Sheriff

“How do you know?”

Zeke took the watch and turned it over. “See here? I had it engraved.”

J: Proud to be your brother—Z.

She swallowed hard, handing the watch back to Zeke. “The evidence proves Jake was here.”

“Yeah, but where is he now?” Zeke demanded, jamming his fingers through his hair. “And what’s with the blood? Are they torturing him in order to make him talk?”

Julianne shook her head, feeling helpless. She didn’t know where Dupree had taken Jake, or why there was blood on the edge of the desk.

The news didn’t bode well for Jake’s safety.

And worse, they were back to square one.

FOUR (#u8b98e535-f6bc-5dea-a90d-4eb880a83c60)

“Okay, now what?” Zeke demanded, staring at Max. “You must have some idea of what our next move should be. We have to find Jake before Dupree kills him.”

Brody remained silent, feeling the same frustration as the rest of the FBI team. The loss of their agent was clearly taking a toll, especially on Jake’s half brother. Zeke looked mad enough to take on the world.

He couldn’t blame the guy. He’d feel the same way in his shoes.

“We need an evidence team to come in and sweep this place, make sure we haven’t missed anything,” Max said. “And we’ll take the guard into custody, see if we can get him to talk.”

Zeke scowled. “You’re assuming he knows something worth telling us.”

“Zeke.” Julianne rested a hand on the newest agent’s arm in an attempt to calm him. “At this point, we’ll take every bit of information we can get. Have faith, we’ll find your brother.”

Brody knew that Julianne’s faith was strong, while his had wavered over the years. Once again, he hated the idea that she was clearly better off without him. Their disagreement over Lilly’s disappearance as well as her bluntly negative opinion of Nate, had created a rift between them wider than the Mississippi River. Besides, as much as he felt bad for the FBI’s missing agent, he had a bigger problem to contend with.

Finding Nate Otwell and the gunman who’d assisted his escape.

“We’d better get outside,” Brody interjected. “We’ll need to get the guard airlifted out of here, along with the rest of us.”

“Yeah.” Max jammed his fingers through his short blond hair before turning and heading back through the house, Opal at his side.

The two guards they’d been forced to shoot in self-defense were of course lying where they’d left them. But when Brody looked over to the side of the house where he’d tied up the guard he’d bound and left unconscious, the guy was nowhere to be found.

“Where 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?

* * *