Page 43 of Rangers Last Promise

I read the first.

SHAW, COLIN.

The second is darkened with age and scratched along one edge.

ELLIS, GRANT.

The sight knocks the breath from my lungs.

“You have his dog tags.”

Doc closes his hand around them.

“He was wearing two sets when he died. I returned one with his personal belongings.”

“And kept the other.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

His eyes meet mine.

“Because I couldn’t leave all of him behind.”

No one speaks.

The rain taps against the metal fire escape above us.

For fifteen years, I believed Doc walked away because Grant’s death meant less to him than it did to us.

I was wrong.

The man standing in the alley never left that valley.

A loud bang echoes from the far end of the street.

Doc shoves me behind the brick wall before I can react. Trigger draws his weapon while Sheriff Tate moves toward the alley entrance.

“Report,” Tate orders into his radio.

A deputy answers immediately.

“Car backfired on Main Street. False alarm.”

Everyone exhales except Doc.

His body still shields mine. One arm is braced against the wall beside my head while the other holds the metal case tight against his side.

“You can move now.”

His gaze drops to my face.

“You stepped into the open.”

“I stepped three feet outside the door.”

“You didn’t know the alley was secure.”