Page 36 of Surge

He turned to the MWD. “Surge, ready to work?”

His black tail whipped through the air. Garrett opened the tin. “Check.”

Surge sniffed eagerly. “Seek!”

He ran straight to the high grass and hit on one.

Garrett jogged after him and picked it up. “Good job, Surge. There’s more.” He waved his hand. “Seek!”

Surge came sprinting to Delaney and stood on his hind legs, paws on her shoulder. She hugged him, and he dropped down.

“See? The dog is not listening. Nonresponsive.”

She laughed. “You waved toward me and commanded a seek. He thought you wanted him to find me.”

“Oh. Yeah. My bad.”

“Inadvertent,” Delaney offered. “Now you know.”

He bobbed his head. “Surge, come.” The MWD jogged over, and Garrett held open the birch tin for him to sniff again. “Seek!”

And he did. Even when Delaney deliberately called the Mal, he glanced at her, but stayed focused tight on Garrett and the search. Four more times. Perfectly.

Garrett tossed the KONG for Surge, and the boy raced off. He captured it in the air and carried it around the grass in a victory lap. Then he screeched to a stop in front of Garrett, eyes on his pants pocket.

Delaney laughed. “You cheated! Surge stayed glued to you during the seek exercise because you stored liver treats in your pocket.”

He turned his empty pockets inside out, grinned at her, pointed at her pockets.

She turned her pockets inside out to reveal two baggies of liver treats.

He threw his hands in the air in mock offense. “You sassy . . . you are the liver treat briber.”

“Rewards, yes, never bribes. Now you know why dog trainers smell like liver.” She stuffed one into Surge’s KONG and tossed it to him. He downed on the grass with a huff and grabbed it.

They laughed.

“But you had his full attention, the whole time,” she said.

“It’s good to know he’s willing to pay attention to me.” He grabbed his coffee and took a sip. “Rogue, where’d you get your attitude from? Daniels mentioned your dad . . .”

She tilted her head. “My sass is notfromDad. It’sforDad. He needs a new titanium prosthetic leg that insurance won’t cover. I’m here to stop Sachaai’s attack . . . and to earn the money for Dad’s prosthetic.”

He flinched. “I had no idea. What happened?”

Her jaw tightened. She gave him a long look, then blew out her breath. “Okay. I walked into our family store, and there was an armed man. He shot Dad. Hit him in the leg.”

He hadn’t meant . . . “Sorry.”

She just nodded, stared out into the sunset.

New topic of conversation. “How’d you end up working with MWDs?”

A smile snuck onto her face. “Long story, but when I was a teen, a cop friend of ours . . . introduced me to Heath and the ranch. I never looked back.”

“Is Surge your first dog?”

“Technically, he belongs to the ranch, butmyfirst dog . . .” Her voice sounded thick. “Mega. A perfect German shepherd Heath let me adopt after I’d worked with him for a year. I lost her to cancer.”

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