Page 44 of K-9 Guardians

As for Catalina Muñoz, her admission to killing Agents Eva Roday and Adam Dunkeld and her husband had been recorded on Socorro surveillance, which Scarlett had been all too happy to hand over to law enforcement. The medical examiner’s office managed to collect a single sample of DNA from the blade stabbed into Adam Dunkeld’s chest, and with a compulsory court order for a comparison, Catalina had written her own life sentence. Seemed stabbing a knife through an officer’s badge took more strength than Catalina possessed. The blade had slipped, cutting her hand in the process.

Detectives had found a matching scar on her other hand, most likely from when she stabbed Agent Roday two months ago. Though they couldn’t prove it, and Catalina wasn’t talking to anyone without a lawyer.

Adding abduction charges on top of everything else had almost been too easy with eyewitness statements from the women in the front office of the school identifying Catalina as the woman who checked Julien out the day he went missing, as well as surveillance video from the principal. DNA comparison from the scene inside the freezer of Muñoz’s restaurant matched that of Adam Dunkeld, and though they couldn’t tie Catalina directly to the scene, her admission of the agent’s murder was enough for the prosecutor. And charges filed by the DEA once they concluded their investigation into the fentanyl from the warehouse would ensure the widow never saw the outside of a prison ever again for what she’d done.

The triad was still a problem. Sangre por Sangre’s newest partners had lost their supply line into the country, and from what little she knew of organizations like theirs, this wasn’t over. They would try to reestablish contact, maybe take on a new liaison given they’d lost both Muñozes. If anything, Scarlett had the feeling the fight ahead would be much, much worse than what they’d survived this week.

But she wasn’t fighting this war alone. Agents Roday and Dunkeld had given the feds a huge leg up now that Scarlett had been able to decode the ciphered notes. Identities of triad contacts from Muñoz, bank account numbers for deposits to Sangre por Sangre, operations that spelled out which competing cartels were targeted in the purge. It was all there.

Ivy Bardot had taken the intel straight to the Pentagon. Socorro would take the lead with the support of the DEA, ATF and the CIA to keep the triad off American soil. Though King’s and Ivy’s professional relationship had been put on hold since they’d learned of Ivy secretly funding his partner’s off-the-books investigation. But maybe in this case, the ends had justified the means.

But best of all, King and Julien had been reunited once Scarlett’s partner had been allowed to receive visitors in the hospital. The wound in his leg would heal if he actually stayed off his feet and followed his physician’s orders, but Scarlett had the sense his recovery wouldn’t go as smoothly as they hoped. King’s suspension from the DEA hadn’t been lifted despite solving his personal investigation, and the man wasn’t the kind to sit still for long. Especially not with Adam’s funeral scheduled for tomorrow.

Scarlett hefted the container of C-4 and wiring she’d ripped out of the ceiling tiles from the floor and headed for the security office. It was a shame Ivy had made her take it all down. Then again, with the team working out of Alpine Valley’s doublewide trailer-slash-police-station, there wasn’t much here left to protect.

Her steps faltered as the weight of that realization set in. Everything looked the same, yet her entire world had changed. There wasn’t anything left for her to protect.

She shouldered into the security room. And froze at the realization she wasn’t alone.

Gruber huffed before circling the room and then lunging at the ten-year-old boy standing off to the left of the door. Traitor.

“You certainly know how to throw a party.” King twisted in her desk chair. As though he’d been waiting for her all this time. Considering he couldn’t get around with a crutch, she bet sitting grated on his nerves. “What do we got here? Bricks of C-4 and wiring. It’s not much, but we can sure as hell put on a show.”

Her grip tightened on the edges of the box. “Aren’t you supposed to be recuperating under professional supervision? I thought I told security not to let you out of the hospital.”

“Julien couldn’t wait until I got out to see Gruber.” King’s smile broke at one side of his mouth as he watched his son and Gruber start wrestling. The Doberman was gentle. More so than he’d ever been with Scarlett, and she couldn’t help but imagine they would be friends for a very long time. “See? How can I say no to that face?”

Scarlett set the box of explosives on the corner of her L-shaped desk. “Has he said anything about what happened?”

“Nah.” King set his elbows on his knees, shaking his head. “I’m not sure he ever will, and I’m okay with that. When he’s ready to talk to me—or to anyone else for that matter—I’ll be there. I’m just happy to have him home.”

“Right.” That was what was important. That was what they’d fought so hard for. But the hollowness that had tried to break her so many times before wouldn’t let go. They’d exposed a monumental shift within the Sangre por Sangre cartel, taken out one of their key players and managed to bring Julien home alive. She should’ve felt relief. Felt...something more than this deep ache that had set up behind her sternum the moment she partnered with King on this case.

“You weren’t there. When I woke up.” King raised his gaze to hers. “Hell, the last thing I remember before coming around in the hospital is you tackling me to the ground. The DEA came onto the scene, and then... I’m not even sure how I got out of there, but I knew who I wanted to see on the other side.”

“Yeah.” She clutched the handles of the box as though her life depended on it. She’d wanted to be there. At his bedside. She wanted to be the one holding his hand when his eyes opened and tell him everything was going to be okay.

But she’d frozen outside his hospital room, hand on the doorknob. The only thing she could hear were his final words cutting through her all over again.

The security monitors blurred in her peripheral vision. “There was a lot going on. I needed to coordinate with Alpine Valley PD and the DEA to make sure there were no other threats inside the building. And the engineers said they couldn’t assess the damage until all explosives were removed off-site.”

“Scarlett.” King dragged himself out of the chair and shifted his weight onto his uninjured leg, somehow closing the distance between them. The room suddenly seemed so much smaller than before. “Granger told me what he uncovered while he was on assignment overseas. About the smuggling ring you were involved in.”

Her throat constricted in defense, but she wasn’t going to give him more to hold against her. Because he’d been right before. Admitting her involvement had given him everything he would need to have the army court-martial her and send her some place no one would ever find her. The DEA would come around. Sooner or later his suspension would be lifted, and King would be allowed to work in a federal capacity. With the power to destroy her and another member of her team.

“He told me you and your crew stole cash, weapons, drugs—anything you could get your hands on under the radar,” he said. “He told me while the other soldiers you worked with were in it for themselves, you were the only one who took what you stole, turned it into cash and food and supplies and gave it to dozens of families stuck in their villages.”

He put his hands on her. Soft at first, then tighter around her biceps, and she couldn’t help but want that contact. To feel him holding her upright instead of her trying to hold up the entire world on her own.

“But even before Granger explained your involvement, I knew. In my heart, I know you’re a woman who keeps her word. I know you were willing to risk your and Granger’s freedom for my son, and I know there isn’t anything you wouldn’t do for the people—and the dogs—you care about. Even for the kid of a DEA agent who tackled you in a morgue.”

Her burst of laughter took her by surprise.

“I was wrong, Scarlett. About everything. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have my son back, and I owe you my life. I owe you more than that.” King threaded one hand into the hair at the back of her neck, closing the last few inches of distance between them. “But most of all, I owe you an apology. Because I didn’t mean what I said before. About you not meaning anything to me.”

Her skin constricted around her bones. Too tight. “Oh?”

“The truth is, I was scared of caring about one more person after I’ve lost everyone in my life, and I ran at the slightest provocation,” he said. “You carried me through this investigation. You saved me, and not just in that warehouse or downstairs in the garage. You kept me focused on what mattered, and you made me realize what I’ve lost is nothing compared to what’s possible with you at my side. You mean everything to me.”

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