Sheriff

She stood near the large tree for several moments, then pulled Dylan’s map out again.

“Max? Hand me your binoculars.”

Brody took them from Max and brought them over. Raising them to her eyes, she peered through the magnified lenses and incrementally moved the glasses from right to left.

There! She used the dial to sharpen the image.

“I found it,” she said excitedly. “There’s a house, not a cabin, but a large house roughly three hundred yards away. The only problem is, I don’t see a driveway or even a path that could be used to get in there. All I see are trees.”

“There has to be a way in,” Max insisted.

She inched the binoculars over the wooded area, then stopped abruptly when she saw the wire. “There’s a chain-link fence well disguised with brush and trees, topped by barbed wire.” She pulled the glasses from her eyes and turned to her boss. “This has to be it, Max. It reeks of Dupree.”

“Yeah, but how are we going to get in? Obviously not on foot,” he said.

Max was right. She battled a wave of frustration. They were so close. She knew Jake Morrow was being held against his will somewhere inside that house.

They just needed to figure out how to get in to rescue him.

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

“I know a way,” Brody drawled, drawing skeptical looks by the FBI agents. The way the dog had alerted on the trail had been impressive, but he didn’t appreciate the way the feds acted as if he wasn’t even there.

Especially Julianne. Her indifference hurt, more than it should have.

They’d retreated from the woods, returning to the road. Two of his deputies’ vehicles were parked on either side of the prison van, and Brody knew that he needed to head over there to talk to them. But not yet.

She stared at him. “How?”

“From the air.” He waved a hand. “I’m a trained paratrooper, I can parachute down landing inside the compound.”

Genuine surprise widened her eyes. “Brilliant.” She swung toward Max, who nodded in agreement.

“We need to contact Dylan, see if we can get a chopper here, ASAP,” Max said. “Not too close, though, because we don’t want anyone from inside the compound to hear it.”

Brody scowled. “Para-jumping with dogs can be dangerous.”

“We learned to do this in our training program,” Julianne said in a brisk tone. “We can go in alone, no reason for you to come along.”

“Yes, there is. My county, my problem.” He couldn’t stand the thought of her going in without him and possibly facing an ambush. “Besides, this will be tricky. It might be better if you stay here in the woods as backup in case the whole thing goes south.”

She took a step closer and jabbed her finger into his sternum. “Listen, Brody, this is our case and I’m going in. You want to come along? Fine. I’m not staying behind. Understand?”

The steely determination in her eyes proved he was fighting a lost cause. Julianne had always been driven to prove herself capable and he knew she’d go in no matter what. He wanted to capture her hand and press it against his chest, but he didn’t.

She’d only pull away from him, the way she had six years ago.

“Okay, okay. We’ll do this, together.”

“Max and Opal are going in, too.” She tilted her head. “Where did you train to be a paratrooper?”

“Brief stint in the army.” Brody didn’t want to mention his messed-up knee that had sent him home early. Three surgeries and it was almost as good as new.

Almost.

Unfortunately, the army didn’t want to take a chance with his bum knee, so they’d given him a choice, climb the officer ladder or an early honorary discharge. Climbing up the ranks hadn’t interested him so he’d returned home and was offered a job as a deputy. Then somehow managed to become elected sheriff the following year.

Hometown hero and all that. Which was ridiculous since he was anything but. Julianne had left him after their disagreement over her best friend Lilly’s disappearance. She’d insisted Lilly would never have run away, despite all the signs that pointed toward the girl doing just that.

Forcing himself to let go of the past, he swept his gaze over the area. “It would be nice to have deputies guard the perimeter, but that means taking them off roadblock duty, something I’m not willing to do.” Brody knew even if he could mobilize every officer he had on staff, it still wouldn’t be enough.

Max finished his phone call. “Dylan’s looking for a place for a chopper to land. He’s also looking for an area for us to use as a landing spot near the house. He figures that there must be something to use if the Duprees are using the air to get access.”

Despite his annoyance with his authority being usurped, Brody was impressed. “Wish we had those kinds of resources.”

“We’re getting the chopper, a pilot and one additional staff member.” Max’s gaze was on Julianne and Brody couldn’t help wondering if there was more between the two of them than professionalism. The flash of jealousy was annoying and unwarranted. Julianne’s personal life wasn’t his business.

No matter how much he wished otherwise.

“Who?” Julianne asked with a frown.

“Zeke Morrow, and his K-9 partner...an Australian shepherd named Cheetah. Zeke asked to join the team weeks ago, and I’ve been working on getting him assigned as Jake’s replacement. The paperwork has finally cleared, and Zeke really wants in on this.”

She stared at Max in apparent surprise, but then blew out a breath and nodded. “I get it, Jake’s his half brother. If I were in Zeke’s place, I’d want in on the mission to find him, too.”

“Boss?”

Brody turned to where two of his deputies waited beside the prison van. The other two deputies were combing the area, looking for clues. “Coming. Julianne, I’ll need your help with recreating what happened.”

She hesitated, but Max nodded. “Go ahead. It will take some time to get things rolling here.”

“The sooner we get inside, the better,” she muttered. But she fell in step beside Brody and headed over to the van.

Brody did a quick round of introductions. “Deputy Dan Hanson and Deputy Rick Meyer, this is FBI Agent Julianne Martinez.”

Julianne offered her hand. “Nice to meet both of you. I’m the one who stumbled across the prison break.”

And almost died for her efforts, Brody thought grimly.

Julianne took them through the events step by step. When she got to the part about the gunman telling her to stop and raise her hands in the air, Deputy Rick Meyer interrupted.

“You get a good look at him?”

Julianne nodded. “Yes. About five-ten, weighing roughly 180 but some of that bulk could have been from the body armor. Thin blond greasy hair and narrow, light eyes. He wore a scruffy beard and had a half-inch scar at the bottom left corner of his mouth.”

Once again, Brody couldn’t help being impressed. “You got a better look at him than I did.”

“Really? You’re the one who threatened to plant a bullet between his eyes.”