Guardian

by Terri Reed

  Once Leo, Max and the two dogs were properly outfitted with bulletproof vests labeled with the FBI acronym, Leo led True to the porch around the house. Max and Opal followed. Leo could see the scuff marks and the dark stains in the dirt where True had drawn blood by biting Garry Pike.

  “Get a good sniff of that,” he told True. The dog put his nose to the ground and growled, no doubt remembering the scuffle he’d had last night with Pike.

  Max allowed Opal to also sniff the area.

  When he was sure True had a good feel for Pike’s odor, Leo crouched down next to True. Unhooking True’s leash, Leo said, “Search.”

  True lifted his nose to the sky and breathed in, his chest expanding. He put his nose to the ground and shuffled back and forth, moving away from the house for a hundred feet. Max let out Opal’s fifty-foot lead so she could cover the area with her nose. Since she wasn’t air-scent trained, he needed to keep her on leash, unlike True, who worked better and faster off leash.

  True let out a series of barks indicating he’d caught the scent, and then he took off and ran toward the fence that separated the east side of the pasture from the ranch house.

  “Here we go.” Leo ran after True, praying the canine would lead him to the killer threatening Alicia.

  FOURTEEN

  Alicia tucked Charlie in for a midmorning nap. For a moment, she stood in the doorway watching her sweet little boy curl onto his side. His drowsy eyes fluttered closed and he sighed as he fell asleep.

  Last night had been traumatic for them all. Dad and Charlie had hardly slept once she’d left with Leo in the ambulance.

  She’d been so scared that Leo would die. So scared she wouldn’t have an opportunity to tell him how much she’d come to care for him. She’d intended to tell him this morning, but then he went and checked himself out of the hospital against doctor’s orders like a madman.

  She blew out a frustrated breath, closed Charlie’s door and headed back downstairs, where Julianne and her father were drinking coffee at the dining table. Thunder sat by the door and the puppy slept nearby. Alicia grabbed a mug, poured herself some coffee and joined them.

  “Miss Julianne was just telling me about Billings, Montana,” Dad said. “It sounds like a nice place.”

  “It’s a city, Dad,” Alicia commented. “You don’t care for cities.”

  Dad stared into his cup. “Hmm. True. I do prefer the wide-open spaces of the ranch. But it might be interesting to go to art galleries, museums and movie theaters without having to drive several hours.”

  She’d never heard her dad talk like this before. “What’s brought this on?”

  “I’m just babbling.” He rose and washed out his cup before putting it in the sink. “Don’t mind me. I’m going to go check on the horses.”

  Confused, she watched him leave the house. Chalking up her dad’s strange behavior to the drama of the last few days, she sighed and sipped from her cup before turning her attention to the woman across from her. “Thank you for being here.”

  Julianne smiled. “My pleasure.”

  “Really? You wouldn’t rather be out there with the guys hunting down the criminal?”

  Julianne laughed. “Yes, truth be told, I would, but this is where I’m needed.”

  Liking her honesty, Alicia asked, “Have you worked with Leo long?”

  “A few years,” the agent replied with a kind smile. “He’s a really good guy. Not normally so bullheaded.”

  Annoyance bubbled in Alicia’s tummy. She pictured the stubborn set of his jaw. “It makes me so mad that he’s out there. He should be lying down and resting. He could trip and fall and do even more damage. He—” She cut herself off from the litany of reasons why Leo shouldn’t be out searching for Garry Pike right now.

  “Men.” Julianne shook her head with a rueful grin. “Sometimes I think they are truly an alien species.”

  “Yes.” Alicia liked Julianne. Needing to think of something other than Leo, she asked, “Are you from Billings?”

  “No.” She examined her coffee cup. “East Texas.”

  “I’ve never been to that part of Texas,” Alicia said. “Is your family still there?”

  Julianne shook her head. “No. Unfortunately, they are both gone now.”

  Empathy made Alicia reach a hand across the table and touch the agent’s hand. “I’m sorry.”

  “Thank you.”

  Easing back, Alicia asked, “What made you go into law enforcement?”

  Sadness entered the agent’s dark eyes. “A combination of things. My grandfather was an officer. I wanted to be like him. During college, a friend went missing. She was never seen again. I felt so helpless at the time. I decided I wanted to do something with my life to honor her, something to make a difference in the lives of other missing persons, so I applied to the FBI. Somehow Thunder and I found each other, and well, here we are.”

  “That’s very noble.”

  Julianne gave a self-effacing smile. “It’s fulfilling.”

  “That’s how I feel about teaching and motherhood. Being with kids makes me happy. Once Charlie is old enough, I’ll go back to teaching. After his father’s death, I felt like I needed to be home with my son.”

  “And I, for one, appreciate people like you. The thought of a room full of children scares me more than a gunfight.”

  Overhead, there was a bump on the floor. Charlie must be awake. Alicia sighed. He didn’t nap very long.

  Julianne’s phone buzzed. She glanced at the caller display panel. “Dylan. I need to take this.” She rose and took her call outside. The dogs followed her outside.

  Figuring she should go check on Charlie, Alicia went upstairs. Charlie’s door was ajar; he must have gotten up to use the restroom. Hopefully he was back in bed now.

  She pushed the door open. The bed came into view. Charlie was exactly as she’d left him, curled on his side, fast asleep. Tenderness swelled beneath her breastbone.

  The creak of the rocking chair in the corner startled her. She whipped her gaze toward the chair and confronted the cold-eyed stare of Garry Pike, holding a gun aimed at her.

  “How did you get in here?” With Herculean effort, Alicia kept her voice hushed so she wouldn’t wake Charlie. The last thing she needed was to scare him. Her pulse pounded in her ears and panic had a stranglehold on her to the point that she felt dizzy.

  There was no way of escaping. He’d either shoot her or shoot Charlie. She stepped to the side, in front of Charlie’s bed so that she blocked Garry Pike’s line of sight to her son.

  From his place in the rocking chair in the corner, Garry sneered. “The same way we’re leaving.”

  Her stomach turned. She was going to throw up, but she had to stay in control of her fear if she wanted to live. “Fine. Let’s go.”

  Garry stood, towering over her. “Grab your kid and then we’ll go.”

  “No!” She drew herself up to her full five foot ten inches, but she still had to crane her neck to look at his face. His cold, dark eyes sent a chill slithering along her limbs. “He’ll just slow you down. He didn’t see you. He can’t identify you. Leave him out of this.” She needed to get this man away from Charlie.

  After a heartbeat, Garry’s mouth twisted. “I’ll come back and kill him if you don’t cooperate.”

  Though his threat caused a spurt of terror, she was grateful he’d relented on taking Charlie with them. “I’ll cooperate.”

  At least until she had the opportunity to get away.

  He waved his gun, motioning for her to leave the room. With one last longing glance at her son, she walked out of the room, praying she’d see Charlie again.

  She headed toward the staircase, hoping Julianne would have come back inside from her phone call or that Thunder would sense the danger. But the K-9 and
the puppy had followed Julianne outside.

  Before she’d taken a few steps, Garry yanked her by the arm. “This way,” he hissed.

  He led her to her bedroom. The balcony door stood open. He pushed her out onto the balcony. A rope ladder had been attached to the railing. She glanced around, searching for Officer Dorset, but there was no sign of him.

  She looked out toward the horse pasture but Dad and the horses weren’t in view. Had Garry done something to her father? She sent up a plea to God that wasn’t the case. Fear squeezed her lungs. She could scream. Julianne would hear her and come to her aid.

  But then he’d go back inside and harm her son before the agent could reach them. She couldn’t do anything to put Charlie in jeopardy.

  “Climb down,” Garry told her. When she hesitated, he added, “It’d be nothing to shoot you now and then go back for your kid. If you try to run, I’ll shoot your son.” He voiced her thoughts, making her glad she hadn’t acted.

  “All right. I’m going.” She carefully climbed down. When her feet hit the earth, she glanced up. Garry was already halfway to the ground and still had the gun trained on her.

  He jumped the last few feet, landing easily. With a flick of his beefy arm, the rope ladder unhooked from the railing and sailed silently down to land in the dirt beside him. He gathered the rope with his free hand, tucked it under his arm then grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her with him toward the equipment barn.

  Thinking he intended to kill her there, she prayed for a quick death. Her heart sobbed with sorrow and grief. She wouldn’t be there to watch her son grow up. She wouldn’t ever have the chance to tell Leo how she felt. She’d missed her opportunity for happiness.

  Garry steered her around the building and across the expanse of wildflowers toward the road. Once there, he led her to a discarded pile of cottonwoods that had been cleared from the back pasture and still needed to be hauled away. The debris hid two huge boulders.

  Now that they were away from the house, she had to escape. She eyed a large branch sticking out of the debris.

  “Come on—this way,” he commanded, pulling her behind the boulders.

  Surprise washed over her to see the black muscle car that had tried to ram into her car. If she got in that car, she was as good as dead. Now was her opportunity to strike and try to get away.

  With a sharp twist, she broke from his grasp and lunged for the branch. Her hands wrapped around the rough bark.

  Garry grabbed a handful of her dark hair and yanked her backward. She brought the branch with her, swinging at him. She heard a satisfying thump before his fist smashed into her face and the world went dark.

  * * *

  “This is where he was camping out,” Max said as he toed the remains of a fire in a makeshift pit.

  Leo stared at the site, where a bedroll had been neatly placed beneath the branches of a silver sagebrush tree. Garry Pike had been hiding out three miles from the ranch house. There was a plastic bag tied to a branch filled with garbage. A cooler was tucked at the base of the tree filled with edibles and water bottles.

  The two dogs sniffed the ground, padding around as they tried to capture Pike’s scent to determine which direction he’d gone from here. Every so often True lifted his nose to the air, his head bobbing back and forth to catch the wind.

  True moved south, farther and farther away from the campsite. Leo kept pace with his canine. Max and Opal followed. A mile later they came to the main road leading to and from Settler’s Valley.

  True let out a loud bark and took off down the road. Leo whistled, bringing True up short. The dog whirled around and raced back to sit at Leo’s side. Leo hooked the leash to his collar. He wasn’t about to endanger his partner by letting him loose near a road.

  “Lead the way,” Max said.

  Letting True’s lead out enough that the canine could work, but not so far that Leo wouldn’t be able to pull him out of harm’s way if a car passed by, they moved along the road for another half mile or so.

  “We’re going in a circle,” Leo stated impatiently as he followed True back to the Howard ranch’s driveway. Why was the chocolate Lab leading them back to where they’d started? Dread itched at Leo’s nape. He quickened his steps.

  Max grunted in acknowledgment.

  Not far from the entrance to the Howard ranch drive, the dogs alerted on a massive pile of debris that had been heaped on the side of the road. It looked like cuttings from several trees had been stacked on top of two large boulders.

  Using caution, Leo and Max ventured closer to inspect the sight. There were tire tracks in the soft dirt disappearing behind the boulders. Though the space was empty, Leo now knew where Garry Pike had hidden his muscle car and why the Settler’s Valley police hadn’t found it. But where was Garry now?

  If he were out driving his car, he would be spotted easily enough. It wasn’t like there was more than one dark-colored, high-performance vehicle roaming the highways and byways of Settler’s Valley, Wyoming.

  True’s nose twitched. He pulled at the leash, forcing Leo away from the scene. The dog clearly wanted to run down the highway. Leo could only assume Garry had taken off in that direction.

  Max’s cell phone rang.

  “West,” Max answered. He listened while the person on the other side of the call talked. Leo could tell by the grimness darkening his boss’s expression that something was wrong.

  It was a full minute before Max asked, “How long ago? We’re heading back now.” He hung up.

  Heart beating erratically in his chest, Leo asked, “What’s happening?”

  “Alicia’s missing.”

  Leo staggered beneath the oppressive weight of that statement. “How? Where’s Officer Dorset? Julianne? She was supposed to be guarding her. And what about Charlie?” He began to run toward the ranch house.

  Max and the dogs kept pace with Leo. “Charlie’s safe. Julianne found Dorset tied up inside the equipment barn. Mr. Howard was with the horses and didn’t see anything. Julianne had stepped outside to take a call from Dylan. Thunder and the puppy found a raw steak and were distracted. We’ll hear the rest when we get there.”

  A planned abduction. Increasing his speed, Leo forced his legs to work as he fought back the throbbing in his head. He’d failed her again. Only this time was so much worse. Garry had managed to snatch her.

  Leo shouldn’t have left her. He should have arranged for an army to stand watch. This one man shouldn’t be so hard to find and apprehend. But then again, a lone operator was always more tricky to capture.

  And from everything he’d read on Pike, the man was a chameleon, able to move about undetected for years while doing his criminal activities.

  Julianne and Howard came out of the house. Officer Dorset sat on the stairs rubbing his head.

  Howard’s face was pale. Leo flinched at the panic in the older man’s eyes.

  “I stepped out for just a moment,” Julianne explained. “When I returned, I thought Alicia had gone upstairs to check on Charlie. But after a while when she didn’t come back down, I went up to search for her. She’s gone. There’s a balcony off the master bedroom. I can only guess that somehow Pike gained access to the house from there.”

  “You have to find her,” Howard said, his voice shaking.

  “Where’s Charlie?” Leo asked.

  “He’s still asleep,” Julianne said.

  “You stay here for when he wakes up,” Max instructed. “Leo and I are going after Pike and Ms. Duncan. Officer Dorset, you come with us. Call your chief.”

  “Already have,” Dorset responded. “He’s got everyone looking for Pike.” The younger officer grimaced. “I’m so sorry I let you down. He came out of nowhere and clobbered me good.”

  “He seems to do that,” Max said drily.

  To Howard, Leo as
ked, “I need something of Alicia’s for the dogs to smell.”

  “I’ll get her sweater,” Howard said. “It’s hanging just inside the door.” He shuffled off faster than Leo would have expected.

  He returned a few minutes later with Alicia’s sweater. Leo took it and held it out for the dogs to sniff. Then he and Max loaded the dogs into Max’s SUV. With Max driving, Leo in the front passenger seat and Officer Dorset in the backseat, they headed toward town with the windows down. True and Opal shared one window.

  Leo gripped the door handle until his knuckles turned white. His other hand curled into a fist and pounded his thigh.

  “What do we know about Pike?” Max asked.

  Focusing on Max, Leo tumbled the question through his mind. “He works for Dupree. He’s killed two women that we know of. He dumped both bodies in the river. Two more are missing.” He paused as it struck him where to go. “The marina. Head to the marina.”

  “Good thinking,” Max said and turned at the next intersection toward the marina. When they reached the gravel parking lot, Max brought the SUV to a screeching halt. Leo jumped out and scanned the area.

  There. In the back corner was the black muscle car. It had to be Pike’s. Adrenaline surged through Leo. After grabbing his assault rifle, he released True and held out Alicia’s sweater for True to smell again.

  “Hey, that was fast,” a rotund man said as he ambled up. “I just clicked off with the police department. They said they’d send someone right over.”

  Max came around the vehicle. “Sir, what’s the problem?”

  “Some lunatic and his girl just stole my boat,” he exclaimed.

  “That had to be Pike with Alicia.” Leo could only imagine how terrified Alicia had to be. “Was the woman all right?”

  The man made a face. “She was sporting a nasty bruise on her face. That fellow probably smacked her good.”

  Rage erupted in Leo’s belly. Pike had hit Alicia. Leo’s fingers curled into fists. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on Pike and return the favor.

  “We’ll secure a boat and head upstream,” Max told Leo.