Page 8 of Cowboy Breaking Point

ChapterTwo

The drive through East Canon, Colorado was a bleak one. While the mountains and surrounding forest provided a striking backdrop, the town itself could use some rehab.

In his grandparents’ day, the town was thriving. But after a couple factories closed their doors, the place went downhill on a fast track. Poverty replaced posterity. Homes went to hell and violence took over the streets. The crime rates climbed so high so fast that the town came under the scrutiny of the FBI, which was when Quaide set the idea of Sentry in motion.

Of course, he credited Dove with so much of that work. The long evenings they spent in the office poring over police reports and even investigating the police to make sure they weren’t being bought off by the crime lords were—oddly—some of the best of his life.

Yes, even work was enjoyable with Dove at his side. Which was why he knew that when he came on board with Sentry that he was damn well taking her with him.

Except she wasn’t here now.

And he had a dead man’s phone to go through.

That photo of a beautiful blonde was imprinted on his brain. She was almost the spitting image of Dove. Who was she?

He came to a traffic light and waited for the light to change. When it did, he took an immediate left to a side street leading to the temporary Sentry headquarters.

The building was old. The brick wasn’t in great shape and the mortar was crumbling in parts. At least inside Lexis had the place properly set up with all the tech they needed to run a top-level operation.

When Quaide parked and climbed out of his SUV, he pushed through the front door and stopped in his tracks, struggling to process what he was looking at. A desk with a couple chairs positioned at angles in front of it hadn’t been there the previous day.

Clay strolled out of a back office. “Thought I heard someone come in.”

He waved a hand. “What’s with the desk?”

Clay tugged the brim of his cowboy hat. The accessory had become a persona to Clay over the years. For a while, Quaide had been thinking about digging his old Stetson out and putting it to use again too. Wearing one meant he fit in around these parts, and blending was the grand plan.

“It’s a decoy,” Clay said.

“A decoy?” Quaide repeated.

Clay nodded. “This building used to be an old insurance company. People keep coming in randomly, looking for cheap insurance.”

“So now you’re selling insurance on the side?” Amusement threaded through his voice.

“No, jackass. I just need it to look less like a bunch of undercovers work out of the place.”

“Why don’t you just lock the front door?”

“We need to blend in. Hiding and looking suspicious won’t do that. If someone comes in for insurance, I tell them our agent quit and we’re trying to hire one. It keeps the front up but means the customers go away.”

“Smart idea. I’m surprised you had it.”

Clay’s lips twitched, but he switched gears with a question. “What happened with the body?”

Reaching into the inside pocket of his rancher jacket, he withdrew the dead man’s phone. “Need to upload the contents of this to the system.”

With a twitch of his head, Clay said, “This way.”

The back room that Clay had walked out of was appointed with several long tables and desks with computers and other equipment set up on every surface. Two giant flatscreens were hung on the wall if they needed to look at a bigger map or something similar.

What Quaide wanted to do was put the picture of the blonde up on that screen and compare her to the memory of Dove he had stamped in his mind.

He got straight to work on the guy’s phone by hooking it up to one of the main computers.

Clay stood watching over his shoulder. “So, the body?”

“Looks like it was dumped there.”

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