Classified K-9 Unit Christmas

“They could send someone else,” Kelly’s mother whispered, tears in her eyes. “Can’t we take her home to Helena?”

Nina glanced at Thomas, who had joined them. He frowned and pondered that. “The doctors aren’t ready to release her yet, but when they do, we’ll have to send someone with her if the man who shot her is still at large. Do you have any other place you could take her for a few days?”

“My parents live about thirty miles from Helena in a gated community. We could take her there,” Mrs. Denton offered.

“I’ll call ahead when it’s time and if it comes to that,” Thomas said. “She could become a possible witness in a federal case. We can help protect her here and...we might have to put her into witness protection if this drags out too long.”

The Dentons both seemed confused and frightened by that. “You don’t mean forever, do you?” her mother asked with tears in her eyes.

Nina shot Thomas a thankful glance. “We hope it won’t come to that. For now, we’ll be in touch to coordinate things as soon as she’s clear to leave the hospital. And we’ll have someone here to escort all of you to your destination.”

“Meantime, we have the deputy and a K-9 team member here, so she’ll have two people guarding her door at all times,” Thomas added. “And if she tells either of you anything, please let us know. We can’t help her if we don’t know what we’re dealing with.”

Kelly’s parents nodded, but they looked shell-shocked.

“We can also have her moved to another room,” Nina said, promising to talk to the hospital administrators.

She and Thomas went to take care of the details. Soon, everything was in place to move Kelly to a room near the nurses’ station, where she could be monitored more closely by both the guards and the staff.

Having assured her parents that Kelly would be safe, and telling them they’d be watched, too, Nina and the marshal went back to headquarters, hoping to question the man they’d taken into custody.

Three hours later, after questioning the noncommunicative suspect and then going over files and trying to establish leads, all they had to go on was the suspect’s rap sheet of petty crime, and the fact that he refused to give them any information. Robby Collier was a local who’d been minding his own business in a bar when he’d been offered a job paying a huge amount of money.

He regretted that decision, but said he couldn’t tell them anything more. “The man made it pretty clear if I got caught, I was on my own. I don’t know nothing except I was supposed to take down the guard at the door.”

“I guess you didn’t think that part through, either,” Nina had noted, before they left him locked up tight.

“He thinks he’s safer in lockup than out there,” Thomas said now. “This has Russo all over it. He hired someone to bring down the guard, which means he was probably in the hospital, too. I’m surprised he didn’t shoot dear Robby on the spot for failing in his mission.”

“But they locked the place down,” Nina said, regretting that she’d left Sam with the handlers here while they’d gone to the hospital. Sam could have helped chase down the assailant. “He had to get away quick. Why would he send someone so unreliable and, well, green?”

“He messed up and left a witness, something he’s never done before. And now, because of one determined K-9 officer, he wants this over and done. He has to know you’re FBI by now. You’re both still in danger.”

“So because the heat’s on, he turned to desperate measures and sent that clown to do his dirty work,” Nina said.

“Russo knows how to get away in a hurry,” Thomas pointed out. “He wouldn’t hang around since this mission got botched, too. But...he’s not going to give up. Like our Robby, he knows he’s in serious danger himself. Whoever hired him has been informed by now that things went bad.”

“But how did he know the girl wasn’t dead? We haven’t released any details to the press.”

“The crime scene,” Thomas said. “It was active and it got a lot of attention. Anyone could have seen the first responders carting Kelly away. I walked right up. A reporter or newshound could have easily done the same.”

“Russo could have still been hanging around, too,” she said, glad Sam had picked up his scent. But then, Sam did specialize in cadaver detection and he’d done that job to perfection last night. After that, a lot of people had passed through those woods.

Tired and unable to gather her thoughts, Nina stood up and stretched. “I’m going home tonight. Tim and Zeke checked my place and it’s safe. No one’s been there that we can tell.”

“That you know of,” Thomas retorted. “You’re safer here.”

“I’m safe at my house, too,” she replied. “I have security and I have Sam. And I have several weapons.”

“A woman after my own heart,” he deadpanned. “I’ll be two miles down the road, letting Penny Potter and the Wild Iris staff pamper me.”

“Good.” She kind of wished he’d offered to at least come to her house for coffee. But then, they’d both drunk enough of that dark brew...and she had to resist whatever was brewing between them, too. “I’m going to decorate the tree I brought home the other day before all the needles fall off, and make myself a big cup of hot chocolate. Maybe watch a sappy Christmas movie just for kicks.”

In reality she’d grab some popcorn and go back over this bizarre case. But he didn’t need to know that.

They walked out together, both searching the area for another sniper, Sam trotting at their feet and two armed guards set up in the parking garage. When they reached their vehicles, Thomas turned to her. “I’m kind of lonely, you know. I haven’t had a real Christmas in years. I’d enjoy helping you decorate that dying tree.”

Nina’s heart betrayed her by bouncing all around her chest. “Are you inviting yourself to dinner, Thomas?”

“Are you asking me to dinner, Nina?”

“No.”

He laughed. “Then yes, I’m inviting myself to dinner, but I really only wanted to decorate the tree. But if you insist...”

“I don’t recall insisting.”

“But you were thinking it, right?”

She wondered how he did that. No wonder bad guys tried to steer clear of him.

“No,” she said with a laugh, “I was thinking too bad I don’t cook.”

He leaned close, his whisper half a step away. “Even better. I do.”

She’d never had a man cook for her before. Should she tell him to get lost? Or should she let him follow her home so they could brainstorm this case all over again?

She glanced down at the rottweiler. “What do you think, Sam? Should Thomas cook us dinner, but only because we want to pick his brain later and try to figure out things on this investigation?”

The big dog looked from her to the marshal and let out a woof.

“I think that was a yes,” Thomas said, his handsome face full of a triumphant smugness.

“Only because it’s Christmas and you’re a stranger in a strange land.”

“I hear that,” he replied. Then he scanned the parking garage. “We sure don’t need to be standing here out in the open arguing about it, so let’s go.”

* * *

Nina turned off the security alarm and rushed inside the tiny cottage she’d lived in since she’d arrived in Iris Rock a few months ago. The drive to and from Billings could be tricky on a night such as this, when a new snowfall seemed imminent. But she’d grown up in the bitter cold of Wyoming and knew how to mount snow tires on her vehicle and how to use her head and her driving skills while braking. She was pretty capable at most things, except when it came to kitchen duty. But she wasn’t really serious about letting Thomas cook for her.

“What was I thinking?” she asked Sam. He shadowed her, hoping for his own dinner. “I don’t have food and I don’t cook. I can’t offer him your dinner, right?”

The dog shot her a doleful glance that stated “Nope.”

Knowing Thomas would be close behind her, she tidied up, clearing away the local paper and some research books and novels off the couch, then hurried to change into jeans and a blue-and-white-striped wool sweater. She was running a comb through her tousled hair and putting on pink lip gloss when the doorbell rang.

She’d never actually invited anyone here before. Especially not a man.

“Mom would be proud,” she whispered to Sam.

Sam woofed a positive approval that the person at her door came in peace.

But she checked the peephole, anyway.

Too much tall stood there.

Now she was sweating in her sweater.

“C’mon in,” she said, her words deceitfully calm. “I’m going to be honest. I’m not sure I have anything on hand to make an edible meal.”

Shrugging out of his heavy coat, Thomas took in the small living room and galley kitchen. Nina watched him for signs of disappointment or regret. But in typical lawman fashion, he seemed to be sizing up security—and taking in information on how she lived.

Heavy beige curtains covered the sliding doors to the tiny backyard that she and Sam loved to play in. The furniture came with the place, and it was mismatched and clunky.

Wishing she’d taken a little time to decorate the rooms with her own sense of style, Nina crossed her arms over her midsection and stood her ground. She worked too much to worry about making it into Architectural Digest.

“It ain’t much, but it’s home,” she chirped, motioning to the big doors and several windows. “On good days, I can see the Pryor Mountains, which is kind of cool since I could also see them from my bedroom in Wyoming, growing up.”

His stormy eyes widened. “What, you circled the mountain and settled on the other side?”

“Something like that.” Looking at her sad little home through the eyes of someone else made Nina self-conscious and almost embarrassed. But she shook that off the way she shook off everything she couldn’t deal with. “Let’s see what we can round up.”

She headed to the refrigerator and stared at the barren shelves. “I see a few carrots and two potatoes.” Then she checked the freezer. “And a bag of chicken breasts that might have come with the house.”

Thomas snorted and gently moved her aside. “The date on the chicken is still within the safe zone. We’ll hope the same with the potatoes and carrots. Do you stock any canned goods?”

She nodded and opened an overhead cabinet by the refrigerator. “Oh, look, chicken noodle soup and tomato soup. If only we had some crackers.”

“We don’t need crackers,” he stated, already rolling up his sleeves. “You get the decorations ready and I’ll get dinner going.”

“What exactly do you plan to cook?” she asked, wondering how she’d managed to get in this predicament in the first place.

“The Thomas Grant special, ma’am,” he said in his best Texas drawl. “You’re gonna love it.”

She doubted that, but she’d give it a shot since she couldn’t kick him out now. Sam’s head moved in ping-pong style back and forth between them. Obviously, he smelled something in the air. Something distinctive and different.

Another human in the kitchen. Or a tad too much of some new and exciting undercurrent.

Soon, Thomas had the chicken and potatoes browning in a big pot, along with some onions and peppers he’d discovered in a crisper drawer with all the joy of a kid opening a present. He hummed while he cooked.

Nina pretended to be unraveling Christmas lights, but she couldn’t help glancing over at him. A giant wearing boots had taken over her home. And it was beginning to smell good, which caused her stomach to make strange noises and her heart to do funny jumps and bumps.

Finally, after he’d dismantled cans and rummaged for spices and splashed this and that into the pot, he turned it to simmer and came to sit beside her on the now-too-small floral love seat in front of the tiny electric fireplace. “Chicken noodle soup and biscuits coming up in about a half hour.”

“Really?” she asked, surprised. “We could have just opened a can for the soup. And I’m not sure how you managed biscuits.”

“Really, I opened two cans for my special soup. And added a few special ingredients.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask.”

“Then don’t.”

“And the biscuits?”

“You had flour, milk, eggs and baking powder.”

“My mom restocks every time she comes to visit.”

“Well, that turned out to be a good thing.”

His eyes were so amazing. They’d turned as blue-gray as the storm she’d seen over the big sky at dusk and just as mysterious.

Nina laughed and inhaled. “Well, I have to admit that smells better than the soggy pizza I usually bring home.”

“You’re almost out of protein bars,” he replied. “I didn’t throw your last two into the pot.”

“I’m so glad you didn’t.”

They bantered back and forth while they got the lights straightened out and wrapped around the sad little evergreen.

“I think this tree is going to be lost in a burst of color,” Thomas stated. “Where did you buy it? ’Cause I think you need a refund.”

“Ha, funny.” She shrugged. “A kid was selling them to make money to buy a bicycle. I felt sorry for him. He’d obviously scoured the back forty and...found the best of the lot.”

“We could find you a prettier tree,” Thomas pointed out. “But this one is kind of tugging at my heartstrings in that Charlie Brown kind of way.”

“I wish you could see the tree my mom and dad put up each year,” she replied, not even thinking about her words. “It’s fresh and has to be at least nine feet tall and covers one corner of the den in our log house. Dad fusses every year, but he loves hanging the lights on the tree and along the staircase. We all gather on Christmas Eve and sing carols and hymns, and then we eat a big meal of barbecue and all the trimmings. My brothers and their families all live nearby and I usually show up at the last minute and then...it’s Christmas.”

“That is Christmas,” Thomas said, his eyes dark with a longing that tore at Nina’s heart. “Sounds wonderful.”

“You’ll see, Thomas,” she said. “My family has a steadfast rule that we can bring anyone we want home for Christmas.”

He nodded, but he didn’t look so sure about that invitation.

Did he think she was pushing him in the wrong way? Nina wondered. Because she’d done it again. Invited him to go home with her for Christmas. She wouldn’t ask anymore.

Or was he too afraid to stop being alone to enjoy being with someone during the holidays?

She was about to ask him that when the buzzer on the stove dinged and caused her to step back.

“Dinner is ready,” he said, that distant longing still in his eyes, his smile beautiful but full of resolve and regret. “We’d better eat so we can finish making this tree as special as the one you just described.”

FIVE

“I have to admit, that was some pretty good soup. Noodles and potatoes and carrots and...what kind of spices did you put in there?”

Thomas grinned and winked. “You had some ginger and rosemary stashed away in the spice drawer.”

Nina hit a hand against her head. “Oh, my mom gave me a whole spice rack last time I was home. I think she was trying to give me a hint. You know, get some spice in your life and find someone and get married and make babies.”

“All that from a couple of shakes into the pot?”

“All that and more,” she replied, before taking a sip of her hot chocolate. “She also gave me this cocoa mix.”

He toasted her with his own. “I think mixing up the recipe in a Mason jar is sweet. It’s a mama thing.”

Remembering he’d never had that, she nodded. “I have a good family so I shouldn’t complain.”

Misreading her statement for pity, he put down the mug with a motif of a laughing reindeer centered on it. “Hey, don’t apologize or downplay that on my account. I’m okay. I have a good job and I get to travel the whole country having fun.”

“Fun? You call some of the things we deal with fun?”

“No. I said I was having fun, not that it is fun.”

“Oh, so that makes a big difference.”

“I love my job,” he admitted with a sheepish shrug. “If I can’t have a big family, I can help someone else get home to theirs.”

“I guess that’s a good way to look at it,” she replied, turning serious while her heart did that strange little beat again. “Except those two dead girls never had that chance.”

“We’ll find him,” Thomas said. “I have a steadfast rule. I always get the bad guy.”

“I try to enforce that same rule,” she said. “But I’m still new to the team. I’ve been here almost a year now and things are getting better, but I never wanted to up my status by stumbling into something this twisted and strange.”

“You were the first officer on the scene. Your SAC is wise to stand back and let you do your job.”

“Maybe,” she said. And then she asked Thomas something she’d been wondering. “But is he doing that because of my abilities or because you just happened along to help out?”

Surprise filled Thomas’s eyes. “Does it matter? We’re in it together now.”

She stood and took their empty mugs to the sink. “But would I be carrying the same clout if you weren’t here?”

Irritation shadowed his expression. “Are we seriously having this conversation? Am I a threat to you, Nina?”

“No. But am I an equal to you?”

“You’re way above my pay scale, even if you earn less than me,” he said, gathering his coat. “I came here for one reason—to bring a killer back to Texas. I can’t change the circumstances that brought us together, but I intend to do my job. But you seem to have a one track mind on getting bad guys, so that makes you more valuable than me right now.”

In spite of you, she figured he wanted to say. He intended to do his job in spite of her.

Wishing she’d kept her mouth shut, Nina pushed at her hair and then tugged at her sweater. “I’m sorry. I want to do my job, too.”

“Then cut that kind of talk,” he said, jamming his meaty arms into his coat. “It’s been a long day. I think I’ll head back to the inn. I would offer to check the place, but I don’t want to offend your stubborn need to measure up.”

She deserved that, Nina decided. Why had she even let him see her insecurities? That only made her look weak and helpless.

“Thanks, Thomas,” she said in a low voice. “For helping with the tree and...for cooking.”

“You can enjoy the leftovers tomorrow night,” he retorted.

Alone.

The silence shouted that one word between them.

He turned for the door, Nina close behind.

And then the whole house went black.

* * *

Sam growled quietly. Nina didn’t move, but she crouched low next to her partner. Listening, she heard a noise out in the carport attached to the house. It sounded as if someone had stumbled into the empty trash can. Then she heard the groan of something heavy being shoved aside.

The rottweiler woofed. “Sam, quiet,” she ordered. “Stay.”

She could hear Thomas by the door. “Nina, stay down.”

“I am down,” she whispered. “But I don’t have my weapon and I never reset the alarm after we came in tonight.”

“I’ve got my weapon,” he said. “And he’d have probably disengaged the alarm, anyway.”

He came near and grasped her by the arm. “It could be the storm. Where’s your circuit breaker?”

“The kitchen, by the door to the carport. But I heard something—”

“I did, too.”

“Let’s check.”

He didn’t argue. Together, they stayed down and worked their way to the kitchen. Nina sat and scooted toward the corner where the circuit box was located. “I’ll need some light,” she whispered.

Thomas followed her and pulled out his phone and handed it to her. Using the faint moonlight creeping through the shuttered blinds, she found the flashlight app and slowly worked her way up the wall.

But before she could check the circuit breaker, the door right beside her jiggled and a shot rang out, splintering the wood and sending fragments flying as Thomas threw her to the floor.

“He’s bold,” the marshal said, sitting up with his weapon drawn.

“Shoot,” she suggested, wishing she had her own gun.

Thomas got in front of Nina on one knee and shot back, adding more bullet holes to the shattered wood.

“I guess if he’s dead, we’ll have to explain,” she whispered. “But I would technically be protecting my castle.”

“I’ll go and find him,” Thomas suggested instead. “If I didn’t get him already.”

Nina thought about what she’d have done if Thomas hadn’t been here. She would have grabbed her weapon and taken control. “Or I could open the door and let Sam do his job.”

“Good idea. But both those strategies are risky.”

“We need to call for backup.”

“The best plan. And if they don’t make it in time, I’m shooting to kill.”

That’s what she would have done. Weapon, backup, shoot to defend and protect.

She made the call with his phone, giving her name, rank and location.

When they heard a bang against the glass sliding doors, Nina ordered Sam to bark and guard. The dog headed in that direction, sounding every bit as fierce as he looked.

“Guess I missed,” Thomas said.

“He won’t give up,” Nina replied.

“What is he doing here?” the marshal retorted. “He has to know we’re both in here and armed.”

“And that I have security. Not that it matters now.”

“He’s prowling, for some reason. He didn’t get to Kelly, so now he’s after us.”

Another shot streaked through the air, this time shattering a window just above their heads.

Nina jumped up and looked through the slats of the blinds. “If I can see him, I might be able to ID him as the man in the woods.”

“He’s toying with us,” Thomas answered. “To flush us out.”

“He’ll shoot us both if we try to get out. And if we don’t, he’ll keep shooting until he hits one of us.”

“Agreed...” The big man shifted and eyed the side door that held a scatter-shot scar. “I’m not sure what his plan is, but he’s angry, so he’s enjoying this.”

Nina moved around the small area where they were crouched. She stood, but Thomas pulled her back down. “Don’t try to locate him. He’ll be expecting that.”

“I wasn’t,” she said in a weak whisper. “I wanted to grab the hot chocolate my mom made. I don’t want it to get shot.”

* * *

Thomas fell for her just a little bit more after that soft-spoken confession. But he had to protect the stubborn woman so they could share that hot chocolate.

“We’ll worry about that later,” he said, holding her down. “We’ll have to sit right here until help comes.”

“I don’t want to sit,” she replied. “Let me go around the house and at least try to find him. Sam will show me the trail.” Sam stood guarding the sliding glass doors.

“We wait until we can’t take it anymore,” he replied. “It’s too risky.”

“But I need my weapon. It’s what I’d do if I were here alone. I’d get to my weapon and go after him.”

“But you’re not alone, and right now, I don’t want to argue about it.”

Nina squirmed and held on to the jar of hot chocolate. “I don’t like your being here, but I’m glad you are.”

“You are a paradox,” he retorted.

Sam’s woofs sounded like questions. “What’s the plan?”

“I vote we make a run for it now,” Nina said, her tone decisive. “I won’t sit here and wait to die.”

“Okay.” Thomas helped her up and gave her his coat. “Put this on. We’ll go out the kitchen door and use our vehicles as a shield if he starts shooting.”

“That’ll work,” she said, already preparing. She summoned Sam and ordered him to guard. “For now,” she told Thomas.

The marshal went ahead and slowly cracked open the side door. The burst of cold air nearly took his breath away, but the blast of the next shot caused him to duck down and slam the door again.

“Are you sure you want to go out there?” he asked Nina.

“What choice do we have?”

“Once we get out, I can circle back and take him,” Thomas replied. “If he’s still here.”

Nina nodded, concern in her eyes. At least she hadn’t argued with him.