Page 30 of Colton First Responder (Coltons of Mustang Valley)

His passing thought earlier, that meeting her might help him accept her and her group more, had been only that—a passing thought that definitely wasn’t coming true.

He needed to leave here right now, but without causing any kind of scene. He assumed Micheline would stop at nothing to achieve one of her goals, so he figured he’d need to do this as politely as he could.

“That’s great that you know who I am,” he lied, looking into her blue eyes, which he’d have found attractive on a younger and more trustworthy woman. “And I appreciate your invitation. I’ll definitely consider it.” Like hell he would. “But for right now I’m still working hard on helping people affected by the quake, as you are, so I can’t commit to doing anything else.”

“I understand.” Micheline’s smile seemed to drop a bit and her eyes showed irritation. “But here.” She picked up a bunch of flyers from the table and handed them to him. “Call anytime you’re able to set something up. And I hope it’s soon.”

“Thanks.” He accepted the paperwork, figuring he’d dump it into a recycle bin in his office as soon as possible. “And good luck to you in helping as many folks in need as you can.”

He strode away, across the street and into his building. Only then did he feel as if he could breathe naturally again.

He stood in the large, empty lobby, not yet approaching any of his staff. Okay, Affirmation Alliance Group could be everything Micheline claimed. Maybe more. But it sounded too good to be true. Plus, he didn’t trust people easily, partly because of ways his own family had tried to guilt him into giving up his own company and join Colton Oil.

Anyway, he didn’t need to stay in touch with their leader or any of them. And he hadn’t lied to her. He and his gang were still working hard on helping people affected by the quake. For him, that included the fugitive Savannah, and after he caught up on what he needed to do that day, he’d take another approach to helping her—and proving her innocence.

He hadn’t thought in advance about which of his staff he’d drop in on first now that he was on the floor where their offices were, but as often happened, Winchell decided that for him. Winch was well enough trained that Chad didn’t generally keep him leashed in the office, although his door was often closed. As it had been—till now. It opened, and Winch ran out toward Grayson.

As

Grayson bent to pat Winch, Chad joined them. “Hey,” he said. “Good timing. Winch and I just ended our assignment for the day from the MVPD. And guess what?”

Grayson had a pretty good idea, considering the big grin on the retired cop’s face that moved his glasses up a notch on his cheeks. But he let Chad inform him. “What?”

“This excellent K-9 of mine found a survivor who’d been buried in rubble from an apartment building just outside town.”

“Good boy!” Now Grayson knelt on the floor and gave the dog a big hug. “Tell me more.” He stood again and faced Chad, as Pedro came out of his office, too. “I assume you’ve already heard the story,” Grayson said to Pedro.

“Not all of it,” the former firefighter said. “I want to hear more. Fortunately, though I helped to get rid of several fires, there weren’t any casualties—survivors or otherwise.”

“Let’s sit down here, then.” Grayson gestured toward the seats in the reception area. “Is Norah here, too?”

“No, I gather she’s back at the hospital, since the EMTs needed more help today,” Chad said.

His hand still on Winch’s head, Grayson listened to the story of the old and not particularly well-maintained apartment building in the part of town worst hit by the quake. And yes, it had been a couple of days, but the authorities were aware, thanks to info from others in that building, that at least one resident had remained missing. A couple of others, too, though they likely were out of town.

“The victim was elderly,” Chad said, “but word was that she exercised a lot and was in fairly good shape for her age. And nearly as soon as the neighbors pointed us in the general direction of what was left of her unit, Winch began reacting—though a small distance away, which was probably why the woman hadn’t been located before. Some firefighters and city staff were there digging, and in a short while they located her. She’d fortunately had an air pocket and had been able to breathe.”

“So Winchell’s a search and rescue hero,” Grayson said with a grin, still petting the dog.

“You’ve got it,” said his owner and handler. “Media folks were there, too, so I made sure to let them know Winchell and I were part of First Hand First Responders.”

“Then you’re our hero, too.” Grayson stood again and held out his hand for Chad to shake it.

After making a fuss over Winch some more, Grayson excused himself, letting his staff know he’d be in his office for a while. He had a lot of work to do there.

First, he sat down at his desk and faced his computer. He researched the location of the buried senior and saw exactly what Chad had described, including some videos of Winchell at work—and Chad’s mention of First Hand. Grayson virtually applauded.

The woman they’d saved, Susan Black, had suffered some significant injuries and was still in the hospital, but she was expected to make a full recovery.

Good. Grayson was glad the woman would be okay. He was also glad to see positive publicity for First Hand.

He next plowed through his emails, answering a lot of questions in them about what his company of first responders had done during and after the quake.

He was also glad to see that a few were from contacts from police and fire departments they’d worked with outside but not far away from Mustang Valley. But some were strangers, inquiring into what his first responders could and couldn’t do in emergencies. Fortunately, Grayson kept his billing amounts within reason.

Finally, he got to what he had intended to do all along: research the people involved in the case against Savannah.

First, he searched Zane Oliver online. No surprises there. From all Grayson found, the guy had disappeared and was presumed dead, murdered by his ex-wife. A knife had been found in her home with his DNA on it.

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