Ethan (The K9 Files Book 1)

She didn’t know when the pain and the lack of oxygen took over. But she was on autopilot, just moving one step to the next step. Somewhere along the line she realized anybody driving on the road would see her now. The ridge was long gone; it was just flat cross-country terrain. She approached a bend in the road up ahead. She didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. She twisted behind her to see a vehicle driving toward her, dust billowing out behind it. There was a second plume of dust, although the vehicle creating it was hidden by the first.

She hit the ground. She wasn’t sure what to do. If she kept running, they’d probably see her. She had very few places to hide. But there were enough hollows and dips that, if she lay completely still, she might not be seen. She was still several hundred yards from the road. As she glanced back, she noted the two vehicles still had a ways to go. She bounced to her feet and darted cross-country away from the road again.

A clump of trees was up ahead and several bushes. She expected, if they had seen her, they’d figure that she’d race there for cover. But she had to do anything to keep hidden.

As she tripped into a creek bed, a dry hollow, she realized this was the perfect answer. She raked the dirt on top of her, and, with a couple rocks placed carefully around her face, she left her mouth and her injured head open between them, while covering up most of her. Her auburn hair, her pale skin, her freckles, even her beige T-shirt, they were all camouflage-worthy attire for her right now. Here she lay, her breathing shallow and heavy. She drank the last of her water, then lay still.

In the distance she could hear voices. She knew they had seen her.

“Where the hell did she go? Did you see her?”

“I saw her running about a hundred yards off,” one of the men called. “Just keep walking. Keep walking.”

She didn’t dare breathe heavily. She lay as still as she could, frozen and waiting. She could hear footsteps in the distance, men still talking. God help her if one of them stepped on her.

“Search to the left. I saw her run that way.”

“No, I don’t think so,” one of the men said. “There’s no sign of her anywhere.”

“If she was smart, she went for the trees,” said yet a different man.

“Yeah, but, of course, that’s the first place we would look for her,” another man said.

Inside, she thought to herself, Please, just keep walking. Just keep walking. She knew, if they found her, it would be the end. This time, if they recaptured her, she’d have a much worse time escaping. Chances were they’d kill her.

“Okay, I’ll head off to the trees. You guys keep scanning this area. Just keep walking. She couldn’t have gone far.”

“There’s no place she can hide,” one of the men said. “Look at this place. It’s just dirt and rocks.”

“She was wily enough to get free. She could have other tricks up her sleeve.”

She could hear the men grumbling, but one man’s voice got fainter. Probably heading for the copse of trees she had avoided. She knew they’d head there. Any sane person would. She figured she was the last person anybody would consider sane. She kept wishing for Ethan to hurry and find her.

And then the fear crept in again that he hadn’t heard her message. That was so not what she needed to think now.

All of a sudden a couple heavy crunches of booted feet on rocks came close to her. From her left, one of the men called out, “Did you see anything?”

A man, almost upon her, called back, “Nah, there’s nothing out here. Besides, if she is, she might as well stay out here and die. The desert will kill her in no time.”

She winced. But he was right. Just because she’d escaped, didn’t mean she was safe. The footsteps crossed in front of her as the man headed over to join the other men. She didn’t dare move. And, no matter how curious she was, no way could she raise her head and remain unseen. All she could do was wait. Hopefully these guys would leave, and the right man would arrive.

But she didn’t know how long that would take. She listened intently as the men’s voices faded into the distance, and she heard a vehicle start up and take off again. She relaxed and thought that maybe, just maybe, she was free and clear.

The sun beat down, but, under the dirt, it was not too bad. She didn’t dare get up, just in case it was a trick. Some of the men could have driven off and left the others to stand watch. She lay here in the heat of the sun and could feel her eyes growing weary.

Eventually she told herself, she’d nap to regain her strength, just for a few minutes.

And she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Ethan froze as he watched figures in the distance. Vehicles parked, armed men running around, but Ethan didn’t see a woman. He let his gaze relax, becoming accustomed to the scene in front of him. He tried not to search for anything but rather have movement jar his awareness. He couldn’t guarantee she was out here, but it was likely, given the location. He knew Levi was heading toward the main part of the camp. But Ethan saw no sign of Levi’s vehicle, at least not from where he stood.

He was more concerned about the men, four that he could count, combing the acres of land between him and the next rise. He couldn’t hear any sounds from this distance, but just their actions, their frantic movements, were enough to get reactions from the dogs. Bella and Sentry both stood, their backs bristled, a slight growling coming from deep in their throats. Ethan judged the distance between him and the gunmen to be a couple miles. Bella stood eagerly at attention, willing for whatever was coming.

The four gunmen continued in their search for Cinn, unaware of Ethan.

On that note, Ethan drank some of his water, then clipped it onto his belt, let Sentry choose the direction and started to run. Every step caused pain in his stump, but he ignored it. Cinn was going through something so much worse. Besides, Ethan had been working hard at training his injury.

The dogs were also injured but ran eagerly at his side. Both leashed, both running level with him. He appreciated the training that had gone into their original care. He was just damn sorry they had ended up with somebody who had turned them into killers.

From where Ethan was, he didn’t think he was visible, but again any movement on the horizon like this could catch the bad guys’ attention. In the distance a movement caught his eyes. He turned to see a fox running away from him. He smiled and whispered, “Go, fella. We wish you well.”

He turned his attention back to the men, seeing them split, two going one way, two heading toward the copse of tress. Most people in Cinn’s position would head for the trees, hoping for a hiding place that would keep them safe. But, because it was the first place the men were likely to look, it was also, in this case, probably the worst thing she could do. But she wasn’t a fool.

He kept running. It took a good three minutes to get his breathing even.

The terrain was rough, unsteady, his footsteps landing, occasionally rolling ever-so-slightly. It ate up his energy, this cross-country running. But it was necessary. He kept his eyes trained on the men ahead. They stopped, checked out the surrounding trees, and just then he heard a shout. The two closest to him turned and headed toward the others, all now heading for the copse of trees.

Ethan was still at least a mile out.

He kept up the pace, jogging steadily, needing a bit of good luck getting close without them noticing his approach. Just then the four men broke from the trees, stopped and stared. He hated to, but he stopped, minimizing the dust rising up around him. Crouched, he peered just over the rocks to see the men staring in his direction. He waited, the dogs at his side panting heavily, their gazes locked on the men in front of them. Good. They should know exactly who it was they were up against.

What he couldn’t count on was the dogs’ reactions when they reached the men. Would they see them as friend or foe? Would they listen to Ethan’s commands or to the enemy’s? Surely some of the men had befriended the dogs? But he would never get a better chance than here and now to see where their loyalties lay and to see if, in any way, he could redeem them. Bella had already proven herself to be trainable and loyal to him, but she hadn’t been put to the real test yet. Sentry, on the other hand, he’d been trained to kill for these men, making him the bigger problem.

Still, Sentry had listened to Ethan over the intruder they had caught at Cinn’s house. Would Sentry welcome a chance to go after these men? Or would he welcome them with yips and howls of joy and jump all over them? Ethan could only guess what would happen. Sentry certainly wasn’t pulling back or resisting the run. Right now he wanted to tear ahead. Ethan just didn’t know for sure why.

The men seemed to turn and look toward their vehicles; then they slowly marched back. Ethan stayed where he was, watching as, every once in a while a man turned his gaze, sweeping around, probably looking for Cinn, and maybe for Ethan. The question was, where was Cinn? And would the dogs pick up her scent? Was she hurt? Had she been shot again? Was she running for her life in a completely different area? Did she have any water?

It was too easy to lose somebody in this countryside. Without helicopters, without motion sensors, without any GPS tracking, finding her, especially in time if she was injured, would be hard. He didn’t know if Levi had access to any satellite imagery, but, if they would be so lucky to have the police involved with similar technology, then maybe they would catch sight of her. Deeming it safe, he got up. Instead of running, he walked slowly, as the men were now all in their vehicles. Two of them drove ahead of the other two. Ethan didn’t want to push his luck, waiting until they took the first corner.

Then he picked up the pace and ran toward the area where they’d been. Another vehicle drove toward him, but he couldn’t tell who it was. He wished he had a better view. It would tell him if it was Levi meeting up with that group of gunmen, or if it would be more of the foes.

Taking a chance, he bent down, unclipped Bella, gave her a sniff of Cinn’s jacket and told her to search. And Bella took off. Sentry tried to jump behind her, but he was still leashed. Ethan picked up the pace, running behind Bella, who was now flat-out racing across the countryside toward the road.

And there she stopped, milling around, and started to sniff. She wasn’t a bloodhound. She was an attack dog. Ethan knew it was a slim chance that she’d pick up Cinn’s scent, but all dogs seemed to have a sense for tracking that completely outshone anything humans could do.

He didn’t know for certain about that with Sentry or Bella.

Finally reaching Bella, he gave her another sniff of the jacket, and she walked up and down the road, whining. “I know. Where could she be? Maybe she hitched a ride from someone?” He thought about that. There were just too many unknowns. As he looked to the left of the road, he realized nobody had gone that direction. He moved forward along the road to where the men had gotten out of their vehicles. Bella and Sentry started to whine and howl, barking as they picked up the scent of the men who’d been here. He just didn’t know what their reaction meant. He led the way to the trees, with Bella now racing ahead, following the men’s trails.

“Sure, Bella. But do you want to see these guys, or is it because you can also smell Cinn’s scent here?”

They were a good two minutes away from the trees. He walked slowly, his gaze roaming carefully across the sand and dirt.

She had to be here somewhere. His worst fear was that she’d collapsed, had been shot and was even now bleeding out into the dry ground.

Shots split the silence. He dashed into the tree line to make sure he and the dogs were out of the firing line. He peered through the trees to see what was going on. But there was just dust and chaos where the vehicles had met, face-to-face.

“Well, that answers that question,” he muttered. “I’ll take that as Levi met up with the enemy.” Ethan bent down and gave Sentry a good scratch as he whined. “It’ll be fine, buddy. I don’t know about the fate of your previous owners, but you’ll be fine. We need to focus on finding Cinn.” He called Bella to him, and slowly, carefully, methodically went through the trees. He looked up in the branches, just in case she’d climbed up.

Deeming they were safe enough, he called out, “Cinn? Are you here? Call out if you’re hurt. It’s me, Ethan. I’ve got the dogs.”

In a gentle voice he kept calling to her. But there was no answer. As he came to the end of the trees, he thought about going back down for another run, but so much land surrounded him. He couldn’t spend too much time here.

He also couldn’t be sure the men hadn’t seen her, shot her and left her somewhere. He hadn’t heard a sound, but, depending on how close they’d been, he might not have. If the wind had been moving up the hills, sweeping away from him, it could easily have been disguised. He glanced down at Sentry and held Cinn’s jacket to his nose.

Sentry barked and strained at the leash. Bella came back over, milled around the two of them, sniffing the air and sniffing the jacket.

Ethan was taking a hell of a chance to let Sentry off his leash. He could disappear on Ethan. But he made a decision to give the dog some trust and to hope the dog would trust him back. Ethan reached down, unclipped the big harness off the dog’s shoulders, and Sentry bolted cross-country into the area Ethan had not searched when coming in.

There was still a good mile of land out here that the dogs ran flat out into. But this time Bella was ever-so-slightly behind, and Sentry moved with intent. Ethan picked up his feet and raced forward. He didn’t call out to the dogs. For all he knew, Sentry was headed back to the compound. But Ethan had to give Sentry a chance.

And suddenly Sentry came to a complete stop and barked.