Page 17 of K-9 Confidential

He hauled the makeshift weapon overhead. Then slammed it down on the tree slowly burning to ashes. The branch he hit fell to the ground, taking the flames consuming it with it. He did it again, then again, breaking the tree to pieces. Embers lit up with each strike and attached to his skin and clothing, but he couldn’t stop. He was almost through. He just needed another foot to get through the wall of heat.

A whisper of warning sizzled up his spine.

Granger turned just in time to watch as the ground he’d once stood on caught fire. Grabbing for Zeus, he pulled the K9 through the too-small opening he’d made by taking down one of the burning trees.

Just as the circle closed.

The dog was shaking in his arms, and Granger had no assurances he’d done anything to extend their lives. Because the fight wasn’t over. They’d made it out of a small section of woods, but this entire place was on fire. Granger set his forehead against the dog’s shoulder. “Take me to Charlie, Zeus, and let’s get the hell out of here.”

The bull terrier locked onto the same direction he’d indicated a few minutes ago and bolted ahead as far as the next obstacle in their way. A headache pulsed at the back of Granger’s head with every swing of the branch to clear their path. Pain radiated up his arms. Dehydration was setting in. Not to mention the blow to the head he’d taken earlier. But he couldn’t stop. Not yet. Not until they located Charlie.

Granger pushed through pain and exhaustion, and memories of that night at the Alamo pipeline refused to let go. He’d tried to get to Charlie then too. Studying every body the coroner had bagged before he’d gotten onto the scene. Searching for some clue that his grief was lying to him. The fires had raged much like this one with the combination of pure oil and explosives. Even from beyond the perimeter the fire department had set, it’d been so hot; he could still feel the warmth on his face.

She’d lost faith in him. He knew that now. Despite everything they’d been through and the intel she’d stolen from inside Acker’s Army, Charlie had felt like she’d had no other choice than to run. Not just from her father. From him. He’d put her in an impossible situation as a confidential informant: against the family who protected and raised her. And he hadn’t been there for her.

Granger wouldn’t make that mistake again. Pooling a decade’s worth of loss and shame into his next swing, he took down the tree in front of him. All her life, Charlie had been used—by her father, by Homeland Security, by him. Considered nothing but a tool rather than the strong, charismatic woman she was. Something to be discarded when she outlived her use. But she deserved to have someone in her life that fought for her. Just once. And he wanted to be that someone. “I’m coming for you, Charlie. No matter what it costs me.”

Zeus charged through an opening ahead, out of sight.

“Damn it, dog. Wait for me!” Granger struggled to keep up.

A yip cut through the pound of his heart beating between his ears. Granger went on alert as he shoved through a barrier of trees the fire hadn’t burned through. Smoke blunted his vision, and he tightened his grip on the branch. “Zeus?”

The K9 didn’t respond.

He whistled in a tone only he and Zeus understood. And waited.

There wasn’t a single time in Zeus’s training that dog hadn’t answered his call to heel. The glow of fire intensified behind him but barely cut through the haze of smoke ahead. Granger took a careful step—slow, calculated—as he relied on his senses.

Too late.

A glint of metal caught his attention.

Just before the blade of an axe sliced in front of his face.

Granger countered by throwing his weight to one side. Saving himself from losing a limb.

A growl escaped his attacker as the oversized frame of Henry Acker spun toward him. Something feral and dangerous bled from the man’s eyes. The patriarch had lost all sense of age as he rushed Granger, axe at the ready.

Granger countered the onslaught. His back hit the tree behind him.

Charlie’s father embedded the blade of the weapon into the bark of the tree beside Granger’s head, then clamped a strong hand around Granger’s throat. “I told you to leave, Morais. I warned you two to leave when you had the chance. So where is she? Where is Charlie?”

Latching onto the old man’s wrist, Granger could’ve sworn his feet were coming off the ground. Given his size, weight and combat experience, it shouldn’t have been possible. But this wasn’t the same man who’d warned Charlie to leave town. This was the general of the most dangerous army in the country: one that’d taken its time shoring up its resources and didn’t answer to the US government. The man was running on pure adrenaline. Granger struggled to breathe around the grip on his throat. Two more of Acker’s soldiers left the safety of the trees, weapons aimed at Granger. “Shouldn’t you…be asking your men who attacked…us?”

Henry Acker pressed his weight into the palm against Granger’s throat with far more strength than should’ve been possible. “I never issued an attack order. My men are fighting to put out this fire.”

Granger didn’t have time for this. He slammed the base of his palm into Acker’s inner elbow. The old man might’ve studied combat techniques, but there was no way in hell that experience matched Granger’s government or private contractor training.

Acker’s arm folded. Granger twisted his wrist one-hundred-and-eighty degrees and locked out the man’s elbow, forcing Acker to his knees. All in the span of three seconds. The homegrown military general kept his scream to himself. Impressive. “I have a bullet graze on my ribs that says different, Acker.”

Both of Acker’s Army soldiers moved in to protect their leader.

Granger turned Acker to face them, using the old man as a shield in case this went south. “You shoot, and you’ll only be killing him. Understand? Now where the hell is my dog?”

“You won’t get away with this, Morais. She was safe, and you dragged her back. For what? To get to me? Something happens to her, I’ll kill you,” Henry Acker said. “I give you my word.”

“You knew she was alive,” Granger said. “How?”

---