Cinn woke to a horrific barking above her and a heavy weight on her chest. She shifted and then groaned. But she could hardly hear her thoughts. A dog barking outrageously stood on her torso, his head above her head. He terrified her. He was huge, looming over her, barking in her face. She wasn’t sure, but she thought it was Sentry. But wasn’t Sentry under Ethan’s command? Or was Sentry now back under one of the assholes’ control?
She knew she wouldn’t have much time to make a decision. She could either bolt, and the dog would likely take her down, or she could lie here and hope the dogs didn’t belong to the bad guys. Her heartbeat slammed against her chest, and the dog’s drool dripped on her face. But she didn’t move.
And then suddenly she heard someone call out, “Easy boy, easy boy.” She strained her ears. Ethan?
“Bella! Come on, Bella.”
Bella?
She smiled. “Ethan?” she called out weakly.
“Cinn?”
She managed to get her good hand under her and lifted her body. Dirt slid off her shoulders as she cried out, “Yes, it’s me.”
And suddenly there he was. He bent beside her, moving Sentry off to the side, clipping him on a leash. His hand went to her head, brushing off the dirt. “Are you okay?”
She gave a broken laugh. “Yes. Bruised, my feet are killing me, but I’m alive. I buried myself in the dirt, so the assholes wouldn’t find me. When the dogs arrived, I was terrified Sentry was working for the wrong team.”
Ethan cleaned the dirt and rocks off of her. When he could, he reached down, grabbed her under the shoulders—careful of her injury—and helped her to a sitting position. She cried out when her bloody feet scraped along the ground. He lifted her feet, took one look at her soles and the gentlest wince whispered across his face.
“I couldn’t find any shoes,” she whispered, holding her feet up in pain. “The best I could do was these socks.”
He gently removed the socks and held them up so she could see she had worn the soles right out of them.
She stared at them. “I really don’t want to see what my feet look like.”
“No,” he said grimly. “You do not.” He slowly lowered her feet so her calves rested sideways on his legs. “What about other injuries?”
She shook her head and shot a hand up to her head. “A headache—from those assholes knocking me out, I presume—and, of course, my shoulder,” she admitted. “But everything else appears to be in good working order. I ran and walked as much as I could, following the road back out. But then I saw the vehicles coming after me, and I had to hide.”
He glanced around at her hiding spot and smiled. “You did a great job.”
“Not really,” she said, motioning at the dirt. “Once I disturbed it and opened up a dark slash of dirt, the sun didn’t have a chance to dry it out and turn the camouflage the same color as the rest of surroundings.”
“But it was enough that you stayed hidden. They all headed to the trees.”
“I know at least one was very close. I didn’t dare look around to see where the others were,” she said, her heart hitching at the reminder. “They were almost upon me. If they’d had the dogs, for sure they would have found me. And I couldn’t keep my head completely buried because I had to breathe. But I was between the rocks, so it was deceptive. I was hoping they’d think some animal had disturbed this part of the dirt.”
“It worked,” Ethan said in an admiring tone. “You did good.”
Just then she felt a wet nose against her face. She looked up to see Bella. “Hello, Bella,” she murmured, gently scratching her thick neck. “Did you help find me?”
Bella nudged her, when her hand slowed down, and Cinn chuckled.
“Bella, lie down,” Ethan ordered.
Bella lay down and dropped her head lower on Cinn’s lap, so Cinn could scratch the rest of her.
She glanced over at Sentry and asked, “And him? Was he okay?”
“He found you,” Ethan said proudly, reaching out to scratch the big male who again stared in the direction of the vehicles. “But we’re still not out of danger here.”
She looked in the direction Sentry was focused on. “What are you talking about?”
“Two vehicles came down and met up with your two vehicles.” He pointed to the other side of the trees. “I heard a lot of shooting, but I can’t be sure who’s left standing.”
“And we’re in the open,” she cried out. She shook her head. “You should have left me here. I can’t run anywhere right now.”
He stood, looped her arms around his neck and picked her up. Moving at a steady pace, he walked back toward the trees.
“Not that I have anything against being carried,” she joked, “but aren’t the trees where they’ll look for us?”
“Indeed it is,” Ethan said. “But out here, like you said, we’re sitting ducks. In the trees, we have a little more opportunity. Besides, the sun is very hot.”
He walked steadily. She marveled at his strength. She wasn’t a big woman, but, at the same time, it wasn’t easy to hike while carrying someone else like this.
Finally they headed into the cooler shade of the trees. He found a large downed tree and sat her gently on the stump. “Now stay here, rest up against this tree. I would like very much to find out what’s going on over there by the vehicles, but I don’t want to leave you.”
“No, please don’t,” she said. “Can’t you stay here with me?”
“I’ll leave Bella with you. I’ll take Sentry and go over there.” He pointed up ahead about forty feet. “I promise I’ll stay in sight.”
She nodded and let him go. She was too tired to protest. Her feet were killing her; her head pounded, and she wished he’d left her some water. She checked her bottle. There was just enough to wet the inside of her mouth. She hugged Bella and marveled at a dog who’d gone from being part of a killer pack to being part of a defending pack. And then she realized it really had nothing to do with choice. The dog was being swept along by the same nuances of society as Cinn herself was. There were only so many choices the dogs could make on their own, and they had to deal with the hand they were dealt. Bella was doing the best she could. At the moment she seemed happy to be with Cinn.
Cinn reached over and scratched her, pulling her ears gently, moving her hand down the side of the shepherd’s face. “You’re quite the beautiful girl, aren’t you?”
Bella turned her head to look at her and then turned to follow Ethan’s and Sentry’s progress. Cinn could see the two sneaking out from behind one of the big trees, and she looked toward the vehicles. They might have been shooting at each other earlier, but she couldn’t hear anything now.
And just then a cry rang out.
She almost fell off the log in surprise. She turned to see one of the men from the compound run in her direction. She swore gently, gripping Bella as she tried to get into a better position, but, as she tried to stand, her feet collapsed out from under her, and she fell onto the ground, leaning up against the log.
He was on her in an instant, his hand at her throat, closing around her windpipe, as he gave her a slap. “You little bitch,” he roared. “We were looking for you.”
Bella barked and launched herself forward.
“Down, Bella,” her attacker ordered.
Bella subsided slightly, confused.
“I thought you were all shot,” Cinn gasped when she could, her hand gripping his. His grip eased, and she choked and coughed.
“Not me,” he said. “As soon as the shooting started, I snuck away and came back. I’m not up to face-to-face gunfire. A sneak attack is much more my style. Besides, I knew you had to be out here somewhere. But I checked here earlier, so I don’t know how the hell you got here.”
“I crawled,” she lied. She could only hope Ethan and Sentry were well hidden from this asshat. “Besides, what do you want with me? I didn’t do anything to you.”
“I want that asshole boyfriend of yours,” he said. “He’s the one who came in with the cops, stole the dogs and blew up the entire operation at the compound.”
She wanted to cheer Ethan’s work but knew she would get a punch in the face for it. “Then why are you after me?”
“Because coming after you will lead to him.” He sniggered. “That’s the way it works. Use a piece of pretty bait, and the men just keep coming around.”
She glared at him. “So you’re the one who came after me? Broke into my house, terrorized my own dogs?”
“Me and Tom, yeah,” he said. “Why? You didn’t like that treatment? We were planning on coming back and showing you a good time. Imagine our surprise when you weren’t there anymore.”
She could hardly swallow for the bile rising up her throat. Just the thought of what these men would have done to her if she hadn’t escaped …
He released her suddenly and said, “You didn’t escape alone though, did you?”
He jumped behind the log, his hand going out to Bella, who stared at him, her lips curling. Cinn could understand Bella’s confusion. He’d been aggressive but not deadly. And Bella was confused as to who to work with.
Cinn reached out and stroked Bella who whimpered and pushed her hand into her nose.
The man stared at Bella and said, “Jesus Christ, did you ruin her too?”
“Is she a killer?”
“No. She was like the other bitch, too soft. They said bitches make the best killers, but we always found they were too soft. Boris, on the other hand, now he’s got the making of a killer.”
“And what about this poor girl? What did you do to her?”
“We were training her to attack. She could run them down with the best of them,” he said in a conversational voice. “But she held back from doing the final kill.”
“It’s not her nature,” Cinn said, her fingers stroking and scratching Bella’s neck.
The man sniggered and said, “It’s every bitch’s nature.” He reached an arm around Cinn’s neck and pulled her back, choking her.
Bella jump forward and barked.
The attacker glared at her. “Bella, stand down.”
Bella sat back down again and started to whimper. But her whimper turned to a growl, and then she barked again. Cinn understood. So much confusion, double masters, which way should Bella go?
“You could leave her alone and let her have a decent life,” Cinn gasped. She reached up and clawed her attacker’s arms. If nothing else, maybe the DNA in her nails would help catch this asshole if he did kill her.
He roared, snapped her head back against the tree and let her go. Then he smacked her on the side of the head and said, “You’ll be sorry you did that.”
Only Bella, it seemed, had enough evidence to make her decision. But he didn’t give her a chance. He reached out and smacked her hard on the side of the head, knocking her to the ground. Cinn could hear Bella crying as she landed, but she bounced back up, growling and howling, this time darting in and darting back out again, avoiding his hands, snapping at his legs.
Cinn’s head pounded, throbbing, as she lay here, desperate to move. The only thing she could do was roll. She stretched out and rolled onto the main path, hoping Ethan would see her.
But her attacker stood and lunged at her. Only a huge furry body jumped over Cinn and attacked first.
The man screamed in terror and pain.
Ethan’s voice roared over the din at Sentry to stand down. Cinn rolled several more times until she saw Bella snapping at her intruder and Sentry looking for an opportunity to go in for the kill. A kill they couldn’t let happen. She lay there trying desperately to stay out of the way.
Ethan stepped up and ordered, “Sentry, down.”
Sentry’s shoulders hunched, the ridge on his back high and long, his teeth bared, growling as he argued with Ethan’s command.
But Ethan straightened, laid a hand on his shoulder and said, “Good dog. We’ve got him.”
And suddenly the man broke and turned to run away.
Ethan took command and said, “Sentry, attack.”
Sentry took six huge jumps and threw himself eagerly in the air, landing on the man’s back, face-planting him into the ground.
Ethan was on him and said, “Sentry, stand down.”
Sentry glared at him.
And then Ethan reached out a hand, completely ignoring the fact that Sentry was in full attack mode, stroked his head and said, “We’ve got him. Good dog. We don’t kill anymore.”
Sentry slowly calmed down. Ethan had him sit at the man’s left arm while he placed Bella at the man’s right arm and slowly flipped the man to his back, holding him captive with his knees on his chest.
The man glared up at him. “What did you do to my fucking dogs?”
“Saved their lives, most likely,” Ethan said calmly. “Why would you try to change these animals? They’re perfect as they are.”
“We needed animals that would kill. If they can’t do the job, they don’t need to be around. Same damn thing for employees. If you can’t take that step, you’re too damn weak to be with us.”
“Yeah? And how many men have you killed because of it?”
The guy glared up at him and said, “Who the fuck knows. We’ve been doing this for a long time. It’s not our problem a lot of assholes are out there.”
Cinn managed to get herself into a sitting position and watched the men, now a good fifteen feet away. “That’s not an answer,” she snapped in a hard voice. She got on her hands and knees and slowly made her way closer.
Sentry, however, was between her and the attacker. He growled as she approached. She stopped and looked at Ethan.
Ethan looked over at Sentry. “Sentry, this is Cinn. You know her. She’s a friend.”
Sentry gave him a look as if to say, What the hell? As Cinn slowly, cautiously inched forward, Sentry subsided and let her approach.
She shook her head at Ethan. “Are you sure he’s safe?”
Ethan said, his voice sure, calm, “There are times when having that killer instinct is helpful.”
“See?” said the man pinned to the ground. “Like I said, killers are required.”
Cinn settled on her butt and looked at Ethan, wondering if he considered killer dogs as a requirement, and then she remembered his military background and what he’d trained the dogs to do. She nodded. “Just remember. We’re no longer at war,” she said gently.
He stared at her, his gaze hard. Then he slowly seemed to calm, and his hardness eased. He pursed his lips. “You’re right, at least not a war like I used to be in.”
She nodded and reached out a hand to Sentry, who sniffed and then nudged his nose into her fingers so she could pet him. “Sentry, same for you. There’ll always be assholes who we need protection from, but the least amount of force is the best.”
At that, voices came from behind them. She turned to see Flynn. She lifted her arm as he dropped down beside her to give her a big hug. “I’m so glad to see you,” she said.
Flynn called to Ethan, “Are you okay?”
And Ethan responded, “I’m good.”
Flynn rose, lifted her up to stand on her feet so fast that she didn’t get a chance to tell him that she couldn’t. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she cried out. Pain shot up her legs, into her body and up to her head. It was just too much between the headache, the pain in her feet, her thirst and the shock. She crumpled into his arms.
Ethan turned to see Cinn as she collapsed in Flynn’s arms. But already Levi and several other men raced to her side. The dogs growled and snarled at the new arrivals. It was all Ethan could do to hold them back and to calm them down. He got the leashes on both dogs and got them to sit under order.
Levi said, “It’s hard to believe you’ve known them only a few days.”
“Less than two days to be exact,” Ethan said with a crooked grin. “We’re still getting to know each other.”
Levi’s eyebrows rose. “I wasn’t so sure when we first arrived. Thought we might have a problem on our hands.” He motioned toward Sentry. “But it looks like things are under control.”
“They are,” Ethan said, “but they’re still new to being on the good side.” He motioned to the man on the ground. “These assholes were training the dogs to kill.”
“And did they?”
Ethan didn’t really want to admit it. He shrugged and said, “Depends if you can believe what this guy says. But it’s possible.”
Levi nodded. “We both know dogs in the military that had to do the same thing.”
Ethan felt something inside him relax at that because Levi knew. Just like Ethan knew. He nodded his head, his emotions stronger, feeling on firmer ground. “Yes. It’s all about discerning when it’s necessary.”
“Exactly.”
Levi turned and frowned at Cinn, held closely in Flynn’s arms. He walked over as Ethan approached with the dogs at his side.
Ethan explained, “Her feet have run down to nothing. When Flynn stood her up, it was too much.”
Flynn turned so Levi could see the soles of her feet.
Levi winced. “That’s just plain hamburger stuck to the end of her bones.” He motioned toward the vehicles. “Let’s get her to the hospital, where we can get her treated. Where’d you leave your vehicle?”
Ethan pointed back where he’d come from. “About three miles that direction.”
Levi said, “If you want to ride in the back of the truck with the dogs, you’re welcome.”
Ethan grinned. “That’s the perfect place for the three of us.”
Together the large crew walked back out of the trees, leading Cinn’s attacker to the vehicles.
“We heard gunshots,” Ethan said, studying Levi. “How bad is the damage?”
“On our side, none,” Levi said cheerfully. “On the other side, three dead.”
Cinn’s attacker roared and stopped walking to look at them. “What?”
Levi nodded. “If you’d stayed, you would be dead too. Maybe it’s too bad you didn’t.”
But that was enough said. The man fell silent as he contemplated the fate of his friends.
Back at the truck, Ethan got the dogs into the bed, and he sat down against the cab with them. He continuously worked on their commands, letting them know they were still in working mode. Within five minutes they were at the spot where he’d parked his truck, and he transferred the dogs.
Then he got into the driver’s side. He needed to take the dogs back home first. He would have to deal with the police and check on Cinn at the hospital.
So first things first, he started up the engine and headed home. He didn’t know if it was all over for sure, but he could damn well hope so. He figured this mess was, but there would always be a new one out there to deal with. Still, with the dogs at his side, he wasn’t against being part of the fight.
In his driveway, his phone rang. He hopped out of his truck, pulled out his phone and answered it. It was Sergeant Mendelsson.
“I hear you had fun this morning.”
“I’m not sure that’s what we’d call it,” he said, “but the dogs found Cinn, and she’s relatively unhurt, so that’s what counts.”
“How do you think you’ll do with their training?”
Ethan wondered if he’d be plagued with those questions from now on, but, in a steady voice, he explained how well both Bella and Sentry had done, how they both needed some training, to work on fetch, find, search-and-rescue work, but that Sentry had been called off from taking down and killing the attacker.
“Is this something you’ll stick around and work on?” the sergeant asked curiously.
“I’d like to think so,” Ethan said. “I’ve been asked to train some dogs for Gunner, a friend of mine.”
“I know Gunner well. If he thinks you can do it, then that’s a pretty decent referral right there. I spoke with Levi, and he backs up your story. Nice to know you had control of the animals at the scene too.”
“I did. Obviously the relationship between the three of us is still young, but it’s there. And Bart and Sally are great additions too.”
“Good. So are you interested in doing contract work? Because, if you are, get those dogs up and running, then give me a call.”
Ethan grinned and gave Bella a good stroke. She dropped her nose to shove it into his face. “I think we could do something like that. I’ll have four able-bodied dogs here pretty soon.”
“Then it sounds like you might need another handler.”
Ethan shrugged. “If somebody else with the skills comes my way … In the meantime, I can handle four myself.”
“Good, we need someone like you,” he said, “But it’s not just us. Consider the airport, consider private security. I think you’ve got yourself quite a business right here.”
After the sergeant hung up, Ethan pocketed his phone, reached for the tailgate, let the dogs out, led them around to the back, where Bart happily greeted them all. Ethan gave them all food and water and walked inside. He kneeled beside Sally and asked, “How are you doing, girl?”
And his heart smiled as she rolled over and struggled to her feet. He led her a little way outside, so she’d go to the bathroom. She walked over to him afterward and nudged his hand gently. He bent down into a squatting position and spent a few moments just loving her.
“You know what? Maybe that is a good idea. Start with rescuing dogs, then retraining. We could train in many different specialties—drug-sniffing, bomb-smelling, guard dogs. Who knows what else we could do?” he murmured into her fur. “Maybe it’s a new beginning for all of us.”
Sally barked gently, and the other three dogs ran over. Ethan chuckled. She barked again, nudging at his coat pocket. And he laughed because, of course, he had dog treats in his pocket. Every decent dog trainer had treats. He reached into his pocket and pulled out four and gave them each one. Maybe he was finally home. Just like for the dogs, something was here for all of them.
Now all they had to do was convince Cinn that she belonged with them too.
