“No.”

Sal turned back to see Josh shake his head.

“Just patch me up. I’m not going to the hospital.”

“He’s really worried.” O’Caran came to stand beside Sal. “He cares about her.”

“She got under his skin.”

“But…Pierce?”

Sal grinned. “I’ve heard that can happen sometimes.”

“But not to you.” O’Caran returned his smile. “Because you’re Mr. Stone Cold US Marshal.”

Sal shrugged. It wasn’t untrue. Niall could think what he wanted.

O’Caran shook his head. “Whatever.”

Sal’s phone rang. He swiped to answer and said, “I was just about to call you.”

“Explain.” Just one word. Victoria didn’t use more when few would suffice.

Sal told her everything he knew. Then he said, “Just tell me she’ll be okay.”

It didn’t matter that he’d told Josh she could hold her own. The kid needed to believe they knew her better than anyone. Not just because they’d worked together for years. It was more than that. She’d let them in first. They had become family to her. Josh had to trust that.

It grated against everything Sal was, but he actually cared about Dakota. He was worried.

None of them had a good track record with their actual families. For one reason or another they’d all needed, and found, what was missing in their lives with Victoria’s team.

Though, if that were true, he wasn’t sure why he still felt…empty.

Victoria said, “If these people are who we think they are?”

Sal said, “They are, and Terrence Crampton is one of them. His woman is dead, and Dakota was snooping around asking questions about what they’re up to. The grenade was overkill, but I figure they’re protecting their assets.”

“Good. Dakota will find out what they’re doing.”

Too bad this wasn’t a re-con mission. They’d kidnapped her.

Now Sal and Niall had a man with a gunshot wound on their hands. Dakota had a concussion. Added to the kind of people these were, and the fact it was a hot button with Dakota, he was worried.

Sal wanted to hope this would work out for the best. Enough it almost made him want to pray for help. But that would be admitting he couldn’t do this himself, and his entire life had been about proving to everyone—including God—that he didn’t need help.

“What do you want me to do about Weber?”

Victoria was quiet for a second. “You think he’s in danger?”

“They shot him, but Dakota is the one they took.” If these people thought she was the weak link, he’d feel sorry for them when they discovered the truth. “He can help us. Probably” Sal glanced over at Josh, sitting in the back of the ambulance. “He wants to.”

“I’ll submit the paperwork.”

“Copy that.”

Victoria hung up.

“Weber!” Sal let his voice ring across the parking lot. Josh looked up. The dog barked. “When you’re done getting your owies kissed all better, you’re with me.”

The man’s face was priceless. At least Niall didn’t start laughing. Sal didn’t need that. And he didn’t need arguments from a rookie, even one that was a fed.

With some animals, you had to establish the alpha from the outset. Otherwise they’d get ideas that maybe they could be in charge, and you’d end up in a fight for who was on top. Like Josh could find Dakota better, or faster, than Sal? Just the idea amused him, though he didn’t laugh.

As if.

 

. . .

 

 

“Where are we going?”

Sal headed for Dakota’s motel room. Josh entered after him. Here, I guess.

Neema waited by the door for his command.

Neither Sal nor the other guy, Niall O’Caran, glanced at him. Not feeling the need to explain much? He’d been trained by the DEA, and before that, the marines. Still, it seemed like Neema might be of more use to them than he was.

Josh rolled his shoulders to try and discard the feeling. Ouch. He glanced around, looking for some evidence. “This is a waste of time.”

They knew who had Dakota—same truck, same guy. Terrence had a lot to answer for.

Militia, Sal had said. Like a homegrown army, determined to fight the federal government. Dakota was the enemy to them. The embodiment of the very thing they lived their lives in defiance of.

Sal didn’t acknowledge him. Josh might as well have been invisible.

He said, “What are you guys even looking for? It isn’t like they left something behind that’ll tell you where they have her.”

Niall straightened on the far side of the bed. “We know where they have her.”

“So what are you looking for? Because maybe she doesn’t want you two going through her things. Maybe she wants you to go get her.”

“You’re new,” Sal said, his words measured. His tone flat, like he was placating Josh. He lifted Dakota’s computer and tucked it into her backpack, then continued, “So I’m going to do you a solid, and explain. Don’t get used to it.”

Josh said nothing.

“We take what she doesn’t want looked at, and what doesn’t need to get tied up as evidence for the next however many days the sheriff’s department will hold it.”

“That isn’t legal. Plus it’s your case, right?” He almost said, “our case” but was glad he’d held back.

“We don’t need their questions about who we are. The lengthy explanations about why we’re here. Or about how we all ended up working together when we’re from completely different federal agencies.”

They’d barely explained it to him. “So you clean up here, and then we go get her?”

“Yes.”

Josh fisted his hands, then shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“That dog of yours going to need to pee before it gets in my car?”

“She.” Josh didn’t answer the question, which was insulting. Neema wasn’t a toddler that needed a training diaper.

“I’m done.” That came from Niall.

Josh nearly threw his hands up in relief, but didn’t. That would have sent a searing pain down his shoulder. Yep, good choice.

He saw the look that passed between them, but who cared when they were gearing up to go get Dakota. She was all that mattered. In a completely platonic, I-just-met-you-and-we’re-colleagues kind of way, with a side of, “I got shot trying to help you” thrown in for good measure.

She seemed like a good woman. One whose heart was in the right place, even if she was a little gruff. Maybe even rough around the edges. He’d never liked those women who wanted to be all prissy and objected to camping. What was that about?

There was something about Dakota Pierce that drew him to her. Maybe he would never figure out exactly what it was, and maybe didn’t have time to, but that wasn’t the point right now. She was in danger and their job was to help her. At least, it was Niall and Sal’s job—and the other two, Victoria and Talia. Dakota needed him and he was glad he was on this job—granted, only until tomorrow night. But still glad to be able to help get her back to safety.

For now, he was part of this. It didn’t matter if it fit with his plans, or not.

And he was going to do whatever it took.

Determined to push through that flash he’d seen, the look on her face. She’d been…not scared. There was far more to it than that. Angry. Frustrated. They bested her. She was on her way to being incapacitated. The thread of possibility that they would use her and then dump her somewhere. All of it had been there on her face. That split second flash he’d seen before the gun exploded.

Josh wanted to get her back. To replace the bad with the relief of being found. Safe with her team again.

He wasn’t going anywhere until he made that happen.

“Car.”

Josh climbed in the back, and Neema hopped up beside him. She lay across the backseat with her head in his lap.

Sal shot her a resigned look and started the car. He navigated to the highway fast enough Josh’s eyebrows lifted, but he said nothing. Apparently Sal thought he was on a California freeway. Or he was as determined to get to Dakota as the rest of them.

“So what’s the plan?”

Niall shifted in his seat, then handed Josh a tablet. “This is the layout of the compound. We think she’ll be held here.” He pointed to the center building, roofed like a house on the satellite image. “But the reality is, we have no idea. We have no surveillance set up and no intel.”

“Call Talia.” Sal’s order was clipped. “She can get us a location.”

“She was wearing her watch? I didn’t see it in the room, I figured it was tucked in a bag.” Niall glanced between them.

“Josh, was Dakota wearing her watch?”

He frowned, trying to spawn the image in his own mind. The memory of her being taken. He’d been looking at her face, not her hand. They’d had ahold of her.

Then the gun went off, and he’d been on his back.

“I didn’t see.”

Sal sighed, like Josh now had another strike against him.

“What’s with the watch?”

Niall said, “GPS.”

Sal pulled out his phone and made a call. “Yeah, it’s me.” He was quiet for a minute and Josh could make out someone talking on the other end, just not what they were saying. It was a woman. Victoria, or this Talia person?

Sal said, “Copy that, red leader.” He hung up.

Cupcake? Red leader? The man seemed to have a thing for comedy nicknames. Cute, but was that going to get Dakota back?

Josh quit holding back his frustration. “Tell me you got something.”

 

 

. . .

 

 

His fist reared back. Dakota could barely make it out through the swollen skin around her eyes.

…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.

He hit her again. She’d lost count how many times, but he seemed determined.

This was her second time through the Declaration of Independence.

A whimper escaped her mouth. But then, there was no point holding it back, was there? He had to at least think he was making progress.

…it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government.

Terrence Crampton flexed his fingers and shook out his hand. Dakota took a second to tug against the tape securing her hands behind her back. They hadn’t taped her to the chair. Just dumped her here and started in, determined to break the federal agent.

Was he going to ask her a question at some point?

Terrence glanced at the teen, who he’d shoved in the corner to watch. “Go get her.”

Austin scurried out. Terrence’s gaze roved over her. She felt it like an oily touch, head to toes and back up. All over her skin.

The history of the present King of Great Britain…

Terrence moved to stand between her knees and braced his weight, his palms on her thighs. He leaned his face close to hers, their cheeks touching. He inhaled, deep through his nose.

…the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

It was like counting backwards from one hundred. Just a distraction technique, trying to get all the words and phrases correct. She’d been using the technique for years. Since she’d first read the Declaration of Independence in grade school.

Dakota didn’t like that she had to employ it again now. But life was funny like that and things seemed to have a habit of coming back around in circles.

He made a noise in his throat. Approval she didn’t need, or want. Dakota thought about bringing up her leg. Maybe she could smash her foot against something sensitive. They hadn’t given her any time to pull her boots on before they hauled her out of her motel room.

Inconsiderate, really. Now that she thought about it.

Who did stuff like that?

Someone about to get her face smashed into his if he didn’t back up, that was who. It was tempting. So tempting. She’d never in her life wanted to lose her cool more than she did right then. And with her history, that was saying something.

The door opened.

“What are you doing?” The woman’s voice was throaty, like a long time smoker. Or someone with strep.

Terrence straightened and stepped away. Dakota lifted her gaze to look at the woman. She remained in the shadows of the yellow glow of the bulb that hung from the ceiling.

“That’s what I thought.” The woman flicked her hand from Terrence to the door. “You’ve screwed up enough.”

She stepped into the shed, shifting sideways slightly so she could fit her frame in the door. Checkered shirt. Dirty beige work pants. Huge boots. Flat hair, and an expression not unlike a pug.

She stared at Dakota with black eyes. “Do you know what we do to nosy government agents?”

…a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

Dakota said, “I guess I’m going to find out.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 9

Josh stopped between two trees, crouching behind the cover of a downed tree that was now overgrown. Neema panted against his ear. He gave her the hand signal to lay down. She settled her belly to the grass with a grunt.

He pulled out his binoculars, the infrared kind. It was so dark out here he couldn’t see much of anything. Lights at the compound were sparse.

Josh spotted sentries. He keyed his radio. “I’ve got two on roving patrol between me and the entrance.”

“Two on my end doing the same,” was Sal’s reply.

“One at the south end.” That was Niall.

“Copy that. Five total.” The woman’s voice had the edge of an accent he thought might be South African. Later he would ask about that. For now all he’d needed to know was that this was the famous Talia, and she was running comms for the operation.

Fear walked with cold fingers up his spine. That whisper in his ear, telling him this was futile. Dakota was already dead.

Josh gritted his teeth and studied the compound through his binoculars. He had taken up position on the west side. Sal was across, east, about a mile from Josh. Niall had the rear, to the south of them, where there was a small exit in the chain link fence. The north edge was where patrols were focused, guarding the wide opening. Where they’d be spotted if they approached.

Neema shifted. He glanced back and saw her ears were perked. Her nose twitched.

He scratched under her chin and kept looking through the binoculars. There. Two dogs jumped and tussled with each other, big German Shepherds with heavy fur and equally heavy bellies. They seemed more interested in the bone they were wrestling over, but Josh wasn’t going to take for granted those powerful bites. Especially not when they could get Neema between them and overpower her.

She’d faced enough through two tours. She didn’t need to get jumped by a couple of bullies in back country Washington State.

Sal’s voice invaded his thoughts. “Lot of activity around the central house.”

Josh moved the binoculars and saw two men in front of a shed, both smoking. The glow of cigarettes illuminated their faces. He thought it might be Terrence and the other guy—not the teen, the friend—but couldn’t be sure without getting closer.

Talia said, “Rookie, you’re gonna get an email.”

Josh felt his phone vibrate in his pocket before she’d even finished talking. He said, “Copy that,” and shifted to pull it out. The email was from Victoria Bramlyn, State Department. Director of Domestic Security. He read through it, eyebrows lifting as he got further and further down.

Talia said, “Do as instructed with the attachment and get it back to me, or you’re flying solo. And none of us can help you out of that mess.”

“Copy that.” Josh opened the document. It took him a minute or so to navigate the attachment, sign it as instructed, and send it back.

A request to the DEA from Victoria Bramlyn that Special Agent Josh Weber assist her on a case he was uniquely qualified for.

Didn’t say what the case was. Or what his “unique qualifications” were. But his boss had signed it. They’d dragged the assistant director out of bed? That wasn’t going to go down well when he got back to work. Though given the document he’d just returned to Victoria there might not be much the man could say.

These people had pull.

He said, “Done,” over the radio.

Sal’s voice came back at him through his earpiece. “Welcome aboard.”

“It’s been a dream for so long,” Josh drawled, heavy on the sarcasm.

Niall chimed in. “I’d like to thank the Academy…”

Josh cracked a smile.

Talia came on again. “While you bozo’s have been performing your comedy routine, I’ve been redirecting satellites. Two heat signatures in that shed.”

Heat was good.

Heat meant she was still alive.

Sal said, “Our girl in there?”

Even if she was, there was little they could do that wouldn’t start an all-out war between them and double their number of armed men willing to die.

Josh said, “How do we get her out?”

 

 

. . .

 

 

“What time is it?”

The woman started, halting her long-winded speech about freedom and something or other. “What…who cares? That isn’t why I came in here.”

“Okay,” Dakota said. “I was just curious what time it was.” She shrugged one shoulder, but not much. She didn’t want the woman to think she wasn’t all that secure. The last thing she needed was to be completely immobilized.

If the pug-faced woman would come a half step closer, Dakota could be done with whatever this conversation was. But she needed to gather intelligence from this woman. She was probably some kind of leader, so as tempting as it was, Dakota tamped down the urge to hurt her and then walk out of here. Right now she needed answers more than she needed escape.

Dakota turned her head to the side and spat out the blood-mixed saliva that had collected in her mouth. Her head throbbed like crazy. It was distracting enough she wasn’t sure what to do next. She recited more of the Declaration of Independence while the woman stared at her with resting pug face.

Okay, so she wasn’t doing as well as she wanted to believe. But lying to oneself was like balance—some days it was there, other days you had to work harder to get a good tree pose going.

It was the smell. And Austin being in here earlier. The taste of blood in her mouth. Hearing the teen whimper when she was hit. He might have dumped Maggie’s body, but he was no hard-nosed criminal. The kid was new, being inducted into how this whole thing worked so he could take over in a few years, maybe.

Pug-face woman finally said, “That’s all you’re curious about? What time it is?”

“Can’t say I don’t have questions.”

Maggie. Austin. The shipments. The orchard.

Dakota didn’t know what to ask first.

Pug-face woman said, “Too bad it’s going to be me asking the questions and you giving me answers.”

“Fire away,” Dakota said.

The woman actually reacted. Just a tiny glint. Not quite humor but there was something. She mushed her lips together, and the glint was gone. “Why are you snooping your fed nose around my orchard?”

Well, that was telling. Her orchard. “I’ve met the owners. Nice people. I don’t think they’d take too kindly to you claiming their property.”

“Our territory is vast. The fact the federal government isn’t aware of who owns what is kind of the point, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, I know. Stick it to the man. Live free, but ready for war.” At least, that was what most people thought of them. They figured that with these militia guys it was mostly bluster and not much else. Except the amount of guns they have stockpiled.

The woman snorted, like she thought Dakota was hilariously misguided. “We don’t need no feds poking their noses around.”

“Just following the stink.”

“Of what?”

Dakota curled her lips up. “Why don’t you tell me all the things you’re up to, and I’ll tell you which ones I've heard about?”

The woman actually chuckled.

“Worth a try,” Dakota said. “How about we start with Maggie? You kill her?” She knew Austin and Terrence hadn’t done it.

“That airhead.”

“Wrong place at the wrong time? Overheard something?” Dakota paused for a second. “Someone got mad at her and went too far, maybe?”

She’d been strangled. A personal death that put two people face-to-face, close enough you could hear their last breath. See the look in their eyes. It wasn’t something done by accident, or without reason. Whether that reason was by order, or because of overwhelming anger, was the question she wanted an answer to.

“Do you want me to confess?” the pug-face woman asked. “Are you going to arrest me?”

“Did she get this treatment?” Maggie hadn’t looked like she’d been beaten, but that was just her face.

“What you’re experiencing—what you’re going to experience—is reserved for feds.”

“So Maggie was different.”

“That piece of trash. She was nothing!” Spittle flew. The woman’s face turned red.

“And you got rid of her,” Dakota said. “Then you had Austin dump her at the orchard like the trash she was.” Her voice was measured. Cold to her own ears. She’d never liked that tone. The one she’d had to learn, that contained no emotion whatsoever. No life.

She sounded dead.

“So what if I did? It’s not like you’re going to tell anyone.”

They were going to kill her. That wasn’t the part Dakota was so worried about. It was the stuff that came before it that was concerning. Her face and head both hurt like nobody’s business. She needed to spit again. Had he cracked a tooth? Ugh. She hated the dentist.

“… even listening to me!”

Dakota blinked. “What?”

The woman screamed in rage. Close enough Dakota saw her uvula.

She tipped her head to the side, ignoring the pain. “You seem like you’re having a bad day.” Even though it was the middle of the night. “Why don’t you tell me about it? Maybe I can help. Then if you let me go, I’m sure things will smooth out. I won’t mention this to anyone.”

Her scratchy palm slapped Dakota across the face. The blow whipped her head to the side, her cheek stinging.

Dakota spat. Inciting rage in the pug-face woman could wind up being a good thing, or it could go very badly. “Is that what happened to Maggie? You lost it, and she wound up dead? Maybe things just went too far, and you didn’t mean it.”

“Tell me what led you here.”

“You,” Dakota said. “And whatever you’re up to.”

She wanted to trust that she would be rescued. But she couldn’t rely on it. The door wasn’t going to blow off its hinges. No armed gunmen would burst in all of a sudden.

Was her team here? Were they coming?

Was Josh dead?

She’d seen him get shot but had forced away those thoughts. Until now. She couldn’t fight back the surge anymore.

She didn’t like the fact she might actually feel something for a man she’d met only yesterday. Not that she would like, cry, or anything. But she would feel the loss.

He seemed nice enough. Like he was a good guy who loved his dog and didn’t deserve to die just because he tried to help her.

She wasn’t worth that.

Where was Sal? And Niall? Was Talia looking for her? Was Victoria pacing her study at home, waiting for the phone to ring?

“What exactly do you think I’m up to?”

Dakota said, “Something. Or you wouldn’t be so concerned that I’ve found out about it.” She spoke the thought aloud, unable to fully process it in her head. Not when it currently felt like it was about to split open.

The pug face woman swung around and flung the door open. “Find out what she knows!”

She stormed out, letting the cold air blow in. Dakota’s skin prickled, and she shivered. Shouldn’t have downed so many sparkling waters at dinner.

She hopped up out of the chair before anyone came in. Then plopped her butt down on the floor—gross—and shifted her arms to the front so she had use of her bound hands. Her head swam, but she ignored it. She wasn’t going to be able to get out of here without brain power and use of her limbs.

Disable the guards. Run for it.

Not a great plan but hopefully her team was ready to assist.

Terrence came in just as she climbed to her feet. He stopped. Blinked.

Dakota struck fast and hard. She poured all of her frustration and discomfort into her attack.

 

 

. . .

 

 

Josh moved between two containers at the edge of the property, the kind of shipping containers that transported freight on the back of semi-trucks. He held his gun in a loose grip. Shoulders shifting. Feet moving. Stiff or tense didn’t help anything when an attack could come out of nowhere.

He stopped at the end and surveyed the expanse of dirt between him and the shed. Ruts from tires. Piles of dirty snow. Someone had made a snowman. It was halfway melted now, with the wrinkled carrot lying where it had fallen.

Air puffed white from his mouth as he stood and watched. Terrence Crampton had passed a heavy-set woman and entered the shed. The woman had stalked off.

Cigarette man was still there, not paying attention to much beyond his habit and his phone. He lifted his head and glanced at the woman’s back. Didn’t think much of her but wasn’t willing to share that opinion to her face.

Something from the shed drew his attention. The man shifted that way and looked over. His shoulders shook with humor over what was happening inside.

Too far to run over and put him down before he turned back.

The guards at the north entrance were a quarter mile to Josh’s left. Whatever he did would put him out in the open where they’d see everything.

The shed door flung open. Dakota stumbled out. It was too dark to see her face, but he saw her go down.

Josh ran before his brain could catch up and tell him rushing over there wasn’t a good plan.

Cigarette man dropped his phone and fumbled behind him. Gun?

Josh brought his up.

Dakota rushed at him, ducked her head to change levels at the last second, and tackled his stomach. The man landed on his back, her on top. She swung her hands together in front and hit him. Tied up?

Josh’s boot dipped sideways into a rut. His leg caught and his other knee landed in the frozen dirt. Ouch. The force jarred his shoulder, making it impossible to ignore it any longer. The pain was blinding. And while pain meds were a beautiful thing, he’d been shot, and it hurt.

Josh had to push a breath out between gritted teeth and get his footing back under him so he didn’t pass out.

Cigarette man shoved Dakota aside so she rolled, ending up flat on her back a few feet away. Struggling to get up. The guy pulled a gun from the back of his waistband and pointed it at her.

Josh went with instinct and cried out again, running. It was enough to distract cigarette man.

The guy looked at him.

Josh winced at the pull against his wound but held his gun up and put a bullet in his chest. And he didn’t miss the guy’s heart. The explosion echoed in the night. Terrence Crampton stumbled from the shed. Josh ignored the yelling in his earpiece, clambered to his feet and ran for Dakota. A dog barked. She was already up, and grabbed cigarette guy’s gun.

Turned.

Pointed it at Terrence.

But he wasn’t armed. Josh yelled, “Let’s go!”

Automatic gunfire peppered the ground between them. Dakota and Josh both cut toward the south. “On me.” He ordered, assuming she’d understand he knew the way out.

Josh keyed his radio as he ran. “I need cover—”

Before he even finished, answering gunfire sounded across the compound. The cavalry had come.

Josh raced with Dakota to the hole he’d cut in the fence, bullets dogging every step.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 10

Dakota raced after him. He would never know how much trust it took to concentrate only on him, push out everything else and just follow. Submit to his leading.

She was never going to tell him how much that took.

Josh cut right around the back of the container.

She could hear the jingle of metal tags. “Dogs.” She didn’t want them to race up behind her and grab her pant leg. Bite her.

A sob burst from her throat, but her eyes remained dry.

Josh stopped at a fence and waved her through the hole. She scrabbled on hands and knees through the gap, grimacing at how useless her bound hands were. A gun fired.

She spun around, expecting to be shot. She’d dropped the gun right before they ran, and hadn’t been able to stop and grab it.

Two big dogs stopped in their tracks right behind them. Both barked, paws lifting off the ground.

Josh fired again, weapon pointed at the dirt. The dogs yelped and backed up. With a swift head nod, he motioned for Dakota to go through first. She glanced back. Guys with automatic weapons raced between the containers, headed right for them while the dogs paced. Waiting for orders.

Josh tugged her elbow, and they ducked through, skirting the fence line. “This way.”

“K.” It was all she could get out.

They had to put distance between them and those guys with automatic weapons. There was no way they would win that fight.

And the more distance between her and those dogs, the better.

Every step felt like it took forever. As though time had slowed, and every breath was drawn out. A lifetime between each one.

“Copy that,” Josh said, his voice breathy. He grabbed her hand and tugged her forward.

She wasn’t going to last much longer running at this pace before her body shut down and she collapsed.

Dakota glanced back but couldn’t see anyone.

An engine revved. Not the throaty sound of a car. This was different. A four-wheeled vehicle headed right for them, lights on. So bright she had to shield her eyes.

Josh said, “I know,” into his radio.

Whatever that was about, there wasn’t time to ask him. The all-terrain vehicle cut left, off the path they were on, and headed between two trees at a slower pace. Dakota saw the word POLARIS on the side.

Josh darted after it, still tugging her along with him. He let go of her hand and jumped on the back, grasped a bar at the top and tucked his feet up on a shelf at the back. He shifted and held out his hand. “Jump.”

Dakota grabbed his hand. She planted her foot two more times, then launched herself up. The shin of her trailing leg hit the shelf, and she grabbed the bar. Josh nudged her forward with his free hand. “Climb through.”

A bullet sang past her head. Josh ducked. Dakota’s whole body flinched.

“Hold on,” Niall yelled from the front seat.

There was no way she could climb through to the seat. Her fingers didn’t want to lose their grip on the bar. The wind was killer. So cold. A whimper escaped her mouth.

Josh shifted closer to her, but there wasn’t much he could do without losing his own grip. He turned to Niall and called out, “Slow down a fraction. About twenty feet.”

Niall eased off the gas, both hands a death grip on the wheel.

Josh stuck two fingers from one hand in his mouth and whistled. Loud and sharp. Dakota winced as the sound reverberated through her head.

Seconds later, Neema ducked out from behind a bush and jumped. She cleared the passenger side and landed on the seat, skidding into Niall. Her teammate yelped. At any other time it might’ve been funny.

Niall drove through the woods. Neema panted, mouth open and tongue hanging out. Josh shifted and Dakota glanced at him.

He winced and leaned closer so their faces were almost touching. “You don’t look so good.”

“Probably about as great as I feel.” She could hardly talk around the discomfort of her swollen face, numb from the cold air. “You were shot.”

He nodded, eyes on her. Unreadable. “I’m okay now.”

Niall eased on the brakes and she saw they were approaching an SUV. Niall stopped the ATV. “Go with Josh.” The look on his face was one she didn’t want to argue with. “I’ll draw them away.”

“Are they following us?” She glanced back.

“Go Dakota.”

Josh jumped off the the back and lifted her. It took a second to disconnect her fingers from the bar, then he set her feet on the ground. “Come on.”

She looked at Niall, even while Josh led her to the vehicle. Should she be doing something?

“Go,” Josh said. “Get warm.”

“What is—”

Josh flung the door open. “Get in.” He glanced at the animal. “Neema, up.”

Dakota flinched. The dog hopped into the car and moved to the backseat.

Niall drove off. Without thinking about it, her body turned to the ATV. She needed to help her team, didn’t she?

Josh gave her a gentle push. Her legs gave out. He tucked them inside and shut the door in her face.

Neema laid her head on Dakota’s shoulder. She recoiled and shifted in her seat so the dog had to move away.

Josh got in, saw her body language, and said, “Neema, platz.” He turned the key and started the car. The dog settled into the backseat with a grunt. He backed around in a U-turn and set off down the dirt track, tapping his finger on the steering wheel.

“What?” He needed to say something. She could feel the shakes coming over her, so she cranked the heat and pointed the blowers at her face. “Tell me.”

“Alvarez hasn’t checked in yet.”

Dakota grabbed the cord to his earpiece and stuck it in her own ear.

“…on. Come on.”

“Talia, it’s me.”

Josh bent toward her so their faces almost touched. So the cord was long enough.

Her teammate blew out a breath that made the connection crackle. “Thank You, God. You’re all right?”

“I’m fine.” Like that was important right now? “Where’s Salvarez?”

“Hunkered down would be my guess.”

“But you don’t know.”

“You think he let them capture him?”

Dakota pressed her lips together. “He better be okay.”

Josh said, “We’re headed back to the motel. Keep us posted.”

“Copy tha—”

Dakota interrupted Talia. “We are not. We’re going to help him.”

“That’s Niall’s job right now.” Josh actually pulled the earpiece out of her hand. “Not yours.”

“Go back.”

“No.”

She balled her fist, teeth clenched.

“Are you going to hit me? I figure you don’t have the strength to do a whole lot of damage, but there’s a chance.” He shook his head. “Do I need to remind you we just saved your butt?”

Dakota sat back in her chair. Folded her arms. “Planning to talk until my head explodes?” Sarcasm dripped from her words.

He made a sound, air pushed out of his nose. Like he wanted to tell her to shut up. He should. What was the point in being nice when things needed to be said?

“Close your eyes and take a break.” His voice sounded pained. “When I know something, I’ll tell you.”

Dakota didn’t close her eyes. “I better know the second you find out.”

Josh reached over and squeezed her hand. “He’ll be okay.”

“He better be.”

 

 

. . .

 

 

First she got mad. Then it became clear she needed a little compassion from him because she was hurting and worried about her friend. Now she was silent. Evidently if something happened to Sal because Josh hadn’t turned the car around and gone to help the guy, then it was going to be his fault.

She wanted to go and rescue her friend. A friend who’d been there to rescue her. She was in absolutely no position to be doing anything right now. Unless that was taking pain killers and lying down.

Josh really shouldn’t be either, considering the bandaged gash just below his neck.

He glanced at her once, then pulled out onto the road. Her face was a mess. If the rest of her was half as bad, then she might have internal bleeding to go along with that concussion.

He drove into town and headed to the doctor’s office instead of to the motel. She would probably prefer to not be in the room she’d been kidnapped from.

Josh ignored the radio and handed Dakota his phone. “Do me a favor and call Talia?”

She didn’t look at him, or give anything away, but she did dial the number. When she handed it back, it was already ringing.

Talia answered. “Weber?”

“Yeah.”

Before he could say more, Talia interrupted. “Is Dakota okay?”

Josh answered with, “Rouse the doctor out of bed.”

Dakota shifted. “No—”

He ignored her right back. “She needs looking at, and I’m pretty sure I need stitches.”

“Copy that.”

“I’m headed there now. Have him meet us.”

“Uh…” Talia paused. “Looks like it’s a woman.”

“Then have her meet us.”

Josh hung up and pulled into the parking lot. The sign outside said, Doctor J Stevens. Probably better for Dakota that the doctor was a woman, as she’d likely be more comfortable being poked and prodded by a woman. Especially considering what might have happened between her being taken and running out of that shed.

He pulled into a spot right by the door and tossed the phone in the cup holder. He shifted toward Dakota, and fussed with the heater some more so it blew warm on her. “Still cold?”

He shifted again, trying to get comfortable. Neema set her front paws on the center console and sniffed at his face. She knew how he felt about face licking, so she didn’t try that. Just kept her nose close to his. He scratched under her chin. “You okay, Dakota?”

She spoke to the window, her body still. Fingers intertwined together on her lap. “Sorry about your truck.”

“You didn’t ask them to toss a grenade under it. I’m just glad we’re both in one piece.” Except neither of them were all right, if they were honest.

She sucked in a breath that shifted her chest and couldn’t quite hide the wince.

“Tell me what they did.” He didn’t want to ask, but maybe she needed to say it out loud.

“Tied me up. Punched me. Tried to talk me to death.”

“That’s it?”

She shrugged one shoulder. A delicate move. One he didn’t think she realized told him more about what had happened than any of her previous words.

They’d shaken her, despite her strength and capability. The pain she was in, the quiet and dark of the car. Maybe even the fact it was him here and not her team. All of it allowed her mask to slip just a little.

She was far from okay.

The clock on the dash read 00:47 when the doctor pulled into the parking lot. She met them at the door and took a look at both of them. She motioned to Josh. “Gunshot first.”

She showed Dakota to a room, and had her get into a gown while she stitched up Josh next door. When she’d finished up, she headed to check out Dakota.

Josh paced the hallway while the phone rang against his ear. Dakota would want an update. When Talia answered, he said, “Anything?”

“Niall thinks they have Salvarez pinned down so that he can’t respond or he’ll give himself away. But Niall can’t get any closer without confronting them. How’s our girl?”

“In with the doctor,” Josh said.

“Soon as I get word about Sal, I’ll let you know. So you can tell her.”

Because they were friends and teammates, or more? Josh didn’t know if he wanted an answer to that. “Are they…”

“No.” She dragged out the word. “What a nightmare that would be. No way. He would probably shoot her inside of a week, after she first drove him crazy, of course. Dakota needs someone who can settle her. Someone who can bring peace to her life, not more of that Type-A, butt-to-the-flame, win-at-all-costs thing they both have going on.”

It sounded like she needed an elementary school teacher, or at least someone with a job completely different to hers. Josh wasn’t sure he liked that.

“She also needs someone capable of protecting her and keeping up with her. Not someone she’s going to railroad, or walk all over. Not that she would do it intentionally, but if they just bend under her strength, then what’s the point?”

“Mmm.” Josh didn’t really know what else to say. Equally strong, but not the same? Soft but a fighter? Maybe Talia just knew all the facets of Dakota’s personality, so she had this level of insight. Maybe she saw the contrasting things and knew what would match up to her.

Would he?

Did he want to find out? It wasn’t like he was any good at relationships. So far he hadn’t had one that actually worked. And if he admitted it to himself, that actually hurt. He knew it wasn’t totally his fault. Relationships took two people working to make them last, and maybe he hadn’t met anyone willing to do their part. But he was almost thirty. Everyone he’d grown up with was married. Some of them even had kids already.

He had Neema, and his job. And Eden.

A dog and an old lady neighbor.

The doctor pulled the door open. Josh said, “Gotta go,” and hung up on Talia.

Dr. Stevens closed the door behind her. “One second.” She tapped the screen of her iPad for a few seconds, then locked it. Looked up. “Okay.”

Josh lifted his eyebrows, leaving the question unspoken.

“Lacerations and bruising, mainly concentrated on her face. Her hip has a nice-sized bruise as well. She’s getting dressed now.”

“You’re releasing her?”

“She doesn’t want to be admitted, so there’s nothing I can do more than what I’ve already done. The concussion from earlier still stands. She needs monitoring, and she needs to sleep. The woman is exhausted. She’s not going to feel better for a few days.”

By which time he’d be back to work. Long gone with nothing but a gunshot wound to remember this lovely time in his life.

Yes, Victoria had made his boss sign that paper, but it wasn’t like it extended beyond Monday, right? He needed to get back to his desk. Keep working on those open cases he had.

“Thank you.”

Dr. Stevens nodded. She walked away down the hall, and he waited a minute. Then tapped on the door.

“You can come in.” Her voice was muffled.

Josh cracked the door and peered in. She was dressed in her jeans and a T-shirt, the other layers beside her on the bed. Her feet were bare. Hair down. Ponytail holder on her wrist.

Aside from the bruising, she looked considerably younger. It made him want to hug her so she felt better.

“Can you help me with my shoes?”

Josh knelt in front of her and assisted. Her socks were thick. He tied her boot laces, and even zipped her coat for her.

She stood. “Thank you.”

The words were a whisper between them. “You’re welcome.”

Her lip was split. Josh leaned close to the other corner of her mouth. Just a tiny kiss. A small amount of comfort for her, when she clearly didn’t feel good at all.

When their lips were a hairsbreadth apart, his phone rang.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 11

Dakota settled into the chair, not thinking too much about the fact this was Josh’s room and not hers. Her head pounded. She would’ve been grateful for that fact, as it meant she was still alive, had it not hurt so bad it eclipsed everything else.

“You can lie down if you want.” He even shooed Neema off the bed.

Dakota said, “No.” It came out too strong.

He shot her a look. “I didn’t mean anything. You just look like you need to lie down.”

That soft look was back in his eyes. The same one that had been there before he was going to kiss her. She knew he’d been about to. No one moved their face so close to someone else’s without that being on their mind.

Then his phone had rung. Niall found Sal, and they were headed back here.

After that it had been all about getting in the car and arguing about who was worse off, and who should drive. Heading back to the motel. She wanted to take a shower, but that would mean getting her things from her room, and right now, it was the last place she wanted to go. Asking one of the guys to get her stuff also wasn’t going to happen.

“You do look like you need to rest.”

Dakota was about to answer him. Someone knocked on the door. She moved to get up, but Josh waved her back in the chair. “Stay there.”

He had a gun in one hand, and peered out the peep hole for a second before he grabbed the handle and let them in.

Niall, followed by Sal.

Relief was enormous. So overwhelming she actually smiled, even though it hurt a lot. Sal looked about as grateful to see her as she was to see him. He strode over and crouched in front of her. “Pierce?” His voice was hoarse.

Dakota bit her lip against the rush of tears. Why was this affecting her so much? Too tired. Too much headache. She didn’t know why, but she could hardly speak past the emotion clogging her throat. “I’m okay.”

Josh made a noise that sounded an awful lot like he disagreed with her.

She ignored him. “You?”

“They pinned me down, and I didn’t want to be in the middle of a gunfight. I hunkered down and stayed there until they passed by me. Then I ran for it with Niall.”

Dakota didn’t think that meant they’d come out unscathed, necessarily. But she was going to wait until she could think straight before asking more questions.

Sal would absolutely refrain from telling her the truth, or the whole truth at least, if he thought she didn’t need it. Or couldn’t handle it. For the first time, she thought he might actually be right.

And if he wasn’t, she didn’t have the energy to argue.

“What are we going to do now?” She didn’t want to be the focus. And if she was going to stay awake, then they needed to make a game plan.

Sal sat on the edge of the bed. Niall’s usually glass-half-full face looked decidedly darker than normal. She didn’t like that at all. He was the happy, hopeful one among them.

Niall said, “Victoria is on her way.”

“What?”

Sal waved at her. “Deal with it. You think she’s going to sit at home when one of her people got hurt?”

“Guess not.”

Niall cracked a smile. “When she gets here, we’ll figure out a plan.”

“Is she getting a warrant for the compound?” Dakota figured the plan would be to raid the place where she was taken, round them all up and start filing charges.

Sal nodded.

“You think they’ll be there when we go back?” Josh asked.

“We?”

He nodded. “Victoria got permission from my boss. I’m attached to the team. At least for another eighteen hours. I should be back in the office Monday morning.”

Dakota didn’t know what to say. She glanced at the clock, counting down the minutes until Josh left. It was the middle of the night right now—early Sunday morning. Josh was part of the team? Victoria had pulled strings so that he was attached to the Northwest Counter Terrorism Taskforce.

Sal said, “Don’t count on going home anytime soon. This is far from over.”

Josh opened his mouth to say more, but another knock on the door sounded. He pulled the door open without looking this time. Talia strode in, followed by Victoria. The difference between them couldn’t be more apparent than it was just now.

They introduced themselves to Josh, then Talia sauntered over, her gorgeous thick curves showcased as she peeled off her thigh-length fluffy coat to reveal a pair of skinny jeans and a fitted blouse. Her gold toned makeup was still perfect against her dark skin even though it was the early hours of the morning, and her short bob of tight curls looked just right.

“You okay?” She cocked her hip and set her hand there for extra emphasis.

Dakota shut her eyes and nodded.

Talia touched the sides of Dakota’s head, her fingers warm and pressed a kiss on her forehead.

She opened her eyes to Talia licking her thumb, then going in to wipe her forehead. Dakota said, “Did you leave a lipstick mark on me?”

“The purple is bruise-colored as well.” Talia paused. “I’m not sure if it’s fabulous or very very sad. I think I’m done with the eggplant.”

Dakota smiled as Talia sauntered to sit next to Sal. He sighed and scooted over.

Victoria had crouched by the door. Her pencil skirt pulled tight across her knees as she held out her hands. Neema sniffed and licked the boss’s hands then moved closer and aimed for Victoria’s face.

The boss ruffled her hands through the hair on Neema’s sides while the dog slurped kisses all over her cheeks. “What a beautiful girl you are.”

Dakota glanced at the men. Transfixed. Victoria had that way about her. Long, straight blond hair. Classy. Late forties, but she had something about her that was…timeless. Like European vacations, and those perfume commercials.

Next to her, Dakota would always be the girl who grew up with dirt under her fingernails and one pair of shoes. A girl who got haircuts at home. And had never been on a vacation in her life.

Josh called Neema away and then held out a hand to help Victoria stand. Looking a little more smitten than Dakota would’ve liked to have seen on the face of a man who had nearly kissed her not even an hour earlier.

“Dakota?”

She blinked and focused on her boss. A woman whose lips had curled up. Like there was anything funny about this?

She started to get up. There were entirely too many people in this small motel room, and she needed to move.

Victoria said, “Sit down.”

Dakota sat back down.

Victoria surveyed her, mostly her face. Though she knew better than to comment on any of it. Then she glanced around. “The warrant is on its way.”

“Good,” Sal said. “Then we can haul them all in.” He looked about ready to kill someone, not arrest them.

Dakota told them everything that had happened in that shed.

Sal said, “So the woman is in charge?”

“I think so. From what I can tell she’s the brains and the guys are all muscle.” Maybe they could pin down Austin Crampton again. Get him to talk this time.

“Unless they’re gone,” Niall said. “Maybe they split.”

“They have.” Talia pulled an iPad out of her giant gold purse. “Heat signatures moved away in different directions right after you guys took off.”

Dakota wanted to run her hands down her face, but that would hurt.

“We can still serve the warrant,” Victoria said. “See if they left anything behind. But we need to find them. Maybe even get someone on the inside of their group to dig up what they’re hiding.” She shot Dakota a pointed look.

“Austin.” Tomorrow she was going to find him.

Victoria shook her head, “That wasn’t who I was thinking of.”

Dakota stared at her boss. Seriously? She was going to bring him into this? “No. I said ‘no’ after the grenade and I’m still saying no. I mean it.”

The situation didn’t warrant that. It wasn’t a plan to solve this. It was no better than tossing in a nuclear warhead that would destroy everything…and everyone.

“But—”

“No.”

Victoria had no idea what she was even asking.

 

 

. . .

 

 

Josh didn’t ask what that was about. “Is it worth having Dakota look over mug shots to see if she can identify the woman?”

Talia spoke before anyone else. “I have something that might help.” She swiped at the screen of her iPad, her gold glitter nail flickering in the overhead light. “Austin Crampton, younger brother of Terrence Crampton.”

Dakota nodded.

Talia said, “They have an aunt. Their mother’s sister, Clare Norton.” She turned the iPad.

Josh leaned to the side to see what Dakota saw. Then he looked at her, so he could read the reaction on her face.

A muscle in her jaw shifted. She gave a short nod.

“Clare Norton?” Victoria said her name as a question. Evidently that meant something to the rest of them, a question she needed an answer to.

Talia nodded as she read her tablet screen. “Served ten years in the state of Oregon on drug charges. Got out three years ago. Austin and Terrence have no family, except her.”

“Maybe that’s why they’re sticking close,” Josh said. “Humoring her.”

Was Clare the one who’d killed Maggie? And why? He knew there wasn’t always a good answer, or even a satisfying one. Still, he wanted to be able to go back to Eden with an explanation that would give her peace.

“Looking to her for direction,” Sal said. “Maybe she has connections.”

“They’re definitely up to something.” Dakota pinned Victoria with a stare. “But nothing that warrants your move. This orchard thing could be big, but more likely they’re just squirrely because we’ve been asking around about them.”

“So killing Maggie was a screw up?” Josh thought for a second, then said, “Maybe Austin, that other guy, and Terry were there to cover for their Aunt. Get rid of the evidence. Terry didn’t seem too upset that she was dead.” Though he had cared where she was. Josh just didn’t know what his motivation might’ve been.

Dakota said, “Their focus is still whatever they have coming up.”

“Do you think we stumbled onto something?”

She shrugged in answer to Victoria’s question, then said, “Maybe.”

“Then we need more information, so that we can know for sure.”

“Your nuclear option is not our answer. That’s like throwing napalm on a BBQ.”

Victoria’s lips twitched. “Visual. I like it.” She paused. “I can control the situation.”

Dakota shook her head.

Sal said, “You two wanna let the rest of the class in on whatever you’re talking about?” He sat straight. His body reed thin, but in no way conveying weakness.

Josh glanced at Niall. The younger man had a thoughtful look on his face. Talia bit her eggplant lip. “No,” Dakota said. “We don’t.”

“Then there’s nothing more to say.” Victoria picked up her purse. “I’m leaving to go get a room for the night. Josh?”

She headed for the door, like that was all she needed to say to get him to come with her. Josh gave Neema the command to stay, then shut the door behind them, and followed her to a black SUV. She stood by the rear door, waiting. Josh opened it.

“The gray suitcase.”

He was supposed to carry her bag for her? Of course he’d offer to. He was a nice guy, and this wasn’t exactly entitlement on her part. Depended on who she was. Some people demanded that level of respect. And maybe she was one of them, he didn’t know.

Josh set it down, pulled up the handle, and they were off. Headed for the main office.

“So, Special Agent Weber.”

He nodded.

“Word was passed up the chain at the DEA that I should watch out for you. Be careful, as it were. Want to tell me why that might be?”

“Can’t say I know the answer to that.” Although, he could guess who said what. “But since I won’t be sitting at a desk, drowning in paperwork while working with your team, I can’t imagine what my supervisory agent thinks I’m going to be doing. Probably that I’ll be getting shot at while running from gunmen.”

The skin at the corner of her eyes shifted.

“He’s likely certain I’m going to learn all kinds of bad habits from you guys. Renegades, he probably calls you. Like what you do is black ops.”

“He’s punching the clock until retirement?”

“He’s got eight months left.” To say the guy was playing it safe was a serious understatement.

“And you got stuck with him?”

“I’m learning. I am. It’s just…” Josh didn’t know how to word it without sounding ungrateful.

“You want to know what else there is.”

He nodded.

“Good.”

“How’s that?”

She said, “The DEA might be a solid fit for you, and it sounds as if this training agent you’ve been assigned just isn’t your kind of agent. It’s helpful to learn how to blend in. That skill alone, swallowing the dissatisfaction, will come in handy. But you have to be who you are, which means eventually you have to find the spot where you fit.”

Did she know where that was? Josh didn’t want to wait to get there.

As much as he’d have liked it to be with Victoria and her team, it wasn’t like this was a permanent assignment. He was on loan. Not for any good reason, just because he’d been here looking for Maggie and wound up being part of it. They didn’t exactly need his help to figure out what Clare Norton and her family were up to.

Victoria pulled open the door to the main office herself. Before she stepped inside, she turned back. “I’m going to send you a file. I want you to head over to Inland federal prison tomorrow afternoon for visiting hours. He’s being transferred in first thing, so he’ll be there.”

“Who is he?”

“Someone who may be able to get to the bottom of this for us.”

“Does this have anything to do with what you and Dakota weren’t talking about?”

The last thing he wanted was to be placed between the two of them, pitted one against the other.

Victoria said, “It’s the same as your being here, is the easiest I can explain. The way that sometimes it takes someone else’s action to shift things. Then we end up where we were supposed to be in the beginning.”

That sounded like playing God with someone’s life. Whoever this woman was, she evidently had no problem rearranging things to suit her.

“It’s for the best.”

Josh wanted to go ask Dakota if she would agree with the sentiment. Victoria left him outside in the cold, wondering if this wasn’t the real reason she’d had him kept here.

To do things she didn’t want her real team doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 12

Dakota sat up, breathing hard. Tangled in motel bed sheets, her forehead damp with sweat. She kicked the covers off and headed for the bathroom. Talia had suggested they leave the light on in there as well as the door cracked, and now Dakota was glad for it.

She splashed water on her face to push the images from her mind. Sensations and sounds. The sharp intake of breath. A whimper.

She gripped the sides of the sink and hung her head. Probably the fact Victoria had brought it up had something to do with the resurgence of that nightmare. Or the pug-face woman. Both. Past and present blurring together.

Either way, it didn’t matter. Her brain was just processing the fact she’d been kidnapped. That was all. Vulnerability was something she’d never dealt well with.

Dakota wandered back to the motel room. Talia’s light snores came from the second bed. Her dark curls were pointed in every direction now. She wore a pink eye mask and earplugs. Her iPad was on the covers, close to the open fingers of her hand. Like she’d been half asleep, locked it, and then not had the energy to set it on the bedside table.

The screen lit when she lifted it.

Across it flashed a message that said, “Don’t even think about it.”

She wrinkled her nose and set the iPad on the table. Dakota only had like, three apps on her phone, and one was for her local pizza franchise. She never went on the internet, though she did use email on her work computer. She’d never even used any kind of tablet. About the most technological thing she had was her wireless headphones—and the GPS watch. That was only because Talia forced her to wear one.

She sat on her bed, back to the headboard. 04:32.

Her head didn’t hurt, so that was good. Not much point trying to go back to sleep, but neither did she want to head out for a run. Injuries and no backup weren’t a good mix for being alone in an unfamiliar environment.

Victoria might think that throwing someone in undercover was a good idea, but there was no way her idea would work. Nor would she get information out of her “source.” At least, not anything helpful.

Dakota couldn’t argue that having someone on the inside to feed information back would be helpful. Their team had all been seen. It had to be someone Clare and everyone with her didn’t know. Talia wouldn’t work—she couldn’t pull off “country chick” if she tried—and Dakota loved that about her. She knew who she was, and she was proud of her individuality.

Half the time Dakota didn’t even like the woman she was. But that was for another time. Or another life, where she was the kind of person who self-examined. She had too many things to do.

Too many bad guys to catch.

She’d been doing that for years. Moving at one hundred fifty percent and then sleeping on her days off. Through college and the police academy, at Homeland Security training. Since Victoria had spotted her, and she was picked up for the task force.

The alternative was having way too much time on her hands to think about her life. Past, present, future. Things would be what they were. After a childhood never knowing what was going to happen next, she was content with the familiarity of her routine of closing cases and then going home. A simple life.

She had her friends and her job. What else did she need?

Her thoughts jumped again, and she saw Josh’s face. That split second when he’d seen her for the first time after she’d been kidnapped. Right after she’d taken a healthy amount of frustration out on Terrence Crampton.

That look on his face. She’d never seen anything like it and couldn’t even imagine what it meant. Relief that she was all right. With a side of, “What happened to your face?” She looked worse this morning, according to the mirror in the bathroom, but she didn’t have more ice to put on her bruises.

Dakota shut her eyes and drifted. She needed coffee. And the files for Austin, Terry and their aunt. They had to figure out what the group was up to. If not someone on the inside, what other options were there?

They’d asked about them around town and wound up with Josh’s truck getting exploded by a grenade.

Josh.

Since she’d met him in the dark at the orchard there had been…something about him. She’d never been all that interested in a man before. Too busy. No time for guys who made it clear they were interested. Because what were they interested in, anyway? What kind of person did they think she was? How could they even tell she’d be worth getting to know after just a few minutes?

Dakota had never understood that. Attraction was fleeting. Everyone wrinkled and aged eventually. Some people headed in that direction with class and a sense of style she’d never had in the first place, but Dakota couldn’t help thinking that wasn’t going to be her.

She’d hardly be surprised if she ended up some grouchy cat lady. Or a sixty-five-year-old hit woman. What, were they going to send her to jail? Whatever. She’d had a good run.

Or she’d be dead. Struck by some illness, or taken out at work. Did it matter which?

There wasn’t much point trying to pretend that a “forever” relationship would work. Life almost never actually went that way.

Dakota pushed away the lull of sleep and pulled on some clothes. Maybe the night desk clerk had coffee. At least going outside would clear her head of random thoughts about romance and a good looking guy. Okay, seriously good looking. Not that two days of beard shadow was cute. It looked more scratchy than anything else. Anyway, he had a dog. Dakota didn’t like dogs.

She sat to pull on her boots, her brain flashing back to carrying a brown and white dog through the house in her arms so she could grab the leash and take her outside.

Daddy didn’t like it when Eliette woke him up.

Dakota strode out the door and flung it shut. The slam cut through the quiet of before dawn. She winced. Probably shouldn’t wake everyone up.

A dog barked anyway.

Dakota sighed. Busted by Neema.

She wandered along the sidewalk in front of the doors. It had been shoveled and salted. The cold cut through her fleece jacket. She zipped the collar over her mouth.

“Dakota?”

She spun around and almost slid over on the sidewalk. She flung her arms out to get her balance back. “Whoa.”

“You okay?” He stood with his head out the door, a frown on his face. T-shirt. Sweats with white stripes down the sides. Thick wool socks.

Neema leaned against his knee in a sit. The way she’d rested her weight against Dakota’s leg last night when he’d gone to talk with Victoria. As though, in his absence, the dog had decided she should stand guard.

“Dakota?”

“Yeah…what?”

“Are you okay?”

“Just looking for coffee.” She motioned over her shoulder to the main office. He nodded. Silence stretched between them. “Okay, so I’m gonna go.”

He nodded again, made a face and said, “Want some company?”

“Uh…sure.”

“I’ll get my shoes.”

“I’ll meet you over there.” She turned away before he could say anything else.

He caught up to her in the office. Jacket on. Wool cap pulled down over his ears. There was no coffee though so Dakota drove them to a truck stop, and they ordered breakfast. It was after five now anyway. Not much point in trying to get more sleep.

She settled back into the booth, coffee mug in one hand. Sipping.

Josh studied her. “You eat in places like this often?”

She looked around. “Truck stops?”

When he nodded, she shrugged. He said, “You seem completely at home everywhere I’ve seen you so far. The orchard, the motel. Even running out of that compound.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s like you know exactly who you are. The good, the bad, and the ugly. And you’re completely fine with it. No pretenses.”

She shrugged again. Talia knew who she was. All Dakota knew was that she’d made the most of who she was—and of where she found herself. Was that a good or bad thing? She couldn’t tell from just his face. She shifted in her seat.

“Dakota.”

She set her cup down. “What?”

“Not many people know who they are to that level. It’s kind of amazing actually.”

Who she was had been inked into her skin—and she’d had that laser removed. Still, she’d been marked by her history on an elemental level. As much as she tried to forget any of it, or all of it…she couldn’t, could she? She would never be able to escape it.

He spoke again, still studying her. “I wonder if you would have that same level of complete at-homeness in a city.”

“Maybe not.” She shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t like to be around a lot of people.”

“Me either. Not even for the Super Bowl will I succumb to the crowd.” He shot her a self-deprecating smile. “I’ll occasionally go as far as a sports bar, but that’s rare. I prefer my recliner at home.”

She smiled wryly. “And how old is this recliner?”

“About fifty years.” He laughed. “It was my dad’s.”

Humor drained from her face. She felt her cheeks go cold, like someone had touched an ice pack to her skin. She took a sip of coffee, which made her split lip hurt. She probably looked like she’d been dragged through town by a horse. No wonder the waitress had done a double take.

“He died three years ago.”

“I’m sorry.” Isn’t that what you said?

Josh nodded, that intense gaze of his still taking her in. She felt his gaze, warm on all the places she was cold. Some kind of mythical creature or a dream guide that could see into her soul. She didn’t believe in any of that. But if she did? Well, she might think he had some part of one of those beings in him.

Intensity might be uncomfortable, but so far he’d noticed things about her that no one else had. Not even the people she was closest to. It wasn’t entirely unwelcome, the idea she could be “seen” at that level. Still, she couldn’t decide if she liked it or not.

One of the ladies at the church she went to sometimes had told her that God saw everything she did and said, heard everything she thought—even the intent behind her thoughts. Mostly Dakota didn’t want to acknowledge it. God was God, and she was down here. Working.

Considering how it felt with Josh, maybe she should think about God more. Dakota liked her privacy, but was that a reality?

Maybe she needed to face the truth.

Josh asked her how she got started with Victoria’s task force, so she told him. As for why she joined Homeland Security in the first place, Dakota gave him the pat answer she offered everyone. The one about serving her country. Justice, and all that.

When he started to ask another question, she said, “How about you? DEA?”

He fingered the handle of his mug. “Saw too many people go down that way. Even in the service, guys I rode with got hooked. Long days, killer hours. We had to stay awake.” He sighed. “Stuff was passed around. A buddy of mine OD’d.” His eyes didn’t meet hers, but she could see he was lost in memory. In the sting of losing someone close.

Dakota didn’t know what that felt like. She’d never lost someone she actually cared about. Couldn’t imagine what it would feel like if one of her teammates was killed. “So you’re fighting the good fight now?”

“Trying to,” he said. “The agent I was assigned to is content logging hours pushing papers until retirement.”

“And you were hoping for more action?”

“How did you know?”

She shook her head, the pull of a teasing smile on her lips. “You just have this…sense about you. Like you know who you are. What you want.”

He smiled back. “Touché.”

She laughed, then finished off her food. When the waitress brought the check, Josh said, “Can I get four sausage links and two pancakes to go?” He pulled a couple of twenties from his wallet for the bill.

“Sure.” The waitress brought it in a box, and they headed outside.

The sidewalk had been salted, but the parking lot was slick still. Dakota turned on the car engine and rubbed her hands together.

Neema stuck her head between the seats, her nose twitching with rapid breaths.

“I know,” Josh said. His voice was soft, his affection for the animal clear.

“Was she your dog in the marines?”

He nodded, tearing the pancakes into pieces. He handed Neema a piece of sausage. “Got hit by a ricochet, tore up her hip. She’s good, but she can’t handle long days anymore. Took months and a whole lot of paperwork, but I got approval for her.”

He was quiet for a second, then said, “Thought about kidnapping her a couple times. The family they gave her to was nice and all, but she wasn’t their dog. When they saw her with me, they were good enough not to make a stink about it.”

Dakota nodded, not sure what she was supposed to say. They were a matched pair. But if Neema should have been adopted out after being retired, then there would’ve been nothing he could do.

Neema had been the property of the US Marines and assigned where they decided. Some partners would certainly have given up long before Josh. But it was clear both of them were far happier together than they ever would have been apart.

Neema shifted her muzzle toward Dakota’s face. The tongue swipe came out of nowhere.

“She likes you.”

Dakota made a face. “Or maybe I just smell like pancakes.”

He chuckled. “That’s possible, I guess. Not a dog person?”

“Is it that obvious?”

“Maybe you just haven’t been around dogs all that much.”

She shrugged.

“Or you had a bad experience.”

Neema settled on the backseat, and Dakota pulled out onto the highway.

“Have you?”

“What?”

“Been around dogs that much?”

Dakota didn’t know how to answer that. There had been dogs in the yard when she was a child. Not the kind you pet, though. Then there was Elliette. Her dog.

Hers.

“Dakota.”

She glanced at him but couldn’t read the look on his face, not while she was driving. “So where are you headed to today?”

He was quiet for a few seconds, clearly knowing she didn’t want to talk about dogs. Then he said, “Victoria has an errand.”

“Right.” He’d mentioned that, and she was more than curious what it was.

“I’m borrowing her rental. She has me headed to Inland Federal Prison to see a guy named Harlem Roberts.” Everything inside her turned to ice. “I don’t know how he fits, but Victoria thinks he can give us something that’ll help, I guess. So that’s where I’m going.”

Dakota hit the brake. She stopped so fast Josh had to brace one hand on the dash. “Get out.”

“Right now?” He turned to her, incredulous.

“Get out.”

“We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

Dakota leaned close and screamed in his face. “GET OUT.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 13

Josh saw Victoria’s rental car turn the corner. When it neared him, she swung the vehicle in an arc and pulled up beside him. He opened the passenger door and got in.

Victoria hardly waited for him to shut the door before she hit the gas.

He shot her a look and buckled up. “So you’re mad at me too?”

She glanced over. Shook her head once, a sharp movement. “Why would you say that?”

He pushed out a breath. Maybe because she was driving like this was the Indy 500 and she was already two laps behind?

Frustration boiled in him. Dakota hadn’t even given him the chance to get Neema out of the back seat. She just sped off, leaving him by the roadside.

“Maybe you could just call Dakota and tell her to bring my dog to my motel room.” No point in him sticking around now. He’d been here to help the team. But she clearly didn’t need, or want, any help. Once she brought his animal back he could figure out transportation and get home.

Did she forget he’d been shot for her?

He should’ve brought the meds the doctor had given him to the restaurant so he could take a dose. Now he was full from eating too much and in enough pain it couldn’t be ignored. Which made him grumpy.

“On it.”

The voice from the backseat made him twist around. He groaned aloud as a sharp pain surged through his shoulder. He faced forward again.

“That looked painful.” It was Talia. But her voice sounded far away under the rushing water in his ears. “I sent Dakota a text.”

At least he had a few hours before she wanted him at that federal prison. Given how Dakota had reacted, he wasn’t entirely sure he should be going. The can of worms was fully open now. He could either continue to tick her off, or he could act like a defiant child and tell Victoria, “No.”

Right now he was in entirely too much pain to decide. He didn’t want to whine about it but had all of these people forgotten he’d been shot yesterday? He thought he’d pushed through pretty well. Maybe now it was finally hitting him.

Josh breathed through the pain. He wanted to touch a hand to his chest, but it was almost excruciating. In the diner he’d been okay. Talking to Dakota, whose eye wasn’t totally swollen this morning but still puffy. She’d seemed better. Maybe just happy to be free of that shed and those people. Restless to get on with doing something to get back at them. He’d been satisfied for food to make him feel better. That was short lived. Now he couldn’t ignore it.

“You need a hospital?” That was Victoria.

“No. Just a pit stop at my room.”

“Okay.”

Josh hit the button to lower the window, enough he could suck in a few breaths of crisp air. Push down the nausea.

Victoria sent the SUV careening around a corner. From the backseat, Talia chuckled. Josh groaned.

“Oh,” Victoria said. “Sorry.” But she didn’t slow down.

Josh needed to distract himself. “Who is this Harlem guy, and why is Dakota so fired up about him?” He heard an intake of breath from the back seat, but Talia said nothing.

Victoria drove, eyes on the road. “They have…history.”

That was supposed to explain the situation to him? “Why do you think he’ll help in this case?” It wasn’t like anything related to Dakota, or her history, was at play here. Or any person. It was about that orchard, and Clare and her crew.

“She called it the ‘nuclear option’ for a reason, right?” He knew there was a tone in his voice. Frustration and pain were bleeding through.

Maybe he should be a little more respectful with a superior, but it seemed like Victoria was going her own way. Like she was willing to dredge up something personal Dakota didn’t want to revisit, all to get a win on this case.

The question was, would it be worth it? Was she willing to burn a bridge just to get the result she was looking for?

Victoria said, “I’m exploring options at this time.”

A diplomatic answer, and one that meant exactly nothing. “I think you seized an opportunity to pull in someone not part of your team. To get me to do something you’d never assign to them—because Dakota would see it as a betrayal no matter who did it.”

Using him as a scapegoat was a gutsy move. Not something he’d ever entertain, but Victoria evidently was prepared to do it.

He glanced over. She bit her lip. Maybe with doubts. “I’m not under any illusion he doesn’t know who we all are,” she said. “If I were him, I’d know.”

“So you want me to go because this guy, whoever he is, doesn’t know who I am?”

She nodded. “He’s a potential source of information.”

“On what?”

“Militias, specifically. Along with transporting stuff across the state, and even into Canada—though that was never proven.”

Maybe it wasn’t as bad as he’d thought. Especially if it could help. But there still had to be a reason why Dakota reacted the way she did. Who was this guy to her? Josh needed to get his hands on the case file for Harlem Roberts. Or his rap sheet.

“Why do I think there’s a whole lot you’re not telling me?”

She glanced over for a second before returning her attention to the road. “Because there’s a whole lot I’m not telling you. The bottom line is, I’m hoping you showing up to talk to him will trigger something. We need information. That means we need someone who will spill when knocked off guard.”

“Not Austin?” Dakota seemed to think the teen could still be a good source of information. Assuming he hadn’t split with the rest of them and gone underground—though, Josh was only guessing that was what happened after Dakota escaped from them.

“Another angle to explore. That’s why we’re headed straight to the compound. Dakota and Sal will go to the orchard, talk to the residents again. Today is about seeing where the chips fall.”

So long as Josh could get some Ibuprofen soon, he had no problem with that. “I’ll need to hit town at some point. Get a new car.” Otherwise he’d be stranded here. He hadn’t even had a call back from his insurance guy yet.

Josh shut his eyes and took a few breaths. Everything was moving so fast, and the last two days had been insane. Normally at this time on a Sunday he would be getting Eden into his truck to take her to church. How was she going to get there this morning?

He hadn’t even told her that he’d found Maggie.

His eyes burned. Josh kept them squeezed shut. As soon as he got home, he was going to have to tell her that Maggie was dead. That she’d been murdered.

Someone tapped his shoulder. Josh opened his eyes to see Talia’s dark-skinned hand stretched out toward him. In the center of her palm was a collection of little red pills. He took them, and she handed him a bottle of water.

“Thanks.”

“Hardly going to fix all your problems.” She patted his shoulder. “But it’s a start. So you’re welcome.”

He wanted to smile. Seriously, he did. But what was there to smile about? His life was in shambles. What had started as a trip out here to find a young wayward woman had turned into a full-fledged investigation with him in the middle. Getting shot. Running through the woods, rescuing Dakota. Trying to figure out what these people were doing.

Did he even care what Clare Norton and those Crampton guys were up to? It wasn’t like it had anything to do with him, except for the fact he’d quite like to get back at them for shooting him. But right now he had no truck and his dog was with someone who, by her own admission, didn’t exactly like dogs.

Was she taking care of Neema?

 

 

. . .

 

 

The driveway at the orchard was long and looked different than it had the night they’d found Maggie’s body.

Sausage-flavored breath blew against her cheek. Dakota huffed out a laugh. Fine. Neema was the one who’d found Maggie.

“You like this dog.”

Dakota shot Sal a sharp look from her spot in the passenger seat. Now that she didn’t have to pretend she was okay—mostly because Sal would see through it anyway—she was having him drive. Plus, he wasn’t worse off than her since he hadn’t been shot.

The way Josh had been.

She wanted to feel guilty about the way she’d just left him there on the side of the road. Maybe part of her was. A small part. But he didn’t have to know that.

She also didn’t expect him to know, and she wasn’t planning on telling him. Even if he asked.

It was none of his business.

“I don’t like dogs,” Sal said, not to her exactly. “I just like my dog.”

“What?”

“My dad always said that. Didn’t like dogs, just liked his dog.”

It struck a chord in her. Not unlike Josh saying his name. Harlem Roberts. Ugh. That was the last thing she needed—more nightmares.

Harlem. Dogs. Her past. All of it was like some nightmarish gift she’d been given. One she now carried around with her everywhere she went.

“So what’s the deal with dogs?”

“I had a sheepdog puppy when I was little.” Dakota stared out the window. “My father shot her.”

“Dakot—”

“Don’t.” She shook her head. “It was a long time ago.”

This whole weekend was supposed to have been about recon. Then she met Josh in the orchard and everything went wrong. Now she had a concussion, she’d been beaten. Her father’s name was being thrown around.

Harlem Roberts.

Inland Federal Prison.

The whole thought was like salt in one of her wounds. A painful scratch that wouldn’t heal. A—

“If you think any harder your head is going to explode.”

Dakota said, “Maybe it already has.”

“Yeah, I heard about Josh. Guess he found out what happens when you stick your hand too close to the flames.” He lifted his eyebrows and threw the car in park.

Dakota didn’t want to go there. In fact, she seriously did not want to talk about it. Or be here at all, for that matter. She thought she might be in dire need of a vacation.

She pulled out her phone.

“We need to go talk to these people,” Sal said. “Stow that thing, and let’s go.”

She shook her head. “I need to find out how many vacation days I still have left for the year.”

“How about…all of them.”

“Oh yeah. Right.” She lowered her phone and looked at him. They might not spend all that much time together in the grand scheme, but she thought they might actually be the closest thing each other had to a real friend.

“Running away to Rapid City isn’t going to help.”

“You think I’m going to head to South Dakota for a vacation?” She wanted to laugh. “I was thinking more like Maui. I hear it’s a balmy eighty degrees about this time of year.”

“Sure. If you like sunshine.” He made a face that had her finally laughing.

“I really do.” She sighed. “But not too hot.”

He smiled, and they climbed out of the car. Neema pressed her nose against the back window.

Sal took point. Dakota hung back, eyeing the hound sniffing at weeds on the driveway.

When the front door was opened, Sal introduced them both. Even though she’d been there Friday night.

Mr. Johnson mashed his lips together. He held the door like he might want to slam it in their faces. “Pretty sure we’ve already said everything we’re going to say about that dead girl. And we’re about to head to church.”

Sal said, “We just have a few follow-up questions. We won’t take up too much of your time, and then you can be off to church.”

Johnson frowned. The wife moved to his side, her steps completely silent even though she wore brown flats and the floor was bare tile. It had to take serious practice to move that quietly.

Mr. Johnson said, “Whatever. Just make it quick.”

He stepped aside, half bumping into the wife. She took a side step and laid a hand on his arm. He didn’t react to it. It was like he didn’t even see her there. “Living room.” He turned and led the way.

The wife followed him in. Then Sal. Dakota shut the front door and made her way through the dim hall—all the blinds closed. The living room was the same. It smelled like the air never moved, and the fireplace was cold even with the chill in the air. Mrs. Johnson’s thin sweater probably wouldn’t keep her warm, but they had a roof over their heads. Food in the fridge and the pantry. Or she assumed so, given Mr. Johnson’s build.

That was more than some people had.

Dakota had learned through the police department and into her career as a federal agent that some people wanted to live their lives. They didn’t want change. They wanted things to be the way they were, and you weren’t to interfere in that. Helping just got your hand slapped.

Mr. Johnson spun to face them. “So ask.”

No one sat. Or was invited to sit.

The wife said, “We didn’t know the dead girl. We’ve already told you that.” She directed her statement to Dakota. “What else is there to know?”

Presenting a united front. Or appearing that way. But there was something Austin Crampton had possessed that was missing here.

Since she had the wife’s attention, Dakota bent her wrist to point at her face. “The people who did this to me live in a compound north of town. They’re the ones the dead woman was tied up with. They’re the reason she’s dead.” She paused a second to send a prayer of thanks to God that she wasn’t dead too. The first time she’d acknowledged what could have happened.

But she couldn’t afford for that to trip her up right now.

We hold these truths to be self-evident…

Mrs. Johnson’s eyes flared. She sucked in a breath and ended up coughing.

“What do we care?” the husband said. “Probably stuck your nose in as well.”

“As opposed to you,” Sal returned. “Someone who keeps his nose out of their business and turns a blind eye to what’s going on at your orchard. Still means you’re an accessory to whatever they’re up to.”

Dakota turned to the wife. “What is it? What are they shipping through here that makes them willing to kill a young woman in order to keep a secret?”

“Doesn’t matter,” the wife said around another cough.

Mr. Johnson folded his arms. “It is what it is.”

Dakota figured that meant they thought they had no choice but to put up with it. They didn’t want to face the consequences of dissension. “You’d rather be under the thumb of people who would kill just to protect themselves?”

No one said anything, so Dakota offered up a morsel. “Clare Norton called this orchard ‘hers.’ Not yours. She thinks her people are the ones who own this place.” She paused. “And that they own you.”

The husband shrugged one beefy shoulder. “Like I said. It is what it is.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 14

 

Sal pulled the vehicle all the way into the compound. Dakota bit the inside of her cheek, not allowing any other reaction to slip through.

In the daylight it looked like any other compound housing a local militia. People living off the land. Under the radar. Off the grid. When they got bored of meat they’d raised and vegetables they’d grown, they would call and order a pizza. Just like everyone else.

She flung the car door open and Victoria approached. “Okay?”

Dakota nodded. Neema jumped out. The dog brushed past the back of her right knee, nearly knocking her over in her haste to get to Josh.

He grinned as she ran at him, then patted his chest. Neema placed her front paws on his shirt. “Hey there, beautiful.” He rubbed up and down her flanks until she hopped off, her tail swishing side to side.

His eyes met Dakota’s. “What?”

Still mad at him.

She shrugged one shoulder and said, “Nothing.” Then walked with Victoria toward the main house. “Is it just me, or did he seem like he wanted me to say something?”

“Maybe you could have tried apologizing.”

“For what?”

One of Victoria’s perfect eyebrows rose. “How about stranding him on the side of the road and abducting his dog? Getting him shot.”

“I didn’t shoot him. That wasn’t my fault.”

“You’re right,” Victoria said. “That wasn’t your fault.”

Dakota frowned. “What are we doing here, anyway?”

“They cleared out. When Niall got here, he found the gate open and called me. Talia, Josh, and I showed up half an hour ago. Closets were partially cleaned out. Storage sheds cleared of weapons. They packed, but they did it in a hurry.”

“Did they leave anything we can use?”

“So far we’ve found some correspondence. Nothing that gives us anything we didn’t know already from running their IDs.”

“But it’s physical evidence,” Dakota said. When Victoria nodded, she went on. “Anything else?”

“Niall is searching the last building. Josh was helping, but he came out when he heard you were here.”

Dakota glanced back to see Josh wandering the edges of buildings. Neema squatted and peed on a patch of grass. He clicked his fingers, and they set off.

“He was mad.”

Dakota didn’t say anything.

“He got shot for you.”

She spun to face her boss. “And that gives you the right to dredge up my past, hang it out for all to see?”

“No one else knows except me.” Victoria folded her slender arms. “In fact, I’m not even convinced that I have the whole story.”

“You think I lied to you?” She wasn’t the one who did that. Victoria had dragged Josh in, planned on using him to speak with her father. “Nothing he can give you is going to aid at all in this case. It won’t help.”

“Not even a window into their state of mind?” Victoria paused. “Clare and her people are still up to something and on the run. We’re sniffing at their heels. Where will they go?”

“We’ll find them.”

Victoria eyed her. After a minute or so, she sighed. “I think they received a transport that came over the Canadian border a few weeks ago.”

Dakota bit the inside of her mouth again, then winced because it was sore.

“Another way he might be able to help.”

Dakota shook her head. “That was years ago. You think my father’s contacts are even still alive, let alone still active? It’s a long shot.”

“Long shots are what I do,” Victoria said. “Why do you think you’re here?”

Before Dakota could react to that, Victoria tipped her head back and let out that delicate giggle of hers.

Dakota rolled her eyes, just to make a point. Yes, she’d been a long shot. Victoria had written counseling into the contract for her employment, and Dakota couldn’t deny it had helped. She’d long since let her father’s neglect and abuse go. It might have been better if he’d picked one. As it was, the constant back-and-forth, never knowing how he was going to act, had been the worst part.

“Guys!” Niall’s voice rang out across the compound. She had to hand it to him—he had excellent timing.

Dakota jogged over to where he stood in the doorway of one of the Quonset huts. “What is it?”

His face had darkened, his eyes serious. Enough she knew that though it might not be as bad as that Colorado Springs thing, it was still bad. He shook his head. “You’re gonna want to have the dog stay outside on this one.”

Josh gave Neema two commands. Dakota didn’t know what they meant, but the dog laid down on the grass. She watched as he lifted his hand, palm out and said, “Bleib.” And then moved to the doorway. Neema didn’t get up, but all her attention was on Josh.

Dakota realized she was staring at both of them and turned away. Yes, it was clear they were close. Or, maybe “bonded” was a better word. She’d had that with Elliette, at least for a few months. Until…

“What is it, Niall?”

No one missed her tone, not even Josh. Dakota ignored all the glances and raised eyebrows and lifted her chin. “Well?”

“Inside.” Niall led the way.

Just inside the door hung a plastic curtain. He pushed it aside and she followed him through with Josh on her heels.

Josh said, “Now I see why you didn’t want Neema in here.” Niall glanced back and Josh said, “Appreciate it.”

Liquid had pooled on the floor, most of it a brown color. Tables stood in two rows. They walked down the middle. On top, crates had been stacked on both sides. Open, empty. Beyond that, half of the right hand row of tables was an elaborate set up of beakers and tubes. She knew basically nothing about chemistry, having long forgotten what she’d learned in high school.

She said, “Maybe they were making moonshine.”

Niall said, “It was medical.”

How he knew that, she had no idea. “Whatever was in here, we’re thinking they took it with them?”

No one disagreed, but until they caught up with the woman and her nephews, the Crampton boys, they weren’t going to know what it was. Or what Clare planned on doing with it.

Sal turned in a circle. “This isn’t saying, ‘slaughterhouse’ to me. Nor is it saying, ‘murder happened here.’”

Niall asked, “So what does it say?”

Dakota wandered farther. All the way to the end of the tables, where a metal barrel had been placed. Maybe muscled in somehow. Too heavy to put on the table.

On the side of the barrel was a sticker.

“Biohazard.”

“Do we need to rush outside?” Josh asked. “I don’t want to get a disease from these hillbillies.”

Dakota wasn’t sure that’s what they were, exactly. She shook her head. They’d have taken different precautions if whatever had been in here was hazardous. No one was that stupid.

She picked up a screwdriver on the floor beside the barrel. Using it on a groove where it’d been opened before, she pried off the lid like a paint tin.

“It’s empty.” She glanced up from her crouch and looked at the team—and Josh. “Whatever was in here, it’s gone now.”

“They took it with them,” Victoria said.

Niall evidently agreed. “That’s what I think, too.”

“So what was it?”

Sal folded his arms. “Nothing good.”

“This changes everything.” Victoria slid a phone from her overcoat pocket. “The item being transported was a biohazard. Maybe they needed medical personnel—or equipment.”

“Like a special truck?” Dakota asked.

She nodded. “I’ll get Talia on it, and we’ll see what she comes up with.”

“You think Mr. and Mrs. Johnson know?” Dakota didn’t have the first clue what militia guys wanted with a biohazard barrel. But there was no way it could be anything good.

“You keep going back to them,” Sal said. “Why?”

Dakota took a second. “I don’t know. I guess I just can’t believe they don’t know what it is. More likely they’re just too scared to tell us.”

He nodded. “I got that from them, too.”

“And maybe they’re the only ones left in town who can tell us.”

Victoria said, “You wanna go talk to them again, I’ll get you a warrant to search their property. This—” She pointed around the room. “—should be enough for probable cause, given they’re possible accomplices.”

Dakota said, “Great. Let’s go then.”

 

 

. . .

 

 

“You wanna go back to the orchard? Take Agent Weber with you.”

Josh blinked. Dakota didn’t look at him. Not that he expected her to. She’d been strategically ignoring him since she showed up here. Except for staring at him when he’d greeted Neema. To say he didn’t understand her was a serious understatement.

She hadn’t apologized even though she’d essentially kidnapped his dog. He generally tried to go with the flow and not get frustrated with people, but that resolve was getting tested frequently. Especially in the past two days.

Wasn’t she going to ask him how his gunshot wound was doing?

It was like the woman cared about nothing. Not even herself.

And yet, he saw so much feeling left unspoken behind her eyes. There was something about dogs she wasn’t telling him. And the whole Harlem Roberts business. Who was that man to her? No way she didn’t have at least some kind of feeling about that guy. Not the way she’d screamed at him.

And yet, he’d guess if he was to ask her about it, that she’d deny having any feeling at all. Josh was pretty sure she’d just lie to him. Maybe she was even lying to herself. Pretending she felt nothing.

Maybe it was safer that way.

He’d seen guys do that in the Marines. They would stuff down their feelings. Their reactions to the horrific things they saw. Did it help? Josh had found someone to talk to—an older guy at the gun range. A Vietnam vet. Maybe it had helped, he didn’t exactly know. But it was better than walking around a powder keg, primed to explode at any moment.

Dakota backed off from her hushed conversation with Victoria. Jaw set. Hands curled into fists.

Josh folded his arms and waited, watching her flushed cheeks. Color looked good on her. Even with the bruising and the fact one of her eyes was still pretty swollen. He knew better than to allow sympathy to birth the urge to protect her. Dakota Pierce wasn’t a woman who would accept protection—if she knew that’s what you were doing. Still, he couldn’t deny those feelings were there.

He wanted to help her, even now. Even though she’d stranded him by the roadside. That was the part that frustrated him the most. The fact that even despite how she’d treated him, he honestly still wanted to be there for her. Make her weekend easier. Aid the team in solving this case.

When she glanced at him, he lifted one eyebrow. Ready for whatever she was going to say or do next.

“What are you looking at?”

His lips twitched. So, yeah. She knew he found this amusing. And she didn’t agree with the sentiment, that much was plain to see.

Someone snorted.

She swung back around to Victoria. Nothing to encourage whoever had that particular reaction. She ignored it all and said, “I’ll take Sal.”

“You’ll take Agent Weber. The rest of us are going to be busy all day going through the stuff in this compound,” Victoria said. “I’ve called the Spokane FBI office. They’re sending a team of agents to help with evidence collection. I can’t spare anyone, Dakota.”

The implication was clear. If she wanted to check out the orchard again, she was on her own. Josh was the only one who was expendable. That was fine; he was a rookie and an unknown. He didn’t particularly want to root through the personal belongings of a group of anarchists anyway. That wasn’t going to make for a fun day. He would much rather keep moving, go chat with witnesses, and so would Neema.

Josh lifted his chin, as much of a shrug as he could manage with stitches on his shoulder. “We’ll bring back food with us.”

Sal pointed over at him, not lifting his attention from the table in front of him and the equipment he was looking over. “And coffee.”

Josh said, “Copy that.”

Dakota glanced between them.

“Ready?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Fine.”

Victoria turned to the door, but Josh saw the hint of a smile before she moved out of his field of vision. Her phone rang as she stepped outside.

Dakota moved to where Josh stood. She opened her mouth, said nothing, and closed it. He said, “Your car or mine?”

“Your truck exploded.”

He winced. “Oh yeah.” Shook his head. “Guess I need to go shopping as well. Maybe we can do that while we’re driving through town.”

“You want to buy a car today?”

He wanted to shrug, but knew that wouldn’t be a good idea. The thought of it was enough to send pain shooting through his shoulder. He pressed a hand to the wound and took a breath. “Why not? It’ll be a good distraction. For both of us.”

“We do look like a couple of invalids, don’t we?” She gave him a small smile.

“Sure do.” He was about to make a suggestion about them both needing a nap, but realized how that would sound when it came out of his mouth. Thank You, God. He didn’t need her thinking that he was thinking that.

Except now he was totally thinking that.

Josh cleared his throat. “Ready?”

She held the door for him. Neema trotted over to greet them, despite the fact he’d told her to stay. She went straight for Dakota and licked her hand.

Dakota rubbed under Neema’s chin. “Hi, dog.” Then kept walking.

Like nothing had happened.

Yeah. He did not believe she wasn’t a dog person. People who said that, Josh mostly figured they just hadn’t met the right dog. Dakota had a past that made her wary of dogs, but she liked them. Neema was winning her over.

Josh grinned and petted her, rubbing all the way down her flanks. “You’re such a good dog. Yes, you are. Ready to go?”

Neema leaned back, front paws out straight in front of her, and groaned through the stretch.

“Let’s go.”

She trotted with him to the car and hopped in the back. Dakota handed Josh her keys and spent the whole drive on her email. Probably a good plan.

When they pulled up at the orchard he said, “How do you want to play this?”

“I’ve asked them what they know already.” She frowned, her gaze on the front windows. Then the drive. “Maybe you should come from a different angle. Appeal to their civic duty or something.”

Josh wanted to laugh. Before he could say anything, she had cracked the door handle and was halfway out.

He pulled the handle on his side.

Over the roof of the car she said, “Don’t let Neema out.”

“What—”

“Don’t let her out.” She motioned to the driveway, and he saw it.

“That their dog?”

They both shut their doors and wandered over to the stiff form while Neema barked from inside the car. The dog’s tongue was out, covered in white foam. Neither of them got too close.

“Chest isn’t moving,” Josh said.

They headed for the front door. Both had one hand on the butt of their weapons. Josh closed his other fist and pounded on the front door.

It swung open on its own accord.

A woman lay in the hallway. Angled like she’d slumped to the ground. White stuff had collected on her lips and around her mouth, her face completely pale. Dead.

“That’s Mrs. Johnson.”

Josh hardly knew what to say first. He choked out the word, “Biohazard,” like it was a question.

“If it is,” Dakota said. “Then we’ve been exposed.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 15

Exposed. Dakota held the phone out, the call on speakerphone, while her stomach roiled. She’d lived through nights spent in the woods only dressed in her nightgown. Being beaten. Broken bones. Days of no food.

This was what would kill her?

“I can only see Mrs. Johnson.” She glanced again inside the open front door. “I have no idea where the husband is.”

She felt fine. If she had actually been contaminated by whatever had killed Mrs. Johnson she would be feeling the effects by now. Right?

They needed to look in the windows, see if they could see the husband. There was no way she was going to step inside without some kind of protective clothing. She didn’t even have gloves right now. And while she didn’t think it was airborne—more like they’d been poisoned somehow—she wasn’t going to take the risk by touching anything. Or anyone.

Victoria’s voice was clear and strong. No trace of the nervousness moving through Dakota. “How is it that I put up with you when you wind up doubling my workload, every time?”

Dakota almost smiled. Her boss’s humor gave her the focus she needed to push aside her emotions and focus. “We need the CDC, right?”

“I’ll put in a call. The medical examiner is on the way; should be there in a few minutes.”

“And the sheriff?”

“On his way back to town, but he won’t be here before this evening.”

Josh blew out a breath. She’d been mostly ignoring him so far, save for the initial conversation they’d had when they realized the homeowner—and the dog—were dead.

At the end of the drive, the medical examiner’s van pulled in at a crawl and headed toward them.

“The doc is here.”

“Okay,” Victoria said. “Keep me posted.”

The line went dead.

“Not one to waste time with sympathy, is she?” Josh shot her a wry smile.

“Why would we need sympathy?”

“Maybe because we could’ve been exposed.” He frowned. “We could be hours from death, and she’s working through the logistics of getting the CDC here.”

“The CDC is the help we need,” Dakota argued. “They’ve got that whole compound to go through, every scrap of anything left behind. All the places they could’ve hidden something.”

“Okay.” He held up both hands. “You don’t need to bite my head off, just because I don’t get it.”

“What don’t you get? We need help if we’re going to figure this out before whatever happens next. Not her sympathy. Whether that means we end up in body bags is either a given at this point, or something we can continue to prevent.”

“So you do your job not slowed down by silly emotions.”

“Now you’re getting it.”

Josh shot her the weirdest of looks. One she didn’t even know how to decipher. Thankfully, right then, the medical examiner slammed the van door. Dr. Stevens got a duffel out the back and ambled over with raised eyebrows. “I beat the sheriff’s department?”

Dakota met her halfway. “This is a federal investigation. We’re keeping them in the loop and all. At least for now.”