Page 13 of K-9 Confidential

She latched onto that promise with everything she had as the adrenaline rush of escape ran out. Because it was the only thing that made sense in this world. The internal battle between loving the man who’d raised her and the man who’d carelessly sacrificed innocent lives for his cause—including her sisters’—was tearing her apart, piece by piece. But Granger was holding her together right now. And that was enough.

Charlie brought her arms around him, taking in everything she could about these few seconds. They’d had moments like this that’d sustained her before her disappearance, but this…this felt different. Stronger and more fragile at the same time. It was familiar and terrifying and absolutely needed in the middle of a fight for their lives. “My father will already have someone raiding your vehicle for supplies. We’re stuck out here without flashlights or a compass or a plan. Sooner or later, he’s going to send someone in to flush us out. For this.”

She pulled the blueprints from the back of her waistband. Sweat permeated the paper. There was a chance she’d screwed this up. But letting Henry Acker go through with his plans and potentially being too late to stop him wasn’t a risk she’d been willing to take.

“You took the blueprints.” No hint of disappointment. Nothing to suggest anger or any other emotion got the better of him. And hell, she wished Granger would show her something. That she could read him as well as she used to. “No wonder your father’s pissed.”

“I just wanted…” The pain of that night, of watching people die because she’d been too weak to stand up to her father, clawed through her. “I wanted to do something good for once. Something that might make up for my mistakes. I can’t let him hurt anyone else, Granger.”

“It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure this out. Together.” Granger secured her against him. Right where she needed to be. “Not sure if you know this, but I have a little experience with getting out of tough situations.”

The rumble of his voice soothed her cracked nerves, and Charlie wanted nothing more than to stay in this moment for a little longer. To pretend her father wasn’t about to attack the state’s most protected landmark. That ten years of silence hadn’t changed things between her and Granger.

But they had.

She pulled out of his arms. Because no matter how much she wanted to believe they were the same people they’d been back then, it just wasn’t true. Her fingers grazed the left side of his rib cage. Wetness spread across her fingertips. Concern hijacked her central nervous system. “You’re hit.”

“It’s nothing.” Granger clamped a hand over the wound, coming away with blood in the last blur of sundown. He cut his attention down to hide the flash of pain in his expression. “Just a graze. It’ll stop bleeding as long as I keep pressure on it.”

“You were shot. That’s not nothing.” Charlie shoved the blueprints back into her waistband and ripped her jacket from her shoulders in a flurry of needing to do something. “Take off your shirt. I need to see the wound.”

“It’s fine. I’ve survived worse. We need to get moving if we want to stay ahead of your dad’s underlings.” He attempted a step forward, but Charlie wouldn’t let him budge.

She planted a hand on his chest, directly over that heart she’d once believed belonged to her. That was the thing about fairy tales. They’d always been too good to be true. Including the one she’d created between them. “Unless you’re trained in field medicine like I am, you’re going to do exactly as I tell you. Now sit down and lift up your shirt.”

* * *

She was goingto be the death of him.

And not in any kind of physical way.

Granger braced against the boulder jutting out from a grouping a trees. A place like these woods shouldn’t exist in the middle of the New Mexico desert, but the people of Vaughn had taken advantage of the protection they offered between them and the outside world.

He took out his phone, raising it up to search for those out-of-reach bars. No service. No way to get ahold of Socorro out here. The photo he’d sent to Scarlett with those blueprints hadn’t gone through. Hell, Henry Acker and his army were probably dismantling his satellite phone from the SUV at this very moment. Preppers didn’t like to rely on government-monitored technology. Too many chances they’d attract attention or tip their hands. In fact, he knew firsthand that Henry Acker forbid the use of any kind of cell phone within Vaughn. They mostly worked with private radio channels if they had to communicate. Wouldn’t do Granger or Charlie a bit of good out here though.

Zeus stared at him from a few feet away with those marble-like black eyes, ready to pounce on Granger’s command. But despite the image of Charlie struggling to get out from under the bull terrier again, his wound was still bleeding. Adding pressure hadn’t done a damn thing the past few minutes. Which meant the graze was worse than he’d originally estimated. She was right. They were stuck out here in the middle of a hostile town without supplies, first aid or an idea of where to run.

“Hold still. I need to get a look at the wound.” The sound of something tearing reached his ears. The skin across his stomach tightened in response to the outside elements filtering through the lost fabric of his shirt. Every muscle in his torso tensed at her touch, and Granger couldn’t help but flinch at the contact. “Sorry. Cold hands.”

“Don’t apologize. Just do what you have to do.” Every second they wasted trying to get his wound taken care of was another second Henry Acker had to find them. Oxygen sucked through his teeth as he tried to relax against her probing. Pain spiked through him and bucked his shoulders against the boulder. “Except that. Don’t do that again.”

“You’re right. It’s a graze, but it’s pretty deep.” She sat back on her heels, searching for something around them. Hauling herself upright, she collected something out of sight. “This might sting at first, but the longer we leave it pressed against the wound, the faster it’ll stop bleeding.”

Hell, he’d taken a bullet through his shoulder less than three weeks ago. A graze should be nothing. But it was as though his senses and pain receptors had gone into overdrive with Charlie so close. Enough for him to recognize the plant in her hand. “Is that a cactus?”

“Prickly pear. The pads contain astringent and antiseptic qualities. I’ve had to use them a couple times growing up around here. Lucky for you, we’re surrounded by them. And if this doesn’t work, we can use pine sap. Same antiseptic properties, just harder to get to.” Unholstering a small blade from an ankle holster he hadn’t spotted until now, she set to work stripping the cactus of its thick skin as easily as an apple. “Figured you Socorro types would be required to carry your own first-aid kits with the kind of work you do.”

“We are.” He watched her hands move as though she’d done this a thousand times before. Which she most likely had, growing up in a place that put so much value on independence and using what one had to survive. “Mine is in the SUV.”

Her laugh rolled between them. She flipped the blade of her knife closed and holstered the small weapon, shuffling forward on her knees to get closer. Charlie had removed the hot pink bulbs on the edges of the cactus and stripped the skin down until nothing but a shiny surface remained. Maneuvering what was left of his shirt out of the way, she pressed the cool flesh of the plant against his rib cage. Instant relief melted across his skin and took the pain of the wound. “Well, thank goodness I’m here. Otherwise you might have to use that dog to get you out of this mess, and we all know he’s going to get distracted by whatever food he comes across.”

“Hey. Zeus is perfectly capable of staying on task when ordered,” he said. “It’s all the other times I have to make sure he doesn’t accidentally eat my mattress or shoes.”

“Here. Hold this in place while I make some bandages.” She grabbed for his hand and used it to secure the cactus to his side. Charlie collected her knife once again and set about cutting through the jacket she’d been wearing, shaping them into long strips. “How long have you been together? You and Zeus?”

“Going on nine years.” Granger mentally double-checked his math as Zeus pushed his front paws into the dirt and settled down. Apparently, the bull terrier had realized Charlie wasn’t going anywhere. “Came into my life right when I needed him and hasn’t left since. Though I’m not sure he could at this point. Any other K9 unit would’ve shipped him off to the shelter for his binge-eating.”

“I’ve never met a dog with an eating disorder.” Charlie measured out the longest stretch of denim from her jacket and wound it around his rib cage. Her mouth came into contact with his ear, and a shiver of warmth exploded through him. Too soon, she pulled back to secure the cactus in place. “And wow. Nine years? And all that time was with Socorro?”

---