Chapter 15
Fifteen
She gets more beautiful every time I look at her.
—Odin’s secret thoughts
Odin
Why had I joined the search and rescue team again?
As I shifted from foot to foot at the trailhead to Topher Falls, my eyes once again went to the SUV that I was fairly sure belonged to Constance.
“I sent a ‘hiker’ out to get lost,” Major, the vice president of the MC, and resident search and rescues lead, called out. “He left about ten minutes ago, and plans to get lost somewhere in between here and the end of the trailhead. Odin, you’re working Peanut today, right?”
Peanut was my one-and-a-half-year-old bloodhound I’d adopted from the Jesper County Animal Shelter four months ago.
Today was the first day he’d been back with me after he’d spent a month away in SAR school with a trainer out of Billings.
He was eager to be out of his cage, so I’d decided that maybe it would be best to take him to tonight’s meeting so he could show off and get some of the wiggles out.
Plus, it was never a good thing to have a bored bloodhound at home waiting for you.
Usually, I took him to the office with me and let him have free rein when I wasn’t working.
Today, he’d been in a kennel in the back of the car while his trainer had brought him back home to me.
“We are,” I confirmed.
Hopefully.
When I’d gotten him from the shelter, the ladies who’d been taking care of him had informed me that his last owner had died during a search and rescue mission, and she’d been training him to be a search and rescue dog.
I’d gone in there intending to get a damn cat.
Not a high-maintenance dog.
But I hadn’t been able to tell that cute little face no.
And so our story had begun.
Since I hadn’t known jack shit about search and rescue, I’d joined the team and had taken Peanut to the recommended training even though I’d thought he might enjoy it more to stay at home.
He’d been happy to see me today, and secretly, I’d been happy to see him.
Not that I’d ever admit it.
The world didn’t need to know that I had a weakness.
“All right,” Major said. “Who’s our medic today?”
Sage, a newbie on the team, raised her hand.
Her dog was by her side as well, but he had a muzzle on and growled at anyone who got close to his master.
Peanut and I steered clear, and I didn’t bother asking why Sage had brought the dog with her.
A few weeks ago, that dog had been rescued by Holly at the dog fighting ring.
The dog had been traumatized and was now reactive as fuck and couldn’t be left alone, or he destroyed literally anything that was near him. He also had PTSD and didn’t react well when he was not in clear line of sight of Sage.
Or Gentry.
Though, we weren’t going to mention Gentry in Sage’s presence.
He was a hard topic for her.
If I was more of a friend, I’d find out why.
But I wasn’t, and I didn’t.
“Sounds perfect,” Major clapped. “We’ll give…what the fuck?”
I looked up just in time to see Creed marching back down to the group, a shotgun in one hand that he hadn’t left with, and Constance’s wrist in the other.
Constance had a bird on her shoulder the size of a small dog, and they both looked weird.
“What happened?” I barked, marching toward them.
Excited, Peanut followed with me, prancing from foot to foot when he smelled Constance.
I was sure that he’d smelled her on me and was curious now that the person was right in front of him.
When no one answered, I growled at Creed, “What did you do to her?”
“I didn’t do anything.” Creed threw up his hands.
That startled the bird and he jolted off Constance’s shoulder with a screech.
Creed winced.
“The bird is legal, I swear.” Constance sounded tired and frustrated.
“Well, that’s not something I can really check out with no signal, now, is it?” he asked. “And you had this gun…”
“She works at the wildlife sanctuary, Creed,” I pointed out. “Which you know.”
“I do?” he asked.
“This is Constance. Constance Pratt. Her parents, Israel and Janet Pratt, run it.”
Creed scrubbed at his face. “I thought that y’all were Hispanic.”
“My dad is.” She hesitated. “My mom is white.”
“Oh,” he sighed. “I thought you were lying to me.”
He looked guilty.
But he would react badly to poaching if he thought that was what Constance was doing.
His sister-in-law had been caught doing the same thing and had died when she’d been trampled to death.
So no, he wouldn’t take it the best considering.
“Help!”
We all turned to see a man walking out of the trail with his hands scrubbing at his eyes. “I’m hurt really bad! Someone attacked me.”
“Is this him?” Creed asked.
Constance moved to put herself behind Creed.
Which made me irrationally angry, seeing as my mind thought that I should be the one she looked to for protection.
“What’s going on?” Major asked what we were all thinking.
The man with red eyes stepped out of the trailhead and made a move toward what I assumed was his car, but it also happened to be close to Sage.
Sage’s dog growled, low and menacingly.
Which, of course, set Peanut off to baying.
“Shhh,” I said, patting Peanut’s head. “The grownups are talking.”
Constance snorted.
“Someone better tell me what in the fuck is going on!” Major barked.
The baying started up again.
I clamped Peanut’s mouth shut with my hand and said, “Coco?”
Constance sighed. “I guess I’ll explain everything.”
When she was done, I was going around her car with a wand that Major had somehow produced from nowhere. Creed was looking like he’d sucked on a lemon, and Major was standing stone-faced with his arms crossed over his chest.
Black arrived just as I reached the back of the vehicle, and the wand started going off.
Major and Creed closed in as Black’s cruiser door closed and his footsteps sounded in the gravel of the parking lot behind me.
I reached under the SUV and started to feel around with my hand.
My fingers caught on a small object, and I pulled it off.
“Tracker,” Black confirmed when I brought it up for everyone to see.
Major gave him a quick run-down of everything that Constance had shared, and his face darkened.
As I stood up, my knees protested, popping and cracking as I righted myself.
“Did you find something?” Constance called.
I looked at her over my shoulder and spotted her on the bench with Peanut practically in her lap.
I was glad to see them getting along.
Even gladder to see that she wasn’t scared of dogs after the dog attack this morning.
What a day she was having…
“Oh, shoot.”
My brows rose. “What?”
“I need to tell my mom where I’m at, or she’ll freak.” She immediately pulled her phone out of her coat pocket and placed it to her ear.
The snow started to fall a little bit heavier around us, but none of us paid it much mind as Black took the tracker and examined it.
His gaze flicked up to pepper spray dude, also known as Otto Montgomery.
Black’s feet moved, and he was standing next to Otto in the next moment, looking down at him.
“Why did you put a tracker on her car?” Black asked.
Otto’s eyes flicked over to Constance and his face whitened. “Uh, well…”
“Stalking, harassment, and invasion of privacy are serious crimes. In this state, they can also be classified as a felony,” Black said. “Tell me what I want to know.”
Otto grimaced. “It was just a job. I responded to an ad.”
“What kind of ad?” Black pushed.
He looked at Constance again as if he was imploring her to answer. “Well, are we going to clear this up, or are we going to pretend like you didn’t want this?”
Constance blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
Otto threw his hands up. “You and your boyfriend need to let them know what’s going on!”