“Where did you get this?”
“It was on my windshield this morning.”
“Before the ceremony?”
“And you said nothing?”
“I didn’t know who to trust.”
“You could’ve trusted me.”
His expression broke for a second.
“That’s exactly what Larkin said.”
Silence filled the road.
Cross looked toward the trees.
“Three days before the ambush, Michael came to me. He believed someone inside our chain was moving restricted hardware.”
“You never told me that.”
“I ordered him to stop investigating until we could verify it.”
“And then he died.”
The word barely left Cross’s mouth.
He looked older suddenly.
“He died because I told him to wait.”
Rex approached him.
Cross crouched and placed one hand on Rex’s head.
“I’ve carried that for six years.”
Then Rex growled.
Not at Cross.
Past him.
Toward the trees.
Headlights appeared behind us.
Several vehicles.
Fast.
Cross stood.
“We need to move.”
Three black SUVs came around the curve.
Emily whispered, “Sheriff.”
Cross jumped behind the wheel.
We piled in.
The SUVs accelerated.
The chase ended before it really began.
A truck blocked the road ahead.
No way around.
Cross stopped.
Doors opened behind us.
Men emerged.
Sheriff Harlan stepped into our headlights.
Butch stood beside him.
His arm was now in a sling.
I stared.
Butch grinned.
“Three minutes, huh?”
Harlan raised a handgun.
“Everybody out.”
We obeyed.
Rex stayed against my leg.
Harlan looked at him.
“That dog really is a problem.”
I moved slightly in front of Rex.
“You’re going to have a bigger one if you point that weapon at him.”
“You still don’t understand.”
“Enlighten me.”
He nodded toward Cross.
“Ask your colonel.”
Cross stared at the ground.
Something inside me sank.
Harlan laughed.
“Oh, this is beautiful.”
“Daniel?”
Cross lifted his eyes.
“Jack…”
Harlan kept smiling.
“Tell him why you really came.”
Cross closed his eyes.
Then he said the words I never expected.
“I attached the tracker.”
Emily gasped.
I didn’t move.
Couldn’t.
Cross continued quickly.
“But not for them.”
“Then for who?”
“For me.”
Cross ignored him.
“I knew someone was watching the ceremony. I needed to see who followed you.”
“You used me as bait.”
“And Rex.”
His face twisted.
I stepped toward him.
Harlan raised the gun.
I stared at Cross.
“You knew Larkin was investigating.”
“You knew Vale called.”
“You tracked me.”
“You let me walk into that diner.”
“I didn’t know about the diner.”
“How much of this am I supposed to believe?”
“None of it,” Harlan said cheerfully.
Then he shot Cross.
The sound exploded through the trees.
Cross dropped.
Emily screamed.
Rex lunged forward.
“Stay!”
He stopped so violently his claws tore through gravel.
I dropped beside Cross.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Not fatal.
But bad.
Harlan pointed the pistol at me.
“Stand.”
I rose slowly.
Harlan nodded toward the truck blocking the road.
“Quarry’s waiting.”
They took us underground.
The quarry looked abandoned from the road.
It wasn’t.
Behind rusted machinery and collapsed fencing, a freight elevator descended nearly sixty feet beneath the rock.
What waited below changed everything.
Steel doors.
Climate-controlled storage.
Pallets of military equipment.
Crates with serial numbers removed.
Optics.
Communication systems.
Drone components.
Weapons parts.
Enough stolen material to supply a small war.
Emily stared.
“My father found this.”
“Your father should’ve minded his business.”
Her face went white.
“You killed him.”
For the first time, Harlan sounded almost offended.
“I don’t kill people unless necessary.”
Butch chuckled.
Emily turned toward him.
Butch looked away.
Harlan led us deeper.
Cross was conscious, barely.
Two men carried him.
Rex remained beside me.
Nobody wanted to touch his leash.
Smart.
At the end of the corridor stood a heavy steel door.
Rex stopped.
Completely.
His nose lifted.
Then he began whining.
I had heard that sound only twice in his life.
Once when he found Larkin after the firefight.
And once after Sarah’s accident, when I brought home the coat she had worn that morning.
I looked down.
Rex pulled toward the steel door.
Harlan’s expression changed.
Barely.
But enough.
I saw it.
“What’s behind there?”
“Storage.”
Rex pulled harder.
“That’s not storage.”
“Keep moving.”
Rex refused.
I had never seen him refuse a movement command.
He scratched at the bottom of the door.
Whined again.
Then barked.