Page 58 of Junkyard Dog

He hit the highway, Bo texting his location within minutes. Doubling back, he pulled up alongside his brother and stopped. “I work in two hours,” he said. “We’ll scout out the guy’s apartment and phone it in to Ryan.”

Bo was surprisingly quiet on the drive, the jump from routine kills to total dismemberment an unexpected breach of the standard route the males of the Pirithous bloodline followed. The amped-up timeline didn’t bode well with Ryan several states away.

And Charlotte working the Pirithous’s hunting grounds.

When a fifth unmarked police car whizzed past them, Bo shook his head. “This is bad.”

“We know where he is,” he stated, his voice tight. “We’ll track him in shifts until Ryan arrives, take him out, and spend happily ever after in hell.”

“If he’s the last,” Bo countered. “We need a name. Something Ryan can run. If this guy got laid even once, we need to know about it.”

He glanced over at his brother. “You still think that Pirithous line in Albany managed to spawn a kid before we got to him, don’t you?”

Bo shrugged. “Your little girlfriend have anything to report?”

Pulling into the Pirithous line’s parking lot, he shook his head and ignored the girlfriend remark. “I can’t get a hold of her until she’s outside the park,” he said, stopping tight beside the freshly washed sedan. “No cell service there.” Nudging Bo, he pointed out a woman walking toward the apartment complex. “Go.”

Bo hopped out of the SUV and sauntered across the lot, flashing a smile at the woman as he approached her. She looked over his shoulder at Alex before nodding and leading Bo to the door, opening it and smiling as Bo held the door for her. The pair disappeared into the building, Bo finally returning ten minutes later.

“Suite twenty-two,” he reported. “Name on the mailbox is Joshua Hornsby.”

He fired off the info to Ryan, his thumb hesitating over the phone icon.

“The Pirithous slipped out a back way,” Bo stated. “That’s all he needs to know for now.”

Nodding, he pressed the green phone and listened for the ring.

*

Charlotte picked upthe headquarters landline and turned to Max. “How long did they say we’d have to stay?”

“Four more hours,” Max grumbled, glaring at the cold burger in his hands. “Think this is okay to eat? It’s been sitting here since we got on shift.”

Shaking her head, she smiled for the first time all day when Alex’s voice came on the line. “Why do you sound so panicked?” She laughed, Alex’s frantic greeting mildly amusing.

“You never call from this line,” he yelled over the tavern’s music. “Jeez, Charlotte. You scared the hell out of me. I thought something had happened.”

“Sorry.” She grinned, waving at the group of agents walking in the door as she dropped the volume of her voice. “Just wanted to let you know the place is crawling with FBI.”

“Noted,” he called, the clinking of glasses almost drowning him out. “I don’t care what time it is, promise you’ll call when you’re off. And be careful.”

“Will do. Butch has been hanging out here most of the evening, so I’m definitely well guarded. Though someone seems to have lost his collar, didn’t you, boy?” she cooed.

He went dead silent for a moment. “Good. Talk to you in a bit.”

She grabbed her hat off the counter and tossed Max the truck keys, calling over two of the men assigned to them. They piled into the vehicle, Charlotte climbing into the back where she could stroke Butch’s ears as they drove, the enormous dog on a makeshift rope leash and collar putting the new agents on edge.

They stuck to the western loops and scanned the area for any movement, the park having been closed to visitors with the recent gruesome discovery. As they closed in on Lost Horse Mine, she tapped Max on the shoulder. “We should do a quick walk-around here before we start heading back. Butch needs to stretch and I have a bottle of water for him.”

Max rolled his eyes with exaggerated annoyance, pulling off the main road and parking in a small inlet. “I’ll give you ten minutes.” He sighed, turning to the two agents. “You guys keep an eye on her out there and don’t let her follow that stupid mutt into the brush.”

The men exchanged a look but obeyed, dutifully following her out of the truck and stepping aside as she reached into the front seat and grabbed a Tupperware bowl. Filling it with water, she placed it down for Butch and sat cross-legged in the sand, giving him a vigorous rubdown. She smiled up at the agents. “He doesn’t like men, so you’ll probably want to take a step back.”

When the agents didn’t budge, Butch lifted his huge head from the bowl and swung it in their direction, his ears flattening as he bared his enormous teeth.

The agents took several steps back.

Smirking, she buried her head in the animal’s neck. “Good boy.”

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