Kade reached out and squeezed Bree’s hand.
They drove on, staying a safe distance behind Yancy’s car. Yancy seemed oblivious to the fact that he was being followed. Soon the road changed to gravel in front of them, and Kade dropped even farther behind. “We don’t want to tip him off,” he said.
After about thirty minutes, the plume of dust from Yancy’s tires turned right. A long lane led into a thickly forested area. The woods swallowed up the car and the dust in its wake.
“This is it,” Kade said. “There’s a cabin back there. One of those survivalist sorts with no electricity or phone, though he has a generator for outside lights. He likes to be left alone. I wandered onto his property one day, and he ordered me off.”
“Did you leave?”
“Sure. It’s his property, not park property.”
“Maybe we should park somewhere and walk back,” Bree suggested.
Kade nodded. “I know a turnoff to the creek. We’ll leave the truck there.” He guided the vehicle into a lane barely wide enough for the truck and killed the engine.
Bree nodded and hopped out. She wouldn’t put it past some of the people who would go to a dogfight to vandalize his truck. She hoped Kade wouldn’t pay with his property for helping her tonight. Her heart was pounding like the surf in a Superior nor’easter. Was Samson down that lane? It was all she could do to fall in beside Kade and trudge through the brush with him when she wanted to run on ahead.
Her breath sounded loud in her ears as she gripped Kade’s hand and scurried through the thick brush. A sound began to drift through the trees, a roar of some kind. Bree couldn’t tell what it was. Then as she got closer, she realized it was a crowd. A raucous one.
She felt icy, nauseated when she realized what it had to be. “A dogfight,” she whispered to Kade.
“Yep.” He started jogging.
Bree clutched his hand and ran to keep up. Samson was in there.
Jonelle wanted to clap her hands over her ears. The roar of the crowd nearly deafened her. She glanced from face to face, searching for some scrap of decency in these people. All she saw were eager eyes and mouths shouting for blood. No pity there.
The winning dogs from the previous fights were being tended. Most of them suffered from bites and even broken bones. But what did the crowd care? They’d gotten their pound of flesh in the bodies of the vanquished dogs.
It was time for the big fight. Already in the pen, Bruck kept lunging at the cage containing Samson. Zane was grinning like an idiot, and Jonelle wanted to slap the smile off his face. He was looking forward to seeing Bruck kill Samson. But first he’d throw the little dogs in to Bruck as bait. Her husband would do anything to make sure Bruck lived up to his killing-machine reputation.
She couldn’t bear to watch. Not one more minute. Drawing air past her tight throat, she turned and pushed her way through the crowd. Bursting through the doors, she drew a deep breath of sweet, clear air, free of the taint of blood, sweat, and feces. She leaned against the barn until she could get enough strength to get to the house. It was sick. Why had she never before realized just how sick? How could she stay married to a man who took pleasure in so much violence? Even if he gave it up, she’d always remember it.
There had to be some cruel streak in people like that, some piece of their soul missing. And Zane was a ringleader. So what did that make her?
She straightened up and heard a sound. Rustling in the bushes to her left. She squinted and tried to see through the twilight made even darker by the thick trees. Through the gloom stepped two figures. Probably more thrill seekers. But why were they moving so stealthily?
The motion-sensor lights detected their movement, and the sudden glare of light made them flinch. In that moment Jonelle recognized the woman and felt a stab of wild joy.
“Quick,” she panted. “You have to save your dog! In there!” She pointed toward the barn.
When Bree saw the woman step out of the shadows, her heart sank. But one look in her face, and she knew she had an ally. She raced toward the door the woman had pointed to.
Kade stopped her. “Wait! We have to call for backup.”
“There’s no time,” the woman insisted. “He’s about to go in the ring with the deadliest killer in the country.”
Bree tore herself loose from Kade’s grasp. The roar of the crowd covered his shout of “Wait!” She opened the door and plunged into the barn, all her senses assaulted at once. The screams, the sharp odor of fear and blood, and the sight of nearly sixty people converged around a pen. Thrusting her elbows into stomachs to get to the front row, she fought her way through the crowd.
“Stop!” she cried, but her voice was drowned out in the din of howls. Panting, she dove through the last row of men. Wildly she looked around and saw Samson snarling at a man poking a stick in his cage. A dog in another pen beside him was raging and snapping at the bars as he paced the cage. A rough-looking man was beginning to lift the cage door where two small poodles cowered.
“No-o-o!” Bree shrieked. She launched herself into the air and landed on the man’s back. She began to pummel him with her fists. “That’s my dog! You get away from him!”
The man whirled round and round, trying to dislodge her. “Get her off me,” he roared.
He slammed her against a barn pole, and the breath left her lungs. She struggled to hold on, but her fingers lost their grip on his shirt, and she fell into a pile of hay. She came up fighting, her fists clenched. She darted past him to the cage. “Samson, I’m here,” she crooned. She thrust her fingers through the cage. Would he know her? How had he gotten in this state?
He growled and lunged toward her. She almost pulled her hand back but forced herself not to flinch. Still crooning to him, she wiggled her fingers.
His teeth stopped mere millimeters from her hand. The snarls died, and he whined then licked her fingers. Tears came to her eyes when she saw how thin he was. The man must have starved him for the past several weeks.
The man grasped her around the waist from behind and hefted her away from Samson. “This is my dog. You’re going to be sorry you barged in here.”
Bree wrenched away, falling to the ground again. Her knees and the palms of her hands stung with the impact. She jumped up again. The crowd was roaring its approval of the way the man was handling her. She felt a stab of fear. Where was Kade? She needed some help here.
Samson was snarling now, biting at the cage. Bree knew he would fight to the death to defend her. She backed up to the cage then climbed on top of it. “This man stole my dog,” she proclaimed at the top of her lungs.
The roars of approval faltered then burst out in full bore again. “Fight, fight, fight,” the crowd chanted.
They pressed closer to where she stood on the cage. “Kade!” she shrieked.
Kade burst through a line of men. His face was red with exertion. “Get back! The sheriff is on his way here now.”
Women shrieked and men cursed. They began to fight to get to the door. In moments the barn was nearly empty. Kade moved to the cage by Bree. “Let’s get him out of there.”
“I don’t think so.” Yancy stepped from the shadows with a gun in his hand.
His face twisted with hatred, Yancy looked nothing like the easy-going scientist Bree knew. The loathing in his eyes took her aback.
“You’re despicable,” she whispered. I know you’re in hock for gambling. But why Samson? You know how much he means to me and Davy. And you have my father too, don’t you?”
He shrugged. “I needed the money. He’s an amazing dog.” Regret touched his face. “I think he could have beat Bruck, and I had a lot of money riding on it. But now you’ve ruined it.”
“Where’s my father?”
“I let him go. He should be back at the nursing home by now.”
“What was so important about that file?”
“He had the missing piece of the puzzle.”
“The cure for Alzheimer’s?”
“Noth
ing so mundane. It’s a memory booster. It turns idiots into geniuses. The military will pay a fortune for it. They won’t care where it came from.”
Bree absorbed the revelation. Everyone would want it, not just the military.
Yancy moved toward the money table and pulled out a satchel from underneath. He began stuffing bills into it while keeping the gun trained on Bree and Kade.
“That’s my money!” Zane moved toward the table but stopped when Yancy pointed the gun at him.
“Stand back with the rest of them.”
Yancy gestured with the gun. “I’ll take the dog with me. He’ll fight just as well later as he would now.”
“No!” Bree started to move and Yancy casually pointed the gun at her head. “Don’t try it. It wouldn’t take much for me to shoot you, Bree.”
“You don’t want to do that,” Kade said, holding up his hands. “Right now you’re just facing a count of dogfighting and maybe racketeering. You don’t want to add murder to the charges.”
Yancy smiled, a slight twitch of his lips. “Your girlfriend already has it figured out, isn’t that right, Bree? She knows everything.”
“It started with revenge, didn’t it? Making your wife and her new husband pay.” Bree edged closer to the front of the cage’s top. If she could keep him off center, maybe she could tackle him, make him lose the gun.
“I see what you’re doing. Don’t move another inch, or I’ll blow a hole in your boyfriend.” He angled the gun to Kade’s head.
Bree froze. Her gaze met Kade’s and he gave a slight nod. Her muscles coiled to jump when he gave the signal.
“I’m not moving,” she said, putting her hands in her pocket. “There’s surely more than revenge. Did Jackson Pharmaceutical pay you too?”
A figure stepped up beside her. The woman from outside who’d told her to hurry. “Yes, he was paid. Read this.”
“Jonelle, what are you doing?” Zane hissed.
Bree felt the crackle of paper in her hand and glanced at it. It was an offer of half a million dollars to Phil. And Yancy.
Jonelle looked at her husband. “Doing what we should have done a long time ago. Telling the truth. You were wrong, Zane, and I was wrong for letting you do this. But I’m not shutting up any longer.”
Bree turned back to Yancy. “It wasn’t really the money that tempted you, was it?” she said, drawing his attention back to herself. “You wanted revenge on Marcus Simik. He stole your wife and would soon take credit for your new drug. If you could hurt him where it really mattered, take away his business and his prestige, you’d be getting back at him and your ex-wife.”
“She’s keeping my daughter from me!” Yancy cried. “Did you know today was the first I’d seen her in three months? A kid should be allowed to see her dad. I had him right where I wanted him. His love of dogfighting outweighed even his hatred for me—so I was able to use him to get your dog. When he lost the bet on Samson, he would have been poor.”
“Cassie’s boss was in on this too?” Kade didn’t hide the surprise in his voice.
Bree nodded slowly. “And so was Phil.” She held out the paper. “I have proof now. But why kill him?”
“It was an accident. He was running scared, worried about going to jail and leaving his kids. I told him we’d be fine, but he didn’t believe me. He pulled a gun on me. It went off in the struggle.”
“What about Marika—did she crack the pharmacy computer for you?” It was a stab in the dark, but so far her intuition hadn’t led her astray.
He smiled. “How’d you figure that one out?”
“Kade saw you with her one day. And I saw you meeting at The Coffee Place. I knew you hate computers. Phil used to take care of that side of things, and someone had to do it for you. Did you offer her money?”
“Some. But mostly I gave her information for how to get her kids back. I explained how she could make Timmy sick without any lasting damage.”
Bree’s gut churned. “What if he’d died?”
“He didn’t though, did he?” He glanced at his watch. “Zane, drag the cage to my car.”
Zane grinned. “You got it.” He moved toward the cage.
It was now or never. Bree yelled and jumped on Zane from her perch. Yancy jerked toward her, but Kade had the gun yanked out of his hand before he could blink. He knocked Yancy to the ground then ran to help Bree with Zane.
Bree sank her teeth into Zane’s hand. He yowled and jerked his hand away. “Get away from my dog,” she panted. She draped her body over the cage.
Zane glanced away. His eyes widened when he saw the gun in Kade’s possession. He held up his hands. “Okay, okay. Take your dog.”
“Good decision,” Kade said between gritted teeth.
Behind her Samson was still growling and snarling to get out and get to the man who had been tormenting him. Bree grabbed the cage and twisted it around so the side was to the opening into the pen and the door to the cage was facing her. Her fingers were so stiff it was hard to pry the cage open. “It’s okay, boy,” she crooned. The dog began to settle down. He whined and pressed against the cage door.
She was still fumbling with the cage latch when she heard a guttural roar behind her. Brandishing a pitchfork, Zane prodded her with it.
“Drop the gun or the girlfriend will leak water,” Zane warned.
“Zane, no!” Jonelle started toward her husband.
He backhanded her, and she fell onto a pile of hay. A trickle of blood oozed from her mouth. “I’m leaving you, Zane,” she muttered. “I always told myself the day you hit me I’d be gone.”
“He’s going away for a long time,” Bree said. She itched to get to Jonelle and comfort her.
Zane jabbed at Bree with the pitchfork, and she moved back.
Kade’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll shoot you where you stand if you move again.”
“I’ll fall and she’ll be a tasty treat for Bruck,” Zane said with a casual grin.
With her back to the cage and her hands behind her, Bree continued to work on the clasp. When Zane’s attention was on Kade, she took a quick step aside and swung open the door. Samson flung himself out of the cage and launched himself at Zane.
Zane shouted and scrambled back, but seventy pounds of snarling dog landed on his chest. He threw his arm across his neck, and Samson’s teeth latched on to his jacket. “Get him off me!”
Bree rushed forward and grabbed Samson’s collar. “Samson, release,” Bree said. At first he continued to snarl, but she gave him another tug and he whined and released his hold. He licked her hand, then sat back on his haunches.
In the distance she could hear a siren wailing. Stragglers outside the barn heard it as well. They ran for their cars and trucks, leaving their dogs behind.
Bree looked to Yancy. “Was it worth it, Yancy? You tossed your life away for revenge, for money. Tell me, was it worth it?”
He scowled. “I’d have been fine if you would have kept your nose out of it.”
“You’re the one who brought me in. You took my dog and threatened my sister. I feel sorry for you. You had so much—a great career, a daughter who loves you, a good name. You treated it like trash.”
“Shut up,” he growled. “I don’t need any sermonizing from you.”
Bree knew she had to forgive him, but the words stuck in her throat. She’d told God she would not go through life bitter about anything from now on. But this man didn’t deserve her forgiveness.
But then neither did she deserve God’s. She swallowed hard. “I just want to say I forgive you, Yancy.”
He rolled his eyes and looked away without answering.
29
Samson had his head stuck out the window, a doggy smile on his face. His ears whipped back in the wind. Bree sat next to Kade in the truck with her right arm around Samson’s neck. His coat was rough, and he smelled bad. It was horrible how quickly mistreatment had shown on his body. He was too thin, but she’d soon fix that.
She felt like crying and lau
ghing at the same time. Now that it was over, she could admit to herself she’d thought that they’d never find him—that he had gone to some terrible fate. And that fear had almost come true. She shuddered to think how close she’d come to losing him.
Her cell phone had rung on their way home, and Cassie reported their father had come wandering back to the house. Life couldn’t be much better.
Kade slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Happy?”
“I can’t even begin to say how happy,” she said, leaning her head back against his arm. “I wish we didn’t have to go to the jail to make a statement. I’d just like to go home and watch Davy with Samson. At least we get to reunite them first. It will take a while for Mason to book Yancy. He’ll have to arrest Marcus Simik too. I think Cassie said he lives in Milwaukee.” She glanced at her watch. “We’re supposed to meet at the station in an hour.”
Kade turned the truck down Negaunee Street. Samson whined and his tail wagged furiously, swishing Bree in the face. She laughed. “He knows where we are.”
Kade parked the truck out front, and Bree leaned over and opened the door before Samson jumped out the window. “Davy,” she called. Samson barked and ran toward the lighthouse.
The screen door opened. “Sam!” Davy called. He jumped off the front step and ran to meet his dog. Timmy followed, an excited grin on his small face.
Bree watched, her heart so full it overflowed into tears. She thought Davy had given up on finding his dog too. Her son threw himself against Samson, and the dog pushed him to the ground, then stood over him licking his face. Davy giggled and squirmed. Samson finally lay down with his head on Davy’s tummy.
Davy turned his head to look at her. “You found him, Mommy! You found him.”
Bree knelt beside him and Samson. “God helped me. God and Kade.”
“We should thank God for helping you,” Davy said solemnly. He shut his eyes, his face turned to the stars. “Thank you, God. Thank you for bringing my dog home.”
“Amen,” Bree echoed, making no effort to control her tears. She smoothed the hair back from Davy’s face.