“Would you prefer to get up one morning and find him dead on the couch or rather have him go into one last battle and be what he is, which is a protective guard dog?” He reached out a gentle hand and squeezed her fingers. “Still, as a warrior, it’s what he would want.”

  “He was hardly a warrior,” she protested but relented when Caleb opened the door, and Graynor bounded forward. “And yet he seems like he’s got so much life in him yet,” she murmured.

  “Lying around on the couch isn’t always the best thing,” he said. “Graynor’s got to stay nimble, fit, and healthy.”

  “I know that,” she murmured, “but I let him do it for so long now.”

  “Let’s load up.”

  She took her three males, the two Heinz 57 mixes that she’d gotten from rescues over the years—Kali and Max—and Graynor; she left just one at home. But then Fancy had a sore foot, and it was probably better to leave her home. Although Laysha felt guilty.

  They all were in Caleb’s rental truck now, and he drove them down the driveway. “You don’t take them everywhere, do you?”

  “No,” she said, as she fastened her seat belt. “I do leave them home a lot.”

  “It’s good for them to be accustomed to both,” he said in that noncommittal voice.

  “Yeah,” she said, “but they were also my saving grace all the years that I was working my way through the marriage and the divorce,” she said. “So I’m very aware of how many emotional needs they helped me deal with.”

  “Good to hear,” he said. “We all need someone. And, honest to God, if that someone for you is four-legged, I think it’s often the best thing.”

  “True,” she said with a smile. “And that’s something you didn’t have, did you?”

  “No,” he said, “not at all.”

  Once on the road, the conversation turned back to the dog that he was looking for. “What will you do if you find Beowulf?”

  “I’m not sure at this point,” he said. “Contact my bosses, of course, and they’ll probably contact the War Dogs Department and see what options there are.”

  “Poor dog,” she said, “to spend years in military service and heavy training, then to be retired and seemingly kicked out of a life that he knew well and into whatever mess he arrived in here.”

  “Exactly,” he said, “we don’t know what happened here.”

  “Except there was gunfire, and the dog took off, and somebody saw the dog taking off.”

  “And, if you think about it, the dog hadn’t been here long enough to know what home was.”

  “Which just adds to the poor dog’s confusion. So now he’s out on his own, either adopted by somebody else or chained by somebody else.”

  “It’s what we’re going on, yes,” he said. “And obviously neither of those are ideal situations, especially if we don’t know where the dog is.”

  “And when did this happen?”

  “Not sure,” he said. “I mean, there are thousands and thousands of War Dogs. For a dozen to slip through the cracks when the department shut down, that’s a pretty minor percentage. But for those twelve dogs, it’s not minor at all.”

  “And you’re on the eleventh?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Although I understand more case files are coming.”

  “Why did they shut down the department?”

  “Budget cuts,” he said succinctly. “You know what it’s like. You start with good intentions, and then the budget money dries up. So you reshuffle staff, and things get cut. And following up on more dogs that should have already been resettled becomes labor-intensive, and something nobody had money or time or manpower for.”

  “Makes sense,” she said. She didn’t like it, but it made sense. As they crossed the border into the Mexican side, she said, “How do you know you can trust this guy?”

  “We’re a bit early for the meeting,” he said, “so I want to go and see where this other guy lives.”

  “But you didn’t get an address from him, did you?”

  “No, the tipster gave me the general area, but that’s it. And he gave us a first name.”

  “Sure, but, even if you were to stop and ask somebody about it, you’re the strange white man now,” she said. Then she looked at him, smiled, and said, “Although I gather you were recuperating a lot in the sun.”

  “I’ve always had that tan leathered look,” he said, “but I have spent some time in the last few months while working outdoors with the bosses, doing carpentry and just building up my manual skills again, seeing what my body was capable of.”

  “I’m sorry you were so badly hurt,” she said quietly.

  He gave her a lopsided look. “So am I. But I’m getting better, almost there. Maybe I still need to do some rehab.” He flexed his hand. “This shoulder and arm have seen better days.”

  She nodded. “But I think that bothered you before you ever went in the navy, didn’t it?”

  “Yep, and then a subsequent shoulder injury just made it worse.”

  She nodded.

  “And what about you?” he asked. “Still healthy? No major illnesses since I saw you last?”

  “Nope,” she said. “None. Life has been good.”

  He pulled up outside the cantina and looked around.

  “Where are we now?”

  “This is where I was asking questions and offered to pay money for the information.”

  “But we haven’t found the place where the dog is yet.”

  “I know,” he said. “I was just thinking I might get an actual address from someone here.”

  “Like, talking to them over there? A couple of young guys are outside.”

  “That might be a good idea,” he said. They were fairly well dressed and looked like they had jobs, where a lot of the area was rural and labor-oriented. “Or they’re working for this guy.”

  “That’s possible too.”

  He hopped out, looked at her, and said, “Stay here, please.” And he took the keys with him.

  She watched as he left. “It’s not like I would leave without you,” she muttered. “And I sure as hell wouldn’t leave you behind.” Just the fact that he’d taken the keys rankled. And it shouldn’t have. He had always been protective, looking after things. But that just seemed a little excessive.

  In the backseat, Graynor gave a deep woof. She looked over, smiled at him, and said, “How are you doing, boy?”

  He dropped his chin on the back of the seat with his head toward her, and she reached over and scratched him. “I know your time is coming, but I really am not ready to let you go,” she whispered. He whined in the back of his throat, and she just cuddled him close. She could feel hot tears stinging her eyes because the last thing she wanted was to go through a slow demoralizing decline of his health. But it would be just as bad and potentially way worse to put him down.

  As they watched together, she saw Caleb approach the young men. He asked for a location; he spoke Spanish fluently, which was very typical of those who lived in this multicultural city. By the time he came back and hopped into the truck and turned on the engine, she said, “And?”

  “Not only did they know where he lived but they also told me to stay away because he’s bad news.”

  “Oh, good,” she said, “I knew I liked them.”

  He chuckled. “I told them that he had a dog of mine. They just rolled their eyes at that and said he has many dogs.”

  “Guard dogs?”

  “I think so. Whether they’re up on the hills, guarding some illicit operation, I don’t know,” he said. “But they did warn me that he’s into drugs and he’s bad news.”

  “Good,” she said. “Now what?”

  “We’ll do a drive-by so I can take a look and see just what I’m dealing with.” He texted somebody on his phone; then he hit Reverse and pulled out.

  “Now who are you talking to?”

  “Telling my boss. Asking them to check satellite feed of the area because we want to know exactly what we’re facing, before going in.”

  “You’re thinking he’s that dangerous?”

  “I didn’t think your house was in a terribly dangerous area,” he said, “but we were still shot at.”

  She winced at that. “Good point. And I guess we don’t want anything else to go sideways, do we?”

  “No,” he said, as he drove past, lifting a hand at the young guys.

  “Will they remember you?”

  “Oh, yes,” he said. “And I suspect they’re already contacting our asshole to let him know we’re coming by.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “To stay on his good side,” he said. “They’re just trying to stay alive in a town where one of the bosses is a scary asshole.”

  “Is he likely to start shooting before he even talks to us?”

  “I doubt we’ll get close enough to talk to him,” Caleb said shortly. “Guys like that have henchmen between him and the bullets.”

  “Right,” she said. “Are we planning on talking to him today?”

  “Not unless we get stopped.”

  “Great.” She sat back, and they took a series of turns before they came to a very rural area and a large hacienda-looking house settled farther back on the land. “That’s what I expected,” he murmured. “Barbed wire roll on the top, complete with alarms and gunmen.”

  She whistled. “Is that really somebody walking around with a rifle over his shoulder?”

  “Yeah, that’s the guard on duty.”

  “What’s he guarding? Fort Knox?”

  “Probably just the boss,” he said quietly. “Which means the boss has made a hell of a lot of enemies, and he’s always afraid for his life.”

  They kept driving slowly down the road. When a bullet whistled harmlessly overhead, he nodded. “Also expected.”

  She stared at him in shock. “You expect to get shot at when you’re driving down a road?” She wasn’t even sure how the hell she could be a so calm herself because this was not normal for her.

  “With guys like that? Yeah. First one is a warning shot. We get any closer, and it’s no longer a warning.”

  “So they won’t even talk to us?” she asked, twisting to look back. She saw no sign of anybody.

  “Nope, not at all. That’s just a warning to say, Keep on going.”

  “And are we?”

  “As much as we can,” he said. He tossed his phone to her and said, “Can you bring up a map on my phone? See what the GPS gives us for a route here. I’d love to circle the entire property.”

  “How many acres do you think he has?”

  “I’d guess ten but, out here, could be forty.”

  “Forty would mean he could be doing something on the property, right?”

  “Ten is big enough to be running all kinds of operations. He could just be running drugs. He could be manufacturing drugs. He could be moving women. We don’t know.”

  At the word women, she stared at him in shock. He looked at her and said, “When you get into being a badass, they start looking at making money. Drugs are just the start of it. Women very quickly become secondary income and an equally decent income earner.”

  “Great,” she said. “That’s not what I wanted to hear.”

  “Maybe not,” he said, “but I’d be a fool to not keep you in the loop.”

  “No, don’t do that,” she said.

  “Do you have any guns at home?”

  “Yeah, I got a shotgun and a .22.”

  He just nodded.

  “And, of course, neither of those are what you want, are they?”

  “No,” he said, “but I can see why you have those.”

  “Well, I need something for coyotes and two-legged predators,” she said. “Haven’t really had any need for more than that.”

  “And I’m glad,” he said, “seriously glad because it makes no sense to carry any other firepower if you won’t use it.”

  “I thought that was something everybody wanted,” she said, “bigger and better guns.”

  “Maybe, but bigger and better guns doesn’t give you a bigger and better shooting ability.”

  She snorted. “I remember that too,” she said, “but I haven’t done any target practice in a long time.”

  “And that just means we need to change that when we get home again.”

  “Believe it or not, I did think about that after the shooting at home today.”

  “Good, and make sure everything is accessible.”

  She went silent for a long moment. “You’re really expecting trouble, aren’t you?”

  He looked at her and gave her the gentlest of smiles and said, “It’s not that I’m expecting it,” he said, “but I don’t want it to come and meet me unprepared.”

  She winced. “So are you sticking around for a while, or will I be facing, alone, whatever trouble you think is coming?”

  “Well, I was thinking about sticking around,” he said, “if you’re open to having a house guest.”

  “I already have a house guest,” she said bluntly. “I just don’t know what his time frame is.”

  “Well,” he said, “believe me, that wedding and rehearsal dinner and related drama has all dropped on the radar to be much less important.”

  “For you, yes,” she said, “but for your brother, no.”

  He groaned. “Back to that?”

  “Yep,” she said cheerfully, “it’s the only way to deal with it.”

  “Well, I sure am glad it’s a morning wedding. We’ll go and leave almost immediately.”

  “Are you expecting trouble to follow you there?”

  “Again, I’m not expecting anything,” he said, “but neither do I want something like that to happen on my watch.”

  “Right,” she said, “and I guess, as much as I hate to say it, do you think it’s even safe to go now, what with the shooting?”

  He gave her a lopsided grin. “Well, I’d love to say, Hell no, so that I can get out of it,” he said, “but it probably won’t get me out of anything, just cause more negative feedback.”

  “But, if getting them killed is part of going to the wedding,” she said, “that’s hardly a good idea.”

  “And yet think about it. Will anybody in the family actually believe me?”

  “No,” she said immediately, “and that’s a hell no.” She laughed.

  “And is there any serious danger? I don’t think so. We’ll have to take great care to make sure that we’re not followed, and, other than that, we’ll hit the wedding and not stick around.”

  “That should do it,” she said, thinking about it. “You don’t need to be there for very long.”

  “Nope, not planning on it.”

  “He did want you for his best man.”

  “Well, that won’t happen, since he decided to sleep with my wife.”

  “Or before you married his fiancée.”

  He stopped and looked at her. “What?”

  She looked at him in shock. “Did you not know they were engaged?”

  “No,” he said, staring at her, before tugging his gaze back to the road.

  “Wow, she really didn’t tell you much, did she?”

  “No,” he said, “I was away on missions. Remember?”

  “Well, it sounds like you missed a lot while you were away.”

  “You think?” he snapped.

  She looked at him and asked, “It still bothers you?”

  “What bothers me is that I was such a dupe,” Caleb snapped. “I mean, obviously a lack of human decency bothers me that she would do what she did, that he did what he did. Am I hurt by it all? No. I’m angry,” he said. “But I’m angry because I was so stupid. They should have kept me out of their little games.”

  “Agreed,” she said with a wince.

  “What?” he asked, suspicion in his voice.

  “Okay,” she said, “I’m not at all happy to hear that you’re hurt emotionally by it all, after four years.”

  “First, some of this information is seconds old to me, and, second, I told you,” he said in exasperation, “that I no longer care in any way, shape, or form.”

  “You can say the words,” she said, “but it’s your reactions that count.”

  “It’s emotions that count,” he said, “and I can tell you that I’m not feeling anything except anger toward him and her.”

  “But we’re never angry for the reason we think we are,” she said.

  He glared at her. “Who are you quoting from some damn place? Really? You’ll throw that New Age bullshit at me?”

  At that, she burst out laughing, and he could feel his own sense of humor lighten up. It still pissed him off that his brother had been in his married life to that extent. But, as Caleb realized just how much his brother’s and Sarah’s lives were entwined, Caleb realized the two of them were probably better off together. At least then they couldn’t go around hurting anybody else. He thought about it for a long moment as he kept driving.

  She finally said, “I’ve got the area on the GPS, and these dirt roads just keep going around and around.”

  “Yeah, most of them won’t even show up on GPS either,” he said.

  She looked at him. “What’s the problem? You’re looking serious.”

  “No,” he said. “I’m just realizing how that stuff with my brother was just games to them. She went out with me to make him jealous. But, once I realized she was pregnant, I was bound and beholden to do the right thing,” he said in a mocking tone, “and she probably didn’t know how to get out of it at that point.”

  “I think you’re quite right,” she said. “Remember. She’s pretty damn young.”

  “She’s only young emotionally,” he said. “She’s just a couple years younger than you.”

  When she kept staring, he looked at her in surprise. “Isn’t she?”

  He watched as she tilted her head, thinking about it, and then slowly nodded. “She is. Funny how I never put that together.”

  “That’s because she’s immature,” he said.

  “Yep, got it.” She looked up at the road ahead and said, “Should be a Y up ahead. Take the right.”

  He followed her instructions, and they slowly went around the massive property.

  “I’m not really seeing any ins or outs,” she said.

  “Oh, they’re there,” he said. “I won’t be going in through the established roads anyway.”