Something inside me sank.
“No.”
Harlan laughed.
“Oh, this is beautiful.”
“Daniel?”
Cross lifted his eyes.
“Jack…”
Harlan kept smiling.
“Tell him why you really came.”
Cross closed his eyes.
Then he said the words I never expected.
“I attached the tracker.”
Emily gasped.
I didn’t move.
Couldn’t.
Cross continued quickly.
“But not for them.”
“Then for who?”
“For me.”
Harlan laughed.
Cross ignored him.
“I knew someone was watching the ceremony. I needed to see who followed you.”
“You used me as bait.”
“Yes.”
“And Rex.”
His face twisted.
“Yes.”
I stepped toward him.
Harlan raised the gun.
“Easy.”
I stared at Cross.
“You knew Larkin was investigating.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Vale called.”
“Yes.”
“You tracked me.”
“Yes.”
“You let me walk into that diner.”
“I didn’t know about the diner.”
“How much of this am I supposed to believe?”
“None of it,” Harlan said cheerfully.
Then he shot Cross.
The sound exploded through the trees.
Cross dropped.
Emily screamed.
Rex lunged forward.
“Stay!”
He stopped so violently his claws tore through gravel.
I dropped beside Cross.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Not fatal.
But bad.
Harlan pointed the pistol at me.
“Stand.”
I rose slowly.
Harlan nodded toward the truck blocking the road.
“Quarry’s waiting.”
They took us underground.
The quarry looked abandoned from the road.
It wasn’t.
Behind rusted machinery and collapsed fencing, a freight elevator descended nearly sixty feet beneath the rock.
What waited below changed everything.
Steel doors.
Climate-controlled storage.
Pallets of military equipment.
Crates with serial numbers removed.
Optics.
Communication systems.
Drone components.
Weapons parts.
Enough stolen material to supply a small war.
Emily stared.
“My father found this.”
Harlan smiled.
“Your father should’ve minded his business.”
Her face went white.
“You killed him.”
“No.”
For the first time, Harlan sounded almost offended.
“I don’t kill people unless necessary.”
Butch chuckled.
Emily turned toward him.
Butch looked away.
Harlan led us deeper.
Cross was conscious, barely.
Two men carried him.
Rex remained beside me.
Nobody wanted to touch his leash.
Smart.
At the end of the corridor stood a heavy steel door.
Rex stopped.
Completely.
His nose lifted.
Then he began whining.
I had heard that sound only twice in his life.
Once when he found Larkin after the firefight.
And once after Sarah’s accident, when I brought home the coat she had worn that morning.
I looked down.
“What is it?”
Rex pulled toward the steel door.
Harlan’s expression changed.
Barely.
But enough.
I saw it.
“What’s behind there?”
“Storage.”
Rex pulled harder.
“That’s not storage.”
Harlan pointed the pistol at me.
“Keep moving.”
Rex refused.
I had never seen him refuse a movement command.
He scratched at the bottom of the door.
Whined again.
Then barked.
One sharp bark.
My heart began pounding.
“Open it.”
Harlan laughed.
“No.”
I stepped forward.
His gun rose.
“Jack.”
I ignored Cross.
“Open the door.”
“You’re in no position to make requests.”
Rex scratched harder.
Something moved behind the door.
A sound.
A chair scraping.
Then silence.
Emily heard it too.
Her eyes widened.
“There’s someone in there.”
Harlan’s jaw tightened.
That was confirmation.
I looked at Butch.
He suddenly wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“What’s in the room?”
Nothing.
“Butch.”
He swallowed.
“Harlan…”
“Shut up.”
I stared at Butch.
“You dumped ice water over a decorated war dog because someone paid you five thousand dollars. You’re not exactly a man of principle.”
His face reddened.