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  JENNER

  The K9 Files, Book 16

  Dale Mayer

  Books in This Series:

  Ethan, Book 1

  Pierce, Book 2

  Zane, Book 3

  Blaze, Book 4

  Lucas, Book 5

  Parker, Book 6

  Carter, Book 7

  Weston, Book 8

  Greyson, Book 9

  Rowan, Book 10

  Caleb, Book 11

  Kurt, Book 12

  Tucker, Book 13

  Harley, Book 14

  Kyron, Book 15

  Jenner, Book 16

  Rhys, Book 17

  The K9 Files, Books 1–2

  The K9 Files, Books 3–4

  The K9 Files, Books 5–6

  The K9 Files, Books 7–8

  The K9 Files, Books 9–10

  The K9 Files, Books 11–12

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  About This Book

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  About Rhys

  Author’s Note

  Complimentary Download

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

  About This Book

  Welcome to the all new K9 Files series reconnecting readers with the unforgettable men from SEALs of Steel in a new series of action packed, page turning romantic suspense that fans have come to expect from USA TODAY Bestselling author Dale Mayer. Pssst… you’ll meet other favorite characters from SEALs of Honor and Heroes for Hire too!

  Heading to Ashland, Kentucky, where his ex-wife’s family lives, is not in Jenner’s plans anytime soon. But, given a War Dog is potentially in trouble, well, Jenner will even face his past. Arriving at a small bed-and-breakfast, he meets a woman more interesting than anyone he’d met in a long time. His job to find this missing dog seems like a long shot, until he learns about the B&B neighbor’s son and his pack of dogs, who have been scaring Kellie …

  Kellie loves her bed-and-breakfast establishment, as much as she loves meeting new people, particularly when she doesn’t have a great relationship with many of the locals, who judged her harshly for a past mistake. Determined to enjoy life regardless, she tries to move on but finds it hard to leave her past behind. And now there’s her neighbor …

  Having Jenner around makes Kellie feel more secure and gives her hope that maybe good people still exist in this world. Yet, before they can truly move forward, there is a canine issue, … and a neighbor with something else on his mind …

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  Prologue

  Badger read the text and looked over at Kat. “Wow, look at that,” he said, holding up his phone, showing the text message of the heart emoji.

  “Ah, looks to me like we have another happy success story. It just blows me away that it’s happening time and time again.” She smiled, looking over at him.

  “I know. So who do we have next?”

  “You want me to look?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Do you know anybody who needs rescuing?”

  “I don’t know about rescuing, but I have a case that’s driving me crazy.”

  “What do you mean by a case?”

  “Somebody who isn’t adapting well to his prosthetics because he’s pushing them too hard,” she admitted.

  “What’s he doing?”

  “Tons of outdoor hiking, survival-type stuff,” she noted. “He’s all over the board. He brought me back one of the latest titanium prosthetics that was damn near broken.” Badger stared at her in shock. “Well, he’s also big,” she added, “and I guess I hadn’t made quite enough allowances for that.”

  “How big?”

  “Six feet two,” she replied, “and I suspect, with both legs, he would be somewhere around two-sixty.”

  “Right.” Badger nodded. “That’s big. Does he like dogs?”

  “I can ask him.”

  “Sure, ask away. What does he do for a living?”

  “He’s ex-navy,” she stated. “Why?”

  “Because I don’t have anybody around here to recruit. We’ve pretty well tapped out all our resources, at least for the moment, though we always have new guys coming and going. But you know what? We do have another missing War Dog.”

  “I could ask anyway. He seems to keep himself so busy because he has nothing else to do.”

  “Does he know anything about dogs but also horses, cattle, or anything like that?”

  “Why?”

  “Because it sounds like this War Dog was taken to a ranch in Kentucky,” he explained.

  “What happened to it?” she asked, astonished.

  “Nobody knows. It just disappeared.”

  “Coyotes?”

  “Not likely,” he said.

  “Is this dog injured?”

  “No, it seemed to be healthy, but, according to everybody we’ve talked to, it just vanished.”

  “You don’t sound like you believe that.”

  “Nope, I sure don’t. Not if the dog was well treated.”

  “And, of course, that’s the trick, isn’t it?” she stated. “Not only do you have to find sincerely good people but you also have to find someone the dog bonds with.”

  “I’m thinking that, in this case, we have a problem because the wife died, and the dog was basically bonded to her.”

  “Of course, and now the dog is dealing with yet another loss.”

  “Exactly,” Badger agreed. “I need somebody who’ll give the dog an outdoor life.”

  “Well, maybe my client would be a good fit,” she suggested. “I can ask him.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Jake,” she said. “No wait.” She stopped and reconsidered that. “Jenner. It’s Jenner.”

  “Not a problem,” Badger said. “Give him a call.”

  She grabbed her phone and called him. He sounded surprised to hear from her. “Have a question or two,” she stated. “I know you’re really active outdoors, but I just wondered if you ever had any experience with dogs.”

  “Of course,” he said. “Why?”

  “My husband has been dealing with some of these retired K9 War Dogs. I think I told you about that.”

  “Yeah, I heard something about it. So, what’s up?”

  “A dog in Kentucky went missing, and we were sitting here brainstorming, trying to find somebody willing to make a trip up there to take a look for the dog.”

  “Why Kentucky?” he asked, his voice hard.

  “The dog may be at a ranch there.” She hesitated and asked, “Is that triggering something for you?”

  “Yeah, … my ex-wife is there.”

  “Ah,” Kat replied, “so I gather you’re not the right person for this job.”

  “I don’t know,” he stated. “What’s involved?”

  “Well, no money for one thing,” she noted. “I can tell you that.”

  “I don’t need money,” he said quietly.

  “I know. It’s one of the reasons why I thought about you. We just need somebody to go see what happened to the dog. I mean, if it died or something, that’s one thing. Or if it’s been adopted by somebody else and is happy, that’s all good. But if it’s suffering out there somewhere, we need it brought into a better situation. You mentioned your ex-wife. What kind of scenario did you leave behind?”

  “She didn’t like
military life and chose somebody else instead,” he noted quietly.

  “Ouch, I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, me too,” he said. “I haven’t spoken to her since.”

  “Maybe it’s time to make peace?”

  He hesitated. “Maybe, … not exactly what I was thinking I would be doing.”

  “No, but how do you feel about a dog in need?”

  “That,” he replied, “I would do in a heartbeat.”

  “That makes you the right man for the job then,” she stated. “I’ll pass you over to Badger now. And by the way,” she said, before she handed the phone over, “what is your wife’s name?”

  “Laura,” he said. “Why?”

  “Huh, that’s a nice name.”

  “She’s a nice woman, or at least she was.”

  “Are you sure she remarried?”

  “I don’t know,” he replied, “but she divorced me pretty damn fast.”

  “Maybe she just needed to know that you would come home one day.”

  “Well, I did, and she wasn’t expecting it. Or maybe she was afraid I’d come home in pieces, like I did,” he admitted, his voice even harder.

  “Pieces that you’ve been working really hard at putting back together,” she added.

  “Yeah, but, as you know, nothing is perfect about any of it.”

  “Nothing is perfect in life at all,” she reminded him. “It’s all about progress.”

  “Well, if I can help a dog, I’m happy to,” he said. “Besides, it’ll stop me from going crazy. I’m kind of growing tired of all the hikes.”

  “That doesn’t sound normal for you.”

  “No, I know,” he admitted. “I guess maybe I’m just missing something in life.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed, her voice soft as she whispered, “You’re missing Laura.”

  “Doesn’t matter if I’m missing her or not,” he snapped. “She made a choice, and it didn’t include me.”

  “Maybe you need to go see why she made that choice,” she added, her intuition kicking in.

  “Maybe,” he admitted. “If nothing else, it’ll be good to call it quits, to look at my past, and to move forward again,” he noted. “For that reason alone, I should probably do this. I’ll do it because I need to,” he added, “but I’ll enjoy it because I get to help an animal. That makes it worthwhile to me.”

  And with that, she said, “Good enough, now here is Badger.”

  Chapter 1

  Jenner Morrison drove down through the horse ranches, long green pastures, and white fences, shaking his head. “Is there any other place quite like Kentucky for horses?” he murmured out loud.

  The area was still postcard picturesque. Just as he remembered Ashland.

  But then, hey, he hadn’t been here in many, many years. Not since his ex-wife had divorced him, and, at first, he’d thought she had married his best friend. He’d heard soon afterward that it was somebody different. Still, his supposed buddy had confessed to sleeping with Laura, just not marrying her, and so Jenner had also ditched his best friend at the same time.

  At the airport, Jenner had picked up the rental truck, wanting space for a large dog crate, if needed. His main concern was finding the War Dog named Sisco. A male that had had several broken ankles apparently, according to his file, all healed, yet he’d lost his speed. Although he still had the perfect training at that point in time, he’d been adopted out. Which was good for him because he got to live the rest of his life in retirement. But what happened to him after that was a whole different story. And this all happened to Sisco a town over from where his ex-wife now lived.

  As Jenner drove along more huge green pastures and white fences, he just smiled. Something was so very familiar about all this. He’d been raised on a horse farm, had many happy years here, until the family had sold it after his mother’s death. She’d been the horse-crazy one, and his father had always hated the farm part. She had died from a head injury, caused by a fall while out riding. Still, Jenner certainly didn’t blame the horse.

  As it was, they’d moved to the opposite side of the country, California, and that’s where he’d signed up for the navy and had met Laura soon afterward. Only she’d been from this area, and, as they’d spent a lot of time back-and-forth with her family and with his, this still always remained one of Jenner’s favorite locations. It kind of blew him away that he was even back here again. After what? Seven years? Nine?

  He drove up to the bed-and-breakfast that he’d booked for this odd trip down memory lane. “Focus on the dog, not the memories,” he muttered to himself. He pulled up in front and parked.

  Horse Happy was the name of the place. He shook his head.

  “Horse Nuts would be a better name. After all, that’s what everyone around here is,” he muttered. He hopped out of the truck, grabbed his duffel bag, and walked in the front entrance. It was a long two-story structure with four dormers and a big wraparound veranda. The yellow-and-white trim added to the bright yet cozy come stay with us vibe. He liked it. Big double doors opened to a huge reception area, with a small desk beside the stairs, that was aimed upward.

  A woman looked up and smiled at him. “Hey, I’m Kellie Spalding. Welcome to my home.” She asked him, “Do you have a reservation?” He nodded and gave her his name. “Okay, I do have you down here.” She frowned, as she looked at the booking, and he waited for the inevitable questions. “I don’t have down the number of nights that you’re staying.” She looked up at him. “Will this be just an overnight stay?”

  He shrugged. “No, it’ll be at least two. Possibly a week. If you have room.”

  “That’s fine. I’ll give you the front room, on the second floor.” She handed him a key, pointed at the stairs, and added, “Dinner is included, as is the continental breakfast. Unless you have other plans, I’ll see you for dinner at five o’clock.” She glanced at her watch and frowned. “Which means I need to get to the kitchen pretty soon,” she said, with a bright laugh.

  She held out the credit card machine. He paid for the first night. “I’m pretty easy to feed.” Careful of his limp, he moved slowly toward the stairs and up. His leg was especially sore after the drive. He felt her curious gaze following him, but, when he got to the room in question, he used the key and stepped inside. A large double bed, a big double window, and a window seat. Plus a lovely rug at the foot of the bed. That was all good.

  He dropped his duffel bag on the bed, walked over to the big double window, and sent Badger a text message. I’m here. And, with that, he pulled out his laptop, looked around, and noted a small recliner chair but no side table.

  With another assessing look, he emptied one of night tables and moved it over, so he could put the laptop on it while he sat. Hardly the best scenario, but it would work in the short term. Then he sat down and brought up a map of Sisco’s past locations.

  The area wasn’t very far from here, within walking distance. With that knowledge, he grabbed his phone and headed back downstairs. When he got to the bottom, he felt his prosthetic ankle kicking slightly offside. He swore at that.

  Kellie, still at the front desk, looked at him anxiously. “Problems?”

  He faced her, frowning. “Unless you have an Allen wrench, it could be.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Absolutely no problem. I do have one?”

  “Yeah, if you’ve got one,” he replied. She disappeared into another room, and he followed her slowly. When he saw a half-open door to a den, with a couple tables and easy chairs, he asked, “Is this room for the guests?”

  “Yes, absolutely,” she said, “plus the large dining room down here, and then we have the kitchen around the corner. Do you need a space?”

  “I’m looking for a place to work on my laptop.”

  “Oh, easily done. Pick a spot. Anywhere you’re comfortable.”

  “Not an issue now, but good to know. I planned to go for a walk around the area right now, until dinner is ready. That’s when you heard me cursing my ankle.”
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  She stopped and stared at him and slowly handed him the Allen wrench. He looked down at it, walked over to a chair, and sat. He lifted his ankle across his other knee and pulled up his pant leg.

  “Oh my,” she said immediately.

  He was so accustomed to this prosthetic. It was an older model that he’d decided to travel with, while Kat worked on adaptations to his newer ones. “Yeah, sometimes the mechanics don’t work so well. It is an older model.”

  He quickly shifted where the metal had been grating on the moving parts and, using the Allen wrench, adjusted the joints. He hopped to his feet and moved around a bit, bending and extending his leg. He walked back to the stairs, walked up a few, turned around, and walked back down again. And then he returned the wrench to her. “Thanks.”

  She took it willingly and added, “That looks like quite an injury you must have had.”

  “Just one of multiple at the same time,” he replied agreeably. “I was in the navy. We were doing war games on a small Zodiac, when we took on a little more than we expected in terms of damage,” he explained. “But I’m here, and I’m alive and well. That’s all that matters,”

  “I’m glad to hear that,” she noted, concern on her face.

  “Are there any local general stores or something nearby that’s walkable?”

  She shook her head at that. “No, we’re far out from the closest town for walking purposes. Not sure what you’re looking for in particular, and I don’t know how far you’re planning on going. Do you need me to push back dinner for you?”

  “No, of course not. It’s not that big a deal,” he stated. “I was just wondering about a property close by here.”

  Her eyebrows rose slowly. “Are you looking at buying?”

  “No, I’m looking for a War Dog last seen in the area.” At that, her face creased, in a way that amazed him. She would never be any good at poker because her every expression showed. So far, he’d seen shock, curiosity, relief, and now more curiosity.

  “War Dog?” she asked cautiously.

  “Yeah, a dog adopted by one of the locals,” he noted. “It was a special dog from one of the overseas K9 units.”