Weston Thurlow walked into the offices of Titanium Corp and threw himself down into the big office chair on one side of the boardroom table. “I want in.”
Cade looked at Erick, who sat beside him, then across at Weston. “In what?”
“Whatever deal that has all these guys disappearing. I want in on it too.”
Erick looked at Cade with a raised eyebrow. They both looked at Weston again. “Say what?”
Weston grinned. “Oh, no. No, no, no. I’ve been hearing all kinds of stuff,” he said, “so no holding back on me.”
“All kinds of stuff?” Cade asked. “Can you be more specific?”
“Pierce, Blaze, Zane, Parker, Lucas, even Ethan,” he said. “What the heck is going on with them? I heard something about dogs.”
“Why are you interested in dogs all of a sudden?” Erick asked, settling back, as if finally understanding.
Just then Badger walked in. “What was that about dogs?” he asked, as he tossed a file in front of Cade. On the top was a picture of Carter, sitting on a railing, a woman’s arms wrapped around him and their faces pressed together, both looking deliriously happy.
Cade looked at it and grinned. “And another one bites the dust.”
“Or we could say, Another very successful story,” Erick corrected, nudging him with his shoulder.
Cade nodded. “Or we could say that. They do look happy together.”
“Who?” Weston hopped up to take a look. “Yeah, there’s Carter. What the hell has he been up to? And who’s the woman?”
“Sister of his best friend,” Badger said. “Said he needed to go back and fix a few things, find where his real heart lay.”
“Oh, all that mushy stuff,” Weston said. “But what kind of jobs are they doing? Do you know how boring it is, day in and day out? All I do is work.”
“And yet, here you are looking for another job,” Cade remarked with a wry smile. “Ironic, isn’t it?”
Weston shrugged. “Yeah, well, it’s because I’m bored. Don’t you have something else for me to do?”
“Do you have any experience with dogs?”
“Some,” he said. “I worked in a K9 unit for a while.”
“Only a while?”
“I got promoted,” he said. “And then I got blown up. You know how that works. When life takes you down a path you didn’t expect to travel.” And, of course, he knew they did know. All too well because they’d all been on the same path into the unknown.
Badger smiled at him. “What part of the country are you from?”
“Why?” Weston asked.
“Because we’ve got dogs all across the country, and we’re trying to fit people who have a reason to go someplace to track dogs down in that area.” He quickly explained about the K9 program.
Weston’s gaze narrowed with interest. “Wow, sounds like a real mess.”
“Yep, that’s exactly what it is. But we have seven down and five more to go.”
“Did they all come to the mainland?” Weston asked.
“You mean in the US?”
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I’m asking.”
“Well, one’s in Alaska, one in Hawaii. Does that count?”
He jumped up. “I’ll take the one in Alaska. It would be Anchorage, right?”
“Well, that’s where it was flown to. But I think it went out to a homesteading family. When a follow-up check was done, they couldn’t get a hold of anyone. No one was particularly worried. They tried several times, and honestly nothing might be wrong, but, until someone connects with the owner, the file can’t be closed.”
“Good, that should be easy enough. Likely they have terrible phone reception out on the homestead, if any at all. The phone is probably off, even if they do have reception. So a simple house call should take care of that,” he said. “I’m from Alaska, and I’ve been looking to visit anyway.”
“Did you leave a long-lost love back there too?”
He winced. “Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?” Badger asked.
“Well, I left a daughter back there apparently,” he said, his voice going superquiet at the old pain rearing its head. “She was adopted out to a very nice family. Only I know that the adoptive mother lost her husband recently. About a year ago.” Feeling overwhelmed but in too deep to stop now, he continued, “They, uh, they’ve been asking me to stop by for a visit because—well, the mother feels my little girl should get to know her dad, now that her other dad is gone.” Weston paused. “She’s close to eighteen months old now, and I’ve never met her.”
All the men looked at him in surprise. Dumbfounded, was more like it.
“I know,” he said, nodding. “I didn’t expect to have a child. But, when a one-night stand ended up telling me a year afterward that she’d had my child and had put it up for adoption, yeah, you could say it wasn’t exactly the highlight of my life. I went from fury to grief in a heartbeat and settled somewhere in between.”
“Well, we don’t pay for these jobs,” Badger said, “but there are benefits.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Weston said, his face drawn. “It’s time for me to face the music.”
“Good,” Badger said. “Because the dog up there—her name is Shambhala—and she could really use a calm retirement home.”
“Why is that?”
“She’s blind in one eye, and she’s missing a leg.” And, with that, Badger reached for a stack of folders. Flipping through, he pulled out the one in question and handed it to Weston. “You get a copy of that and not a whole lot else.”
Weston grinned. “I’ll take it.”