did he go?” Zeke demanded.
Good question. Looking closer, Brody noticed that one of the dead guards’ bodies had been disturbed. Had the guy managed to roll over here to get access to a knife? “I bound his wrists and his ankles, but he may have managed to get ahold of a knife. Still, he couldn’t have gone far.”
“Let’s see if any of the dogs can pick up his scent,” Max instructed.
Julianne took Thunder over to the spot on the ground where the bound guard had been. She pointed with her finger. “Find, Thunder. Find.”
Thunder took his time sniffing the area, then trotted off toward an area of dense brush, where the branches were broken as if someone had recently barged through.
“We’ll go in at another angle,” Max said.
Brody battled a wave of guilt as he followed Julianne and Thunder. He wanted desperately to find this guy. If the guard managed to escape, it would be his fault.
Just like Nate’s return to his criminal past was. If he hadn’t gone into the army...but he had.
So far, he hadn’t exactly been much of an asset to Julianne and Max’s case. Granted, the FBI agents had also searched the fallen guards for weapons, but he still felt responsible.
Thunder stopped for a moment, alerting on the base of a tree. Brody wondered if the guard had paused there to catch his breath.
“Good boy,” Julianne praised. “Keep going, Thunder.” She opened a bag of leaves for him to sniff. “Find.”
In the brief moment of silence, the sound of a tree branch cracking echoed loudly. Brody instantly spun north. Thunder reacted at the same time, heading in the same direction from where the sound had come.
Brody clung protectively close to Julianne. She wasn’t his responsibility anymore, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. She was still important to him, even after all this time.
He didn’t see how the guard could have gotten ahold of a gun, but he wasn’t willing to take any chances. For all he knew, they had weapons stashed somewhere on the property.
Sure enough, a loud boom echoed through the air, something hitting a tree branch above their heads. He jerked her arm, covering her body with his. “Get down.”
Julianne dropped to her knees as he fired back, hoping to make the guard seek cover. He knew very well Max and Zeke wanted to capture the guard alive, in order to question him.
There was more movement in the trees off to the east, and Brody was hopeful that Max and Zeke were also hot on the guy’s trail.
“Get up,” Julianne whispered, pushing him out of the way so she could stand. “We need to keep going, to help box him in.”
Brody didn’t want her anywhere near this guy, but he held his tongue. Silently, he prayed for God to keep them all safe.
Another boom rent the air, followed closely by a second shot. He instinctively stepped in front of Julianne, but there was no indication the bullet had come in their direction.
“I hit him,” Zeke shouted. “Fetch, Cheetah!”
He headed toward the sounds of Julianne’s teammates. By the time they reached the guard lying on the ground, the other two FBI agents and their K-9 partners were already there.
“He’s dead,” Max said in a grim tone. “Shot in the head.”
“I didn’t aim to kill,” Zeke protested. “See the wound in his thigh? That was where I hit him.”
“Then what happened?” Julianne demanded.
Max slowly rose to his feet. “Looks like he shot himself in the head, rather than risk being captured.”
For several long moments, they all simply stood there as the grim reality sank deep.
What kind of power did Dupree wield over his men that this guard would rather shoot himself than allowing himself to be interrogated?
And what did that say about Jake Morrow’s ability to get out of this mess alive?
* * *
The next morning, Julianne woke up feeling groggy. They hadn’t gotten out of Dupree’s house until well after midnight. Brody would be there around nine to pick her up for breakfast, so she dragged herself upright, smiling as Thunder simply lifted his head without moving from his place on the floor next to her bed.
“Come on, Thunder, we have more work to do.”
Her foxhound slowly rose and stretched languorously. Then he trotted over to the door, looking at her over his shoulder as if to say hurry up, already.
After snapping on his leash, she took him outside the small motel she and Max were staying in. Once Thunder took care of business and she finished cleaning up after him, she returned indoors. She filled Thunder’s food and water bowls then quickly took a shower and dressed in a clean casual uniform, khaki pants and a short sleeved polo with the K-9 logo on the upper left pocket.
At 0900 hours, she and Thunder stepped outside the motel room at the exact same moment Brody pulled his SUV into a parking space a few spots down from her doorway. When Brody slid out from behind the wheel, dressed sharply in his brown sheriff’s uniform, she was reminded that a big part of the reason she hadn’t slept well had been because she’d been taunted by memories of how close they’d once been.
Of how much she’d once loved him.
Before he’d pushed her away, choosing to stay here in Clover supposedly to help his buddy Nate Otwell find Lilly, instead of joining the FBI academy with her. Brody had refused to consider the possibility that Nate had something to do with Lilly’s disappearance, focusing instead on the runaway angle.
It still hurt that Brody hadn’t put any faith in her opinion. That he hadn’t trusted her. He and Nate had been best friends since their juvie days, but hadn’t their relationship meant more to him?
Obviously not.
Over and done with, she reminded herself. Sure, she cared about what happened to him the same way she cared about all of her friends in law enforcement, but that was it. Nothing more.
So why was her heart thumping wildly in her chest every time he came near?
Memories, that’s why. Julianne took a deep breath, and remained where she was, forcing Brody to come toward her.
“How are you?” he asked, his blue eyes raking over her as if she’d been injured.
She flushed, far too aware of his penetrating gaze. Granted, she had a few bruises from the activity the night before, but nothing serious. Zeke had been the one who’d been grazed by a bullet. Thankfully, his injury was nothing more than a flesh wound.
“Fine.” She willed her heart rate to return to normal, glancing over to the room next to hers. “When we’re finished Max wants to debrief.”
Brody shook his head. “There’s no time. I received a call from dispatch while I
