Читать книгу Lone Star Protector - Lenora Worth - Страница 14

FOUR

Slade leaped into action.

Grabbing Kaitlin, he shoved her away from the window. “Stay inside.”

He had his weapon drawn and was out the front door before Kaitlin could inhale. She stood in the shadows, fear and uncertainty clouding her mind until she took a deep breath. Hurrying down the hall, she called out to Warrior. “Come.”

The dog trotted to her side, his tail wagging and his ears lifting. “C’mon, boy,” she said, heading to the front door. She was about to open it and let the dog take the lead when the handle turned.

Backing up, Kaitlin held Warrior by his fur and quieted him. If the kidnapper had come back, she’d let Warrior deal with him this time. The canine sensed her apprehension. He let out a long, low growl.

The door opened and Slade walked in.

Kaitlin let out a sigh of relief and commanded Warrior to stay. “You’re okay?”

“Yes.” He gave Warrior a quick pat. “Someone ran away when I came out the door.”

“Maybe I just imagined I saw someone. Warrior didn’t alert.”

“You didn’t imagine anything. I heard them running and I found footprints in the dirt by the back fence. I think whoever it was hopped the fence and came right into the yard. You probably saw them before Warrior had time to pick up a scent.”

“They know I’m here, then.”

Slade moved closer. “Look, it could have been a kid out for thrills.”

“Or it could have been that man again.”

She shuddered in spite of the warm night. “I can’t live like this. I won’t live like this.”

He reached for her, but she moved away, everything she’d held in check since being attacked pouring through her. “I had to live without a father. Don’t even know where he is. And then I had to live without my mother. After hearing all the details of how she was murdered, I was afraid but I got over my fears.” Her eyes brimmed with emotion. “I made myself get over all of it when I decided to become a police officer. I might not be a patrol officer anymore, but I learned how to protect myself...and I can still protect myself now. I won’t let them win. I won’t be afraid.”

But she was afraid. Her worst nightmare had always been a fear of ending up just like her mother. She hated the fresh terror coursing through her. How could she control this? What should she do now? Would her prayers save her?

Slade pulled her toward him, his hands on her elbows. “It’s gonna be all right. You don’t need to worry. I’ll put an officer on your house 24/7, I promise.”

She backed away again. She couldn’t depend on this man. She’d been independent for a long time now. “I have Warrior. I’m training him as an all-purpose so he can help you find Rio. And we’ll find the man behind this, too.”

Slade shook his head. “No, Kaitlin. There is no ‘we’ in this. You can’t get involved. It’s too dangerous.”

“I’m already involved,” she said, anger taking over her apprehension. “They’re after me. I don’t know why, but they want something from me.”

“They need your expertise,” Slade explained. “You know how to make Rio do his job. They don’t. That means they want something or someone that they can’t get to, and they need you and Rio to help them.”

“So they’ll just kidnap trainers and animals until they get what they want?”

She saw something there in his eyes, a flicker of uneasiness that surpassed the concern she’d already seen. “What are you thinking, Slade?”

“They’re coming after you for a reason.”

“You said because of my expertise.”

“It’s more than that, I think.” He put his hands on his hips and exhaled slowly. “They must know that you and I are—that we’re close. I mean, I came to you almost two years ago and asked you to help me with Caleb. You’ve been to our house before and you’ve had Caleb at your place when I needed a sitter. They’ve seen us together at the yard and...they’ve probably been watching you with Caleb at the park, walking down the block—”

Kaitlin gasped and put a hand to her mouth. “They wouldn’t hurt him, would they? Slade?”

He hit his hand on the door frame. “I don’t know. We have to consider every possibility.”

A cold calm came over Kaitlin. She refused to give in to the dread that shadowed her like tattered black threads. And she surely wouldn’t allow anything to happen to Caleb. “We have to consider that. If I’m around you and Caleb, then you both could be in danger.”

He looked over at her. “You can’t avoid us. You can’t isolate yourself. We have to work through this together.”

“But you just said I shouldn’t get involved. You can’t have it both ways.”

“You’re right, I can’t. You’re in danger and I need to come up with a way to protect you. But you’re also good at your job. I need you to go about your normal routine. If you keep working with Warrior, we might be able to do something about this.”

“Will you let me do that? Will you keep me informed and let me train Warrior to help?” She lifted her chin. “Don’t shut me out, Slade. This is too important and I’m way too involved for you to go all stoic and righteous on me now.”

A frown deepened his laugh lines. “Stoic and righteous? Is that how you see me?”

Kaitlin didn’t want to pull any punches. “You’re kind of single-minded and intense when it comes to this case. And I get that. Your partner went missing, your dad almost died and now your son might be a target.” She held back a shudder. “You have every right to be on alert, Slade, but you need me. I want to help. If I don’t, this fear will overcome me and I can’t handle that.”

He stood, silent and brooding, doubt flickering in his eyes. “You’re right. I have a lot riding on this. My entire unit, for one thing. My job, my son. And you.”

And you.

Awareness flashed through Kaitlin, a spine-tingling feeling that she couldn’t deny. Did he feel it, too? This thing they had going? She wondered if she was just fixating on the one man who’d taken the time to get to know her over the years and had now possibly saved her life. Or maybe because Caleb was so adorable, she considered his daddy to be the same? No, this was about more than that.

They’d worked around each other for a couple of years now, but they’d both been professional and polite but standoffish. Then he’d approached her about using dog therapy to help Caleb out of his shell. And she’d readily agreed because she did empathize with the little guy since she’d been through something similar. And now they’d been thrown together in an intense brush with death. Being aware of Slade McNeal had gone up a notch or two from admiring him to admitting she was attracted to him.

Did he feel the same way? She decided that didn’t matter right now. She only wanted Slade and his family to be safe. Caleb didn’t need yet another trauma to deal with.

Slade McNeal was as strong as steel and as solid as an oak tree. The strands of silver near his temples matched that steely ice blue of his eyes. He was the kind of man she should run from, and fast. She needed to remember that, no matter the tension between them.

He must have realized what he’d said. “You are a part of this, Kaitlin. I can’t let anything bad happen to one of our best trainers.”

She’d take that, for now.

“Then let me help you. I’m trained to teach K-9 dogs on how to be the best. I know all the rules and I know all the procedures and precautions. And even though I quit the force, I’m experienced in all kinds of self-defense courses.”

He nodded, a curt, quick movement. “We’ll need to put surveillance on your house and the training yard. You can’t be alone. You’ll need someone at work with you at all times and you might need to stay with someone for a while. I can put Melody on this. She’s as caught up in this case as the rest of us.”

“Melody Zachary?” Kaitlin knew Melody. She was a good cop and a great friend who’d recently helped solve her nephew Daniel’s murder. “But she’s engaged now. She’s busy planning her wedding to Parker.”

“Yep, that seems to be going around a lot these days, but she still has a job to do. You can help her with the wedding stuff. You women seem to love that kind of thing.”

Figuring he wasn’t the marrying type, she said, “We all have a job to do.” Then her smile broke. “But it would be fun to help plan a wedding.”

Slade nodded. “I guess that’s a win-win.” He took another breath. “Look, it’s late. We’ve got a lot to contend with. Think you can get some sleep?”

“I don’t know. I’m exhausted but wired. I’ll try.”

He motioned to Warrior. “Take him and go back to bed.”

“What about you?”

“I don’t sleep.”

* * *

The next morning, Slade was back in his office bright and early. He’d dropped Kaitlin by her house to get a few things, then they’d driven in together. The other trainers had been briefed on what happened yesterday, so they knew to stay on high alert. Slade had reported to the chief and now he was about to brief his unit and bring everyone up-to-date. They’d have to retrace their steps yet again to see what they’d been missing.

But when he turned to stare at the big white board where he’d placed all the clues and details they’d managed to collect over the past few months, he couldn’t help but scan the pieces of the puzzle one more time.

His father had been attacked and Rio had been kidnapped. Eva Billow’s son Brady had then been taken because the kid had witnessed the attack. Austin Black and his bloodhound Justice had found the child. And Austin had found love with the boy’s pretty mother Eva. At least they’d gotten one arrest out of that part of the case. Only that lowlife Don Frist wasn’t talking. Nobody wanted to talk, not even Charles Ritter, the high-powered lawyer Don Frist had ratted out. Ritter was sitting in jail. Which meant The Boss was a very powerful and dangerous man.

Then two more thugs had been murdered, and two middle management members of the crime syndicate were also dead. He stared at the mug shots of Andrew Garry, aka Blood, and Adrianna Munson, aka Serpent. They were all snakes in the grass in Slade’s mind. Next up, Gunther Lamont—the Businessman—allegedly the second in command, now dead. Shot by Ski Mask Man. And last but certainly not least, dirty cop Jim Wheaton—who’d been on the syndicate’s payroll—had been taken down by the cops during a hostage crisis.

They were getting closer and closer to The Boss. Slade should thank the man for culling his own criminals to the point of having no one to trust. That made a man desperate and dangerous. The Boss would slip up and when he did, Slade planned to be there to catch him. Trying to kidnap Kaitlin in the training yard and sending a thug to his house last night made this even more personal for Slade. The Boss kept toying with all of them, but he would slip up soon and Slade would be ready and waiting.

As he stood there going over everything in his head, he realized this had always been personal. They’d taken Rio out of his yard and tried to kill his father. And come to think of it, each of his team members had come dangerously close to getting killed, too. But all roads always came back to Slade and his family. Starting with Angie dying in that car bomb two years ago.

As the entire Special Operations K-9 Unit filed in, one by one, Slade nodded and spoke to each. Austin Black and Lee Calloway talked to each other as they headed to the coffeepot.

Valerie Salgado, a rookie who’d more than earned her stripes, laughed at something Jackson Worth said. And one of Slade’s best friends, Parker Adams, nodded to Slade.

“What’s up?” Slade asked when Parker came up to him.

“Can we talk later?” Parker asked. “I need to run something by you.”

“Sure,” Slade replied, curious. “Lunch after the meeting?”

“That’ll work,” Parker said. “Melody might be able to make lunch.” He nodded and took a seat.

Wondering what that was all about, Slade started the meeting. “I know you’ve all been briefed on what transpired yesterday behind the training yard. Trainer Kaitlin Mathers’s attempted kidnapping is now considered part of this case. Ski Mask Man has struck again.”

Everyone started mumbling and talking. Slade held up a hand. “We’re gonna go over every inch of evidence we have and we’re going to pursue every lead. We want Rio back, but more than that, we want our town back. So let’s start at the beginning.”

The team had interviewed a low-level snitch named Pauly Keevers and all he’d told them was that there was something buried in the Lost Woods, a heavily wooded forest on the edge of town that hid a multitude of crime and evil. Pauly was dead now, too, taken out by the syndicate. Then informant Ned Adams was found buried in the woods.

“It looks like The Boss is killing people so they won’t talk.”

Jackson Worth spoke up. “Not to mention the infamous code we’ve tried to break and Daniel Jones’s grave being dug up. And we did find that brick of cocaine. But two or so pounds of cocaine wouldn’t bring about this much crime.”

Not long after setting up surveillance in the Lost Woods, Parker Adams and his K-9 partner Sherlock had helped Slade find a small amount of cocaine, heavily scented to disguise it, in the woods.

Slade went back over that find. “You’re right about that, Worth. It wasn’t enough to cause this amount of secrecy and criminal intent. I believe there must be something else buried out in those woods.”

“A body, maybe?” someone suggested.

Slade nodded. “That...or something worth much more than that small amount of cocaine we found.”

Jackson spoke again. “Makes sense that we need to keep searching. They dug up that kid’s grave, but they’re still looking, too.”

“Agreed, but we have to be careful,” Slade replied. “The chief has given us special permission to stay on top of this, but let’s keep in mind we have to continue to follow procedure and the chain of command.”

Everyone nodded on that.

Parker again reported on how Detective Melody Zachary had solved part of a cold case that involved her sister Sierra and her nephew Daniel Jones. She’d found evidence that proved Jim Wheaton had killed Daniel and that her sister had not committed suicide. She’d been murdered. Did it all tie back to this case?

“No answers there. Dead men—and women—tell no tales,” Parker said.

The body count kept rising. And so did Slade’s blood pressure.

“Let’s go back to that cocaine find,” Slade said, a nagging feeling centered in his gut. “It wasn’t enough to create this kind of violence.”

“More like a smoke screen,” Jackson said. “There has to be something else, something bigger out there.”

“We’ll have to find a reason to have another look,” Slade replied, jotting notes on the board. “We’ll set up more surveillance, too.”

He believed the answers to this case were buried somewhere in those woods. He also believed that one of their highly trained K-9 officers would help him find whatever or whoever was out there. Now Kaitlin was training Warrior as just such a K-9.

“This brings us to Kaitlin Mathers. We’re pretty sure they have Rio, but why try to kidnap a trainer?”

Valerie Salgado raised her hand. “Because they know she’s smart and capable of handling a dog and they know she’s been involved with you and your son. Hit us where it’ll hurt.”

Slade nodded. “I’m afraid that’s it. Which means we have to put a tail on Kaitlin 24/7, for her own protection. And hopefully to find a pattern—someone following her, watching her. She’ll go about her business and continue to train Warrior.”

“I’ll be glad to help with surveillance,” Valerie offered. “And I don’t mind hanging with Kaitlin.”

They talked some more about recent events.

Then Slade stated the obvious. “I think Ski Mask Man might be more than your basic low-level thug.” He glanced around the room then wrote on the board. “The Boss? Is he Ski Mask Man?”

While everyone chewed on that, Slade took one more sweeping look at the pictures and notes on the board.

“I’m pretty sure this whole setup has been aimed at me.” He went back over the facts again, starting with the car bomb. “The Boss wants something that’s buried in those woods, but he wants to make me suffer until he finds it. He’s getting desperate, and that means we’re all in jeopardy. So be on the alert at all times. We can’t rest right now. It’s too dangerous.”

After everyone filed out, Slade turned to stare at the board again. Who was The Boss? And when would he make his next move?