She nodded, pressing her lips together as she took the information in. “Aronson must have a lot of faith in your word if he’s agreed to pause the hunt based on a hunch.”
“I think he has faith in our combined theory.” He pulled a collapsable water bowl from Max’s vest and shook it open. Cracking the cap on a bottle of water, he dumped half of it into the bowl before taking a long pull of what was left for himself. “Besides, it’s the only one we’ve got so far.”
Cass checked the display on her phone. “One fifty-nine.”
Her voice was tense. Jake wished there was something he could say to ease her anxiety, but he knew anything he attempted would sound trite. It was clear the person behind all this was targeting Cass, and there was no way to make her feel better about any of it. But he felt compelled to try. He opened his mouth to speak but snapped it shut again when Max straightened abruptly then plunked his big muzzle down on Cass’s leg.
“Oh!” she gasped in surprise.
“Max,” Jake said, a note of reprimand in his tone.
But the shepherd didn’t budge. Instead, he looked up at Cass, large ears twitching and amber eyes sincere.
“Sweet boy,” she cooed, resting her hand on the dog’s head.
Jake stared at his partner, lips parted in surprise. Max was a good dog. An obedient dog. A well-trained and enthusiastic officer at work, and an easy companion with him. But Jake never referred to Max as a sweet boy. Sure, he was friendly and even a little affectionate toward Jake, but Max was extremely task-oriented. He worked, ate, ran and slept. Bred to be a K-9 officer, usually Max barely acknowledged any human other than Jake.
“Wow,” Jake managed to say at last.
Cass tilted her head, her hair falling to the side as she eyed him curiously. “What?”
“He doesn’t…” Stopping to clear the croak from his throat, he gave a short chuckle. “I’ve never seen him do that.”
“No?” She turned her full attention to Max. “Maybe he’s not into you,” she teased, gracing his partner with a warm, conspiratorial smile. “Maybe he’s a ladies’ man…dog,” she crooned, wrinkling her nose at Max as she beamed approval at him.
For the first time since Max had sprung from his trainer’s kennel, Jake felt a pang of jealousy. The problem was, he didn’t know if he was envious of Cass’s easy manner with Max, or the fact she’d looked at Max the same way she used to look at him.
Like he was…everything.
His mind flashed to the last weekend he and Cass had spent together. The transition from high school to college had been tough. The three hours between them feeling endless. Their phone calls stretched into the nights, but often they’d end up bickering more than talking. In a desperate attempt to get back on the same page, he’d come down from Fayetteville for the weekend, and they’d come here. To the fair.
They’d eaten their fill of fried food, ridden every ride, and even played a few of the rigged games. On the surface, it had felt like a good day, but something was off. Cass was distant. Standoffish. She hadn’t smiled at him, like once, the whole time they’d been together. And then he’d heard she’d been spending time with a classmate who’d attended their high school—a guy Jake knew for a fact had always liked Cass—and he’d decided to cut and run before she decided to dump him.
“Jake?”
Her voice jolted him from his reverie. “Huh?”
“It’s two minutes past two.” She spoke so softly it was almost a whisper.
As if remembering his dignity, Max lifted his chin from her knee and stretched out on his stomach between them. Jake glanced down at his dog then up at her. Their eyes met, and she offered him a tremulous little smile. Her eyes shone with hope, but his stomach filled with dread.
This moment felt so much like day at the fair so long ago. Jake remembered wanting everything to be right and easy between them. To feel the way they used to feel. Without doubts or questions. Then Cassidy spoke the two worst words in the English language out loud.
“What if—”
But she didn’t get to complete the thought before her phone buzzed with an incoming message.
Have your pals been messing with the presents I left for you, Lieutenant?
She held the phone out for Jake to see. “I’m guessing the pirate ship was supposed to be two o’clock.”
“Maybe so.” Jake radioed Aronson. “Another message. Looks like we preempted the pyrotechnics planned for two o’clock.”
A faint cheer rose from the far side of the carnival. Jake stood and was about to turn to leave when Cass called him back. “Wait! Look.” She thrust the phone at him again. This time, the person on the other end hadn’t bothered to make a new thread.
You want to speed up the timeline? Fine by me.
He opened his mouth to question the meaning of the message but his words were drowned out by a substantial blast. The explosion made everything around them shudder and shake.
