Chapter 6
Kayla’s mouth was taped.
Her hands were tied in front of her.
Blood ran from a cut near her eyebrow.
Rage hit me so hard the floor seemed to tilt.
Hayes’s voice crackled in my earpiece.
“Hold position.”
I stared at Kayla.
She shook her head, begging me not to move.
Rusk pressed the gun against Rex.
“No heroics.”
I lifted my hands slowly.
“How did you get her?”
Rusk smiled.
“Federal agents aren’t the only people who can wear jackets.”
Hayes cursed in my ear.
That meant one of her perimeter teams had been fooled or hit.
Bad.
Very bad.
Rusk stepped closer.
“Leash.”
I did not move.
He pressed the gun harder toward Rex’s head.
“Leash.”
I unclipped Rex.
The click hurt worse this time.
Rex stayed by my leg.
Rusk looked amused.
“Place him.”
“No.”
Rusk hit Kayla across the face with the back of his hand.
She fell to one knee.
I moved one step before every gun in the room lifted.
Rusk said, “Place him.”
I looked at Rex.
His amber eyes met mine.
He trusted me.
That was the unbearable part.
“Rex,” I said, voice breaking for the first time. “Place.”
He walked to a patch of moonlight and sat.
Rusk laughed softly.
“A weapon that loves you. That’s tragic.”
I said, “Let Kayla go.”
“Soon.”
“No. Now.”
“You are not negotiating.”
I looked around.
Six men visible.
Maybe more above.
Rex ten feet away.
Kayla fifteen.
Rusk five.
My pulse slowed.
Not because I was calm.
Because my body knew there was no room for panic.
Rusk tossed a phone at my feet.
“Record a statement. Say you attacked the Vipers unprovoked. Say Sheriff Porter acted in self-defense. Say your dog is unstable and will be surrendered for euthanasia.”
My blood turned to ice.
“That’s what this is?”
“That dog is a symbol,” Rusk said. “Symbols are dangerous. Kill them cleanly, or shame them first.”
Kayla shook her head hard.
Rex did not move.
I bent and picked up the phone.
Hayes whispered, “Jack, stall.”
So I stalled.
I looked into the camera.
“My name is Chief Petty Officer Jack Mercer, retired.”
Rusk nodded.
I continued.
“And if you are seeing this, it means Evan Rusk is too stupid to understand live feeds.”
Rusk’s face changed.
Hayes shouted through the mill speakers.
“Move!”
The side wall erupted inward.
Calvin’s truck smashed through rotten boards, headlights blazing.
Vipers poured in from the left.
Federal agents came from the right.
Gunfire cracked overhead.
I dropped flat and rolled toward Kayla.
Rusk fired.
The bullet hit concrete near my hand.
Rex moved without command.
For the first time in years, he chose.
He hit Rusk’s arm and drove the gun aside.
Rusk screamed.
I reached Kayla, ripped the tape from her mouth, and cut her bindings with a knife I took from my boot.
“Run!”
She grabbed my arm.
“Rex!”
I turned.
Rusk had fallen, but another man raised a rifle toward Rex.
I threw myself forward.
Too far.
Too slow.
Calvin hit the man first.
They went down together.
The shot went wild.
Rex released Rusk and backed to me, teeth bared.
Hayes came in fast, gun raised.
“Rusk! Hands!”
Rusk clutched his arm, laughing through pain.
“You think this ends with me?”
Hayes kicked his gun away.
“No. It starts with you.”
Within minutes, the mill was full of cuffs, shouting, and flashing lights.
Two federal agents were wounded.
Three contractors arrested.
One escaped into the woods.
Calvin had a bullet crease across his shoulder and acted offended when Marlene later called him dramatic.
Kayla sat on an ambulance bumper wrapped in a blanket.
I stood beside Rex while a medic checked him.
No wounds.
I kept touching his head anyway.
Rex let me.
Hayes walked over, dirty and furious.
“You livestreamed from the phone?”
“I hit the emergency app you installed.”
“You weren’t supposed to tell him.”
“He annoyed me.”
She almost smiled.
Then didn’t.
“One escaped. Name’s Pierce Maddox. Former deputy under Porter. He knows the area.”
Kayla looked up sharply.
“Pierce?”
I turned to her.
“You know him?”
She swallowed.
“He used to date my sister.”
Marlene went still.
“What?”
Kayla’s eyes filled.
“My sister disappeared two years ago.”
The night got colder.
Hayes crouched.
“Name?”
“Emily Price.”
Calvin muttered, “I remember that. They said she left town.”
Kayla shook her head.
“She wouldn’t. She was pregnant.”
Nobody spoke.
Rex leaned against my leg.
The case widened right there in the mud outside the feed mill.
What started with ice water on a service dog had opened something rotten under the whole town.
Kayla looked at me.
“Do you think he killed her?”
I wanted to protect her from the answer.
But lies had protected monsters long enough.
“I think,” I said carefully, “we need to find him.”
Kayla wiped her face.
“Then I’m helping.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Marlene stepped beside her.
“We both are.”
Hayes looked like she wanted to argue.
Then her phone buzzed.
She read the message.
Her face changed.
“What?” I asked.
She looked toward the dark woods.
“Pierce just sent a photo to the sheriff’s office.”
She turned the screen.
It showed Rex’s medal tag.
Hanging from a nail.
Inside a dark wooden room.
May you like
Under it was a message.
Bring the dog, or the waitress learns where her sister is buried.
