CHAPTER 9
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Sarah stood in the bedroom doorway with her arms folded across her chest.
“Feeding Monty.” Logan patted the dog on the head. “He was hungry, and I didn’t want to wake you.”
“No one feeds Monty but me. I’ve trained him not to accept food from anyone else.” But Monty was eating, she realized with a mixture of amazement and annoyance. “Damn.”
“He was hungry,” Logan repeated as he filled up Monty’s water bowl. “I thought I’d give it a try.”
“I can’t have you interfering with Monty’s training.”
“I can see why you wouldn’t want to have strangers feed him, but I’m no threat.”
“Practically no one is a stranger to Monty. He loves everyone. That’s why I can’t have him fed by anyone but me.”
“Maybe he has better judgment than you think.” He put down the water bowl. “Here you go, boy.”
“I can’t take the chance. So please leave my dog alone.”
“Okay. Just trying to help. Anything else I can do?”
“You can go sit down and rest that leg. You haven’t been off it in the last three days.”
“Whatever you say.” He limped back to his chair. “But it’s getting better. Did you notice I was able to do a lot more yesterday?”
“Yes.” Since the night they’d brought home the wolf, Logan had kept himself busy doing everything from sweeping the cabin to helping nurse Maggie.
When they weren’t working side by side, he was cooking or cleaning or on the phone, trying to wield influence to keep the ranchers away from the wolf. She scowled. “Too much.”
“Do I perceive a softening?” He stretched his leg out on the hassock. “You’re the one who wanted to work me to the bone. You asked, I obeyed.”
“I know.”
He grinned. “But you don’t like the fact that I didn’t mind it.”
“Nonsense. I just didn’t—” She smiled reluctantly. “You’ve not been any fun at all. What good is a slave if he’s so obliging? It takes all the joy out of the situation.”
“Sorry.”
She studied him. “And you’ve been doing a heck of a lot more than I ask. I don’t like that.”
“I’m just a self-starter.”
“You’re also a prime manipulator. You knew it would bother me to see a wounded man overextend himself.”
He gazed at her innocently. “Did I?”
“Knock it off.”
“I’m surprised it took you this long to call me on it.”
“I’m not that soft.” She made a face. “And I thought you’d stop. I knew you were hurting.”
“Just doing my job, ma’am.”
“And getting a little of your own back.”
“I admit I have a problem with total subjugation.”
“Any subjugation.”
“I do prefer partnerships. I think we’ve proved we work pretty well together, don’t you?”
She didn’t speak for a moment. “Yes.”
“Then why not call a truce? You don’t have to force me to do anything. I’d go nuts if I didn’t have something to do. Even nursing your wolf is better than twiddling my thumbs. We’re living together, let’s do it as painlessly as possible.”
“I’m not in any pain. I could go—” She broke off as the phone rang. “And we’re not living together,” she said as she crossed the room and picked up the phone. “Hello.”
“You didn’t call me,” Todd Madden said. “How did the Logan job go?”
“What do you care, Madden? It’s over. That’s all that’s important.”
“Good. Then you can come up to Washington for the weekend. I’ve set up a press conference about the Barat earthquake, and what about this Taiwan mudslide? That will be excellent copy.”
“Go to hell.”
“Don’t be ugly, Sarah.” Madden’s voice was silky smooth. “You know it doesn’t do you any good to be nasty to me. Shall I make your reservations or will you?”
“I’m not coming to Washington. I’m busy.”
“You know how I hate to pressure you, but I can’t tolerate—”
“Screw you.” She hung up the phone.
“You should have let me talk to him,” Logan said.
“I got too much satisfaction out of telling him to go chase himself.”
“That wasn’t exactly the term you used,” he said lightly.
The phone rang again.
She didn’t answer it. “It’s him again. He can’t believe I’m not jumping through his hoop.”
“Are you going to answer it?”
“No. I’m burning my bridges. If you don’t keep your promise, I’m going to go down in flames.”
“But you trust me to keep it. Or you wouldn’t have burned that bridge.”
She was silent a moment. “Yes, I trust you.”
“How much time do I have?”
“A few days, maybe a week. Madden will have trouble believing that I won’t change my mind. Then he’ll get angry and want to punish me.”
“And then what happens? What will he do to you?”
“He’ll take Monty away from me.”
“What?”
“Monty doesn’t belong to me. ATF owns him. I do what Madden wants or he uses his influence to have them take Monty away and give him to someone else.”
Logan swore softly. “Can’t you buy him from ATF?”
“Don’t you think I’ve tried? They won’t sell him. Madden wants that hold on me.”
“Are you sure he can get them to take Monty away?”
“He’s done it before. Two years ago I’d had enough and told him to go jump in the lake.
ATF snatched Monty out of my jeep while I was in the supermarket getting groceries.
They left a very businesslike note. They were sending him to a handler in Europe and I’d be notified of the new dog I’d be assigned. ”
“Europe?”
“The K9 Corps trains dogs for other law enforcement bodies overseas.” She continued bitterly.
“Madden was very clever, wasn’t he? He didn’t even tell me what country.
I was frantic. I begged everyone from mail clerks to senior officers in ATF to tell me where they’d shipped Monty.
It took me over a month to find out they’d sent him to a police department in Milan. I thought it might be too late.”
“Too late?”
“It’s not only that he won’t eat or drink for anyone else. Monty loves me. We’re . . . close. He would mourn. A dog as loving as Monty can die of sadness.” She blinked her stinging eyes. “He did mourn. He was sick, so sick, when I found him in Milan.”
“And what did you do?”
“What do you think I did? I called Madden and told him I’d do anything he wanted if he’d give me back my dog.” She looked straight into his eyes. “I won’t let that happen to him again. If you can’t find a way to get Madden off my back, Monty and I will just go away and disappear.”
“I’ll find a way.” Logan’s lips tightened grimly. “Count on it.”
“I am. Heaven help you if you let me down.”
“I won’t let you down.” He took out his phone. “Now go tend your wolf while I take care of Madden.” He looked up after he’d dialed a number. “Since we’re joined in putting Madden down, couldn’t you ignore all my sins and give me my truce?”
“Maybe.” She smiled. “If you promise not to feed my dog again.”
“Only if he’s starving.” He spoke into the phone. “Margaret, what’s the word on Madden?”
Sarah was still smiling as she and Monty moved toward the back porch. There was something very comforting about Logan’s immediate and focused response to her problem.
Monty looked back at Logan. Nice.
“Cupboard love. You shouldn’t have eaten until I fed you. You know better.”
Trust.
“You still shouldn’t have broken the rules.” But she, too, was breaking the rules and trusting Logan. How had he managed to get past her defenses?
Nice.
Charisma? No, heaven knows he hadn’t tried to charm her during these last days. He had just been straightforward and hardworking.
Why was she worrying anyway? All she had committed herself to was a truce for the next week or so.
Beautiful. Monty was trotting toward Maggie, who looked at him balefully. He plopped down beside her. Love.
She curled her lips in a snarl.
Sarah shook her head. “She’s not feeling very romantic, boy. That wound’s giving her a fit.” She moved toward Maggie. “Come on, let’s see if I can make it feel better. No snapping. Let’s see if we can have a truce too.”
The dog was romping and playing, his golden tail wagging happily as it ran circles around the Patrick woman.
Duggan sighted down the rifle squarely on the dog’s head. His finger slowly caressed the trigger.
“What are you doing?”
He looked up to see Rudzak coming toward him over the ridge.
“The Patrick woman and the dog are outside the cabin. I’m going to give her a little surprise. I didn’t do a good job of getting the dog at Santo Camaro. I’m going to blow his fucking head off now.”
Rudzak looked down at the cabin. “That’s not why we’re here. We just managed to avoid Galen’s men patrolling this area. They’re all over the place. You’d think they were protecting Fort Knox. We may have only a short time before they come back. Have you seen Logan?”
“He’s standing in the doorway.”
“Ah, yes,” Rudzak murmured. “His attitude is very protective, isn’t it?”
“You told me we weren’t going to touch him or the woman yet. But there’s no reason I shouldn’t kill the dog, is there?”
“Do you think you can do it? We weren’t able to get very close. It’s way out of range for most shooters.”
“I can do it.”
The golden retriever was lifting his head in the air and joyously barking.
“I’ve always hated barking dogs.” Duggan sighted down the barrel again. “What do you bet I can put him down with one bullet?”
“No bet.” Rudzak smiled. “I know you’re an excellent marksman.”
Yes, Rudzak always appreciated him, Duggan thought. Ever since he’d joined Rudzak a year earlier, he’d been given due respect. “Then watch me blow that pooch away.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” Rudzak crossed his arms across his chest. “Actually, this may be a stroke of genius on your part. I imagine Logan is feeling very safe in that little cabin with Galen’s men protecting them on that far ridge.
What better way to shake him up than this little statement? By all means, shoot the dog.”
Duggan could almost see the after scene play out before him. The dog falling, covered with blood. Sarah Patrick staring at her dog, screaming, and then she and Logan running toward him.
“Wait a minute.”
He followed Rudzak’s gaze to the woman. She had whirled around and was looking up at the mountains.
“Interesting,” Rudzak said. “Do you suppose she senses something? She’s calling the dog.”