“If it’s a hostile takeover, that’s a different story. If hostile, then these company guys—the one board member, her partner, Reggie, the sheriff, and whoever else is on the company payroll—are looking to cause trouble,” Delta noted. “I personally think the theft of intellectual property was going on, with these devices and the patents and maybe even cloning of whatever to sell on the black market. These company guys were stealing from the company, in my opinion. The sale of the company would bring that to light. I think Reggie kidnapped Rebecca and her key card, then entered the building that night and wiped out the inventory of devices and implants and whatnot, which is why everyone was so rude and tight-lipped when I arrived and asked to speak to Rebecca, who had been kidnapped at that point. Granted, Badger and the feds will get proof of my theories, one way or the other. And that may take more time. However, just the mention of the kidnapping of Rebecca and Benjamin would impact the financial proposal in the wings, so the sale would not go through.”

  Deputy Halvorson pondered that. “Well, if it can make the company look bad, it could drop the price at least.”

  Delta added, “The company’s reputation is already sullied with even the rumors of the kidnapping, before we find out the real reason for the death threats against these two. While they may not have seen anything incriminating or heard anything revealing, they were calling attention to the company at the worst time possible—before they got this huge sales price paid by some poor schmuck.”

  Halvorson seemed to be more worried now, hearing all these behind-the-scenes details.

  “Still, we definitely need more intel.” Delta stared at Halvorson. “By we, I mean Badger, his team, and I on behalf of the victims here. Now let’s compare that, shall we? And what is your sheriff ordering you to do?”

  Halvorson grimaced, not saying a word.

  “Exactly,” Delta pointed out. “The bottom line is, I am here to stay, and I want to ensure that whatever we do is right for Rebecca and for Gracie and Benjamin and keeps all of us here safe.”

  The deputy snorted. “I can’t believe you came here for a damn dog.”

  “Yeah, that’s because some of us care about damn dogs,” Delta muttered. “Especially damn dogs that have served and sacrificed for their country.”

  The deputy shook his head, then sighed. “If that don’t beat all. Well, apparently, whether we like it or not, per Badger and the War Department, you are now part of the investigation, Delta. Therefore, if there’s something you want to get done, apparently we have to get it done.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe the sheriff okayed that.”

  “I do believe it was above the sheriff’s pay grade,” Delta shared, with a bright smile in Halvorson’s direction. “So, you might want to avoid the office for a little bit.”

  The deputy snorted at that. “You’re not kidding. I’m not going anywhere close to him, not when he is fuming like this.” Just then his phone rang. He looked down at it and glared. “Except for the fact that he’s still my boss.”

  “Yep, but a minor boss. Still, he is your direct boss—under me, I might add—and now he’s a really pissed-off immediate superior of yours, until he’s arrested of course,” Delta said, with a cheery smile. “You better take that one. You can explain that you had absolutely nothing to do with this and that you’re not happy either.”

  For a brief moment, the deputy looked hopeful, and then he shook his head. “It won’t make a bit of difference,” he muttered. “The next few days are sure to be complete shit.”

  “Well, you could help solve this situation,” Delta suggested, “and we would get out of your hair faster. Meanwhile, my presence and the War Department keeping an eye on things here will help keep Benjamin and Rebecca and Gracie and even Hannah safer now.”

  “You’ll really take Rebecca with you?” he asked, as he turned to look back, where Benjamin, Hannah, and Rebecca were staring out the window, all having a separate conversation.

  “If she’ll come with me, absolutely,” Delta confirmed. “Pretty sure she’s done with this town.”

  “Yeah, they won’t be real popular if things go bad.”

  “They didn’t do anything. All the events point back to the company,” Delta declared.

  “If they were kidnapped by the company, then I agree with you,” Halvorson agreed, staring back to the gathering behind them. “However, if these kidnappings were conjured up to hurt the company, which leads to the company going under or the town’s jobs all being lost, then believe me. The memories here will be very long and very strong for everyone. And they will all hold Benjamin and Rebecca liable.”

  “Which is complete bullshit,” Delta replied.

  The deputy shrugged. “Call it what you want, but those paychecks inure a lot of loyalty around here. These unsubstantiated charges won’t change anything.”

  Delta chuckled. “Until they are duly substantiated, by the feds and the US government, no less.

  Halvorson groaned, as he walked over to his cruiser. “You better be coming into the office soon. They’re all expecting you to do a debrief.”

  “I’ll be there,” Delta said, with a wolfish smile.

  “Make sure you aren’t too friendly to me,” Halvorson demanded. “I want to keep my job when you’re done and when the fault has fallen wherever it may.”

  “Yeah, that depends on your being honest and true with me though,” Delta noted, “because if anybody’s crooked in that office, I want to know about it, and I want to know now.”

  Deputy Halvorson frowned at him in surprise. “Crooked? No. … Loyalties? Yes.”

  “You say that, but, when I see it like it is, not one of you in the sheriff’s department was willing to go out and to help find Rebecca—not until I pressed you and pressed you hard.”

  At that, Halvorson winced. “The company did say that she … that her shrink eval wasn’t very good and that she was probably off her medication.”

  “And that was an easy answer for you guys, right?”

  “I’m not saying it was an easy answer,” he protested, “but maybe we should have taken a little bit more notice.”

  “Ya think?” Delta asked in astonishment. “I’m pretty damn certain not a one of you wanted to do anything. And, for the record, if somebody was having a mental health crisis and was off their meds and was missing, shouldn’t that make them an even higher priority for your attention?”

  The deputy glared at him. “You’ll be a pain in the ass, won’t you?”

  Delta gave him another wolfish grin. “I sure hope so.”

  Chapter 13

  “Where are we going?” Rebecca asked, as she got into the vehicle with Delta.

  “To a motel, for the night,” he said. “We’ll stop in at your place and get a few items for you, your electronics and many more clothes, so that you don’t have to live in just the clothing we got from the store. I’m sure there are things you’ll want.”

  “Yeah, there sure are,” she agreed, as she blew tendrils of hair off her face. “What was that conversation with the deputy? It looked pretty intense.”

  Delta gave her a rundown, short, sweet, and succinct but shocking enough that she could only look at him in wonder. “You managed to get yourself on the sheriff’s staff?”

  “Not on staff, per se,” he corrected, smiling at her, “but definitely as a consultant, checking in on behalf of the War Department.”

  “Wow,” she muttered. “I didn’t think that kind of power came with your job.”

  “I contacted Badger and got him to get me in. He’s got all kinds of connections,” Delta shared. “The one thing everybody agrees on is that something is not very normal about this place.”

  “I’m glad at least that much got through in the conversation,” she snorted, “because I highly agree. Something is so very strange when people won’t help you, especially when that’s the industry they’re in.”

  “That’s the industry they are supposed to be in, but I’m not really seeing that the sheriff’s office is doing it to any recognizable law enforcement standard.”

  She nodded. “I am very happy that you showed up though. Does that mean you’ll be going to the station now?”

  “I will be. Just not right now,” he told her, looking out the windshield. “Are you okay with that?”

  “Sure. You’re working to keep me safe and to keep Gracie in a good place, and I am totally okay with that.” And then she stopped suddenly and asked, “Or is Gracie not part of the equation?”

  “You can bet that not a one of these men gives a rat’s ass about Gracie,” he declared. “However, I do, and, yes, Gracie is a part of the equation, as far as I’m concerned. And certainly as far as Badger’s concerned. Remember. I have official connections to the War Department when it comes to safeguarding retired War Dogs.”

  “War Dogs. … What a concept,” she murmured. “Poor Gracie, what she went through, it’s hard to even imagine.”

  “And yet they make up quite a lot of the patients you guys have at the company.”

  “I know that a lot of surgery is experimental limb stuff, prosthetics for animals, and the like,” she murmured. “It’s always been so fascinating to work there. I’ll really miss it.”

  “Ha,” he muttered, thinking about that.

  “What?”

  “What exactly is it that were you doing there?”

  She gave him rundown of how she was helping with the electronic modules for the prosthetics. He nodded, yet frowned. She shrugged. “I know. Nobody ever really expects that, but I’m … I’m not a dumb bunny.”

  He chuckled. “You should contact Kat. She does kind of a similar thing but for people. You could ask her if she needs a hand.”

  She stared at him. “Well, it would be fascinating to do something like that,” she replied cautiously. “Yet I can’t imagine she would hire me with my limited skill set.”

  “I don’t know about any limited skill set, but Kat could definitely use somebody to help her so I can get my damn leg fixed,” he shared, with a note of humor.

  She cracked a smile at that. “I see that’s become almost a running joke between the two of you now.”

  “Except it’s no joke at all, just a joke in the sense that she knows I need things. … I need improved prosthetics, but I’m also here now, so it’s not as if she can do anything from a distance. Although hopefully the parts she ordered have arrived in the meantime.”

  Chapter 14

  At her house, Rebecca slipped inside and quickly packed a to-go bag. She looked around, wondering at the sense of complete apathy she felt about this place. It had been broken into but there didn’t appear to be anything stolen – except her phone was smashed on the floor. So then what were they looking for? Particularly when the kidnappers already had her and Gracie. Her laptop was still behind her nightstand where she usually tucked it if she was using it in the evening. Inside was an old phone so she snatched that one up along with the rest of the few belongings she was packing.

  As Delta walked in to see what was keeping her, she smiled and explained, “It feels odd, but a part of me … This was my safe place, before it wasn’t anymore, so I’m just saying goodbye. Yet it seems that I should care more somehow, but I don’t.”

  He nodded. “I’m not surprised. When you think about it, all the things that have happened, it’s still associated with this place.” He shook his head. “If it’s not where you want to be, then there’s no reason to stay.”

  “Yet it feels weird to just be so detached from it all.”

  “As long as you’re not trying to run away from it, you’re good,” he pointed out, “because that’s never a good thing and is destined for failure anyway.”

  “No, I don’t think that’s what it is.” She smiled, as she walked toward him, her bag in hand. “It’s really not that hard to say goodbye though.”

  “Are you saying goodbye?” he asked her curiously.

  She shrugged. “I think in a way I am. I’m just not quite sure what’s coming next. As long as I’ve got Gracie,” she chuckled, as she glanced down at the dog, who even now was waiting at the front door, anxious to ensure she wasn’t left behind, “I don’t have a problem with it. Of course there are logistics to be solved. I have a place to sell for one.”

  Delta opened her front door, and, just as it opened wide, a shot rang out, slamming into the wood just beside his face. He quickly nudged Gracie inside, slammed the door shut, and threw Rebecca gently to the floor, even as she muffled her scream. “Stay here.”

  She groaned at that, as he rolled up and raced to the window, shutting off all the lights and peeking out from the side. When she joined him, he glared at her. She shrugged. “I would like to know who the hell just shot at us. Did they want to shoot us or just me?” she whispered.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Delta said. “At this point in time, it’s one and the same.” With that, he stepped out the front door and disappeared.

  She loved that, absolutely loved how he just jumped into the fight full on, not caring about any side but the side of right. You could really get attached to a man like that. Even the thought of it felt comforting. It was no longer a surprise to see the attraction between them or to hear her own thoughts on the matter because something had grown, probably starting from the first moment she had spoken to him on the phone, about a mutual love of dogs.

  They’d gotten along so well, and there’d been such a sense of satisfaction and happiness that he was even coming, even with the worry about Gracie. And yet here, with everything going on, she barely had a chance to even get to know him. She was hoping they would get that chance later, but now some asshole out there was determined that she wouldn’t get a chance at all.

  When he finally came back to her, after having done a full sweep around the townhouse complex, she looked at him expectantly. “Anything?”

  He shook his head. “No, I’m pretty sure they’ve taken off.”

  “Great,” she muttered. “Yet I didn’t hear the vehicle.”

  He nodded. “If I were them, I would have parked a long way from here.”

  She winced. “It does bring it home, what your life has been like, when you say things like that.”

  “This all looks and sounds too familiar. This kind of work doesn’t look like an amateur at all,” Delta shared, turning to look back at her. She had a confused look in her eyes. He studied her carefully for a moment. “Remember. The only time I ever had to deal with something like that was in a war.”

  She replied sadly, “War sucks.”

  His grin flashed, warming her heart again, and he nodded. “I’ll never argue that point. It does suck. It sucks for the people on both sides because there’s never just one story in a war, and people on both sides are having their lives destroyed too.”

  “You would think that, with all the things we can do, there would be an opportunity to stop these wars, instead of letting them get as crazy as they are all over the world.”

  “Until people are ready, there isn’t anything any of us can do except keep trying to bring peace.”

  “What can we do about peace here and now in our own lives?” she asked in exasperation. “Is there any point in contacting Deputy Halvorson?”

  Delta held up a little baggie in his hand that she didn’t even see him get from the kitchen. “I’ll pop the bullet out of the door, and we’ll take it in and get it analyzed.”

  “Do we trust anybody there to analyze it?”

  “Good point. If nothing else, I will take it to Badger.”

  “How? … Badger will get it analyzed?” she asked in astonishment.

  “He’ll know somebody who can do it,” he replied, with a nod. “The one thing about Badger is, there’s never any case of can’t. He’s always a can-do kind of guy. And Kat? She’s even worse than that,” he teased, with a chuckle.

  And with the bullet popped out of the wood it had slammed into, he motioned her toward his car. “Let’s go.”

  “You really think they’re gone?”

  “I do,” he said in a certain tone. “They don’t dare stick around on something like this.”

  “And yet,” she muttered, “somehow it feels that they did.”

  He stopped and stared at her. “Is that what you’re feeling?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe I’m just too scared to go out there.”

  “And that would make total sense, but standing here and waiting for them to come back and shoot us isn’t a good idea either.”

  On that note, Delta scooped up Gracie and held Rebecca’s hand and raced out to his SUV. Once inside, he noted, “We still have the reservation at the one motel.”

  “But you don’t seem happy about that.”

  “I think we’ll at least change rooms for sure. I’m of two minds as to whether we should change motels.”

  “You think the shooter knows where we are?”

  “I’m not sure that they do. … Send Benjamin a text, telling them to get out of there.”

  “I already did,” she confirmed. “It’s one of the first thoughts I had, … just in case.” Her phone buzzed, and she looked down to see it was a text from Benjamin. She laughed. “They already left town, just after we left Hannah’s apartment.”

  “Good. Tell him to drive like hell and to keep on going.”

  After she sent that message, she looked back at Delta. “It feels like running, and yet you just want to put an end to it and go.”

  He nodded. “In your case, … I don’t know if running will do the job.”

  “Why do they care about me or Benjamin or Gracie?”

  “I think they’ll probably just write off Benjamin as being a scared kid, who’s already long gone and not worth following. In your case, I don’t know.”

  “What you really mean is because you showed up, their perception of me has changed.”

  He looked over at her and nodded. “Very perceptive, and we have to deal with the fact that I may have put you in danger.”