same time.

  Graynor burst up onto the second floor. He stood and waited, his back against the wall between two doors. But nothing opened; all the doors upstairs were closed. Good move because it’d be easier to check exactly where somebody was as they moved through the house. He watched as Graynor sniffed from one door to the next, and, at the master, he stopped and growled.

  Caleb tapped his nose to stop.

  That was good enough for Caleb. He immediately opened the door silently on the left, checked it out, and then on the right. He knew Graynor was correct, but Caleb wanted to make sure he didn’t miss anything. He didn’t want to get a surprise attack from behind. A further check of the bathroom showed that it was equally empty. That meant everybody was waiting in the master. He thought about that for a long moment.

  He had a good idea of the layout of the master. There was no way for her to get in or out, which is what had been the problem when redoing the floors. Casually he noted that the floors were ready for the next coat.

  But now they had somebody hiding in her master. And that just pissed him right off. The fact that somebody had entered her house was one thing; the fact that somebody waited in her bedroom was an entirely different thing. Both were inexcusable, but this one just added to the injury.

  Caleb thought about the windows outside, wondering if he could sneak in somewhere along the line. He remembered her comment about wanting to get one of those drop-down ladders, something he should have looked at a little earlier. But they were trying to get the floors finished first.

  He studied the attic access above and realized that he could probably jump up and pull himself into the attic cutout. However, if he couldn’t get through to her bedroom from the attic, what good would it do? He frowned as he thought about it, and then Graynor growled again, his voice rising.

  On instinct, Caleb dove for the big dog and pulled him away from the door to the master. At the same instant bullets fired through the door and would have hit the dog right where he was. The dog froze in his arms, the two of them waiting for the bullet shower to stop, hoping Laysha stayed outside. She would have heard the whole mess, and the last thing he wanted was for her to barge in. He quickly sent her a text, saying the shooter was in her room, and they were both unharmed. She sent back a thumbs-up and a note saying she was calling 9-1-1. He pulled up Ansel’s number and sent him a text.

  Caleb didn’t want the intruder inside to know they were here. Caleb wanted the shooter to open the damn door to see if he got everybody or anybody for that matter. Particularly the dog. Everybody around here seemed to be dog haters, and that made Caleb angry too. At that thought, he heard a footstep inside; he reached down and pinched Graynor’s jaws together, warning him not to bark or growl. They had to be silent. The last thing Caleb wanted was for this guy to realize his enemy still waited.

  Right now Caleb was in a tough spot because he didn’t know who was on the other side, and he wouldn’t know until the shooter actually opened the door. As the footsteps cautiously came forward, Graynor stiffened. Caleb gently stroked him and pet him, trying to ease his fear, with his own gun out and ready. The two waited in silence. Caleb patted him gently, hoping the gunman didn’t have Laysha’s shotgun or .22 rifle. He didn’t want that much firepower against him.

  As the footsteps reached the door, he could almost hear the gunman bending down, trying to see through the bullet holes. But it was pretty hard to see; there was enough shattered wood to make that an impossibility. And finally Caleb stood up slowly, not daring to breathe, waiting, because he knew the guy inside just couldn’t wait to figure out where the dog was at. And suddenly the door burst open and out came the handgun first.

  Caleb jumped, his right leg kicking the handgun away, while grabbing the man in a chokehold, and dumped him on the floor. Then he called out, “Graynor, guard.”

  Immediately Graynor came forward, sat beside the guy, leaning into the shooter’s face and growling deeply.

  The guy started screaming. “Get him off me. Get him off me.”

  “Hell no,” Caleb said, “you just tried to shoot him.”

  “I didn’t. I didn’t,” he said. “It was an accident.”

  “You’re a fucking asshole. Of course you shot at my dog,” he sneered. “We don’t really like animal abusers around this place. Besides, what are you doing in this house in the first place?”

  “I got lost,” he said. “I didn’t know anybody lived here. I came in to check it out, but there was nobody to ask.”

  “Right,” Caleb said, “try another excuse. You’re trespassing, and you know what we do to trespassers in this state?”

  “Don’t shoot,” he roared.

  “No, hell no, I don’t need to shoot,” he said, “but you can bet that the cops won’t give a shit.”

  “No, no, no, no,” he said. “I’ll pay you to let me go.”

  “You can’t pay me enough to let you go,” he said, “but I’d be happy to let you run because I’m more than happy to shoot you on your way out my door. You entered these premises illegally. You fired upon us illegally, and you tried to kill my dog in his own home,” he said. “As far I’m concerned, you’re done for.”

  “No,” the guy cried out.

  At that, Caleb eased back ever-so-slightly and turned him over onto his back, so he saw his face. Immediately he took photos and sent them to Badger and to Ansel. And then he sent it to Laysha.

  She opened the front door and called out, “Can I come up?”

  “Yes, carefully,” he said. “I’ve got your intruder here.”

  She came racing up with the other dogs. She stopped with a gasp. “Oh my,” she said, “that’s the guy who followed me in the white pickup.”

  Caleb looked down at the shooter in shock. “This asshole?”

  “Yes, he’s the one who followed me from the cantina.”

  “I don’t know you,” the stranger snapped. “I don’t know anything about you.”

  Laysha pulled out her phone and showed Caleb the photos she’d taken. “Ansel was looking for him already.”

  “Well, that’s good. Then we can tell him that we’ve got him. So now we have a stalker charge, and the B&E, and the shooting charge too.”

  “Well, I doubt he has a license for that weapon,” she said. “Guys like him never do.”

  The intruder dropped his act and sneered at her. “What do you mean, guys like me?” he asked. “You’ll never fucking hold me. I’ll be out in no time.”

  “Well, thanks for the warning,” she murmured. Sirens were in the distance as she looked over at Caleb. “You okay if I go down and let them in?”

  “Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “I’m just waiting for this guy to run.”

  “I’m not running anywhere,” he said. “You’re not shooting me in the back. That’s not any way for any man to die.”

  “And yet, that’s how you killed the man in the rental house,” she shot back as she turned and left.

  The look of stark fear on the guy’s face made Caleb sit back. He murmured, “So she was right? Interesting that. We’ll have to make sure forensics has a really good chance to match you up. Now you look incredibly nervous.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” he said.

  “Well, the cops will let us know that pretty damn fast,” he said. “Pretty stupid location though for a body drop. Why the hell would you leave a dead body at the other guy’s house?”

  He didn’t say anything.

  “Don’t talk. I don’t care,” he said. “That’s the detective’s issue.”

  “No detectives,” he said.

  “Too damn late,” Ansel said as he climbed the stairs. “We really don’t like stalkers and people who attack women in this town.”

  “I didn’t attack anybody,” he said.

  Ansel rose to the top of the stairs and looked down at the scene in front of him. “Wow,” he said. “I half expected to see the War Dog with you.”

  “Yeah, well, that War Dog’s at the vet’s,” Caleb said, “partly because of this asshole.” He handed over the bullet the vet had given him, then the casings he’d found in the back of Laysha’s property. He’d email the pictures later. “I’m sure you can match that to the bullet your team collected from the wall here.”

  “We will, but it doesn’t happen overnight.” He pocketed the evidence. “So this is the guy, huh?”

  The guy immediately shook his head. “I don’t know anything about what you’re talking about,” he said, “and I certainly don’t know what a War Dog is.”

  “It’s the dog you had tied up at your boss’s place. You know? The dog you shot.”

  “I didn’t shoot a dog,” he said. “That was the boss.”

  “Well, was it the boss who just shot the man at his place? Because I saw him do it. Then chopped him up and fed him to the damn dogs.”

  “That’s his method,” he said, his voice very, very quiet. “You don’t want to mess with him. You end up as dog food.”

  “Oh, I got that message,” Caleb said quietly. “Do you realize you’ve already messed up? So you’re next.”

  “No, no, I’ve worked with him for years,” he said.

  “You only get so many free passes,” Caleb said. “You’ve had all of yours.”

  The guy looked at him in terror. “You don’t understand. I mean, sometimes he doesn’t fully kill the men before he gives them to the dogs. That’s not humane. The boss is a psycho. I’ve seen him do it.”

  “Nobody wants that,” he said. “You didn’t do anything about it either, did you?”

  “What do you want me to do?” he cried out. “Anybody who bucks him dies.”

  “Well, an awful lot of deaths are to be accounted for that happened in that house, not to mention the previous owners of the dog. Do you know anything about them? They appear to have disappeared,” he said. When the man just stared at him in terror, he added, “And if you think you won’t get caught along with Huevo, you’re wrong.”

  “I haven’t done anything,” he said, his voice very, very low and ugly. “You can’t make it look like I did.”

  “We already have you on three counts. Besides you screwed up because nobody was supposed to find that body for a long time.”

  “Nobody was supposed to find it,” he said, “and that’s the way it was supposed to be. Make sure all the evidence was gone. I wanted the body to be found sometime. Give the family closure.”

  “And why is that?”

  “It’s my cousin,” he said resentfully. “I didn’t want him eaten by the dogs. I figured at least he’d get buried this way eventually.”

  “And so you starved the dogs, huh?”

  “No, they ate very well that day,” he said bitterly. “Two men died, and my cousin was one of them. One man was the War Dog’s previous owner. The woman was fed to them for dessert.”

  Caleb’s stomach revolted. No wonder no one wanted to buck this guy. Fear was a hell of a motivator.

  “What the hell makes you think that you’re safe now?” Ansel asked, looking at him in surprise. “You’ve already been marked. We have you in custody. Huevo already knows that you’ve talked.”

  “No, no, no, no,” he said. “He knows me.”

  “Yeah, that means he also knows how you felt about your cousin and that you screwed up on that because it’s already all over the news that we found the body.”