Creed stopped but stayed hunched over the carrier, protecting Grace as best he could. He kept his hand in the carrier. He glanced at Maggie and caught a glimpse of her eyes again. He expected to see regret. If not for him, then for Grace. That’s not what he saw. Instead he saw anger and fight. And while Ross was paying attention to Creed crouching down on the ground, he wasn’t paying as much attention to Maggie.
Sometimes when Creed did a search and rescue it took them to strange and dangerous places. He usually came prepared, not necessarily to protect himself but always with the thought of protecting his dogs. There were plenty of things in the wilderness that could harm them. And although he never wore a gun, he armed himself with whatever might be needed to fight off coyotes or even bears.
With his hand hidden inside the carrier he found the canister of pepper spray safely stowed in the back pocket. His fingers wrapped around it even with Grace fidgeting.
“Get back up on your feet. Now.”
Creed slid the carrier off his shoulder and rested it on the ground with Grace still in it. He’d need to shoot the spray up into Ross’s face without getting any of it on Grace. As he started to rise he heard the gunshot.
It knocked Creed off his feet. The bullet had hit him in the chest. Pain exploded inside him. Sucked the air out of his lungs. Creed fell on top of Grace. All he could think about was protecting her with his body. Just like seven years ago when he protected Rufus.
He saw starbursts behind his eyes. He didn’t even hear the second gunshot.
71.
O’Dell lunged for her own weapon on the ground. She expected Ross to turn his gun on her. Instead, he shot Creed in the chest.
No, she didn’t want to believe what she saw.
Seconds ticked by. Her fingers grabbed the handle. She heard Creed gasp. She heard the thud as he dropped to the ground. She was rolling onto her back while her finger desperately searched for the trigger. Ross turned the gun on her.
Too late. She’d never make it.
She heard the second gunshot and knew it wasn’t from her gun. Before she could fire she saw the blossom of blood on the side of Ross’s head. She watched, stunned, as his gun slipped from his fingers. He fell to his knees, eyes already dead before he hit the ground.
O’Dell struggled to her feet.
A man stood about ten feet away with a rifle now slung down and pointing at the ground. He wasn’t one of Ross’s team. He wore what looked like medical scrubs, dirty and torn. His feet were wrapped in bandages.
Carefully, O’Dell made her way to Creed while watching the man.
“You folks okay?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she answered.
She wanted to find out and yet she couldn’t bear to see how badly Creed was hurt. If she couldn’t save him.
Or if he was already dead.
She knelt next to him. Grace squirmed out of the carrier and circled around and around. She was sniffing at her owner. O’Dell looked for blood. He had taken a direct hit to his chest.
Grace was licking his face.
“I’m so sorry, Grace,” she told the little dog.
Then Grace started to wag.
O’Dell heard a groan. Suddenly she saw movement. Creed was flat on his back. Eyes open now, looking up at her.
“How in the world—”
“Jason,” he said through gritted teeth as he tried to raise himself up.
“Just stay put for a minute.” She put her hand against his chest and that’s when she felt it under his jacket. “Jason gave you a bulletproof vest?”
“Supposed to be the newest, lightest—” He was gasping for breath. “His buddy Tony. He’s a paranoid bastard.”
She put a finger to his lips. “Please, just stay still.” And even as she was telling him this, she meant it for her own heart, because it was galloping in her chest. “It stopped the bullet, but we need to be careful about your ribs. We need to make sure they don’t puncture a lung.”
“You shoot him?” he asked. “Is he dead?”
She wiped the hair off his forehead. “He’s dead, but I didn’t shoot him.”
She looked up and the man in the raggedy clothes had ventured closer, slowly.
“Is he okay?” he asked.
Creed craned his neck to take a look at the man.
“These guys have been up here since yesterday. I knew they were up to no good. They were planting IEDs down in the tunnels.” He held up the rifle. “They forgot this.”
“Who are you?” O’Dell finally asked.
“My name’s Daniel Tate.”
“But how did you—”
Before O’Dell could ask, Tate interrupted. “Not right, him threatening to shoot that dog.”
He bent down and offered Grace his dirty fingers to sniff.
“Just wasn’t right, at all.”
72.
It took some convincing to get the helicopter pilot to leave without Ross. O’Dell had to show him her badge. But he was a local contractor and not part of Ross’s team. He ended up more concerned about the weather and getting them back safely. In the distance they had already heard the beginning rumbles of thunder.
O’Dell had found the detonator in the guardsman’s pocket when she searched for the SUV keys. Creed told her that Grace had been alerting ever since they got into Ross’s vehicle.