Only Her (A K2 Team Novel)

by Sandra Owens

  After sending Duncan home with his happy owners, she went to her office and called the police again. The dispatcher told her it would probably be the following day before an officer could come by to take a report. That sucked, but not much she could do about it.

  She stopped by the front desk. “Michelle, when you get a chance, call the other clinics in the area. Ask if they’ve treated any poisoned animals.”

  Thankfully, the remainder of the afternoon was business as usual. “What’d you find out?” she asked Michelle after the last patient of the day had left.

  “No, none have had any that appeared to be poisoned. That’s good news, anyway.”

  And maybe narrowed down the search to someone who lived in the area of the clinic. What kind of sick mind did it take to enjoy seeing an animal suffer? It made her sad and angry, and she decided to spend a few minutes with Cody’s dogs. That would cheer her up.

  “Hey, Sally. You, too, Pretty Girl.” Riley opened the kennel door, stepping inside. Tails excitedly sweeping across the concrete, both sat, as if waiting for permission to greet her.

  Never had she seen dogs trained so well. She lowered her butt to the floor. “You two doing okay?” Their tails picked up speed, but they didn’t approach. She should have thought to ask for command words.

  “Come.” That seemed to be the magic word, as both bounded into her arms, Sally giving a joyful bark. She’d played with them for a few minutes, tossing their balls up in the air for them to catch, when her phone buzzed.

  The caller ID displayed Cody’s name.

  CHAPTER SIX

  After he and Ryan arrived in Fort Dodge and had checked into their adjoining rooms, Cody decided to use the ten minutes before meeting Ryan to call Riley. He pressed her number, flopping onto the bed as he listened to the ring tones.

  “Hi, Cody.”

  Expecting to leave a message because she would be with a patient, he was surprised when she answered.

  “You there?” she said.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I’m here.” Her voice, even with those few words, soothed him better than the finest scotch. With the phone pressed to his ear, he stuffed the second pillow behind his back.

  “Guess what I’m doing right now?”

  Things he’d like her to do popped into his head, and he willed them away. If she could read his dirty mind, she’d hang up. “I’m not good at guessing.” He rolled his eyes. Somewhere along the way, between graduating from college and now, he’d forgotten how to have a conversation with a woman.

  A bark he recognized as Sally’s happy one sounded. “You’re playing with my dogs.” She would never know it, but she’d just stolen a piece of his heart.

  “I am. Hold on a sec. Okay, you’re on speaker. Say something.”

  That she would think of doing that made him want to kiss her. Not that he needed a reason. “Pretty Girl. Sally. You guys behaving for Riley?” Two excited barks answered him.

  She laughed. “They’re going crazy trying to sniff you out of the phone.”

  It was the first time he’d heard her laugh, and he liked thinking of her as happy. There was a knock on his door. “I have to go. Thanks for spending time with them.”

  “We’re having a ball, so don’t worry. Um, I wanted to ask, would you mind if I take them to the dog park?”

  Something in her voice set off alarm bells, but he couldn’t think of a reason to refuse. “They’d love that. They know all the commands, sit, come, heel.”

  More laughter poured through the phone. “You should have seen them just now. They sat, then came to the phone, then seemed confused about how they were supposed to heel.”

  “Down,” he said. “Did they lie down?”

  “They did.”

  It was the first time he’d given them commands via a phone, and he chuckled. Ryan knocked again. “I’ll try to call you tomorrow.”

  “Okay. It was nice talking to you.”

  “Same here.”

  “Cody?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Be careful, okay?”

  “Always am.” Her voice had been so soft when she’d said that, and as he hung up, he rubbed his chest, over his heart. The damn thing had gone all fluttery on him. Other than his teammates, and his parents from afar, when was the last time someone had worried about him?

  “Coming,” he yelled at another series of knocks. He stuck his room key into his wallet, and went to the door.

  “There was a robbery at a convenience store three nights ago in Sac City. The description fits this kid,” the Fort Dodge police chief said, handing the couple’s photo back to Ryan after making a copy. “Got the APB about it this morning.” He flipped through some papers on his desk.

  And wasn’t that just great? Cody exchanged a glance with Ryan. The game had just changed.

  “Was the girl with him?” Ryan asked.

  Finding what he was looking for, the chief scanned the sheet. “No, just the kid. He had a gun. Clerk said it looked like an old one.” He eyed the copy he’d made of the photo. “I’ll be sending this out to the other police departments around here, along with the boy’s name.”

  Ryan stuck the photo back into his file folder. “That’s fine. Any description of their car?”

  Reading the APB again, the chief shook his head. “Not a good one. Dark. Midsized. That’s it.”

  Cody turned to a map on the wall. “Where’s Sac City from here?” He scanned the area around Fort Dodge. Kincaid had arranged this meeting with the chief. Otherwise, the cop wouldn’t be so willing to share information with two men who’d walked in off the street.

  “On the way out to Storm Lake. Take 20 out of Fort Dodge.”

  Cody found Sac City, a small dot on the map. More interesting was Storm Lake, which was larger and had a big lake. A tourist destination that would appeal to a couple of kids and one they might think they could get lost in. It probably never occurred to the brainless twits that it was December. Although there was no snow yet, it was damned cold in Iowa. Had they even thought to bring winter clothes on their little adventure?

  Ryan got the address of the convenience store the kid had robbed, and they both thanked the cop.

  The chief came around the corner and walked them out. “You boys are some kind of elite team from what I was told, but don’t be going and testing our tolerance, you hear? This isn’t the Wild West.”

  “We’re just here to pick up the girl,” Ryan said. “What you do with the boy now that he’s gone and gotten into trouble is your business. We’ll alert the police in whatever town we find them.”

  “Fair enough, but I’ll call on ahead, make sure they know you’re coming.”

  He and Ryan shook hands with the chief, and then headed for the Range Rover, which Ryan had pulled rank on and was driving today.

  “Damn kids,” Cody said as they left the police station, heading for Sac City.

  “Yeah, now he’s screwed up his life, getting an armed robbery on his record. Stupid of her parents to forbid her to see him, too. If they’d left things alone, a month from now, the kids probably would have broken up. That age, they get easily bored.”

  “True.” In high school, he’d had the hots for one girl to the next one. He’d been a jock, and that alone had been a chick magnet. As a kid with hormones raging through him, he’d never been able to settle down with a longtime girlfriend. There were just too many pretty girls throwing their sweet little selves at him, so he didn’t get this Romeo and Juliet thing going on with these two.

  He wasn’t particularly proud of his behavior looking back on it. His parents hadn’t appreciated all the phone calls from girls asking to talk to him, but he’d considered the professors old-fashioned. Although he had fond memories of those years, as a man and somewhat wiser, he could see their point. If he had a daughter and found out she was calling some boy, begging him to sneak out and meet her somewhere, he’d definitely have a problem with it. A real big one. And if he ever caught his son sneaking out to meet a girl, he’
d ground him for a month.

  Not that he would ever have a son or daughter. Out of nowhere, a picture formed of a little girl the spitting image of Riley. Don’t go there, Dog. But it was there in his mind and refused to go away.

  “You and Charlie planning to have kids?” he asked.

  “Not right away, but yeah. I can’t wait to have a little Charlie running around the house, chasing Mr. Bunny while driving Charlie crazy. It’s gonna be fun.”

  “Mr. Bunny?”

  Ryan grinned. “Our rabbit.”

  “Get out. You have a pet rabbit?” As Ryan told the story of how that came about, Cody’s mind drifted back to Riley. Although he hadn’t planned to, later tonight, when they decided where to get rooms, he would call her to find out how her trip to the dog park went. Just a friendly phone call, that was all. He snorted.

  “Let’s see if we can learn something new,” Ryan said as he pulled into the convenience store parking lot.

  Thirty minutes later, they were back in the car. The only new thing they had learned was that before pulling out an antique gun and demanding all the money, the kid had brought a bottle of water to the counter and had asked how far Storm Lake was.

  After leaving the convenience store, they stopped by the police department, and after a phone call between Kincaid and the Sac City police chief, they were allowed to view the videotape confiscated from the store’s security camera. Sure enough, it was their boy.

  Justin Tramore, age seventeen, had politely asked his question, and after the answer was given, he’d pulled a turn-of-the-century Colt Single Action .38 from behind his back, pointing it at the clerk. “I’m sorry,” he’d said on his way out the door, after the clerk had handed over a little under two hundred dollars.

  “At least he was polite about robbing the man,” Cody said. He shouldn’t feel sorry for the boy, but he did.

  Ryan turned the car toward Storm Lake. “Tell it to the judge.” He glanced at Cody. “What’s your take?”

  “Last place he used his dad’s credit card was when they arrived in Fort Dodge, and that was at a burger joint, of all things. I’m guessing it was about that time it occurred to them the card could be traced. They ran out of money, thus the robbery.”

  “My thinking, too.”

  “They’re probably feeling a little desperate by now, which makes them unpredictable. Don’t like that they have a gun.” Cody scratched at the tingling going on at the back of his neck.

  “Yeah, me either.” Ryan slowed the car as they drove into Storm Lake. The sun was setting, and it looked like the town was closing up for the night. “Let’s find a place to get something to eat before they roll up the sidewalk.”

  “I could go for a steak and baked potato with the works.”

  Ryan put on his blinker and turned into a parking lot. “Ask and ye shall receive.”

  Turned out the steak house was open until ten, and the food was good.

  After a shower, Cody checked the time. Nine-thirty shouldn’t be too late to call Riley. Wearing his favorite sweatpants, he settled on the motel room’s bed, stuffing the extra pillows behind his back. Phone in hand, he hesitated. Maybe he shouldn’t bother her. Things could get busy tomorrow, though, if they managed to find the kids, and he might not have a chance to check in. He called her.

  As he listened to the ring, he realized he wanted to hear her voice. He also admitted to himself that even though he couldn’t classify her as a girlfriend, if his head was in a better place, he’d be interested in a relationship with her. Very interested.

  He got her voice mail. Disappointed, he hung up without leaving a message.

  Riley washed the conditioner from her hair. The trip to the dog park had turned up nothing, which she hadn’t expected it to, but it was disappointing nevertheless. She had enjoyed playing with Cody’s dogs, while watching them closely to make sure they hadn’t eaten anything. She’d also posted several signs, warning owners to keep an eye on their animals and not to let them eat foods left behind by someone. It wasn’t her desire to panic anyone, but better a warning over seeing their dog get sick, or worse.

  A cup of hot tea in hand, she grabbed her latest book, and headed to her bedroom. The cats joined her in bed. Merlin sat on the pillow next to her, where he could keep an eye on things, Arthur made a few turns on her lap before curling up, and Pelli batted a toy mouse across the comforter.

  Riley watched Pelli for a few minutes, smiling at his silliness. Her life was coming together finally. It hadn’t been easy. As a child who’d grown up in foster care, bouncing from one family to another, she’d had no one to depend on but herself. Her last family, the one she’d lived with her senior year of high school, had been the best, and she still kept in touch with them. They were the only ones, though, that she had any desire to keep in her life.

  Pat and John Haywood had helped her through a rough time, when she’d hated herself and the world. Pat was one of the wisest women Riley had ever known, and had given her Arthur and told her that she could whisper all her secrets to him and he would never tell. There were many secrets she’d shared with him, and once she trusted him, she told him her biggest one. Getting it off her chest had done wonders for beginning the healing process, and her surly attitude began to seem too much trouble to hold on to. Eventually, she’d trusted Pat enough to tell her about Reed.

  Seeing that she’d not put her phone in the charger, she picked it up from the night table. When she put the plug into it, it lit up with a missed call, Cody’s name coming up. Her heartbeat picking up, she punched Call. Had something happened to him?

  “Lo,” he said, his voice sleep muffled.

  “I woke you. I’m sorry. I just now saw that you’d called earlier.”

  “Hey, no problem.”

  He sounded alert now, and she guessed he was trained to go from zero to sixty at a moment’s notice. “So you’re okay?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “When I saw your name on the screen, my first thought was that something had happened. I was worried.”

  “That’s damn sweet, Riley. Thank you.”

  His voice was sexy, all low and rumbly. She wished she could crawl through the phone and snuggle next to him while he murmured naughty things into her ear. “So, I guess you were calling to check on your dogs?” He chuckled, the sound sending a shiver through her.

  “No, darlin’, just wanted to talk to you. Is that okay?”

  Oh. “Yeah, sure. Where are you?” She heard the rustling of sheets and imagined him sitting up to rest his back against the headboard and wondered what he wore to bed. Her guess was nothing; he seemed like the kind of man who slept in the nude. That she’d like to see.

  “Some little tourist town in Iowa. Storm Lake. Ever heard of it?”

  “No. Can you tell me why you’re there?”

  “I will when I get back home. Right now, I’d rather talk about you. Did you go to the dog park?”

  “I did, and Pretty Girl and Sally tested my ball throwing stamina. They’re great dogs, Cody.”

  “They are, but they took advantage of you. I’ll show you why when I get home. Any more trouble with the poison thing?”

  “Yeah, had one today, but his owners got him to us in time. He ate some meat that someone left under a bush at the dog park.” As soon as she told him the last part, she wanted to take back the words. He was a smart man, and the comment wasn’t going to get past him.

  “Riley—”

  The soft, sexy voice was gone, replaced by one that was full of command. “I didn’t risk your dogs,” she said, cutting him off. “I never took my eyes off them, I swear.”

  “That’s not my worry. I know you wouldn’t put them in danger. It’s you I’m worried about. Has it occurred to you that the person poisoning animals might be the same one who tried to run you over?”

  She squeezed her eyes shut. No, that had not occurred to her. What had she ever done to anyone to make them hate her so much that they’d want to kill her?

&nb
sp; “Riley?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m not saying it is, but it’s entirely possible. Would you promise not to go to the dog park alone? It’s a good bet that the person hurting your patients is the same one who put the meat there. If you feel you need to keep an eye on the place, I’ll go with you when I get back, hopefully, in a day or two. Either that or at least take someone with you. Okay?”

  She’d been on her own as far back as she could remember, and with the exception of the year she’d lived with the Haywoods, she’d made her own decisions. A part of her bristled at having to curtail her investigation, but she couldn’t argue with his logic.

  “Okay, I’ll either wait for you or take someone with me. Do they have a command for attack?”

  He let out a long breath. “Thank you. I’ll sleep better knowing you’re safe. And to answer your question, they do, but they’re trained not to attack unless it’s me giving the command.”

  “That’s probably wise. Listen, you stay safe, too.” Whatever he was doing in Iowa, it had to be dangerous, else he would have told her what he was up to.

  “I will. Nite, darlin’.”

  “Nite.”

  She plugged the phone into the charger, and no longer interested in her book, she turned out the lamp. What was he doing in Iowa, anyway? To the cats, lights out meant that Arthur got to curl up against her stomach, Merlin buried his nose in her hair, and Pelli dived under the covers, worming his way down to her feet. Sticking to his usual bedtime routine, the kitten sucked on her little toe, which, fortunately, wasn’t ticklish. In a few minutes, he would fall asleep, and normally, Riley would, too.

  Not tonight, apparently. All the things Cody had said to her ran through her mind like a movie reel. He’d kissed her not long after they met, then at her clinic on the day he’d dropped off his dogs, she was sure he’d wanted to, but he hadn’t. Instead, he’d said something about the timing being wrong.

  The man confused her, but she couldn’t deny that he fascinated her. She’d had two boyfriends in college, the first in a relationship that had lasted less than six months. The second, Brad, in her second year of veterinarian school. His pursuit of her had been relentless, and she’d finally given in and agreed to a date with the cute fellow student. She’d even fantasized about them opening a practice together. That dream had ended when she’d skipped a class to deliver a cake and herself, wearing nothing under her raincoat, to wish him a happy birthday.