than they should considering the confidential nature of their team. Keeping her gaze trained on Thunder, she noticed her partner was slowing down thanks to the denseness of the woods and she wondered how much farther they’d be able to go. By her estimation, the cabin was still a good mile away.
A mile that may as well be twenty based on the difficult terrain.
“I should have brought a machete,” she grumbled as she forced her way through another bush.
“Wouldn’t help.” Brody was so close she was surrounded by the spicy scent of his aftershave intermixed with his unique male essence. Breathing through her mouth to avoid his intoxicating scent, she tried her best to fight the memories.
Both the good and the bad.
Don’t, she warned herself. Don’t go there.
Abruptly, Thunder veered right, heading straight for a large tree. Julianne held her breath, closely watching her partner.
Thunder sniffed along the base of the tree, then jerked his head back to the right side of the tree. Then he scratched at the spot and plopped down on his butt, staring at the ground as if there was something to see.
“What in the world?” Brody sounded incredulous.
Julianne glanced at Brody. Max and Opal were bringing up the rear. Opal was a bomb-sniffing dog, so Max had given Julianne and Thunder the lead in attempting to pick up the trail.
“Thunder alerted on Jake’s scent. He was here, Max. Jake Morrow was here.”
“I see that, but where’s the cabin?” her captain asked.
Good question. She joined Thunder. “Good boy,” she praised him. “Good boy. You found Jake.”
She stood near the large tree for several moments, then pulled Dylan’s map out again.
“Max? Hand me your binoculars.”
Brody took them from Max and brought them over. Raising them to her eyes, she peered through the magnified lenses and incrementally moved the glasses from right to left.
There! She used the dial to sharpen the image.
“I found it,” she said excitedly. “There’s a house, not a cabin, but a large house roughly three hundred yards away. The only problem is, I don’t see a driveway or even a path that could be used to get in there. All I see are trees.”
“There has to be a way in,” Max insisted.
She inched the binoculars over the wooded area, then stopped abruptly when she saw the wire. “There’s a chain-link fence well disguised with brush and trees, topped by barbed wire.” She pulled the glasses from her eyes and turned to her boss. “This has to be it, Max. It reeks of Dupree.”
“Yeah, but how are we going to get in? Obviously not on foot,” he said.
Max was right. She battled a wave of frustration. They were so close. She knew Jake Morrow was being held against his will somewhere inside that house.
They just needed to figure out how to get in to rescue him.
“I know a way,” Brody drawled, drawing skeptical looks by the FBI agents. The way the dog had alerted on the trail had been impressive, but he didn’t appreciate the way the feds acted as if he wasn’t even there.
Especially Julianne. Her indifference hurt, more than it should have.
They’d retreated from the woods, returning to the road. Two of his deputies’ vehicles were parked on either side of the prison van, and Brody knew that he needed to head over there to talk to them. But not yet.
She stared at him. “How?”
“From the air.” He waved a hand. “I’m a trained paratrooper, I can parachute down landing inside the compound.”
Genuine surprise widened her eyes. “Brilliant.” She swung toward Max, who nodded in agreement.
“We need to contact Dylan, see if we can get a chopper here, ASAP,” Max said. “Not too close, though, because we don’t want anyone from inside the compound to hear it.”
Brody scowled. “Para-jumping with dogs can be dangerous.”
“We learned to do this in our training program,” Julianne said in a brisk tone. “We can go in alone, no reason for you to come along.”
“Yes, there is. My county, my problem.” He couldn’t stand the thought of her going in without him and possibly facing an ambush. “Besides, this will be tricky. It might be better if you stay here in the woods as backup in case the whole thing goes south.”
She took a step closer and jabbed her finger into his sternum. “Listen, Brody, this is our case and I’m going in. You want to come along? Fine. I’m not staying behind. Understand?”
The steely determination in her eyes proved he was fighting a lost cause. Julianne had always been driven to prove herself capable and he knew she’d go in no matter what. He wanted to capture her hand and press it against his chest, but he didn’t.
She’d only pull away from him, the way she had six years ago.
“Okay, okay. We’ll do this, together.”
“Max and Opal are going in, too.” She tilted her head. “Where did you train to be a paratrooper?”
“Brief stint in the army.” Brody didn’t want to mention his messed-up knee that had sent him home early. Three surgeries and it was almost as good as new.
Almost.
Unfortunately, the army didn’t want to take a chance with his bum knee, so they’d given him a choice, climb the officer ladder or an early honorary discharge. Climbing up the ranks hadn’t interested him so he’d returned home and was offered a job as a deputy. Then somehow managed to become elected sheriff the following year.
Hometown hero and all that. Which was ridiculous since he was anything but. Julianne had left him after their disagreement over her best friend Lilly’s disappearance. She’d insisted Lilly would never have run away, despite all the signs that pointed toward the girl doing just that.
Forcing himself to let go of the past, he swept his gaze over the area. “It would be nice to have deputies guard the perimeter, but that means taking them off roadblock duty, something I’m not willing to do.” Brody knew even if he could mobilize every officer he had on staff, it still wouldn’t be enough.
Max finished his phone call. “Dylan’s looking for a place for a chopper to land. He’s also looking for an area for us to use as a landing spot near the house. He figures that there must be something to use if the Duprees are using the air to get access.”
Despite his annoyance with his authority being usurped, Brody was impressed. “Wish we had those kinds of resources.”
“We’re
