Page 16 of K-9 Confidential

Charlie threw her elbow back as hard as she could. Bone connected with her attacker’s shin, taking away his leverage as his knee flared in the same direction as her momentum. She rolled hard and fast. One kick to his groin. That was all it took to bring him down. He landed face-first as she crawled to her feet. Her lungs had yet to get the message to inhale, but she couldn’t wait.

She darted for a tree big enough to hide her.

Just as a bullet punctured the bark.

“You won’t make it, Charlie!” The cartel soldier had lost that smooth manipulation in his voice. Instead, a demon seemed to be trying to tear free from his chest. “You’re in too deep now.”

Pressing her skull into the bark, Charlie finally caught her breath. He was right. She wouldn’t make it as long as she’d brought a knife to a gunfight. She closed her eyes to calm her fight-or-flight instincts. She had to think. She’d grown up on this land. Knew more about it than anyone else. There had to be something here…

The shed.The one she would run to when training, or dealing with two sisters, or losing her father’s approval hit a little too hard. It was nothing compared to what she kept on hand in the safe houses she’d built over the years, but there were supplies. Weapons. She just had to remember where it was. And hope her father hadn’t demolished and raided it.

Footsteps cut through the chaos in her head.

Charlie scanned the trees up ahead. They were thinner. If she ran, she’d lose her cover. But it was worth it.

“There’s nowhere to run.” His voice had regained some of that control she’d noted earlier. “Whether you like it or not, you belong toSangre por Sangrenow, Charlie. You are going to change everything for us.”

She picked a spot through two pine trees ahead. And ran.

The second bullet whizzed past her by a couple of feet.

But the third hit its mark.

* * *

Zeus’s bark puncturedthrough the haze of unconsciousness.

Granger tried to get past the roll of nausea in his gut, but he lost the battle. Turning onto his side, he emptied his stomach as the bull terrier tugged on the cuff of his pants. The K9’s whine was nothing compared to the heat blistering along Granger’s back. “I’m up. I’m up.”

He planted both hands on the ground and shoved to stand. Facing off with a ring of fire closing in. “Oh, hell.”

Zeus backed into Granger’s leg.

There was no escape. Every tree around them had caught fire, and they had nowhere to go. The flames inched forward every second Granger tried to come up with a plan, but they were out of options. Acid lingered in his throat. The wind kicked up, aggravating the wall of heat. Tendrils danced and flickered toward them. He collected Zeus from the ground as embers flared at their feet. The K9’s added weight pulled on the wound along his ribs. “It’s going to be okay, buddy. We’ve been through worse.”

A crack of wood pierced through the raging fire growing louder. A tree off to their right groaned a split second before Granger caught sight of the top tipping toward them. “Hang on, Zeus!”

He lunged out of the way. They hit the ground with a hard thud. Granger’s shoulder screamed as the shard of bullet left inside took the impact. Rolling onto his back, he could barely make out the stars through the thickness of the smoke. An ember burned through the sleeve of his shirt and down to skin. Searing pain kept him in the moment when all his brain wanted to do was give up. Granger swatted at the ember as Zeus climbed to his feet. “We got to get out of here.”

Reaching for Zeus, he hit the emergency tracking built into the K9’s collar. He didn’t know if the signal would go through without cell service, but he had to try. It would take the Socorro team at least an hour to arrive on site. Granger just hoped to hell and back there was something left here for them to save. Sweat dripped into his eyes as he maneuvered onto all fours. The ring of flames was closing in fast, giving them less than eight feet in circumference to work with. And they were the only ones inside. “Charlie.”

Granger scoured the base of the flames around them. Looking for a sign of something that would tell him she’d gotten out of this alive, but it was too hard to determine with the wind aggravating the fire. No. She had to be alive. Nothing else mattered. “Charlie!”

Zeus called after her with a low howl.

No answer.

“We can do this, boy.” Tearing through the knotted denim Charlie had tied around his ribs to hold the raw cactus against his wound, Granger secured the denim over his mouth and nose and tied another knot at the back of his head. A single layer wouldn’t do much, but it was better than nothing, as the oxygen decreased this close to the ground.

Granger searched his holster. Empty. The men who’d attacked them with the flare gun must’ve taken his firearm. Damn it. They were going to pay for that. If they ever got out of this alive. He searched for something—anything—that could be used as a weapon. Every second he wasted wondering if Charlie was alive was another second he was stealing from himself and Zeus. If he didn’t get out of here, there wasn’t anything he could do to keep her out of the wrong hands. He’d already failed her once. He wasn’t going to lose her again.

Another gust of wind drove the fire into the protective circle around them.

Whatever he was going to do, he had to do it now.

“Where is she, Zeus?” Granger ripped the denim off his face and positioned it under the K9’s nose. The dog buried his dry nose in the fabric as his tail went wild. He had the scent. A low gruff said Zeus knew exactly where Charlie had gone. Or where she’d been taken. The bull terrier lunged across the circle, kept inside by a wall of fire. “Good boy.”

Granger kicked a four-inch dead pine branch free of its trunk. It wasn’t much, but it could get the job done as long as he used it well. Closing the distance between him and the spot Zeus had alerted to, he faced off with the flames. He pushed the K9 behind him in case a rogue flame lashed out. Zeus was the only one who could find Charlie. Granger was going to do whatever it took to make that happen. Firemen trained for moments like this in full gear and armed with containers of oxygen. He didn’t even have gloves. Still, this had to work. “This is going to hurt, but we’ve got no other choice.”

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