Rival Forces (23 page)

Kye watched her go. He was an adult. He could handle just about anything that came his way. He knew a person didn't get what he wanted simply because he wanted it. Or even deserved it. Relationships took two. But if he didn't win Yard, he wasn't sure what survival was going to look like.

Right now he needed her strong and ready to fight back. Any other conflicting emotion would only weaken her. That meant protecting her, even from himself.

She was back in a flash. “Take a seat.” She pointed to the sofa. He perched on the arm. “This might hurt a bit but it will stop the bleeding.” She began cleaning his nose with antibacterial wash.

He should have been planning a strategy to get them to safety. Instead, he teased himself with the sight of her, how she smelled, how she felt each time she brushed against him. If this were twelve hours earlier, he'd have busied himself peeling the layers of her clothing off her as she tended to him. He'd have taken handfuls of her breasts and held them up so that he could lick at her nipples until she groaned with pleasure. Only now, he was about to groan, and it wasn't from pain.

He made himself focus. She was a little pale, eyes revealing the fear she tried to tap down, her left leg wiggling like an ad for restless leg syndrome. She was vulnerable. A protective arm, a little squeeze, a kiss on the forehead. Maybe just a little more body contact—

He spread his legs so that she could get closer, only to suck in a breath as she unknowingly pressed her hip against his arousal. He shifted, giving her more access as she worked on his face. He was nowhere near do-gooder status. Nope. Not even a little.

Within a few minutes, she'd dried the blood and added antibiotic, then gently pushed rolled gauze pads up each nostril. He swore under his breath more than once but didn't stop her until he was taped up to hold them in place. Only then did he move.

“Thank you.” He sounded like he had a bad cold but he didn't care. His hands came up with the intention of framing her waist. It was stupid. She wouldn't like it. But he just really needed to touch.

“What are we doing?” David was back in the doorway, looking more and more like a zombified version of a handsome man.

Yardley spun around, startled by the sight of him. “You shouldn't be up.”

“We're getting you medical help.” Kye's gaze switched to Yardley, his hands rising to touch his bandaged face. “Thanks. Now find Gunnar a coat, get some blankets, and dress for warmth yourself.”

He was up and moving toward the door, his SAR coat snagged up on the way. “The roads aren't plowed in this area, I'm guessing. There's the possibility we could get stuck but we need to get out of here.”

“I'll drive.” Yard was moving toward a closet. “My Jeep's four-wheel drive.”

Kye came up beside her. “Are you sure?”

She turned to him. Her gaze was absolutely clear, direct and solid with confidence. “I know the roads and I've driven in conditions worse than today's.”

Kye smiled for the first time since he'd first spied Gunnar. “Yes, ma'am. Get us ready to roll. I'll be right back.”

He thrust his arms in his SAR jacket then reached for a pair of leashes, called both dogs to his side, and tethered them. A moment later man and dogs were out the door.

*   *   *

Kye checked the availability of the compact Smith & Wesson in his pocket before stepping off the porch into the soft snow. The night was eerily bright with the salting of small flakes sifting out of the sky. The clouds, some lit by urban centers hours away, reflected light down onto the white world below, making everything unusually bright. With the ground sparkling before him, Kye could see farther than he might have on a night with a full moon.

The pleasure of the beauty of the moment lasted about as long as it took him to notice footprints being rapidly filled in by those relentless flakes. Some of them were coming toward the house. But others led away. Purdy had come but he had not left. Who did the others belong to?

Kye grabbed back the leashes as his K-9s would have charged forward to relieve themselves. “Lily, come.” The toller bounded back toward him, yipping for the sheer pleasure of being out-of-doors. Oleg glanced back, curious about the toller's actions. Kye reached down and petted his partner. He did not want to give away the fact he was on to their secret visitor. But sweat popped out on his upper lip and trickled down his back. Whoever was out there was probably watching him. And the big white cross on his back might as well have been a bull's-eye. His main hope, since he hadn't been shot yet, was that the man was waiting out there to see if his cover was blown. “Search.” He didn't know the Czech word for search but hoped that Oleg would pick up on Lily's posture and follow suit.

The toller lifted her head and sniffed the air. She turned her face slowly one way and then the other. Oleg, at the far end of his long lead, paused, looked back, and then his whole body came to attention. At the moment Lily caught a scent, Oleg seemed to fix on something in the distant line of trees.

Kye pulled in a careful breath as Lily yipped in delight and bounded toward Yardley's vehicle. Oleg on the other hand continued to stare off toward the distant line of trees, where shadows blacked out Kye's vision of what lay beyond.

Every cell in his body moved to high alert as Kye followed Lily to Yardley's Jeep. The aching of his face had faded away in the cold. His skin was suddenly an all-surface sensory organ as he strained for sights, the touch of the wind, anything that would give him a whisper of anticipation before disaster struck.

Oleg remained still, his head swiveling in 180-degree angles, as if completely confused by the information he was taking in. Refusing to budge, even when called, Oleg's rigid stance made Kye feed out leash to the end as Lily bounded toward the Jeep and reared up, pressing her paws against the driver's-side door.

Dammit. They weren't alone. And he had no idea who or what or how many.

Then he noticed the tires. They were flat. All four of them.

Oh shit.

Hoping not to give his new knowledge away, he called to Lily in a voice louder than necessary. “Stop farting around and go potty, Lily. Now.”

She glanced at him, her eyebrows doing semaphore signals. He knew she was trying not to let him pull her off a legitimate find.

He pulled out a bit of kibble and held it out. “Here. Good girl, Lily.”

Satisfied that her point had been made, she bounded toward him and took her reward. Then she moved several feet away, circled twice, and took care of business.

All the while Oleg examined the periphery with his back to Kye, silent but alert as any sentry.

It took everything in him to turn his back toward the house. He wondered as he had many times in Afghanistan if that would be his last move, having turned a back on an enemy he could not guess at. But this was the good ol' U.S. of A. Even a hired gun would want to make a kill look like an accident, not an assassination.

That wishful thought propelled him all the way up the stairs to the front door. But he was definitely in perspiration fail as the door opened and Yardley appeared.

She took one look at him and her gaze said she knew everything. Yet she waited for him to say the words.

Kye looked at Yardley, his heart thumping. His voice was a rough urgent whisper as he reached down to unleash Oleg. “Get back inside. Purdy didn't come alone.”

As if he'd gotten a signal from some great canine handler in the sky, Oleg turned, grazed Kye's hand with his teeth, and then bolted away.

Yardley gasped. “He bit you?”

Kye examined his offended hand. “He barely broke the skin. I think he just needed to get away in the worst way.”

“He's trained to self-deploy when there's danger.”

By the time he turned to the night, Oleg was nothing more than a smoky phantom blending into the white night as he sped away toward the tree line. He looked back at her grim-faced. “You're going to have to explain that dog's skill set when there's time.”

He had hoped not to give away the fact that he knew they had company. But Oleg's defection probably blew that hope to smithereens. Whoever was out there was about to find himself at the business end of one very touchy canine.

Self-deploy
. Unless Oleg could take their enemy down alone, they were worse off than before, with Yardley now unprotected by K-9 power.

Heart hammering, Kye remembered that though he was trying to behave in a way that didn't alert their intruder, they were sitting ducks. He shifted his body protectively in front of hers as he grabbed her by the arm to push her back inside the safety of the house.

Bristling at his treatment she waited until he had locked and bolted the door before she got up in his face. “Tell me what's going on?”

Before he could answer the lights went out.

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“Glaser here. We've got an intruder.”

Jackson smiled to himself. For hours he'd been stuck in a motel room off Interstate 81 with nothing to do but stare out the window at the weather. Finally, they were getting somewhere. “Has he been there long?”

“Can't say. He showed himself about fifteen minutes ago. Reconnoitered the premises before retreating to the tree line opposite my location.”

“Can you give me a description?”

“Didn't get much of a look before retreating. Male. By the posture. I'd guess he's had some military or law enforcement training. If I hadn't caught the flash off his goggle lens I wouldn't have suspected he was there until he moved into the clearing. Thought I'd better pull back before I called or he'd get the same opportunity to make me.”

Jackson thought fast. It didn't sound like Dr. Gunnar. “Keep an eye on him. If he makes a move toward the house or the people inside, contact me immediately for further instructions.”

“There was a visitor to the house. Came along thirty minutes before I spotted the second one. He knocked on the door about an hour ago and was admitted.”

“Hellfire, son. Why didn't you start with that?”

“I was told I was to report only suspicious conduct. The man came straight up the drive on foot and knocked. As he was admitted, I assume he was known to those inside.”

“Jesus. That kennel is busier than a corner dealer handing out samples. What did he look like?”

“Plaid shirt and gimme cap and jeans. No coat though it's snowing ninety to nothing out here.”

“Anything else? Anything at all.”

“Hold on. Looks like we've got a situation developing. The lights on the Harmonie Kennel property just went out.”

“Shit.” Jackson automatically reached for the reassurance of his non-government-issued weapon on his hip. “Sit tight. I'm coming to you, and calling for backup.”

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The darkness lasted only for a few seconds before lights flickered on again, dimmer than before as the emergency generator kicked in.

Even as Yardley moved to begin turning off non-essential lights, Kye was on the move, too. “Call Sheriff Wiley now. Tell him we've got a guy tied up in the closet who tried to kill your boyfriend and that there's a good chance he has a partner close by who slashed your tires. He'll believe that bullshit story if it comes from you.” As he talked, he headed for the back door.

Lily followed on his heels. The sudden darkness had been enough to excite her into doing a great imitation of a hysterical person. Her unnerving toller scream was a shrill-screech match for a victim in slasher movie. The high-pitched keening went through everyone within hearing, like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Kye paused and looked down. “Lily, no.”

Lily paused and looked up at him, prancing in place, as if she knew he intended to leave her behind and she wasn't having it.

“No screams. No barks. No sound, Lily.” He made the
closed mouth
sign.

The calm deep tone of her handler's voice soothed the toller. She continued to stare at him with an alert gaze but didn't make another sound.

“Good girl.” He reached down, offered her a bit of kibble, and then picked her up. Holding her high on his chest so that she had physical contact, he stroked her in long smooth glides of his hand. “You can't go with me this time, Lily. It's not safe out there.” After a moment he nuzzled her neck. “Be good until I come back.”

He shifted his body and handed Lily to Yardley, who'd come up. “Take care of her. She'll be okay once I leave.”

Yardley nodded, her eyes wide as she gazed at him. He really was an extraordinarily good handler. Pausing in his mission to calm his dog when she wasn't coming along.

“Just a second.” She grabbed Kye by the arm as he made to swing around. Well, he paused and turned to her. The biceps bulging under her touch could easily have resisted her effects to stop him. “What are you planning?”

“You've got ordnance in the classroom building. I need it.”

“We've got flash bangs and rifles and lots of weaponry out there.” She dug a hand into her pant pocket, pulled out a set of keys, and handed them to him. “Most of it will be useless as defense because we fire blanks around our handlers and dogs. Our insurer told us it's not safe to do otherwise.”

He grinned. “You know that and I know that. But whoever's out there won't know that. Besides, a flash bang is a flash bang.”

She dragged at his arm again as he tried to turn away. “You don't know who's out there.”

“I know he slashed your tires and cut our power. I don't want to wait to see what he has in store next without letting him know he has a fight on his hands. If you're nervous about the gun, give it to your doc. I'm sure he's handled firearms where he's been.”

She nodded solemnly. “Be careful. I don't want you to get hurt.”