Page 355 of Rangers Last Promise

Trigger paused.

“Friend?” Trigger asked.

Max stared.

“Friend,” I confirmed.

Trigger leaned down cautiously and patted Max’s head.

Max licked his hand.

Trigger smiled. “He reminds me of Ranger. I’ll always miss that dog.”

“That’s what I thought when I saw him sitting out in the middle of the desert. I put him in the truck, and we became best friends,” I said.

Then Max sneezed coffee-scented slobber across Trigger’s shirt.

I laughed.

Trigger looked at me.

I hadn’t meant to laugh.

The laugh had escaped before I could stop it.

His expression softened.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “You needed to come here.”

He left before I could answer.

The Last Stand Tavern didn’t open until eleven, but the downstairs dining room was already full.

Agnes, Mabel, and June occupied a table near the bar. Nora sat beside Wolf with a cup of coffee between her hands. Rylie had taken Trigger’s usual chair and refused to move when he complained.

Havoc stood near the kitchen with Aspen and Dylan.

Dylan had grown since the last photograph Havoc sent me. He was almost as tall as Aspen and had the restless energy of a boy who believed every room had been created for him to run through.

Saint sat with Laney. Ace and Tessa were near the end of the table, arguing quietly about whether Ace had stolen the last biscuit.

He had.

The evidence was in his hand.

Everyone looked up when I entered.

I stopped at the foot of the stairs.

“No.”

Agnes frowned. “No what?”

“Whatever this is.”

“It’s breakfast,” June said.

“It looks like an ambush.”