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“Well, Lieutenant, you can count on me. I can definitely get to Pennsylvania and check this guy out.”

“One of the other things you’ll find out in the file is that he lives on a farm upstate, and he raises pit bulls. He’s been arrested three times for animal cruelty.”

“Is he training them to fight?”

Kostya nodded. “You’re going to have to assume he’s armed and dangerous, and you’re going to have to deal with a bunch of fighting dogs.”

“Wonderful.” Mateo said sarcastically.

“Kostya grinned. Aw, admit it, you love animals.”

“I might like dogs, but not when they want to eat me.”

Kostya laughed. “Get to your house, read the encrypted file, and call Gideon if you have questions. I want you to be on the road before nightfall.”

Mateo stood up. “Aye, aye.”

Kostya nodded, and Mateo felt great. It was good to feel like a solid member of the team again. Yeah, checking out Lainey was necessary, but questioning an actual target like Pepper Higgins? That was a real mission that he could sink his teeth into.

Mateo pulled out his M2010 sniper rifle from the false bottom of his tool chest in the back of his truck, as well as his pistol. Now that he and Rocco had fixed the exhaust leak, his truck purred like a kitten, letting him get within a mile of Pepper’s place on one of the many logging roads.

He slowly made it to the perimeter of Pepper’s place that was covered by enormous trees and put his rifle up to his shoulder. The scope was better than any set of binoculars, if you asked him. What he saw about broke his heart.

He counted eight pit bulls at the front of the fenced-in property. Four of them were chained up, but why Pepper even bothered was a mystery to him. They were so emaciated, their ribs were protruding, and they were just lying there, panting for their next labored breath. He saw abscesses all over their bodies that hadn’t been tended to. These must have been the fight losers. He saw a couple of bowls near them, but they were empty. Why that vile fuck just tortured them like this and didn’t put them out of their misery was a mystery to Mateo. Then he took a closer look, and realized every one of those dogs were female and pregnant.

He's breeding them?! What the fuck?!

The biggest of the male pits was roaming around the females, and it looked like he was standing guard. Mateo watched as he growled, then barked, and then swiped at one of the other three males who tried to get at one female. A bit of a fight ensued, which the big pit easily won. That big one had recent wounds that had been stitched up. Apparently, Pepper Higgins made money when he brought that pit bull to the fights. Pepper didn’t come out to see what was going on. That was a good sign.

Mateo had never planned to use lethal force on the pits when Kostya had told him about them. After watching his mother literally die in front of him, he was very judicious on who he tapped, and innocent animals weren’t on his list of targets.

He’d talked to his mechanic friend Rocco’s sister. She was a vet. She set him up with a tranq gun and enough darts to take out the rhinoceros and tigers at the Virginia zoo. She’d told him that each full-grown pit would only need one dart to put them to sleep, and it would take about fifteen minutes to take effect and it would last for no more than thirty minutes.

The pregnant dogs were a different case altogether. There was no way Mateo was going to tranq them. They looked so ill, he was afraid that a couple of them might never wake up. But would they bark a warning that would alert Pepper? That was the real question.

Gideon’s file had been very thorough. He saw the rusted-out Buick Skyhawk up on blocks beside the house, and the shell of a Ford Elite that he was obviously parting out. He also saw a Datsun truck circa 1970 that was on its side, which was no big loss. But there was no sign of the 2003 Jeep Wrangler, which had to be Pepper’s daily ride. He needed to do an entire perimeter check to see if that vehicle was anywhere on the premises. If it wasn’t, he was going in and waiting for the man.

Mateo finished watering and feeding the pregnant dogs. Two of them were so sick, he had to hand feed them before they could eat from the food bowl. Pepper had a lot to answer for. That was when Mateo heard a vehicle coming up the rutted road, music blaring. Mateo let himself back into the filthy house. The whole place stank to high heaven. It wasn’t just the cigarette smoke; it was the dirty dishes lying all over every surface that had attracted ants and cockroaches. How could someone live like this?

He'd planned to just sit down and wait for Pepper, but he was thinking he would need to have his boots sprayed with Lysol when he got home. There wasn’t a chance in hell he was resting the seat of his pants against any of the furniture. It had been bad enough searching for dog food and something to hold the water for the sick females.

The four other pits were going to wake up soon, but the fence only extended to the sides and front of the house. The back, where there had once been a probably nice patio with decent furniture and a barbeque, didn’t have the fence enclosing it. Whoever lived here once took care of this place, and Pepper Higgins let it all fall to shit.

He listened as the Jeep pulled around to the back, came to a halt, and the blaring music stopped. Damn, the man was such an idiot. He was just leisurely walking to the same back door that Mateo had used, like he hadn’t even noticed that his dogs weren’t barking. Even so, Mateo positioned himself behind the door, his Sig Sauer in hand. It always paid to be careful. The scent of body odor overpowered the scent of the pizza that the man was holding as he shoved through the door. Mateo kept his gun trained on him as Pepper used both hands to carry pizza toward the debris-strewn coffee table in front of the wide screen TV.

Mateo took his opportunity, and as Pepper was bending down to place the pizza onto the coffee table, he silently came up behind him and shoved his gun into his neck.

Pepper twirled around, dropping the pizza. He had a knife in his hand and he lunged. Mateo feinted left, his boot coming out and kicking Pepper in the side of his left knee.

Pepper howled, but didn’t let loose his knife. Instead, he swiped it around and caught Mateo’s thigh. There was no way Mateo was going to use deadly force on this fuck. He needed answers. Pepper re-gripped the knife and jabbed upward, and Mateo reared back, slipping in pizza sauce.

Pepper saw his advantage. He turned the knife around and aimed for Mateo’s boot. His steel-toed boot.

Dumbass.

Mateo kicked up and caught Pepper in the chin. He went flying, the coffee table splitting in two under his massive weight. All the disgusting debris fell on top of him. He was out like a light, and Mateo watched as ants and cockroaches started crawling all over the man.

He shuddered.