Operation Reunion (16 page)

“You really do get it, don’t you?” he said softly, reaching out to lay his hand on the dark head.

The dog nudged his hand with his nose and swiped his fingers with his tongue. And as if satisfied he was awake and alert again, Cutter settled his chin back down on his front paws.

Dane shook his head half in wonder, half in disbelief and leaned back in the chair. His body was protesting the long stretch of sitting, but he was afraid he’d wake Kayla up if he moved around too much. Which reminded him of the careful way Cutter had slipped off the bed, as if he had the same fear but knew right now Dane needed his help more.

Damn, I’m tired. He’s a
dog.

But whatever the dog’s intent, it worked. He was awake again. And belatedly he realized sunlight was no longer streaming around the edges of the curtains, and the room wasn’t quite as warm. How long had he been lost in that reverie anyway? He reached for his cell phone to check the time, and as if the movement had triggered it, the phone vibrated on the table beside the chair; he’d turned off the ringer when Kayla had first gone to sleep. He grabbed it now before the buzz could wake her. Who was calling?

Quinn and nearly 3:00 a.m., he noted, answering both his questions at once.

He got up and walked into the bathroom before he answered.

“Everything okay?”

“Kayla’s sleeping. I’m trying not to.”

“Cutter can help you with that,” Quinn said.

Dane’s brows rose. “So he did mean to do it.”

Quinn chuckled, obviously needing no further explanation. “That dog rarely does anything he doesn’t mean to do.”

Dane leaned against the sink, smiling wryly to himself. “I’m getting that feeling.”

“Everything quiet?”

“So far.”

“Good.”

Dane sensed this was more than just a status check. “Something happen?”

“Somebody showed up at the house.”

Dane straightened up. “At Kayla’s house?”

“Yes. Teague was watching the place, just in case. Just after dark he saw somebody in a black watch cap sneaking through the side yard. He couldn’t see him well enough to make an ID, but the moment Teague got out of the car he took off running back through the trees.”

“You think it was Chad?”

“Don’t know. Could have been a curious neighbor.”

“But why would he run?”

“Good question. Teague’s pretty fast, almost had him, but the guy darted down a few side yards and then out into open forest. He knew where he was going.”

“So a local,” Dane said.

“Seems that way.”

“Or somebody who once was. Like Chad.”

“Yes. And somebody also called the hospital to ask after Kayla but refused to say who he was.”

Dane tensed. “To ask how she was or to find out if she was still there?”

“Both. Thankfully when he wouldn’t identify himself, they didn’t tell him anything. Said he got a little insistent, though. Enough so that they made a note of the number he was calling from.”

He knew Foxworth and their capabilities better now, so he merely said, “And?”

“Landline listed to Franklin Warren.”

“Rod’s dad?”

“Any reason you can think of he’d be involved?”

“Zero. He barely knew Kayla. And he’s in a wheelchair, so it surely wasn’t him running away.”

“What about Rod himself? Would he call?”

Dane frowned. “He’s not a friend, not after that day I told you about. Kayla doesn’t like him and neither do I, so I don’t know why he’d call. But if he did, he’d have no reason not to say who he was. Unless he really was involved.”

“All right.” Quinn paused as if thinking. “All right, it’s quiet now, we’ve got the house covered in case he comes back there and you’ve got Cutter inside and us outside if he gives you a warning. Why don’t you try and get some sleep?”

“But Kayla—”

“She breathing all right?”

“Yes.”

“Coughing?”

“Not since we got here. But they said she needed to be watched for at least twenty-four hours.”

“News for you, buddy. It’s been twenty-four hours and then some.”

“Oh.” He felt a little silly for not having put that together. “Sorry.”

“Sleep deprivation will do that to you. Besides, Cutter will probably let you know if she starts having trouble. Hayley had some nightmares in the beginning, and every time she started getting restless or murmuring in her sleep, he woke her or me up.”

“Someday,” Dane said, “I’d like to hear that whole story.”

“Someday,” Quinn answered, “you might. Now get some sleep.”

“Right.”

Dane disconnected the call then stood there in the bathroom for a moment, pondering the likelihood of being able to follow that order thinly disguised as a suggestion. The likelihood of being able to sleep with Kayla just a few feet away.

He realized his ears were buzzing. In fact, everything above his ears seemed to be humming with that warning sound that told him he’d just about hit the wall. He’d been up nearly two nights straight; no wonder he was starting to feel wobbly.

He’d just have to hope he was tired enough.

Chapter 28

“H
ow are they?” Hayley had stayed quiet as Quinn spoke to Dane, watching the area surrounding the motel while he was distracted with the call.

“She’s been sleeping for a while. Breathing’s fine, and no more coughing. I think she’s probably okay.”

“And Dane?”

“Hasn’t slept at all. He’s been too worried about her.”

“That’s good.”

Quinn shifted to look at her. “It’s good that he’s so worried he hasn’t slept since the day before yesterday?”

“Yes. He still loves her.”

“Well, yeah, you don’t turn that off by fiat,” Quinn said.

“But this has been gnawing away at him for a long time. I was afraid it was too late, but now I don’t think so. They can work on fixing things.”

Quinn shook his head but with a smile at her. “Might be more important to find out who tried to kill her first.”

Hayley shook her head. “Nothing’s more important than that.” She gave him a sideways look. “Which did you think was more important—getting those guys at the cabin or getting out of there alive?”

“Getting
you
out of there alive,” Quinn said.

“Why?”

“Is this a trap?”

“Would I tell you if it was?”

He laughed. “You know damn well I was already half in love with you.”

“Only half?” she asked sweetly.

“Yeah,” he drawled, “the other half was Cutter.”

Hayley grinned at him. “Oh. Well that’s all right then.”

“Love me, love my dog?”

“Exactly.”

“Well it’s a good thing I love you both then, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Hayley said, her voice going achingly soft. “A very, very good thing.”

“Damn.” Quinn sighed. “I’ll be glad when Liam gets here to relieve us.”

“Me, too,” Hayley said. There was nothing particularly suggestive in her words, but something in her voice set him off.

“Hope he rested up on his days off,” Quinn said gruffly, “because he’s liable to be here the rest of the night on his own.”

“And maybe longer,” Hayley said, and Quinn felt his body clench with need at the promise in those words.

Quinn spent the next hour in varying states of discomfort as he made himself focus on the job at hand instead of the delectable woman beside him. And if Dane was in anywhere near the same condition inside that room, Quinn felt sorry for him.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Kayla’s nightmare of smoke and fire took an odd turn as the splash of the firefighter’s water began. Because on some level even her sleeping brain knew she hadn’t been aware of that, that Mr. Reyes, bless him, had gotten her out and away before the fire trucks had actually arrived. But the watery sound was comforting nevertheless, and the nightmare shifted in the nonsensical way dreams do, and she was adrift in a boat, water lapping at the sides—

Her eyes opened.

Lapping.

The dog.

Cutter was getting a drink of water.

Reality rushed back, and there was enough of the nightmare clinging to it to make her jolt upright. She looked around the strange room, placing things in her mind as best she could in the dim light. A glance at the bedside clock told her it was just after six. She was surprised at that—she hadn’t expected to sleep that long at all, not after napping through the afternoon and evening. Perhaps she’d been more stressed and traumatized than she’d been willing to admit.

She was reaching for the bedside lamp, then paused. She glanced over at the other bed. Dane was there, stretched out on his side, facing her but with his head half buried in the pillow his arm was bent back under. His other arm was in front of him, and it seemed his fist was clenched even in sleep. She sighed.

She looked around again. It was well after sunrise this time of year, but the motel faced west and the front window was still in shadow. With the blackout curtains closed, it was hard to tell what kind of day they were facing.

She nearly laughed at her own thought; she knew exactly what kind of day it was going to be. Hellish.

She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Cutter was there instantly, what light there was reflecting off his dark eyes.

“Hi,” she said softly, reaching to pet that silken fur. He nudged her in turn, then tilted his head to lay it on her knee. She found it absurdly sweet and endearing.

“I’d love a dog like you,” she whispered to him, “no matter what Dane says.”

“I’m not sure there is another dog like him.”

Dane’s voice came out of the dim light from the other bed, and she felt a start of embarrassment.

“Sorry I woke you,” she said stiffly.

“You didn’t.”

“You’ve been awake?”

“Since I let him out a few minutes ago. Tried not to wake you.”

“You didn’t,” she echoed. “I think his drinking did. I started dreaming of water.”

“Better than fire.”

“Yes.” She suppressed a shudder.

“How do you feel?”

“Fine.”

“No sore throat or need to cough?”

“Throat is a bit dry and scratchy is all.”

“All right.”

“You didn’t have to stay up—”

“Yes. I did.”

She wanted to see hope in that last statement, but looking at his face all she saw was the same emotionless resolution that had sounded in his voice. She lowered her head, looking at Cutter, once more stroking his fur for the comfort as much as the communion. Silence stretched out for a long moment before he spoke again.

“Somebody was poking around your house last night.”

Her head snapped up. “What?”

“They had Teague watching it. Somebody showed up a little after dark.”

“Who?” She had to force out the word because she wasn’t sure she really wanted the answer.

“Don’t know. The instant he saw Teague he took off running. He got to the woods and vanished. He obviously knew his way around.”

“So of course it must have been Chad revisiting the scene of the crime,” she said, her tone creeping beyond tense into sarcasm.

“Didn’t say that,” he said. But to Kayla, his expression was screaming, “Who else could it be?”

That she didn’t have an answer for that made her even unhappier.

“I want to see my house,” she said.

“Not yet.”

“You’re not my boss,” she snapped.

He drew back slightly, and the sharp sound of her knee-jerk answer hung in the air. She drew in a long, deep breath.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “That was uncalled for.”

Dane, being Dane, accepted the apology graciously. Yet in the back of her mind was the knowledge that it was easier to be gracious when you didn’t really care.

“You’ve had a very rough couple of days. Anybody would be a bit tense,” he said. “And it wasn’t my idea. Quinn thinks it would be best if you stayed away until we know more.”

Kayla started to answer, then realized a quick agreement with that seemed to her to carry a subtext that she wouldn’t listen to him, but she would to Quinn. And it would do no good to point out that she would listen to Quinn, or Hayley, because they were impartial; Dane definitely was not. But she had no desire to add any fuel to his mood; he already felt beyond her reach and it was breaking her heart.

“And you agree,” she said after a moment, carefully keeping her voice even and hoping the words were safe enough.

“Yes.”

“All right,” she said, giving up on the desire for now. She still wanted to see her home, start assessing the damage, figuring out what repairs were needed; she wasn’t about to let whoever had done this destroy her love for her little house. But her relationship with Dane was just as damaged, if not more, and she wasn’t sure it could be repaired.

And if that were true, then the house didn’t matter.

Nothing else mattered.

Cutter was suddenly on his feet, alert and looking toward the front of the room. A second later his plumed tail began to wag, and he leaped across the room to the door. He looked back over his shoulder at them with that doggy grin on his face.

All the usual happy-dog signals,
Hayley had said.

A tap came on the door. Cutter yipped. Dane was already there, peering through the peephole.

“Mr. Burdette, Ms. Tucker, I’m Liam Burnett,” he called through the door. Kayla thought she caught a bit of a drawl in his voice. He sounded like her college roommate, who had been from Houston. “I just relieved Quinn and Hayley. And I have coffee.”

“Well, that’s tempting,” Dane muttered.

As if he’d guessed at their hesitation, the man outside added, “Watch Cutter. He’ll verify my ID.”

It sounded silly, but Kayla couldn’t deny the difference in the dog now compared to how he’d reacted when the motel manager had simply come by to sweep the walk.

“Hayley did say they had one more guy who’d be joining the crew—”

Even as she said it, her cell phone dinged, announcing the arrival of a text message. She went to grab it off the nightstand.

“It’s from Hayley. She says Liam Burnett is on his way with coffee.” She gave a little laugh. “She says Cutter will let us know he’s okay.”

“Well, he did that, didn’t he?” Dane said as he reached for the doorknob.

For a moment, Kayla was startled at what she saw when the man holding two cups stepped into the room. Liam Burnett looked like an earnest Boy Scout, almost too young to be drinking the coffee he was carrying. Maybe he was, she thought, noticing he had only two of the cups from the café.

The man handed the cups in their paper sleeves to the two of them, then crouched to greet the dog.

“Hey, you ol’ hound. You doing your job right?”

The swipe of a pink tongue across the young man’s cheek sealed the deal for Kayla. Obviously this was a known and appreciated person in the dog’s life.

“Okay, he likes you,” Dane said, obviously reaching the same conclusion at the same moment. As usual. Kayla blinked at the sudden pain.

“Dogs generally do. My family’s raised them for years. But this guy, he’s something special.”

“We’ve noticed,” Kayla said with the best smile she could manage.

“Texas?” Dane asked.

Liam grinned. “Yes, sir. Born and bred.” Then he looked at Kayla and said, with that same sort of earnestness she’d seen in his face, “I’m sorry about your trouble. But if anybody can unravel all this, it’s Foxworth.”

“You sound confident.”

“I am. Trust them to the wall and over,” he said. “Quinn turned my life around when I was headed down a wrong path.”

Kayla had trouble picturing this innocent-looking guy in trouble, but she took his word for it.

“Speaking of Quinn, he’ll be around later,” Liam said. “He had to go talk with Rafe—you’ve met Rafe, haven’t you?”

Dane nodded. “Interesting guy.”

“If by interesting you mean downright scary sometimes, yeah, he is,” Liam said with a quirky grin that spoke of both respect and liking. “He’s our sniper. And he’s wicked good.”

“So I’ve heard,” Kayla said. “So what’s your specialty?”

“Me? I’m the tech guy mostly. And the tracker.”

“Tracker?”

“I would have found that guy last night,” he said. “Teague’s good, and tough as the ex-marine he is, but he’s a city boy. He needed me. Or Cutter.”

Foxworth, Kayla thought, was a much more interesting operation than their name and website would lead you to believe.

“I keep telling him a month out in the wilds with me would fix that, but he keeps saying no. He feels bad about losing that guy in the woods like that, so I’m guessing he’ll take me up on it now.”

The grin had widened, and somehow Kayla felt lighter than she had in days. Something about this young man’s easy charm and innocent face brightened her outlook.

No sooner did she acknowledge that welcome fact than the new arrival’s cell phone rang. He answered, and within moments the easy grin and innocent expression vanished. When he hung up and looked at them, he was all business.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Rafe turned up a homeless guy who’d been squatting in an abandoned building. Said some new guy moved in, ran him off.”

“So?”

Liam looked uncomfortable, but he didn’t dissemble. “The description matches Chad to a T.”

Kayla’s breath caught in her suddenly tight throat. She sensed rather than saw Dane tense and she felt her own suddenly accelerated heartbeat. She looked at him and saw the same knowledge in his eyes.

It really was coming to a head.

And she was coming face-to-face with the distinct possibility that the end of her quest also meant the end of them.