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  He believed her. Danica knew her dogs, especially those she’d trained. They would have to find a different way to prove it. He didn’t have a viable option as an investigator, not to mention the threat from the men and their dogs if he tried to take Nico back by force. If he stepped over the line here, the chief would have his hide for giving the Larsons a legal loophole to slip through. Stealing Nico was only the latest crime they suspected involved the twins.

  “Clearly, we’re mistaken and I appreciate your patience.” He hated the betrayal that twisted Danica’s features. “If you’d just answer a few questions about your whereabouts last night, we can button this up for the chief.”

  “Our whereabouts?” Evan’s feet hit the floor with a thud. Hans, Fisher and the Malinois previously known as Nico locked onto him. “We just proved the dog is ours. You’ve got no right asking—”

  “Forgive my brother,” Noel said, rising calmly. “He’s overtired. We had a rough night last night.”

  Danica folded her arms over her chest. “Yeah, I hear stealing dogs can wear a person out.”

  Shane shot her a sidelong glance. “You’d rather wait in the car?” She stood her ground, her lips pressed together. “What happened last night, Noel?” Shane asked.

  “We were at the hospital until sometime after two this morning,” Noel said. “Our grandmother called you around eight, right?” he glanced at Evan.

  “Eight thirty-two,” Evan replied, holding up his cell phone. “Said she was having chest pains.” He swallowed. “She’d called an ambulance and wanted us to meet her at the hospital.”

  Noel offered his phone as well, the screen displaying his call history. “Evan called me and we went over to the ER to wait it out.”

  Airtight, Shane thought. It was a wonder he hadn’t bumped into the twins while he’d been there with Danica. All of this would be easy enough to confirm with the ambulance logs and ER intake records.

  “Took them forever,” Evan groused. “They moved her all over with various tests.”

  “Is she still in the hospital?” Danica asked with sincere concern.

  Shane understood her reaction. Although no one trusted her grandsons, everyone thought of Mae as an extra grandmother.

  “No,” Evan said. “She’s home resting.”

  “According to the tests,” Noel added, “her heart is fine. She’ll follow up with her doctor later this week.”

  “That’s great news,” Shane said. “We appreciate your time.”

  Noel’s gaze slid over Danica. “Our pleasure.”

  “When you get time, send a copy of that receipt for the dog over to the police station,” Shane said. “Just crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Noel agreed.

  “Thanks.” Shane opened the door, keeping himself between Danica and the dogs and twins. “I’ll tell the chief to look for it.”

  Neither Shane nor Danica spoke until they were in his car driving away from the Larsons’ fancy office.

  “You’re angry,” Danica said. “With me or them?”

  He couldn’t deny it. “Not entirely with you,” he hedged. “You told me you’d let me do the talking.”

  “I tried,” she said. “When I saw Nico, I knew him. He knew me, too,” she insisted. “They can’t be allowed to keep him. He wasn’t even on a lead.”

  “I noticed.”

  “How are we going to get him back?”

  “Forget it.” He couldn’t let her entertain ideas of rescuing a dog. “That dog is officially registered to Noel and Evan. If he disappears, the Larsons will name you as the prime suspect.” He checked her expression to see if the jab landed, but she was staring out the window. “Where would you stash the dog if you did manage to steal him back?”

  “‘That dog’ was Nico,” Danica said.

  He noticed she didn’t answer him. “I believe you.” He flexed his hands on the steering wheel.

  “You do?” She twisted in the seat to stare at him.

  He kept his eyes on the road. “Of course. You know your dogs.”

  “Then why—”

  “If there had been a way to take Nico with us without you, me or Stumps becoming Hans and Fisher food, he’d be with us right now.”

  She sank a little deeper into the seat. “Where are we going?” she asked after a few minutes.

  It had been just enough time for his mind to get back on the case. “Nowhere, really.” Sometimes a meandering drive helped him think. At the moment, they were headed west, toward the mountains in the near distance. The sun was high and the views expansive.

  “In the office, I was sure you believed them.”

  “Noel’s initial confidence planted a seed of doubt in my mind,” Shane admitted. “But it withered and died under the airtight alibi.” Had they sent in the thief when they heard Mae Rose was ill, or had they decided to move last night and gotten lucky that their grandmother’s crisis gave them a more legitimate alibi?

  Sensing the scowl, he glanced over and confirmed her auburn eyebrows were drawn tightly together over her pert nose. “That makes no sense.”

  He didn’t expect it to make sense to her. She’d never been framed for a crime she didn’t commit. Since he’d been cleared and released, he’d been labeled a cynic and much worse. Contrary to popular belief, he didn’t have it out for the cops. He was just a realist about human nature. People did dumb stuff and they did mean stuff and they did truly inexplicable stuff when they were backed into a corner.

  “I’m sure Mae Rose had a health scare, but it felt too rehearsed when they told us about it,” he said. “Once the chief has this information, he can get the ER visit and ambulance ride verified. I’m sure it will check out.”

  “Me, too.” She twisted her hands in her lap.

  He struggled against an annoying, persistent urge to soothe her. “The only way for the Larson brothers to have Nico today is for someone to have stolen him for them last night.”

  “How do we prove that when the microchip says he’s their dog?” she asked.

  No idea. The town faded in his rearview mirror as the mountains grew from the horizon ahead. The bright spring sky above was an endless blue curve. Nothing relaxed him or reassured him more than the freedom to roam wherever he pleased across the wide-open countryside. He passed the junction with the state road that he’d traveled home on last night, wishing he and Stumps had found something at the site of the gun deal.

  “We’ll focus on finding who attacked you,” he replied. He had some concerns and a brewing theory about where and why she’d been drugged last night. So far, no one working for Noel and Evan had flipped on the brothers. Finding the weak link was the crux of this type of investigation. Eventually, someone would crack. Someone had to.

  “But they couldn’t have known Mae Rose would go to the ER last night,” she said, echoing his thoughts.

  “I’m sure they had another alibi lined up, ready to go.”

  “You’re right.” She drummed her fingers on her knee. “They must have a veterinarian lined up and ready to go at a moment’s notice, too,” she muttered.

  “What do you mean?”

  She stopped fidgeting. “That was Nico, but he wasn’t acting like himself.”

  “How so?” Shane recalled how he’d come to attention when Evan got upset. “He looked pretty alert to me.”

  “You noticed the panting, right?”

  “Yes.” And now that she mentioned it, he recalled that was typical behavior postanesthesia or when medication was involved.

  “He’s a trained attack dog, Shane. The thief must have drugged him to get him out of the kennel without losing a limb.”

  He was warming to her veterinarian theory. “Sedatives can be acquired any number of illegal ways,” he pointed out.

  “Sure, but you can’t learn veteri
narian surgical skills on YouTube. I looked him over. There wasn’t an obvious incision so it was someone with skill. Nico’s original microchip was registered to the training center. This wasn’t a case of tampering with a computer record. They removed our chip and inserted their own. Only a vet could do that.”

  “The dog had to be sedated?”

  “It would be pretty cruel to remove a microchip without some form of pain relief. And Nico wasn’t showing any signs of discomfort or aggression when I was using the scanner.”

  Huh. A new direction was better than another roadblock. Feeling better about the update he could give Finn, Shane turned back toward town. “That’s great information. I’ll see where it leads. Where can I drop you?”

  “We’re supposed to work this case together,” she said, her hands twisting in and around themselves again.

  He managed to keep the exasperated sigh to himself. Not wanting to be alone was a classic postassault reaction. The only togetherness Shane was interested in was his work with Stumps. His K9 partner was reliable. People let him down way too often. But the idea of making her fend for herself pricked his conscience.

  “To the police station, then,” he said. “You can sweet talk your brother into getting the confirmation out of the hospital while I report to Finn.” Maybe Carson would see through her bravado and take care of her.

  She agreed with that plan, which eased his mind more than it should have. After the report was turned in, Shane intended to take Stumps on an evidence-hunting walk behind the training center yard and he wouldn’t let any inquisitive, tempting dog trainers tag along.

  There was no reason for her welfare to be his concern, yet he kept wanting to leap between her and the rest of the world.

  Weird. Doubly so, considering who she was. The protective urge was probably just fallout from the interview with the Larson twins. The way they’d looked at her, as if she’d make a tasty snack, would stick with him for some time.

  * * *

  Danica struggled not to fill the silence with nonsense as Shane drove back to town. The shock and fear and denial of being overpowered kept sneaking into her mind. She couldn’t quite accept the way her arms and legs had simply failed and the stars were swallowed by the drug’s effects. Logically, she knew it was over, yet deep in her heart she kept trying to go back and do something different.

  Shane might not be mad at her, but she wasn’t very happy with herself. She didn’t fight hard enough last night and she’d given up too easily today. She should have grabbed Nico’s collar and dared Noel to do something. And if she had, all three of them would probably be dealing with serious injuries right now. Hans and Fisher were big, strong dogs and having seen them around town with the twins, she recognized they’d been trained well beyond basic obedience. However they appeared, lounging in the sunshine, she had no doubt they would follow whatever command Noel or Evan gave, including an attack or protect order.

  Although she’d initially wanted to criticize Shane for not taking decisive action, she knew he had to work within the law. As a private investigator, he had more leeway, even on a RRPD case, but he could lose his career and his K9 partner if he did something rash. She didn’t want to be responsible for more loss in his life.

  She twisted around to check on Stumps in the back seat. The adorable corgi shared an unbreakable bond with Shane, and she’d heard the bits and pieces about the cases they’d solved for the RRPD as well as his personal clients. Usually, it gave her a sense of pride and partnership when the K9 officers succeeded.

  With Shane and Stumps, she did her best not to feel anything. Not pride in training done well, not remorse for the eighteen months Shane spent in the state penitentiary, and certainly not regret that she’d never know why her grandfather had railroaded Shane.

  “I should have told Noel that was a ticking time bomb eating his steak, not a new dog.” She couldn’t quite figure out how the twins had managed to gain Nico’s loyalty so fast, drugs or not. Fully aware of how the young Malinois had been trained, Danica knew that didn’t bode well for anyone who opposed them.

  “What do you mean?” Shane asked.

  “About what?” Had she said something else without realizing it? Maybe she would be better taking the rest of the day off. She rubbed at the goose bumps on her arms, chilled by the idea of only her cat and her thoughts for company in her condo. Tonight would be bad enough. She wouldn’t lump in what was left of a workday, too.

  “You said Nico was a ticking time bomb.”

  Thank goodness she hadn’t said something more personal. “He is. You know protection dogs have a unique training protocol because of what is expected of them. The Larsons stole him at the perfect time. They wouldn’t really be safe with him if he was already bonded with a handler. To have him up there without a lead around other dogs is begging for trouble. He’s out of his element. Any sign of aggression from the dogs or people could set him off. He’s been trained to bite first and bark later. Noel seems determined to become his handler, but bonding with a dog like Nico requires expertise, discipline and consistency.”

  “It’d be something if Nico took down the Larsons on his own,” Shane muttered.

  Understanding the sentiment, she wanted to laugh, but if Nico attacked his registered owners, he’d be put down immediately and that would be tragic. “Without the original chip, we’ll never prove Nico was stolen,” she grumbled. “They’ll get away with it.”

  “We’ll find a way to link them to the theft,” he said. “Stumps put us on the right track last night and we’ll keep following those clues.”

  “What clues?” she asked. Either he wasn’t sharing everything or she was too unfocused by the situation. Discouraged and frustrated, she glared at the police station as it came into view.

  Shane shot her a look. “We’re on this case together,” he said. “We’ll stop at the station first and talk to Finn. Then we can walk over to your office, review what we know and make a plan.”

  She took a measured breath to stifle her immediate resistance to going back to the training center. She’d done it once. She could do it again. “I’ve told you everything I remember about last night.”

  “Think of Stumps as the brains of this partnership,” he suggested with a ghost of a smile. “Hearing it again may spark more questions. Unless you need to rest.”

  The little dig, intentional or not, irked her. She had the pride and stamina to keep up with him. “I’m rested enough.”

  “Great,” he said. He parked the car and opened the back door for Stumps.

  In the station, they learned the chief had time so they didn’t part ways. She gave her brother a small wave as the three of them walked into the office. Danica listened with half an ear as Shane relayed the results of their interview and the surprising change in the microchip registration. Finn asked questions of both of them and encouraged Shane’s plan to find her attacker.

  She understood the nature of police work thanks to the officers and detectives who peppered her family tree all the way back to the original founders of Red Ridge. The tools were better now and the laws more comprehensive, but the inherent desire for justice seemed to be imbedded in the Gage DNA.

  She didn’t share Shane’s outward confidence that there would be a happy ending for Nico. While the chief and Shane tossed around additional ways to connect the thief to the twins, her inability to truly help became more and more evident.

  The short walk to the training center wasn’t enough time to clear her head, and fifteen minutes later, the sense of futility pressed in on her from all sides as they reviewed everything about the attack and the theft behind her closed office door.

  Shane had folded his tall form into one of her chairs, an ankle propped on one knee and Stumps relaxed at his feet. Sitting behind her desk, she felt the room shrinking with every question she couldn’t answer definitively. Someone had opened the blinds, and the
sunny view through the window mocked her with its illusion of safety and security.

  “How often do you train protection dogs?” Shane asked.

  “Everyone works on basic obedience with all types of working dogs.” She could see her answer didn’t please him. “I’ve never been part of the bite work, only the basic care and evaluations of prey drive.”

  “Have you ever wanted to train one of the attack dogs?”

  Where is he going with this? “It isn’t my first choice, no.”

  “Why not?”

  “The training relationship is different. At some point, a trainer must be the bad guy to get the dog to shift from avoidance to controlled aggression. It’s rewarding for the trainers who do it well.” She pointed at Stumps, flopped on his side on the cool tile floor by Shane’s foot. Even half-asleep, he looked like he was smiling. “I’m more comfortable with working dogs like Stumps who enjoy a personal bond and real downtime in the course of their careers.”

  Shane glanced down, his lips twitched at one side of his mouth and then a true smile bloomed, full of affection for the corgi. Danica’s breath backed up in her lungs. The man was sexy enough when he was serious, but that devoted smile made her knees weak and sent her pulse skipping.

  For years, she’d blamed her interest in his welfare on his rocky history with her grandfather, but her underlying fascination with him went back before those dreadful days. In high school, he’d walked that fine line between good guy and bad boy, and it had always been the wide smile loaded with charm that drew her in. The smile had become a rare occurrence, too often eclipsed by the judge and jury expression.

  “Do you know who was supposed to take Nico as a partner?” he asked.

  “That’s above my pay grade,” she joked. Surely someone else from the training center had covered this stuff last night or earlier this morning.

  “I’ll ask around.” He stood up, his gaze holding hers. “Would you be more comfortable walking with me through the yard and the woods or would you rather stay here?”

  Another question she couldn’t easily answer. Staying here gave her a break from him but left her alone. Going outside with him meant revisiting the scene of her failure. Too bad she couldn’t come up with a third option.