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“Doesn’t matter who it is. We need to be careful.” He pressed the button of the radio. “This is Chance Reynolds. There’s a stranger at Kaylyn Anderson’s front door. Can someone be here right away?”
Dylan Strange’s voice came back, “Chance, we have a team about a quarter mile from you. They’re on their way now.”
Another knock on the door.
“Come with me, now.” He put his arm around Kaylyn and took her to the bedroom. “Do you have a gun?”
“Yes. It’s in the top drawer of my dresser.”
“I don’t think we’ll need it, but I’ll get it just in case.”
* * * *
As his heart jackhammered in his chest, Jaris jumped in Emmett’s truck with Sugar. Hearing Chance on the radio had filled him with dread.
He reached into his jacket and touched the handle of his pistol. The familiar talisman didn’t work to calm his fears. Blind or not, if he and Emmett arrived and found someone had hurt Kaylyn or Chance, he would use his other senses to locate the bastard and empty every bullet in his gun into the fucker.
The roar of the engine told Jaris that Emmett was pushing his truck to the max. He felt the vehicle turn off the highway and onto the dirt road that led to Kaylyn’s house.
“Jaris, I see the sheriff,” Emmett informed him. “He’s already here with several other officers. Kaylyn and Chance are fine. They’re talking to Nicole on the porch.”
He let out a breath of relief. “What about the stranger?”
“Jason is talking to the guy by the squad car.” Emmett parked the truck. “Looks like this might’ve been a false alarm.”
“We’ll see.” Jaris exited the cab with Sugar, heading the direction he could hear Kaylyn’s voice. He had to be sure she was really okay.
“Oh, Jaris, you’re never going to believe this.” Kaylyn grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Mr. Bayless has four dogs that are already trained. They just need one week of our training. So we’ll have dogs for our people. We won’t have to delay a thing.”
The exuberance in her voice was clear, but he wasn’t convinced.
Sounds like too much of a coincidence to me. “How did this guy know you needed dogs?”
“He saw one of our postings on the school’s Facebook page about our missing dogs.” Her voice cracked, mentioning the four beloved canines. “Since Mr. Bayless is in the same field, he wanted to help.”
“Help? Or did he want to get paid?”
She smiled. “Always a cop, aren’t you. Yes. Of course he wants to be paid. You know how much it costs to train dogs. I’ll gladly pay him. Jaris, I won’t have to disappoint our clients. They will get their service dogs as scheduled.”
“Hold on, Kaylyn. Not so fast.” His police training kicked in. “We need to get his credentials checked out first.”
“I agree,” Chance said.
“So does the sheriff.” Nicole was still one of the best officers Jaris had ever known. “I’ve already sent a message to Jena. The team over at TBK will run a complete background check on Mr. Bayless.”
“Good. I’d like to talk to him myself.”
“Actually, Jaris, the sheriff asked me to bring you to him once you arrived on scene. He says that you’re the best interrogator he’s ever seen. I have to agree.”
“I appreciate that and definitely want to talk to this man.” He turned to his best friend. “Chance, keep Kaylyn here.”
“Sure thing.”
“Jaris, I don’t understand.” Her excitement about the possibility of being able to have dogs for the four clients had vanished from her tone. “Do you think this really could somehow be connected to Kip Lunceford?”
“Until we know for sure that this guy is on the up and up, we have to be extra careful.” There were so many other things he wanted to talk to Kaylyn about than this, but it couldn’t be helped. This was what they all faced at the moment. Hopefully, it would all get resolved quickly and he could talk with her and Chance alone. “Sugar, let’s go talk to this man.”
Nicole led him over to Jason and the stranger. “Sheriff, here’s Deputy Simmons as you requested.”
