Chapter Fifteen
Dakota
Thursday
Dressed in running gear, Tank patiently waiting at his side, Dakota looked up the staircase when the echo of footsteps hustled his way. “You ready?” he called up to Jasper.
“What are you thinking, twice around the Tidal Basin?” Jasper asked as they pushed through the back door.
Working at the 14th Street office had its perks.
Right out the back door was a green space around a wide pool of water that connected to the Potomac.
Typically, D.C. had about a week of spring weather that showed up between winter cold and summer heat.
Dakota liked to take advantage of it by taking a picnic out on the grass to watch the crews scull up the Potomac.
In the summer evenings, it was usually a good place to run.
Today, the weather had rolled the dice, and they were back to the pleasant weather they’d had on Sunday.
Tank was sniffing the air which today held the promise of green shoots and cherry blossoms.
Dakota patted Tank’s side. “Iniquus has been working on Tank’s physical and mental stamina, and I need to keep that up. If you need to peel off after two laps, we may keep going.”
The three took off at a slow trot for the warm-up, then increased their speed to a good clip. The push felt good in Dakota’s body as he fell into a well-practiced rhythm. Running was meditative for him; he could pound stress into the pavement and clear his mind.
As they ran, they could see vendors parked along the street with water bottles, winter hats, and tourist souvenirs.
Rounding toward the inlet that connected to the Potomac, Tank started pulling hard. “Yo! Tank. Hey. This isn’t the charity race, you’re not on a bungee,” Dakota called.
Tank looked back tongue long, panting hard, sending Dakota the signal that he should pick up the pace.
Dakota scanned for something that would have excited Tank, maybe some birds gliding low over the path.
The only thing of interest Dakota could spot was the two women, one in a yellow kayak and one in a red kayak, paddling to shore. The air filled with their laughter as they stepped out in water shoes, with dry-bag packs on their backs over bright turquoise life vests.
And that’s when Dakota felt the zap that floated distance between his atoms.
That was Rylee Jones. It had to be.
At the same time, Jasper backslapped Dakota. “That’s Neesa Meesang. Come on.”
Rylee held something up in the air, and Neesa fell against her friend, laughing.
Tank barked a look-at-me bark that pulled the women’s attention around.
“Tank!” Neesa called out, squatting with her arms wide.
When Dakota dropped the lead and signaled a release, Tank shot off like a rocket toward the women as the men jogged to catch up.
It was interesting that Tank briefly greeted Neesa, whom he knew from the search the other day, but he was full-body wiggling and whining as he circled, greeting Rylee.
As they closed the distance, Dakota’s heart pounded in his chest, and butterflies rioted in his stomach.
“Hey!” Neesa called. “Fancy seeing you here.”
“This is right outside my office,” Jasper pointed behind them, then brought his hands to his hips. “Beautiful spot.”
Both men were breathing heavily from the sprint, catching up to Tank.
Tank was fine. Tank was standing there with his eyes half-shut as both women massaged and patted and scritched his fur.
Ah, the life of a dog.
“Hi, I’m Dakota Kayne,” Dakota said as he reached out a hand to Rylee.
Dakota was expecting an electrical shock, but it was quite the opposite sensation. Despite being wet from the river, her hand was delicate and warm in his. There was strength and certainty in her grip. But he read confusion in her eyes.
“This is Tank,” he said.
“Tank, the amazing sniffer.” Rylee had a warm, inviting smile that brightened her face. Her intelligence shone in the depth of her chocolate brown eyes.
For a moment, Dakota forgot to breathe.
He hadn’t released her hand.
“And this is Jasper Lee.”
Rylee nodded his way with “Jasper,” as a greeting, then she tightened her hand on Dakota’s. “Dakota, we know each other, don’t we?” She squinted her eyes and tipped her head, taking a step closer to him. “You are so familiar to me.”
She let her hand drop.
Neesa turned and, with a flourish like she was presenting a work of art at an auction house, said, “Gentlemen, this is Rylee Jones. You all keep missing each other, but now you finally meet.”
“Rylee Jones,” Jasper said, “we are indebted. I’m sorry things turned shitty last night. We wanted to invite you for a drink to toast your heroism.”
Rylee suddenly stumbled forward into Dakota. With Dakota steadying her by her elbows, she spun to see that Tank had pushed her forward. When she pulled back, she swiped her hands over his chest, where her life vest had left two wet splotches in his T-shirt. “I am so sorry.”
“Tank’s fault. He’s excited to see you again.” Dakota was going to reward Tank with a game of tug later. He was a hell of a wingman.
“Wait.” Rylee tapped a finger on his chest. “I’m placing you now. You were the lovely man who gave me your taxi and the flowers.”
“That was me,” Dakota confirmed.
“It was a bad day, and that gesture made all the difference. Thank you. But I don’t remember Tank being there.”
“That was the second time we almost met. Were you at the Children’s Hospital mud run?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. My father’s foster child is in and out of the hospital, and we think it would be an amazing thing for the kids to get a park. Were you running?”
“With Cerberus. Your dad and the child were in wheelchairs?”
“That’s right.” She tipped her head. “But there were thousands of people there.”
“Pompoms at the finish line. And your bright smile.” He said that without thinking. What a cheesy thing to say. “Something about you caught Tank’s attention. The pompoms, maybe? He wanted to join your family. But we were both covered in clay.”
“Oh!” She pulled the lanyard that attached her phone to its waterproof sleeve, then scrolled through her photo album. “Ta da!” She turned it around. “Is that you in the war paint?”
“Team colors.”
She’d taken a picture of him. He was in her photo album. He shouldn’t feel this satisfied with the most tenuous of connections. Yet there it was.
“You all looked like something out of, I don’t know, Braveheart. Which was perfect. The kids are surely in a battle, and it’s great to have warriors showing up for them. But you’re not Cerberus, right?” She raised a questioning brow toward Neesa.
“Secret Service,” Neesa said.
“Tank is training with them. They use a dog-to-dog mentorship model, so Tank was invited to run with the pack.” A grin pulled across Dakota’s face. “Tank decided to drag me along, quite literally.”
Rylee handed her phone to Neesa. “You can see he’s being modest. The group came thundering over that hill, first the Malinois, then the shepherds.
Everyone looked like they were having a great time.
There was one guy who came in just after, let me …
” She pulled up another picture. “Look at this mastiff trotting along like he was Ferdinand the Bull. And his guy there looked like he wished they could run faster.”
“That’s Nutsbe Crushed, Panther Force.”
“Bilateral amputee,” Neesa said. “My goodness, he looks like he could be in the Paralympics.”
“He’s competing in Track and Field at the Invictus games this year,” Dakota said. He pointed at the picture of Nutsbe running near the crowd. “That’s his girlfriend, Olivia, standing next to you.”
“Invictus, that’s impressive.” Rylee accepted her phone back. “Henry, my foster nephew, was thrilled to cheer him on. Nutsbe you said?”
“Call sign from the Air Force,” Dakota said, reaching out to stop Tank from giving Rylee another nudge into him. “I don’t know his given name.”
“Ah, well, Nutsbe inspired Henry, and now Henry wants to start training to be a hero too.”
“A hero.” Dakota chuckled. “I’ll pass that along. It’ll make Nutsbe’s day.”
Jasper nodded toward Rylee’s hand. “What’s with the glove?”
“Rylee plucked it from the river.” Neesa gave a whole-body shiver. “Apparently, when it’s filled with water and floating fingers up, it looks like a cadaver hand.”
Jasper scowled. “And you reached in to grab it, thinking it was a dead body floating in the Potomac.”
Rylee grimaced.
“That could have been a life trauma. And you reached for it?” Jasper sound bewildered.
“Someone’s family needs to know what happened to their loved one,” Rylee said. “Closure.”
“Selfless.” Dakota bladed his hands on his hips. “Guts of steel. Not many people would have done it.”
“I wouldn’t,” Neesa said with revulsion painted across her face.
“You would,” Rylee challenged her.
Neesa turned toward Rylee. “Nope. I would have called you over.”
“Neesa.” Rylee laughed.
“Serious. I would have called you over. And if I were out on the water and you weren’t there, then I would have gotten the GPS numbers and called 911.
I might have babysat the hand while it was in the water, but that’s all I’d do.
” Neesa turned to Jasper. “You should have seen her face. It was sheer panicked horror. She scared me just looking at her.”
“The professionals could do a proper extraction, and I considered that. But can you imagine if I hadn’t reached in?” Rylee asked, slipping the glove into the mesh pocket on the side of her pack.
“And you got a dive team in the water to pull out a glove?” Neesa laughed. “Yeah, good call.”
“Hey, Rylee,” Dakota said, “you didn’t get to stick around for a drink last night when we figured out that it was you and Neesa who saved Benny. I want to thank you. I know Benny and his family want to meet you if you’re up for that.”
“I was glad to hear that he’s getting the help he needs.” Rylee brushed away the gratitude.
“You know it’s lucky that Benny was a guy when he went down,” Neesa said.