that if someone had attacked her to get to Nico, they could have stolen the dog more easily while she was in the yard with him. She mentioned it, but neither Carson nor Shane seemed as convinced.
“What’s his status?” Shane asked.
“Nico is fully trained attack/protection, but not yet assigned to a handler.” She turned to her brother. “Dogs with Nico’s training are kept separate and we limit their interactions. Other than his trainer, only the vet and I have had any contact with him.”
“So he bonds best with the handler,” Carson said.
“Right.” She wrapped her arms around her middle, willing away the tremors. This was a disaster.
As both Shane and Carson took notes, Danica watched Stumps. The adorable corgi was Shane’s partner and companion, but she had worked with him through his initial obedience training and she had written the recommendation for him to become an evidence dog. “You’ve had a long day,” she said to him in the same tone she’d use with her human colleagues. “Can we please take this elsewhere?” she asked again.
She rubbed her hands up and down her chilled arms. Her knees were like jelly and her mind kept fogging over. The whining from nearby dogs normally didn’t bother her but right now it was giving her a pounding headache and she wanted to shield her eyes from the lights overhead.
Carson nodded. “A crime scene unit will be here shortly, but you don’t have to guide them through.”
Great. More disruption for the dogs tonight. She couldn’t argue. Nico needed to be found and recovered immediately, and gathering evidence was the first step. Hopefully the RRPD would put a tracking team on the case.
The three of them, along with Stumps, returned to her office, and she was thankful for the quiet after the noisy kennel. Carson walked in and sat down in a guest chair while Shane leaned against the doorjamb, Stumps at his feet. On weak knees, she sank into the second guest chair rather than circling around to sit behind her desk. Shane’s tall, muscular form blocked the only way out. Inexplicably irritated, she bit back a request to have him move. She’d never been claustrophobic before, but tonight everything was different and it bothered her to think she couldn’t get up and walk out whenever she chose.
“What can you tell us about the attack?”
She hesitated, thinking her brother’s question should have ended with dog. “Oh. You mean what happened to me?”
He nodded, pointing over his shoulder to Shane. “They found you unconscious in the yard with the puppies. Do you remember anything about your attacker?”
“No. Not really.” She closed her eyes again. “I heard a noise. The gate maybe?” She scrubbed at her face. “No. A twig snapped near the gate—that was it.” She was sure that had been while the puppies were out.
“You need a hospital,” Shane stated.
He was studying her so intently, she pressed her hands between her knees to warm them up.
“When did you find her?” Carson twisted around to face Shane.
“About ten forty-five.” He consulted his phone again. “Log says I called dispatch at ten forty-seven.”
“Based on the log on Nico’s cage, she could have been out for up to an hour.”
“Hospital,” Shane murmured.
Restless, she pulled the tie from her hair once more and left it loose. “I just need to get home and sleep it off.”
Carson started to answer and stopped, interrupted by his cell phone. He checked the display and then looked from Danica to Shane and back again. “I need to meet with the crime scene unit. Shane will drive you to the hospital.”
Turning to go, he paused at the doorway, waiting for Shane to move. At first she thought Shane held his ground, simply being a jerk because Carson was a Gage. Then she realized they were talking. About her, she assumed, since Shane’s cool gaze rested on her and they kept their voices to a murmur. Too bad Stumps couldn’t share the details with her.
When Carson was gone, Shane’s judge and jury expression landed on her. “Let’s go.”
“I can’t leave,” she protested. “It’s my overnight.” She could handle it now that she didn’t have to go out in the yard again.
“Hayley is already here to fill in for you.”
Danica rolled her eyes. “That’s silly. I’ll be fine.”
“She’s here,” he repeated. “You need a hospital. Come on.”
When had her adult status been revoked? She didn’t want to owe Hayley Patton any favors. The woman was a great dog trainer and a nice person underneath her passion for gossip and her tendency toward the self-absorbed end of the scale.
Danica scolded herself for being petty. Hayley would be her sister-in-law by now if someone hadn’t murdered Danica’s brother Bo on the night before their wedding. She’d never quite understood what Bo had found so irresistible about Hayley, though they shared a love of animals, working dogs in particular. Maybe they really had fallen in love over the common ground of Bo’s German shepherd breeding business.
From her chair, she matched Shane’s cool gaze. After all, his half sister Demi Colton was the prime suspect in her brother’s murder. The situation was just one more point of strife in the latest generation of the Colton-Gage feud. The Gages were perpetually certain the Coltons put family ties above the law and yet the Gages had made plenty of mistakes through the years. Shane might be the most glaring of those mistakes.
Though she personally refused to put too much stock in the circumstantial evidence found to date, the facts weren’t lining up in Demi’s favor. It was a balancing act for Danica, caught between grieving and knowing the investigation needed time to run its course so the right person ended up in jail.
“Come on,” Shane said.
She didn’t like the way he watched her as she pushed out of the chair. “I’d rather go home. I’ve already told the paramedics I’m fine.”
“Great.” Shane extended a hand, urging her forward. “You can tell the doctors, too.”
She started to shake her head and thought better of it.
On a grumble, Shane closed the distance and seized her elbow. His grip was firm and gentle and sent a burst of tiny sparks up and down her arm. “Do you know what they injected me with?” she asked.
“No,” he said. “Stumps didn’t find anything in the yard, so the attacker must have kept the syringe he used.”
On the way out of the training center, they passed Hayley sitting at the front desk, looking as polished and composed as ever. Even when she dissolved into tears over Bo, Hayley always seemed to be the epitome of beauty and polished grace.
Though they were both twenty-five, Danica always felt like the awkward younger tomboy around Hayley. It never surprised her that Hayley’s long blond hair, blue eyes, sweet smile and generous curves drew so many admiring glances. Beside her, Danica’s figure would best be described as streamlined and easily overlooked.
