“And how are you planning on getting in, and why are you planning on going anywhere close to that place?” she asked quietly.

  “Well, I have to see if the dog is there, don’t I?”

  She took a long slow deep breath.

  He grinned. “Remember? It’s what I do.”

  “I’m trying to forget that right now,” she said.

  “Well, you can try, but with me comes that kind of job.”

  “I got it,” she said slowly.

  “So good,” he said. “I’m coming after this dog. If it’s here, I’ll be taking the dog away.”

  “What if it’s happy there?”

  “With an asshole for an owner? I don’t think so. The dog has spent its time here chained up and probably beaten to make it hate humanity, so that, when it gets a chance, it’ll go after whatever it was that they want it to go after.”

  “Do they deliberately turn these dogs into killers?”

  “Sure they do,” he said. “Lots of people do. They don’t care about the animal itself. They just care about making sure that the animal does what they want it to do.”

  “Was it any better in the military?”

  “Yes,” he said immediately. “Lots of people don’t understand, but the dogs are well-trained, and they are well looked after. They have regular vet visits, training, break times, and they also learn to bond with people, so they know who they are protecting,” he said. “Guys like this bastard, they’ll put Beowulf on a chain, and they’ll just keep beating him, making his life miserable.”

  “Well, in that case,” she said, “we have to rescue him.”

  “Yep, we sure do,” he said. “Now if only I could figure out a plan to make that happen.”

  They kept driving for another twenty minutes. “It’s a huge property,” she said, amazed.

  “Yeah, and I want background on who owns it too,” he muttered, pulling off the road for a second. “Let me see my phone.” She handed it over, and he texted Badger. Nothing quite like making legal hell happen for some of these guys.

  By the time they had completely circumvented the property and headed back to the cantina, they were late for their meeting with the tipster.

  “Do you think he’ll wait?”

  “He’ll wait because he wants the money,” he said. “Although we spent longer than I planned to getting back here.”

  Chapter 8

  They pulled up to the cantina. “Do you want me to come in with you?” Laysha asked Caleb.

  “Better if you don’t,” he said. “I won’t know who I’m meeting, and I don’t really want them to see you.”

  “Oh, I doubt that’s an issue,” she said. “I would suspect that I’ve already been made.”

  He looked around and nodded. “That’s quite possible. Which makes me even less happy.”

  “Go in, take care of business,” she said, “and then let’s go home.”

  “On it,” he said. “Make sure you keep the dogs with you.”

  “Will do.” She sat and waited, hating as the door closed behind him because places like this could get rough. And once he was inside, he could get surrounded, and they’d beat the crap out of him, if not worse. She sat on pins and needles, until the door opened, and he stepped back out again. She slowly released her pent-up breath when he got back into the truck.

  “Okay,” she said. “How bad was it?”

  “Nobody was there,” he said. “Except for the bartender, who I talked to, but he wouldn’t accept the envelope. In fact, he said, Hell no. Didn’t know anything about it and didn’t want any part of it.”

  “So that’s good?”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” he said. “I’ll drive around to the back to make sure nobody’s sitting there and waiting.”

  “But surely that person would have called to let you know to come to a different drop spot, wouldn’t he?”

  “Maybe,” he said. “Fact of the matter is, nobody called. So we’re sitting here, not sure who and what to look for.”

  “Right.” She didn’t know what to say to that. But, as they sat in the parking lot, Graynor started to growl. “Well, he’s not happy,” she murmured, looking around. She didn’t see where the danger was coming from. She studied the dog and said, “He’s looking behind the cantina.”

  “Yeah, that’s where we’re going,” he said.

  “What are you expecting to find?”

  He looked at her and said, “Honestly? A dead body.”

  Caleb shouldn’t have made it quite such a shocking announcement, but, with the look on the bartender’s face, and the fact that he quickly told Caleb to get out of there, Caleb realized that somebody had already blown the tipster’s cover. The bartender wanted nothing to do with it. That’s just the fearful grip this asshole had on this town. Caleb drove around to the back and moved slowly. A big Dumpster was here, but, other than that, he didn’t see anything. He pulled up to the Dumpster, hopped out, leaving the truck running and the door open, and took a look inside. And he saw exactly what he expected to see: one dead man with a single bullet through the forehead.

  He hopped back into the truck and kept on driving.

  “And?”

  “He’s in there,” he said. He pulled out his phone and made a 9-1-1 call to the local cops. Notifying them of the body. He kept his voice low and hollow, deliberately disguising it. When he was done, she looked at him in surprise. “You called it in?”

  “I did on this side,” he said. “You know yourself how different the rules are, depending on which side of the border you are on.”

  “What do you mean? No rules?” she said. “Will anybody care about him?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” he said. “You can help this family somehow, if we find out more about him, but, in this case, obviously for him, his time’s run out.”

  “Just because he contacted you?”

  “We don’t know that,” he said. “I know it’s easy to blame it on that, but it could easily be he was hired to phone me, and then somebody got rid of the messenger.”

  She sat back and thought about it. “And that would imply a trap being set.”

  “It would also imply that somebody just wanted to flush me out in the open so they saw who I was.”

  “Okay,” she said, “and what do we do now?”

  “What we’ll do is head home in a way that nobody can track us.”

  “Because you really believe that we’ll be followed, don’t you?”

  “I just don’t want to lead anybody back to your place,” he said. And, true to his words, she had no idea where they were, and then, all of a sudden, they were in her local neighborhood. The trip had taken twice as long, and yet she’d barely kept track of where he’d been going. “I guess it really helps to be good at geography for something like this, doesn’t it?” she asked.

  “Navigating skills are definitely a priority.”

  “And are you comfortable that we weren’t followed?”

  “We weren’t,” he said. “I’ve been looking since we left.”

  “What if they have something sophisticated, like a satellite system?”

  “If that’s the case, then the government on both sides of the border will really want to know about it,” he said, “because they’re running something pretty heavy that makes them a ton of money in there to handle something like that.”

  “Right, so it’s really not all that possible, is it? But how can you be sure?”

  “I can’t be,” he said, “but, to the best of my knowledge and my training, nobody has followed us home.”

  “Do you think they followed us at all?”

  He looked at her and nodded. “They did, indeed, but we lost him in the city.” He pulled into her driveway.

  “What about facial recognition and all that good stuff?”

  “If they’ve got something as sophisticated as that,” he said, “I would be quite surprised. But again, we can’t assume that they don’t have that kind of backing behind them. It does mean we need to see if they do have something like that and just how serious a business they are trying to hide.”

  “Which makes an interesting consideration for the police, doesn’t it?”

  “It definitely does,” he murmured. “Still, our problem is all about staying safe.”

  “I hear you.” They exited his rental and headed for the front door. As they walked inside, Graynor growled. The two little dogs stayed behind Graynor. She stopped in her tracks, looked at Caleb, and whispered, “Graynor never does this.”

  He looked at her, around at the main floor, and murmured, “I suggest you stay here with Graynor, and I’ll take a quick glance around.”

  “Sure,” she whispered, “but, if somebody came into the house”—and then she froze—“Fancy isn’t here.”

  He nodded, his face grim. “Stay here,” he mouthed.

  She reached for his arm and whispered, “Both my rifles are in the master bedroom.”

  “Got it,” he whispered back. And he pulled a handgun from under his shirt.

  She shook her head. “I didn’t know you had that.”

  “I’ve brought it with me, yes with a permit,” he said. “It’s second nature at this point.” And, with that, he disappeared before her.

  Chapter 9

  Laysha stayed where she was, a hand on Graynor, holding the two smaller dogs, as she watched Caleb disappear into the kitchen area. She was really worried about Fancy. She left the Pomeranian at home because of her sore foot, and she’d be horrified if anything happened to her little one.

  “Please, please be okay,” she whispered. She waited, not hearing much noise until she heard Caleb’s footsteps race upstairs. She winced at that because, if she could hear him from the front door, then the intruder could hear him too.

  “Be quick,” she whispered. “And find Fancy.”

  Just as she was about to give up hope, she heard footsteps coming downstairs. Instinctively she stepped out of the doorway, so she wouldn’t be seen. But, as Caleb came around the corner, she sighed with relief and asked, “Did you see anything?”

  “No,” he said. “Nothing.”

  She frowned. “No Fancy?”

  “No,” he said quietly. “No sign of her.”

  She immediately let the dogs in, and, to Graynor, she said, “Go find Fancy.”

  Graynor took off like a shot, and she and Caleb followed behind Graynor as he raced toward the guest bathroom.

  Instinctively she knew where Fancy was. She crouched down to see behind the toilet. And there Fancy was, quivering in place. As soon as she smelled Graynor’s nose poking at her, she turned and raced from her hiding place, jumping all over Graynor and then Laysha. She picked up Fancy and cuddled her close. “That was scary, wasn’t it?” she whispered. “I’m so sorry, sweetie.” At that, she turned to look up at Caleb. “She’d only have done this if she was terrified,” she said.

  “Of course,” he said. “That’s not normal behavior for any dog.”

  “Just a scared one,” she whispered. She gently stroked the pup, who even now quivered in her arms. “Wrong decision to leave her home,” she muttered.

  “I know,” he said. “It also means that somebody was actually in the house. Do you have any way to tell if anything was taken?”

  “I don’t have a security system,” she said. “It’s never been necessary.”

  “No, I hear you,” he said. “But I think, at this point in time, we have to consider that that will be a necessity coming up.”

  “Not if you solve this,” she said. “I could go back to my much easier way of life.”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head, “once innocence is lost, it’s very hard to regain.”

  She thought about it and nodded quietly. “I also don’t have the money for that.”

  “Well, we have a bunch of things to focus on at the moment,” he said. “We need to get another coat down on the second floor.”

  She gasped. “I wonder if he disturbed the fresh coat of stain upstairs,” she wailed.

  He looked at her in surprise and said, “Well, the floor was dry when I was up there.”

  “And that’s a damn good thing. I’d be pissed if somebody ruined the flooring.”

  “But he might have left footprints, which would be a whole different story,” he said. “I’ll take a closer look.”

  “You do that. I’m putting on coffee,” she muttered.

  “It’s late,” he reminded her.

  “Yeah, but we have to put another coat on the floor,” she said. “Otherwise everything is even further behind.”

  “I know,” he said. “Do you want to sleep downstairs tonight, and then we’ll do everything right up to your room?”

  She winced at that. “I pretty well have to at this point.”

  “You do,” he said, “if you want to get this done on your schedule.”

  “It’s not even that I have a schedule anymore,” she said, “but I only have so many days off.”

  “Right,” he said, “so let’s work on that premise.”

  She said, “I’ll make coffee because we’ve got a couple hours to go.”

  “Good enough.” And he disappeared upstairs.

  She turned around, put on the coffee, and grabbed what she needed to get another coat on. Tomorrow was the wedding, and she hadn’t even given that a thought. The fact that Caleb was still willing to go was huge, although a part of her said she should just forget about whether he was willing to or not—because they didn’t need that extra stress in their life right now. But, if they could do this one small thing, then she felt they needed to do just that for the healing of the family; his family. She hadn’t realized all the ins and outs of his relationship with Sarah, but obviously some things Sarah had definitely shielded Laysha from. Now that she heard his side, she didn’t really want to see the witch either.

  With a shake of her head, she headed upstairs. She saw him going through room by room, but he shrugged and said, “It looks clear of footprints. Must have been dry enough before he got here.”

  “Good,” she said, “we need to buff it with the light sander.”

  He nodded. “I can get started in this room,” he said. “I’ll sand with the buffing machine. Give it a smoothing out so it’ll take the next coat. I won’t overdo it.”

  So, with him sanding, she came behind him with a very damp cloth to wipe up the dust, and then, once one room was done, she sat down and put a new layer of finish on the floor. By the time she was done in the first guest bedroom, he was in the second guest room. So she followed him again, washed off the sandpaper dust, dried the floor, and then refinished that room. The hallway was finished pretty fast. It took about two and a half hours before they were done. Then she rolled over, sat on the top stair to look behind her and said, “I wasn’t thinking ahead,” she said. “I didn’t grab a nighty or anything or my toothbrush for the night.”

  “Does it matter for tonight?” he asked gently.

  “No, it doesn’t,” she said, “and I’m too tired to think right now.” She made her way down the stairs, to her temporary bed in the living room for her. She smiled up at him. “If I didn’t thank you for setting this up yesterday, thank you,” she said.

  “We’re both tired. We’re both a little stressed,” he said. “So let’s get a good night’s sleep and get through the wedding tomorrow.”

  “I hear you,” she said. “For a moment there, I wondered if we should be going.”

  “I’ve been wondering nothing but,” he said. “However, I think it would be good to go and do the duty and let everybody know that we’re okay.”

  “You mean, that you and he are okay. I don’t know how you can ever be okay with your ex-wife again.”

  “I don’t plan on being okay with her,” he said. “Obviously my brother and I won’t be visiting because that would involve her.”

  She nodded slowly. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “Me too,” he said, “but you know what? Choices were made, and actions done, and, somewhere along the line, I’m the one left holding the bag, trying to recuperate. But thankfully I don’t think that’s an issue anymore.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” she said. She walked into the small guest half bath, wishing she could have had a shower, but the only full bathrooms were upstairs, and she couldn’t walk on the newly sealed floors for several more hours. She quickly washed up, as much as she could, and then headed to the living room, where she stripped down to her T-shirt and panties and curled under the covers.

  “This is like old times,” he murmured from his room, the door open, and their beds lined up perfectly to see each other.

  She rolled over to see him in his bed, lying on the covers, just in his boxers. “Almost,” she said, “we definitely camped out enough times.”

  “I recall a time when your boyfriend broke up with you, and you needed somebody’s shoulder to cry on,” he said.

  She winced at that. “Wow, that’s a memory I’d like to just ignore,” she said, chuckling. “You know something? We’ve never really looked at each other as partner material because we’ve spent a lot of time helping each other getting over other breakups.”

  “I know,” he said. “I was thinking about that too.”

  “Still, it’s all good,” She stretched out and said, “It’s hard to believe just how tired I am.”

  “A good night’s sleep,” he said, “will get us through the stress of tomorrow, and then we’ll get back on track.”

  “It is midnight already,” she said. “We don’t have too many hours left for sleep.”

  “I know. Showers in the morning, the wedding and all that good stuff,” he said, “but maybe by noon—twelve hours from now—it could be over.”

  She snorted. “Don’t you wish?” That was the last thing on her mind, as she crashed.

  Caleb waited until Laysha was asleep, and then he slipped out of bed and headed out to the backyard, where he studied the layout of the land. Graynor was at his side, always watchful, always wary. “You hear it too, don’t you, buddy?”