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- Herausgeber: Valley Publishing Ltd.
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
For Caleb, returning to his hometown for his brother’s wedding should have been cause for a wonderful celebration. However, since his brother is marrying Caleb’s ex-wife, Caleb doesn’t want to go anywhere near the event. Yet Caleb returns, as his best friend, Laysha, is in the same town, and they are overdue a reunion. Plus Caleb’s been asked to look into a War Dog adopted out but now missing.
Having Caleb back in town, at her house even, Laysha couldn’t be happier, all the while knowing Caleb still had issues with his ex-wife. When Caleb and Laysha take a trip to the last known residence where the War Dog had been and instead find a human corpse, life takes a dark turn.
Even worse, they are seen at the house and have both become targets … in a game Caleb has to win or will lose everything that’s important in his life.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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CALEB
The K9 Files, Book 11
Dale Mayer
Books in This Series:
Ethan, Book 1
Pierce, Book 2
Zane, Book 3
Blaze, Book 4
Lucas, Book 5
Parker, Book 6
Carter, Book 7
Weston, Book 8
Greyson, Book 9
Rowan, Book 10
Caleb, Book 11
Kurt, Book 12
Tucker, Book 13
Harley, Book 14
Kyron, Book 15
Jenner, Book 16
Rhys, Book 17
Landon, Book 18
Harper, Book 19
Kascius, Book 20
Declan, Book 21
The K9 Files, Books 1–2
The K9 Files, Books 3–4
The K9 Files, Books 5–6
The K9 Files, Books 7–8
The K9 Files, Books 9–10
The K9 Files, Books 11–12
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
About This Book
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Epilogue
About Kurt
Author’s Note
Complimentary Download
About the Author
Copyright Page
About This Book
Welcome to the all new K9 Files series reconnecting readers with the unforgettable men from SEALs of Steel in a new series of action packed, page turning romantic suspense that fans have come to expect from USA TODAY Bestselling author Dale Mayer. Pssst… you’ll meet other favorite characters from SEALs of Honor and Heroes for Hire too!
For Caleb, returning to his hometown for his brother’s wedding should have been cause for a wonderful celebration. However, since his brother is marrying Caleb’s ex-wife, Caleb doesn’t want to go anywhere near the event. Yet Caleb returns, as his best friend, Laysha, is in the same town, and they are overdue a reunion. Plus Caleb’s been asked to look into a War Dog adopted out but now missing.
Having Caleb back in town, at her house even, Laysha couldn’t be happier, all the while knowing Caleb still had issues with his ex-wife. When Caleb and Laysha take a trip to the last known residence where the War Dog had been and instead find a human corpse, life takes a dark turn.
Even worse, they are seen at the house and have both become targets … in a game Caleb has to win or will lose everything that’s important in his life.
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Prologue
Badger sat at the Titanium Corp boardroom table with the whole original crew—Erick, Cade, Talon, Laszlo, Geir, and Jager—which was unusual. Badger said, “Did I just hear that Rowan is coming back to New Mexico with Brandi?”
“Yep. The whole crew. Including War Dog Hershey and Brandi’s Lab, Lacey, with her three puppies, which I don’t know if they have names for yet,” Geir said. “Talk about a happy ending.”
Talon shook his head. “We’re getting damn good at this, aren’t we?”
Badger chuckled. “And trust you to take the credit for something like this,” he said.
“What do you mean?” Erick asked. “We’ve all done a hell of a job.”
“Maybe so,” Badger said, “but the bottom line is, these couples worked it out themselves, and that’s what matters.”
“And the War Dogs get a whole new life,” Cade said.
“A whole new life but also a family,” Badger said. “That’s the best part. Not only is Hershey back with Rowan, but Hershey will have a perfect retirement now.”
“We’ll get to see them too,” Kat said, as she walked in. “I’m looking forward to meeting Brandi.”
“Why is that?” Jager asked.
“She’s into stem cells,” she said. “I want to talk to her about rejuvenating some of the scar tissue at amputation sites.” She gave Badger a sweet, yet sexy, tilt of her head. “You know there could be an awful lot of benefit to having her around.”
The men looked at her, as Badger wrapped an arm around his wife, kissed her on the temple, and said, “That’s Kat for you. She always wants to make our lives better.”
“Hey, you can’t argue against that,” she said, turning to wrap her arms around him.
He reached a hand down and patted her belly. “In case you guys hadn’t heard the news.”
Immediately the guys jumped up and gave her hugs.
“We’re pretty thrilled,” she said, “but we’ve still got more War Dogs here that need checking up on.”
“We do,” Badger said. “Plus the commander contacted me, and he said that we’ve done such a hell of a job that he’s wondering if we can take on a few more cases.”
The men looked at him in shock.
“We’re not done with the ones we have yet,” Laszlo said.
“I know. I do know that,” Badger said. “So we’ve got to finish these jobs and then maybe take another look at what we want to do. He’s got a few more cases for us.”
“I’m game,” Geir said.
“Agreed,” said Talon, the rest nodding. “So what have we got?”
Geir pulled one of the two remaining original War Dogs folders closer to him and flipped it open.
“And what’s with that one?” Erick asked, sipping his coffee.
“Texas,” he said. “He’s at the El Paso border.”
“And what? The dog has gone to Mexico?” Cade glanced at all the men gathered here.
“We have no idea,” Geir noted. “It was there with a family one day, and, the next day, he was gone.”
Laszlo asked, “Kidnapped, coyotes, shot, what?”
“No clue,” Badger said. “Do we have anybody we can send?”
“Me.” The voice came from the doorway, and they looked over to see Caleb walk in.
“You’ve got a connection to Texas?” Badger asked.
“I do,” he said. “Family down there. Where in Texas?”
“Not too far away from El Paso,” Geir said.
“A good friend has a big place down there, lots of land.”
“Not a whole lot grows there, does it?” Talon asked.
“No, it takes a lot of land to make a living,” he said. “But, she bought it for the peace and quiet.”
“Are they down by the border?” Geir asked.
“Both sides of the border actually,” he said. “What’s the deal with the dog?”
“Not a whole lot to tell you,” Geir said, reading the file quickly. “It was adopted by a family, and, when the government did the first check, the dog had already disappeared.”
“Was it a runner?”
“It never used to be,” Badger said. “You want to go down and find out?”
“Oh, yeah,” Caleb said. “I do.”
“You got a hidden reason for going?” Talon asked.
“Not hiding anything,” Caleb said. “I’m going down for my brother’s wedding.”
“Oh, good,” Kat said. “I love hearing about weddings.”
But Caleb’s face darkened. “Not this one,” he said.
“Why is that?” she asked.
“Because he’s marrying my ex-wife.”
Chapter 1
Caleb Dansworth walked out of the airport and headed toward the rental cars, when he heard his name called. He turned and stopped in surprise as Lazy—or Laysha, her real name—raced toward him. He opened his arms at the last moment, as she threw herself into them. He laughed, hugged her tight, and swung her off her feet, before putting her down again. “I didn’t expect to see you,” he said.
“I sent you a text, saying I’d pick you up,” she said, “but I know that you wanted a rental vehicle.”
“I hate not having wheels,” he admitted.
“And I didn’t want you to pay for wheels if you weren’t hanging around for long,” she said stepping back, but her gaze searched his.
He reached out gently, stroked her cheek. “Damn, it’s good to see you, Lazy.”
“And don’t call me by that nickname,” she said, holding up a hand.
“Lazy?” he asked with a lopsided grin. “Man, we made your life hell over that nickname, didn’t we?”
“Yes,” she said, chuckling. “So what’s it to be? Do you want to come home with me or do you want to stop and pick up a rental?”
He frowned at that.
“You can get a rental in town, if you find you need it,” she said. “I can always drive you there later.”
“I have to cancel the one I have on order.”
“Do it now then,” she said. “No point spending any money if you don’t have to.”
He knew where she was coming from because they spent a lot of time growing up without any money. Plus, she knew what he’d been through this last year—or at least a little bit of it. In response, he pulled out his phone, brought up the app he had used, and quickly cancelled the rental car. He wasn’t sure if there’d be a penalty for that, but, at this point in time, he didn’t really care.
She laughed, hooked her arm through his, and said, “Come on. Let’s go.”
“You’re looking good,” he said, eyeing the leggy blonde beside him, like he hadn’t really done before. “But then you always look good.”
“Ha,” she said, tossing him that big grin that he remembered so well. “If I looked that good, you’d have come back and visited me more.”
He snorted. “I had a lot of reasons for not coming back.”
She nodded slowly. “Sorry about that.”
“And yet you wanted me to come for the wedding. Why is that again?” he asked, hating what lay ahead.
“Because it’s holding you back,” she said immediately.
“Like hell,” he snapped.
“Yep. The minute you find something that you don’t want to do,” she said, “you know you have to face it.”
“No, I really don’t.”
“You do. You love your brother.”
“Which is why I told him to run when he hooked up with her.”
She stared at him in shock. “Did you really?”
“Of course I did,” he said. “As you said, I love my brother. That woman’s a viper.”
“I have to admit she does seem a little different now from when she was married to you. Not that I knew her enough to really tell. Once you married her, I didn’t want to be around you two.”
That twisted in his gut too. “So maybe I was the wrong man for her,” he said shortly. “But that doesn’t mean the treatment I got from her was deserved either.”
“Nope, it wasn’t,” Laysha said. “But it is what it is.”
“Yep, I’m with you there.”
“Besides,” she said, tossing him a sidelong look as they dashed across the road, heading for a parking lot farther out, “it’s been four years since the divorce. Surely you’re over her by now?”
“I am,” he said. “I mean, I’ve been divorced longer than I was married.”
“Yeah, a time measurement that makes it easier, doesn’t it?”
“What about you? You were married for a couple years in there too?”
“Yep, I sure was,” she said, as she scrunched up her face. “And I’m glad that’s over too.”
“So what the hell is wrong with us that we get married, think it’s the best thing ever, and then, a few years later, we can’t wait to get out of it?”
“Because it wasn’t right to begin with.”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever believe in that whole getting-married-again scenario,” he said. “I really didn’t think marrying Sarah would be a bad deal.”
“And I didn’t think marrying Paul would be a bad deal,” she said, “but I’m not sure either of us married for the right reasons.”
“Well, I married fast because I was going back out on missions,” he said, “so I’ll give you that.”
“Exactly,” she said, “so you didn’t give the relationship a long enough time to figure out if that’s who she really was.”
“Maybe, but I also thought she was pregnant with my baby.”
“Yeah, I heard about that,” she said with a nod. She pointed across the parking lot. “I’m over there at the far end.” They turned in that direction. “Apparently she lost it soon after you got married?”
“I wasn’t in town,” he said, “but yes.”
“And then you found out it wasn’t even yours?”
“True. And, of course, after that, there’s … well it’s pretty hard to get the relationship back on track.”
“Did you ever think that maybe she was terrified and was just looking for somebody to help out?”
“Then she should have said that,” he snapped.
She nodded. “I definitely agree with that.”
“Besides,” he said, “I tried hard, but, to know that she already tried to pass off my … somebody else’s baby as mine, well …”
“But you didn’t know that right away, did you?”
“No. Not right away. Not until we had a couple fights, and she threw it in my face.”
“Did she ever tell you whose baby it was?”
“No,” he said. “I asked her, but she never did tell me.”
“But you didn’t know originally it wasn’t yours?”
“Nope, I didn’t,” he said. “I’m just a fool. I wanted to believe …”
“That just makes you a good man,” she said, patting his arm.
“I don’t know,” he said. “After I found out what she’d done, I wasn’t a very good guy about it at all.”
“But that’s a human response to betrayal though, right?”
“I know,” he said, “and it wasn’t very much fun to live through.”
“Still, it’s past time now to deal with it.”
“Yeah.” He stopped. They had reached her truck. He looked at her and said, “Did you ever hear anything about it?”
“Not a whole lot, mostly the little bit you told me,” she said.
“Yeah, and that was a while ago.”
“I did hear a few more rumors since then,” she said.
Something in her tone had him looking at her in surprise. “Like what?”
She sighed. “I don’t know if I should tell you.”
“Tell me,” he said in a hard voice. “Nothing about this is easy.”
“She mentioned that the baby she lost when she was married to you was actually your brother’s.”
Laysha Arkansas looked over at the man she had always loved to see his reaction to that news. He just stared at her in shock. She winced. She pulled her keys from her pocket, quickly unlocked the truck, and said, “Come on. Get in.” She watched and yet tried to ignore his stricken expression on his face as he moved to the passenger side and slowly got in her truck. She turned on the engine and pivoted to face him. “I thought you should know.”
He looked at her, still wordless.
“I know,” she said. “I know. All kinds of ramifications come from this.” She sat here, hoping he would talk about it.
“You’re not kidding,” he said, his voice harsh. “Was I cuckolded from the entire get-go?”
“You already know the answer to that,” she said. “It wasn’t your baby anyway. Now you know who the father was.”
“And my brother? Did they carry this on the whole time I was married to her?”
“I hope not,” Laysha said. “I would hope that you and your brother have a better relationship than that.”
“Well, I thought so,” he said, “but you’re making me wonder.” He turned, looked out the passenger window.
“Then ask him about it, while you’re here, and clear the air,” she said, “because nothing is worse than worrying in the background about it all.”
“It sucks,” he said, then finally focused on her. “And I had no idea. Or is she just saying that to throw a wrench in the works?”
“And that’s possible too. Your brother was out of town for quite a few years. Remember that?”
“So maybe they split up, and then she latched on to me?”
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” she said, “and I get that you probably hate her for everything that went on, but don’t let her destroy you.”
He lifted one eyebrow and cocked his head at her.
She laughed. “Yeah, okay. She has this ugly side, yet surely something about her must be redeeming? Your brother loves her.”
“You think so?” he said. He shook his head, fastening his seat belt. “You think whatever you want to think,” he said. “Right now I don’t have a clue how to interpret that news.”
“And that’s why I suggest you talk to them about it.”
“Do they know I’m coming in for the wedding? And only the wedding? That’s more than enough without having to attend the rehearsal too.”
“Well, your brother did want you for his best man, but I hear you turned down that role?”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to be around her any more than I had to be.”
“I think your brother does understand that. At least somewhat. I think he’s also hoping to make peace.”
“Maybe. I don’t know that a whole lot of peace can be made between him and me. Although maybe, … maybe I’m the fool here. Maybe they’ve been the real item, and I was just the baggage along the way.”
“Well, let’s not worry about it,” she said, settling in the driver’s seat, clicking her seat belt into place. “What’s this about a War Dog?”
He looked at her for a moment, and she saw him visibly try to pull back from his brother and all the emotions entailed in that. He took a long slow deep breath. “Beowulf. At least that’s his nickname. His legal name is a series of names. He’s a trained War Dog but was released to retire.”
She quickly drove through the parking lot, punching her ticket into the machine, paying the tab via her phone, and then pulled out onto the main highway, heading home. “And that’s got what to do with you?”
“It’s hard to say. It’s more a case of, I’ll do what I can do. If I pick up his trail, then I’ll carry on. He came to an adopted family, and they let him out to go to the bathroom the next morning, and he never came back.”
She stared at him and then returned her gaze to the road. “So he was only there for one night? Was it that bad?”
“Or was it not fenced? Did he get taken by somebody else or did the coyotes get him, whether human or animal? Or did he try to head back home, looking for the war where he spent all those years?” he said. “It’s really hard to know.”
“And do you have a picture of him?”
“I do,” he said. “It’s in my bag. He looks like a really stocky black shepherd. The only other color on him is a brown and black pattern found on his ears.”
“Interesting,” she murmured. “Well, I certainly haven’t seen any dog like it.”
“The only thing I have to go on is the place he went missing from.”
“And how long ago?’
“It’s been a couple months now.”
“Well, that’s a useless trip then, isn’t it?”
“Maybe,” he said, “I don’t really know yet.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, “but at least it brought you here.”
“It did. I’m not so sure I’m happy about that right now though.”
She nodded slowly. “Well, if nothing else,” she said, “I am delighted to see you.”
He barked out a laugh at that. “And I missed you too,” he said affectionately.
She shook her head. “But not enough to come back and visit, huh?”
“Nope,” he said. “Since the divorce, I buried myself in work. Then was injured and haven’t come up for air since.” He added, “And then it became a habit.”
“Will you stop living just because of her?”
“Well, I was hoping not to repeat my mistake,” he said jokingly.
She smiled and nodded. As she headed home, she wondered how to broach the conversation. But then he said it himself.
“What about you?” he asked. “You planning to marry again?”
Chapter 2
Laysha nodded. “I hope so,” she said. “I married basically after feeling rejected by somebody I really cared about. Threw myself into that substitute relationship and honestly don’t feel like I did Paul any service. The divorce was a relief for both of us. I did try to make it work, but you can’t force feelings that don’t exist.”
“Good point,” he said. After an awkward pause, he looked at her several times, as if wanting to ask a question.
She didn’t offer anything, focusing on the traffic instead. “How will you figure out where the dog went from here?”
“Well, that’s another reason I need wheels,” he said. “I’ll go to the last place he was and see what I can figure out.”
“And why would somebody take the dog?”
“Jealousy? There’s quite a vetting process to adopt a War Dog after it’s been retired from service.”
“But then somebody else could have just applied and been given another one,” she said.
“True. And maybe it ran away because it didn’t like something about the scenario. Don’t forget these dogs are highly trained, but they’ve also been through tough times. They can come back with PTSD, just like the human soldiers do.
“In some ways they need to be retrained to enter their civilian life of retirement, just like for me and others like me who were injured. I have his file, and I’ve read some of it, and he’d gone through several handlers before his retirement, after which several said he was difficult to work with. Mostly over his attachment to his one handler who died on the job. He was trained to find bombs and other chemical weapons.”
“So was Beowulf aggressive? Maybe he did something really ugly, like attacking the adopting couple’s children or something, and the owner shot him and buried him, thinking good riddance?” She shivered. “But I hope not. All dogs deserve a second chance.”
“The couple had no kids,” he said, “and Beowulf’s file doesn’t show any aggressive tendency, other than when called into action. However, that’s certainly a possibility, although it’s not the one I want to hear.”
“Well, we’re almost there, at home,” she said, as she switched from city roads to country roads, and finally turned on her signal to pull into her driveway.
“You sure you’re okay with me staying with you?”
She looked at him in surprise. “Why not?” she asked. “You’ve stayed with me lots.”
“I know, but I used to stay with my brother a lot of times too.”
“Well, you can stay with him if you want,” she said. “You know your ex-wife’s there.”
“True. That’s … that’s a good enough reason to keep me away.”
“But you do you,” she said. She hopped out, closed the truck door, and headed to her front porch. She knew he had come up behind her as she turned to open the door and let her dogs out. Three dogs raced outside, barking like crazy, as if they’d just been attacked, and headed toward him. He dropped his big duffel bag and bent down to say hi to them. Immediately they turned into the slobberiest pups ever. She shook her head as she watched them. “Every damn time you’re here,” she said, “you can make the biggest, strongest, baddest animal turn into Jell-O.”
He chuckled. “They know I’m a softy inside,” he said, trying to pet all three of them, as they wiggled in his hands.
“Says you,” she said. “Graynor’s inside on the couch.”
“You still got him?”
“Not for much longer,” she said sadly. “He’s fifteen and well past his time.”
He nodded in empathy. “And there’s nothing quite like losing our canine friends, is there?”
“Well, losing family’s worse, yet he’s furry family,” she said. She walked in and called out, “Graynor, somebody to see you.” She could hear the thump of his tail on the couch. She walked around. She had blankets laid out for him, and here her great big old German wirehaired pointer was stretched out on the cushions with his eyes open, not moving, except for his tail wiggling. She bent down, gave him a quick cuddle and a kiss, and then stepped back so he saw Caleb. Immediately he struggled to get to his feet.
Caleb stepped forward. “Hey, old man, stay where you are. It’s okay.” And he dropped to his knees to cuddle the huge dog that he had known since Graynor was a pup.
The two connected like long-lost friends, and it brought tears to Laysha’s eyes because she knew she would lose Graynor at some point, and she wasn’t ready for it. She would never be ready for that. He had been there for her through the thick and the thin, through fifteen years of her life. Half of it. Almost half of it. She would be thirty next month. And here that guy had been a birthday gift for her after she had rescued him, but then her parents had refused to let her keep him. She had cried for days and weeks after they took him away, and finally they decided that she could have him and brought him back to her for her birthday gift. She and Graynor had been inseparable ever since. But she knew that, even though he had had a good life with her, his time was coming to an end.
She walked into the kitchen, more to control the choking in the back of her throat, and she put on coffee, staring out the window to focus on something happier.
She had five acres of land here. The one thing that she had really prided herself on when she needed to buy a house was space. She had lived in apartments, small townhomes, and everything possible in a city that made her feel cramped and too close to her neighbors. When she finally bought her own place, she purchased a house just out of the city and managed to get five acres with it, although not a whole lot grew on it. It took the bulk of her money to get it fenced, and she did most of that herself.
She smiled at the memory. The house was by no means new, but it was hers.
The old farmhouse needed a lot of upgrades, but something was extremely comforting about the original residence that had lasted as long as it had. As she looked up, Caleb walked toward her.
“This farmhouse,” he said with a shake of his head, “it still looks the same.”
“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “Takes money and time to fix it up, and I just haven’t got to a whole lot of it.”
“No, but I did see new boards on the front veranda,” he said in a mild tone.
“And that’s a new faucet.” She laughed. “Yeah, some of the plumbing had to be redone,” she said. “After the fence, it was plumbing and electrical. The rest of it’s cosmetic,” she said with a wave of her hand, “and I can live with most of it.” She looked at the wallpaper, laughed, and said, “Although this wallpaper has to go.”
He groaned. “It’s still the same, isn’t it?” He reached out a hand to touch it; it was half raised velveteen in an orange and brown brocade pattern. “God, who would have put something like this in the kitchen?”
