Page 24 of K-9 Confidential

Granger shouldered free of the SUV, not bothering to close the driver’s side door behind him, and ran for the wreckage. Glass crunched beneath his boots. The scent of gasoline filled his lungs. A single vehicle had rammed into the rock formation and tipped into the dried-up ravine. And now that car was on fire. “Charlie!”

She didn’t answer.

Granger couldn’t wait for his training to warn him about going into a deadly situation without knowing all the details. If she was down there, she had mere seconds to get out before the whole thing blew.

Flames crawled around the engine block and shot up into the sky. Fortunately, there was nothing out here to catch fire. Not like the woods around her childhood home. But an accelerated fire would explode if it reached the gas tank. Gravity pulled him down the incline to the bottom of the ravine.

Smoke had filled the interior and blocked out the windows. She was here. She had to be. Zeus’s bark from the top of the hill echoed along the floor of the riverbed. The driver’s side window had been pulverized, but there was no sign of a driver.

Granger checked each of the other windows, but it was too hard to see inside. The doors were stuck, too damaged from the accident. Unholstering his sidearm, he protected his face from the flames lashing out from the front of the vehicle. “Hold on, Charlie. Just hold on.”

Granger slammed the butt of his weapon into the back driver’s side window. The first strike merely cracked the glass. He tried again. The second shattered the protective layer, and a rush of smoke billowed into his face. “Charlie, are you in there?”

Black smoke cleared enough to give him a view of a single hand resting between the cargo area and the back seats of the SUV. Unmoving. Granger was already trying to rip the door off its hinges. The car refused to budge. “I’m coming for you. Hang on!”

He rounded to the back of the vehicle and brought the butt of his weapon up. There was a chance the glass windshield would slice through her clothing on impact, but Granger didn’t have any other choice. He rammed the metal against the glass. Then again. And again. The glass was stronger here. Pain cut through his rib cage from the bullet graze, taking some of his strength. He was running out of time.

Zeus’s incessant barking wouldn’t let up. Every concerned sound notched Granger’s nerves a level higher until he couldn’t focus on anything but getting to Charlie.

He threw everything he had into the next strike.

The glass finally gave up the ghost.

Granger used the barrel of his weapon to knock the rest of the glass around the edge of the frame free and reached inside for the hatch. And pulled. The cargo door hydraulics kicked into gear, and he dove inside.

Dragging Charlie’s lean body by both ankles, he hauled her over his shoulder and ran for the incline up to the rock formations. The bullet graze in his side threatened to rip wider, and a growl of pain escaped his throat. The fire was spreading along the SUV’s frame. He had to move.

A hiss reached his ears.

A split second before the vehicle exploded.

Glass, metal and fire split in a thousand different directions. The pressure fanned out, and Granger was forced to dive for the side of the incline. He’d only made it half way to Zeus’s position above. Right in the explosion’s path. Curling around Charlie, he used his body as protection against incoming debris and fisted his hands into the dirt on either side of her head.

Heat fanned up the back of his legs and spine, but he wouldn’t let any of it touch her. Ever. The fire seemed to suction back in on itself after another minute, and cool air filtered across his skin.

“Granger?” Her voice sounded so weak compared to the woman he’d found barricaded in her safe house.

Granger held the weight of his upper body away from her, staring down at the bloody damage she’d sustained fighting for her life. “It’s okay. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

She brought her hands up as the fire reflected off the glimmer of tears in her eyes. “The driver. He took me. He wants to use me to help the cartel. He wants me to do something awful. Tell me you have him.”

Driver? Granger had checked the vehicle. “Charlie, there was no driver.”

CHAPTER NINE

Her abductor had gotten away.

Charlie flinched away from the light shining in her eyes.

“Any headaches, nausea, vomiting, memory problems?” The physician cut the light to her other eye, looking for what, Charlie didn’t know. Piel. That was her name. Dr. Piel. Socorro’s on-call doctor. Though Charlie couldn’t exactly remember coming to this place. The woman’s gloved touch was gentle but probing around her broken nose and split lip.

“Would you judge me if I said yes to all of the above?” The pounding pain at the back of her eyes receded with the light, and Charlie was able to take in the room she’d woken up in. Crisp, clean walls and cabinets but comfortable-­looking seating. The hospital bed itself didn’t feel like the one she’d found herself in from time to time when her father’s training had gone too far. Then again, the people of Vaughn relied on a single physician who lived within town and had committed himself to the cause. His idea of a recovery room was his teenage son’s bedroom. A kid Charlie had beaten the crap out of more times than she could count while sparring. Not to mention that place didn’t have anything close to a heart monitor or dimmable lighting. It was meant to be a way station. A temporary stop to make sure she hadn’t sustained permanent damage. This place felt…good. Safe. Though she didn’t know enough about Socorro or the people who worked here to come to that conclusion, she couldn’t deny the sense of security she felt inside these walls.

“Not at all.” The physician took a seat on a rolling stool. Long thin fingers made notes on a tablet resting in Dr. Piel’s lap. Smooth black hair framed pristinely shaped eyebrows and almond-shaped eyes. The doctor was thin though Charlie couldn’t ignore the way her arms filled out the sleeves of her white coat. A physician who worked for the top private military contractor in the country most likely knew how to hold her own in a fight. “I can definitively tell that you’ve sustained a concussion. Most likely from all the times you ran your face into someone’s fist.”

“Just couldn’t seem to help myself.” Though now Charlie was feeling the full effect of those punches. Effects from the car accident too. She tried to shift her weight to sit up straighter, but her hands, hips and legs weren’t too interested in movement.

Dr. Piel smiled. “Don’t worry. It isn’t as severe as it feels. Concussions are something I see a lot of around here. If I was smart, I’d go back to school and shift my specialty to neurology for how many times operatives come in here with head injuries. You just need some rest. The smoke inhalation you suffered caused some lung irritation, but that should clear up in the next twenty-four hours, and as for the bullet graze on your leg, you’ll survive. For now, I need you to stay awake. I’ll be able to reset your nose when the swelling goes down in a couple hours.”

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