Page 22 of Shielding Instinct

If she mentioned food to him, he’d get her something to eat. But this was a different vibe than what she’d intended. In fact, she’d envisioned seducing him and enjoying some sexy time over the weekend if he could get free from work—a vacation adventure for her, some stress relief for him.

And at that point, all she had was Avery’s green flag to tell her Hawkeye was safe. Well, that and Iniquus’s reputation for only hiring people with a high thread count on their moral fiber.

Did that make sense? Fiber…thread count…Threadswerefibers… moral cloth.

Cloth? Fabric.

There, that’s what she was aiming for: Iniquus had a reputation for only hiring people with high thread count moral fabric.

But that thought didn’t matter. What mattered was that Hawkeye felt like a good guy. Upstanding. Forthright.

If her eyeball had come to his notice, all he had to do to get his good karma points was mention it to the flight attendant and step aside.

But he stepped forward.

“Yes,” Petra said. “Thank you. Though I hate to put you out, I think that would be wise. And it’s very kind of you to offer. We can see if that can be arranged. And if it’s not possible. We could think of something else. Alone, I think I’d feel too vulnerable and isolated.”

Hawkeye drummed his thumbs on the top of the steering wheel. “Physically, I know the meds are making you feel off. How about mentally? It’s not a small deal that people thought you were having a health crisis that could have profound effects on your future.”

“I think I’ll have to process all that once I know what the eye doctor says. That’s what’s happening, right? Tomorrow morning, I go to the eye doctor?”

“You have the first appointment. We need to be there at eight. I’ll have time to get you there and back before I head out to train Cooper.”

“Thank you.” Relieved to take the focus off herself, Petra asked, “What is Cooper learning tomorrow?”

Hawkeye sent her a grin. “Tomorrow, he’ll be learning how to surf.”

“Surf? But why?” she asked.

“Oh, lots of reasons. We constantly work to build our dogs’ confidence. Working dogs need to consistently be challenged mentally and physically. Smart animals get bored when they’re not challenged. So, facing a challenge is one reason. Another is, if we’re doing rescue work on a coastline, the K9s need to be comfortable in the surf, able to work on the water, and probablymost importantly, know how to stabilize themselves on floating objects as a safety measure against floods and currents.”

“And when you train them, is that all day?” she wondered.

“We watch the dogs to make sure they’re not getting overhyped. Too much adrenaline leads to poor choices.”

“In dogs and in humans,” Petra said. “So how do you manage that?”

“If we’re introducing a new task? We break it down, building on something they already know how to do. For example, back on the Cerberus campus, we have a wave pool, and they’ve already been working on getting on a board from the water and balancing. We won’t be starting from complete scratch out there on the waves. That’s part one of management. We don’t let them fail. The next tiny thing will be sitting on the beach and working up to throwing the ball in the water. Give them a break. Then, after they rest in their crates, we’ll let them hang out on the surfboards with us if they're up to it. Hoover, that’s Ash’s K9, big red German shepherd.”

Petra gave a nod. “He was the first dog on the plane this morning.”

“That’s right. Hoover’s a big water dog, so he came to provide peer-to-peer mentorship.”

“Oh, nice! You said crates. Why not just let them sleep on the sand?”

“Their crate, by themselves, without distractions, is their thinking spot,” Hawkeye said. “They go into their private space and rest for twenty minutes, which helps them relive the experience and process it to learn more quickly and with less stress.”

“Like they do in Finland with their kids. No homework. Hands-on learning, mixing fun activities with harder ones, then out you go to play in the woods no matter the weather, to process and maybe apply what you just learned to your playtime. It’s anextremely effective system.” Petra paused and covered her eyes as if to shield herself. “What was that smile?”

“Nothing really, just for someone in the FBI, you have a non-linear way of thinking.”

“You’re not the first person to say that.” Petra rested her head against the side window and felt the coolness of the night air radiate through her hair to her scalp. “Have you worked with Cooper for a long time? Where did you buy him? Here in the States, or did you have to go over to Europe?”

“He’s been with me for almost four years now. I didn’t buy him, though,” Hawkeye said, “I found him in the road.”

“What? Found him? An amazing dog like Cooper?” Petra only knew a very little about working dogs. But she did know that when the special operators came through camp with their K9s, the teams treated their K9s like fellow soldiers and held them in high esteem. She also knew that the military bought their dogs from specific breeders, and they could cost more than a car. “How could that happen? Would you tell me?”

“The Hawkeye and Cooper origin story? Sure. I knew Cooper was a special dog from the moment I first saw him. Tiny puppy. I’m guessing about eight weeks old. Scrawny. He ran into the middle of the road, facing down my vehicle and barking his head off. This puppy’s whole body posture was so readable. He was determined to stop me, and it was for a damned good reason.”

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