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“You are if you plan to stay here and get caught.”
She folded her arms across her chest.
“They’ll come back and clean up.”
Now he was just flat out lying to her. Lester’s team had never bothered much with clean up. Oh, they took away the fencing and the winning dogs. The area was quiet now that the people, their money, and their cars were gone. She had pictures of the two guards who had changed the tire on the sedan as if they’d been trained for NASCAR pit crews. Park rangers might find errant tire tracks in the next few days and blame joyriders. They might even find one of the wounded dogs as a stray and blame negligent pet owners.
But there wasn’t enough left behind to qualify as useful evidence. Only the losing dogs remained. “The losers,” she exclaimed. “Duh.”
“Pardon me?”
She started across the clearing at a run. Behind her, she heard Dale’s heavy boots pounding in her wake.
“Wait!” he called.
She didn’t. There would be time to tell him her theory when she knew if the dogs here were from the shelter. All of the dogs in the shelter had been microchipped. If one of those dogs had been used tonight, it was one more tangible to link the murder.
“Hold it right there.”
She skidded to a stop as another man stepped between her and her destination, gun in one hand, shovel in the other. Survival instinct running high, she kept her eyes on the gun pointed at her chest. Apparently, Lester had left someone behind to bury the losing dogs and catch the people responsible for derailing his fun.
She thought she could take him. He was already discounting her, his eyes on something or someone behind her.
Dale.
“Put down the weapon,” Dale said in his formal, Special Agent voice.
“You first,” the guard said with a sick grin.
She was caught between two stubborn men. This wasn’t going to end well.
“Did you miss your ride?” She took a step closer and to the left, trying to give Dale a clear shot. “We could give you a lift back to the road.”
The guard’s eyes shifted away from Dale to meet hers. “Shut up, bitch.”
“Drop the weapon,” Dale repeated.
“Not a chance.”
“Look,” she offered with a smile she didn’t feel, “let’s all just walk away and never talk about it.”
“No one crosses Lester and lives.”
“Who’s Lester?” she asked, in her best dumb voice. She shifted, freezing in place when the guard trained the gun on her.
“On your knees.” He wagged the barrel up and down. “Hurry!”
“Okay.” She raised her hands in surrender, but as she started to kneel, she threw her body forward, rolling into the guard’s legs.
A booming report was followed instantly by two muffled pops. When silence once more filled the clearing, she twisted around to face Dale. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” He stalked toward her, tugging her up and away from Lester’s guard. “What were you thinking?”
“I couldn’t just stand here and let him shoot you.”
He waved the gun in his hand. “I’m not dumb enough to stand around waiting for the bullet.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Between them the wounded guard groaned. “What now?”
