Lucas Read online

  He bent his head to kiss her gently. “I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “I have to go home a couple times over the next few months, but I really don’t have anything keeping me there.”

  “Oh, look at that? You’re hardly a good prospect then, are you?” she teased. “No job, no home …”

  “Then there’s you, with no decent job and an apartment that doesn’t even have an elevator,” he joked.

  She smiled, sliding her arms around his neck and whispered, “So maybe we’ll find a new place together and start to work out these problems.”

  “That’s a plan,” he whispered, and he took her lips in a long, slow kiss.

  She moaned softly beneath him.

  He shifted again, sliding down lower, his one arm holding up his weight, the other one moving gently but not with too much freedom.

  She shook her head when he finally lifted his head and whispered, “Roll over.”

  He stretched out on his back. “What do you have in mind?”

  “I have in mind a method that won’t hurt your shoulder,” she said. She gently stripped his boxers down his hips, then kicked off her panties. She straddled his hips.

  Starting at her wrists, he grazed his fingers up her arms and gently cupped her breasts, squeezing and teasing her flesh. “You were always so perfect,” he said. “I had no idea just how perfect the female form was until I met you.”

  She smiled. “You lie beautifully,” she said. “But thank you.”

  He chuckled.

  She kissed him again and then again.

  He wanted to wrap his arms around her and pull her close, but she pulled away, letting her fingers and lips trail over his shoulder, pressing her lips gently around the bandage. She swirled her tongue around each nipple as she slid her hand down his abs to play with his belly button. “We were always so good together,” she said.

  “Mmm,” he said, his fingers drifting through her hair, pulling on her long strands. “We still are good together. Don’t you forget that.”

  “And will we always be?” she asked, straightening up and looking at him, knowing the shadows of fear were still in her eyes.

  He smiled and whispered, “Absolutely.” He tugged her down closer where he could kiss her. “Even when we were apart, we knew we should be together.”

  She stretched out across his body and let her own mind shut down while her body and heart took over. Before long, she rose up to sit astride his hard body, loving the feel, loving the motion, loving the movement, just being with him and having this all back again when she’d come so close to losing everything. She slowly took him in and whispered, “Dear God, I didn’t want to lose this—you again.”

  “You were never in danger of losing me,” he said, his hands holding her hips firm as she gently rode him. “This was what we were always meant to have. This is who we were always meant to be.”

  She smiled, bent over, using his chest to brace her hands and picked up the pace. When she couldn’t stand it anymore, she cried out as her body rocked with explosions.

  His hands held her hips firm as he surged up twice and exploded inside her.

  She rolled over so she was right beside him on the bed. “Perfect,” she whispered. “As always.”

  He cuddled her close and smiled. “Just think. We have a beautiful future ahead of us.”

  She hugged him closer and murmured, “Absolutely. It’s been a long and difficult road, but we’re here finally.”

  Epilogue

  “Another one bites the dust, huh?” Geir sat with his feet up on the boardroom table and smiled at the rest of the team. “I can’t believe these K9 guys are all getting hitched, and most of them are keeping the dogs,” he said.

  “And one murder and an attempted murder have been solved at the same time,” Badger said, shaking his head. “That’s a doubly awesome job.”

  “Who’d have thought that the one girlfriend, who worked in dispatch, had overheard the dirty cops discussing the dogfights and their involvement. After that, they couldn’t take the chance she’d talk so took her out, then her roommate. They planned to knock off Tanya as well but were just waiting for a better time. In the meantime one of the accountants who worked with Tanya had heard about Tanya’s girlfriend’s involvement in the dogfighting and didn’t want to keep Tanya close, in case she found out anything else—like how the firm was laundering money for the dogfighting rings—so got rid of her too. Doesn’t that just make you love people?”

  “Not much,” Badger said. “It’s not what we expected on a mission to save one War Dog. Yet Lucas is responsible for saving more than 160 dogs. And we especially didn’t plan the matchmaking success on this op.”

  Kat came in, a cup of coffee in her hand, and sat down beside them. “Might not be what we had planned or what you guys had planned,” she said, “but it’s all good news.”

  “Says the woman who arranged all our weddings,” Geir said, chuckling.

  Badger watched the color wash over her cheeks but grabbed her fingers in his and whispered, “Thank God.”

  She beamed at him. “You guys can hate me until doomsday,” she said, “or pretend to, but you know that you’re all much better off the way you are now. Happily married.”

  “Oh, we’re not arguing with that,” Erick said. “I think we’re all happy little pigs in our blankets, but we have more dogs to look after.” He spread the files around. “Take a look and see if there’s anybody here that we know of to match up with another dog. The commander called to check in the other day. Now we have another success story to tell him. But I’m sure he’s wondering what’s taking us so long.”

  “There’s no time frame involved,” Geir said. He opened the file in front of him and flipped through the pages. “Hell, this one’s over in Iraq still.”

  Badger lifted his head. “Seriously?”

  He nodded, his face glum. “The poor dog’s probably dead and gone by now.”

  “Well, that’s an interesting state of affairs,” Erick said.

  Badger looked at him. “Why is that?”

  “Because Parker is heading there on a compassionate leave trip. His brother was killed in action. He’s planning on escorting his body home. But that doesn’t mean, while he’s there, he doesn’t have a day or two to track down the dog.”

  “The dog was lost at the military base?” Badger asked.

  Geir flipped through the pages. “Yes. And, once it’s off the base, it’s no longer their problem. To give them their due credit, everybody did search for the dog. They wondered if it had been stolen. It was decommissioned and due to fly home the next day. Apparently the dog arrived at the airport but disappeared while waiting to be picked up. Its whereabouts after its arrival at the hanger is a mystery. There are discrepancies in the witness statements. They are thinking that maybe somebody close to the airport may have kidnapped the dog.”

  “Does Commander Cross really want us to go over there and look into this one?” Geir asked, shaking his head. “That’s a bit out of the boundaries, isn’t it?”

  “If it wasn’t for Parker heading over there tomorrow, I wouldn’t think of looking into this one,” Erick said. “If Parker can find the dog, he can bring him home with him as well.”

  Badger nodded. “Where’s Parker now?”

  “He’s packing, I think. His brother, Jerry, and his crew were taken out by an IED. Jerry’s best friend was part of his unit, and Sandy, his best friend’s sister, is heading over there with him.”

  Grins popped up around the table.

  Erick nodded. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “She’s military too. I think she’s a nurse in California. She also asked for special permission to go over there.”

  “Of course. Bringing family home is important to everyone.”

  “Do you want to call him?” Badger asked Erick. “You seem to know him the best.”

  “He’s been around for a while, but, yeah, I used to know him in the military too,” Erick said. “Unlike the re
st of us, he’s not missing a body part.”

  “Unless he’s missing his heart,” Jager said. “As in pining for his brother. Maybe it’s a good thing this Sandy is going over there too. It’s a tough trip for anyone, and it would help to not be alone.”

  “It’s a shit trip no matter who goes with you,” Erick said, but he already had his phone out and was dialing.

  Geir watched in surprise. “Is he on your contact list?”

  Erick nodded. “Yeah, he is.”

  There was silence for a moment, then Erick was giving his condolences first before adding, “I heard you’re heading over to Iraq tomorrow. What base?”

  Erick nodded, while they all watched. Then he grinned. He motioned with his hand for the file in front of Geir. “Look. We have an odd request. Commander Cross dropped a dozen files on us filled with K9 agents who served their time and, for one reason or another, have been retired and then lost. We have one that disappeared between the base and the airport in Iraq. We’re trying to get him home and settled into a decent life here.” Erick was silent as he listened for a short while. Then he said, “Oh, you heard about him?”

  He looked around the room. “Great. Do you have any K9 experience?”

  Erick frowned and nodded. The others waited. “Okay. If you’ve got an extra day, and you don’t mind taking a look, we would really appreciate being able to tell the commander we have found the dog and have brought him home and have set him up some place worthy of a War Dog. If that’s something you feel you can do, that would be awesome. But we do understand if you can’t. Obviously anything to do with your brother comes first. Again our condolences on your loss.”

  The conversation continued for a few minutes, and Geir and Badger exchanged looks. And then Erick ended the call. He looked around the table. “Well, he’s game. He said he has a couple days over there, and he would look up some friends by the base. And, believe it or not,” he added with a note of satisfaction, “he’s going to FOB Wild, where the dog went missing.”

  “FOB Wild? That’s one of the forward operating bases in the northern Iraqi province of Ninewah, a few miles outside of Tal Afar,” Badger said in surprise as he reached for the folder to double-check the location where the dog had gone missing for himself. “That’s perfect. Maybe somebody there knows something.”

  “I hope so,” Erick said. “Parker’s just leaving the military himself. I think he’s done in a couple weeks. Been on medical leave and not going back.”

  “Understood,” Badger said. “Not easy for anybody when losing someone so close to you.”

  “True enough,” Geir said. “Let’s just see what happens. Maybe we’ll get lucky again.”

  “You mean, maybe he’ll get lucky,” Jager said with a grin.

  All the men laughed, and Erick nodded. “Luck comes in many forms,” he said. “Let’s hope he finds one form that suits him.”

  Parker Cutter hopped into his borrowed rig, checked the GPS for directions and backed out of the parking lot. He realized he already knew the direction, as he’d been here before, and slowly drove onto the main road. He’d had lunch with a few friends as soon as he’d arrived. They’d picked him up and taken him into town with them, but, now hours later, he’d left them there with other friends and had taken one of the rigs to head to the base. He needed a few moments to get his head together. With any luck this stretch of the journey would give it to him. This was a crappy trip. The only good thing was he had a couple friends he was looking forward to seeing on base too.

  He had ten more days in the service, and five of those were for compassionate leave. He’d wondered about taking all his days here, but, as the compassionate leave was due to his brother’s death, it hardly seemed like a good time to tack on holidays. He was only in Iraq for a short time—just long enough to bring his brother home to the US—then long enough to help his father bury Jerry back home.

  Military life for Parker was almost done, and it seemed like a lifetime to get to that point. He’d never even considered it for years, but this year, … with his accident, … followed by his brother’s death, … Parker had hit a wall. He wasn’t even sure what the hell he would do now. He just knew he was starting a new life—albeit one without his brother.

  He’d had a bad accident when the vehicle he was in had rolled, got his leg pinned and was now assigned to a desk job he couldn’t stand.

  There was a chance of more surgery to help build up his shoulder as well. Something to do with muscles and the scapula. He wasn’t prepared to do that now, or maybe ever, but he could get it done whether on active leave or not.

  What he didn’t like was the desk job. If he could get out and be mobile, it wouldn’t be so bad, but being at a desk made him feel like he was retired from life.

  Maybe if he hadn’t come from a high-level active military team, he wouldn’t feel like he was secondhand goods. Now his life was just a reminder of the one left behind because he couldn’t do the job anymore.

  As he drove along the road, his brain was consumed with the issues about his future. He thought about Sandy and her brother. Parker had lost Jerry, and Sandy has lost Jeremy. Both of their brothers had died at the same time on the same mission. So Parker and Sandy were both here for a couple days before they took off.

  There would be short ceremonies for the men killed in action, in service to their country, and then they were all heading back home. And it sucked. It sucked big time. Which was why, when Erick suggested Parker look for the poor dog, Samson, Parker agreed. Samson was supposed to go home and retire but had somehow gone missing at the military airport. It was that somehow gone missing part that really bothered Parker.

  Because that somehow gone missing phrase sounded like a military error or one of those stupid accounting mistakes that had the dog sent someplace other than where he was intended to be. It also bothered Parker because there was a chance somebody had taken the dog deliberately. Well-trained animals were worth a lot of money. War Dogs were bred for skill, endurance, intelligence and size. They were a huge asset and were coveted by others.

  Last thing he wanted was to be in the open on enemy lines to face his own War Dogs attacking him. He couldn’t imagine how confusing that would be for the animals too.

  He had another twenty-five minutes to FOB Wild. He was going at a fast clip, but he wasn’t late—he was not on a time frame at all. He should meander, enjoy this last visit. But he was here for the worst reason possible. He wanted to race through it, so it was done and over with, and he could begin to heal. Time was the only way to get through this horrible loss, and he was afraid he’d forever associate this part of the world with Jerry.

  His truck started wobbling, and the next second he felt a hard bang, and the tire was gone. Swearing softly, he pulled off to the side of the road and hopped out. Sure enough, his back left tire was gone, down the road a piece. He needed to change the tire, and, well, that was never anybody’s favorite job.

  He had the vehicle jacked up, lifted from the ground, the old tire off and the new one on, and was tightening the lugs when he heard another vehicle approaching.

  He looked up to see Sandy, Jeremy’s sister, who’d flown in with Parker on the same plane but had soon left with two women. She got out of the jeep and ran over to him. “We left ahead of you,” she said. “But we ended up going into town for lunch and lost track of time.”

  He smiled and said, “Good. I went into town too. Should have stayed longer. I would much rather have been still socializing than changing a tire.” But he was joking, and she knew it.

  She smiled. “Well, at least you got it fixed. Do you think it’s okay? Is there anything we can do to help?”

  “I’m fine,” he said, his pride bristling to the surface. He stood, brushed off his pant legs, reached down and picked up the jack and walked to the end of his truck, placing it under the bed. In its spot. He walked back to where the damaged tire had landed and rolled it to the back where he hoisted it into the bed.

  The two
women with Sandy were dressed in military fatigues. He nodded to them and smiled as he rubbed his hands on a rag, cleaning off the dirt, dust and grime. Sandy explained who he was, and their expressions changed. They reached out, shook his hand and said, “Sorry for your loss.”

  Even now it choked him up. He muttered, “Thank you.” Then motioned at the truck. “Hopefully now it’ll get me to the base.”

  “You go first,” the driver of the other vehicle said. “We’ll follow to make sure you get there.”

  Touched, he nodded. “Thanks. I’m not too proud to accept the offer. I doubt there’ll be a problem. It’s a new tire.”

  “Yeah, and we all know that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good tire,” she said with a touch of humor.

  He laughed, tossing the rag in the back of the truck. He walked over to the driver side, slid in and turned the engine on and, with a wave, headed toward the base.

  He was surprised Sandy was with them, but then she had probably met a lot of her brother’s friends, and she was also military, though she was a nurse stateside. He wasn’t even sure where he got that tidbit of information from. Then their brothers had been best friends. This was just as painful a trip for her as it was for him, and, if she had friends to make the trip a little easier, all the better for her.

  The time flew as he drove. Once he arrived at the base, he honked his horn and stuck his arm out of his truck to wave his thanks and turned off into the base. He spotted his buddies’ vehicles and parked beside them. He knew which barracks they were in, and he’d been assigned one himself. He grabbed his duffel bag, slung it over his shoulder and headed for his friends.

  As he stepped inside, he found the entire barracks were empty. Frowning, he picked out his bed, dropped his duffle, left the barracks and headed to the mess tent. He could always count on a cup of coffee, if nothing else.

  It was also empty. He checked with the guy behind the counter. “Everybody clear out all of a sudden?” he asked. “I hope it wasn’t my arrival.”

  The guy behind the counter grinned at him. “We’re on high alert this morning. Everybody’s taken off to check out insurgents, who may or may not have attacked a small group of villagers,” he explained.