by Kate James
Her heart hammered in her chest and her hands were slick with perspiration by the time she was a couple of arm’s lengths away from him. Worse, the dog was now only a few yards from the dark, gaping opening into the X-ray machine. Once he was in there, her chance to save him would be lost. She felt the fear creeping into her bones and muscles, threating to paralyze her. She heard the dog whimper. She held her arms out in front of her and tried desperately to not let her voice quaver.
“I’m here to help, okay, Boomer? Good boy,” she amended with a prayer as she moved forward, unclipping his leash with her right hand while grabbing his collar with her left, and pulling him toward her.
Not a moment too soon. The leash was pulled into the security scanner, the loose end flailing and hitting the metal walls of the device with loud clanging noises. Ariana pulled Boomer with her away from the scanner and, releasing him, jumped down from the belt. She landed hard on one knee, and a sharp pain radiated up her leg. She called, “Jump, here, Boomer!” hoping the dog would follow. If he didn’t, there was nothing further she could do to save him.
She was relieved to see Boomer, just inches away from the machine again, shuffle in place and leap.
Ignoring the sting in her knee, she rose and grabbed Boomer’s collar again. She didn’t want him rushing to where Logan was. She knew police dogs were trained for handler protection in addition to their primary responsibility. She realized that if Boomer was allowed to act on instinct, he’d rush Wayne to protect Logan. He wouldn’t have a chance. He’d be shot and it wouldn’t help Logan, who she trusted was alive and hopefully uninjured, based on the gunshots that continued to reverberate around her.
There was a loud grinding of gears and she saw the conveyor slow and come to a halt. At least they’d been able to override the system and shut it down. But they hadn’t penetrated the door yet. That meant Logan continued to be on his own.
She couldn’t be of any help either, if she was holding on to the dog’s collar. She glanced around for any item she could use to secure Boomer without risk of harm, or at least use as a leash. When her phone vibrated, it gave her an idea. She pulled her belt off as she answered the call.
“Max, what’s going on? Any progress gaining entry at door A-173 or any of the others?” she whispered while pulling her belt off and looping it around Boomer’s collar.
“No.” She could hear the frustration and worry in his voice. “We’ve tried the cargo doors, too. No luck with any of them. They’re locked down tight and we can’t break through the programming.”
“Can you take the—” Ariana stopped in midsentence when more shots rang out. They sounded closer. She’d nearly forgotten about Boomer until he tensed and she felt the tug on the belt.
“What was that?” Max asked. “Gunshots?”
“Yeah,” Ariana said, keeping her voice low. “I have to go. Break down the doors, if you can. Get in here, if you have to drive a truck through the loading dock door, but get us help.” She disconnected without waiting for an answer.
She was at a loss for what to do. If she tied Boomer off somewhere, she bet he’d get loose. If he didn’t before Wayne got to him...
Logan had told her to stay back and stay out of the way. As futile as that made her feel, she understood why. Logan was playing cat and mouse with Wayne. If she got in the way, she’d be a liability for Logan and a possible hostage for Wayne. She didn’t have a gun, so at a distance she’d be of no use at all. Keeping herself and Boomer out of the way and safe was her smartest course of action, she rationalized, but it stung to feel so powerless.
She heard another round of shots, more running feet and what sounded like a hard landing on a metal surface. She backed up to the conveyor behind her. At least it remained stationary. With the system down, the rattle in the screening equipment startled her and she spun around and stood back as Wayne shot out and slid down the conveyor belt, gun in hand. He got his balance and stood, feet braced and shoulder-width apart with the large metal box of the scanner behind him.
Boomer growled and strained at her side, the force causing the leather of her belt to dig into her palm. If she let him go, it would mean the end for him. Even so she said a silent prayer that Wayne wouldn’t just shoot him for the sheer noise he was making. When her eyes locked with Wayne’s, it chilled her to the core, but she understood he wasn’t bothered by the dog. He was entirely focused on her.
“Well, well, well, Ariana Atkins. You couldn’t just leave matters alone, could you?”
“I don’t understand. Leave what alone?”
He motioned dismissively with his gun. “Maybe you really are as slow as George Dennison thought.”
Ariana’s palm felt slick on her belt. “George? I don’t understand,” she repeated in a steady voice.
Wayne laughed, harsh and loud, and hopped of the conveyor. “You ruined it all! Do you have any idea how much money we were making here, until you came along and started tightening your procedures and improving the security systems? George handpicked you, because he figured you’d be nice and compliant and leave things the way he had them. He couldn’t keep working forever, but he wanted the fees to keep flowing for him, for Aaron and me. That meant we needed someone to head up security who wouldn’t take too close a look at what we were doing.”
Things were starting to fall in place for Ariana. Whatever had happened, it was illegal and George had been part of it. George! The man she’d trusted and thought of as a mentor. His betrayal hurt deeply, but she didn’t have time to worry about it.
She heard no other sound and had no idea where Logan was, if he was alive or dead. That terrified her. She prayed he was okay. She felt a modicum of relief, because Wayne had lowered the gun slightly. She hoped her skills to read people would help her now. To be able to keep Wayne talking long enough for someone to help her...and Logan.
Ariana could see that whatever was driving Wayne was a cancer inside him. He was not in his right mind. Something had twisted him.
“Why have you been doing what you have, then? Playing with us, rather than just killing me right away?”
“Oh, I had no intention of killing you. That wasn’t the plan. The goal was to either get you to quit or have Murdoch fire you for incompetence. When that didn’t happen and the feds started to get uncomfortably close to catching us, I thought I’d implicate you, seeing it’s all your fault that we’ve run into the problems we have.”
Ariana felt a sliver of hope. “Then you’ve accomplished that. I’ve written up my resignation. It’s in my office. I just haven’t had a chance to present it to Calvin yet. Put the gun down,” she pleaded. “Come with me to my office and I’ll show you. You can give it to Calvin, if you want.”
“No. I’m in too deep now. I can’t pay my debts. Our smuggling operation is virtually out of business because of your tightened procedures. George is gone, and now it’s only Aaron and me.” Wayne was waving his gun around. “We can’t meet our commitment to the cartels for the firepower they need. And it’s not just about the money. You don’t break a promise to those people. The feds have caught our colleagues in Texas, so it’s only a matter of time before they come for us. Enough of this!” he bellowed.
He pointed the gun with a rock-steady hand directly at her head.
Ariana wanted to squeeze her eyes shut so she wouldn’t see him pull the trigger, but before he had a chance, a blur of motion distracted her. She heard two shots fired almost simultaneously, and she dropped down instinctively, wrapping herself around Boomer to restrain and protect him.
Logan landed in a heap in front of her, blood seeping from his left arm.
“Oh, God. Oh, my God,” Ariana whispered and spared a quick glance at Wayne. He, too, was on the floor and motionless, with an apparent chest wound. His gun had flown out of his hand. She scrabbled up, letting Boomer go. As much as she wanted to check on Logan’s condition
first, she needed to ascertain Wayne’s state and ensure he couldn’t get his gun. Boomer immediately ran to Logan.
She kicked Wayne’s gun away and toward Logan, while she felt for a pulse. He was still breathing.
“Is he alive?” Logan asked, pushing himself up.
“Yes.” She flipped Wayne over, uncaring of the loud groan. Pulling a flex cuff out of her pants pocket, she secured his hands behind his back, getting a small sense of satisfaction from hearing him grunt again, even though she tried to be gentle when she moved his arms behind his back to secure them.
Confident that Wayne could no longer hurt them, she scuttled over to Logan, who’d risen to a sitting position, primarily to avoid the exuberant licking Boomer was administering. Kneeling in front of him, Ariana cupped his face with her palms. “Are you okay? I mean are you injured anywhere other than your arm?”
“Just that and my head.” He reached up, likely checking for blood, but thankfully his hand came away dry. “When Gallagher shot at me, I fell back against a conveyor track. I must have knocked myself out.” She nudged away his other hand that had been covering his wound in an effort to stem the flow of blood so she could inspect it. “But that one hurts a lot.”
Noticing her jacket on the floor not far away, she scrambled over to get it, to use it for a tourniquet. They both froze when they heard a loud crashing sound.
Logan tensed. “What the heck was that?”
It took Ariana a minute, but she knew. “A vehicle breaking through the loading dock doors.”
Logan relaxed, and Ariana quickly tied her thin jacket around his arm. She called out so they could find them. Knowing they’d have moments at best before Logan would be whisked away to the hospital, she clasped his face between her palms and stared into his eyes. “You saved me. You got hurt but you saved me.” She pressed her lips to his hurriedly. “Whatever was or wasn’t between us, I owe you my life. Thank you.”
“For a kiss from you, I’d like to say anytime, but this does hurt. Besides, we’re even.” He glanced at Boomer. “If I’m correct about what happened here, you saved my dog.”
Ariana looked at Boomer, too, and briefly explained what she’d done. “So, I guess I did, yes.”
Logan placed his good hand on her shoulder. “Knowing your history, that’s a remarkable act of bravery.”
The vehicle could be heard approaching as close as it could get, and then they heard running feet.
“Did you hear what Wayne said about the smuggling?”
Logan nodded. “Yes.”
Ariana stared at him in disbelief. “You knew and you didn’t say anything to me?”
“I couldn’t. You were a suspect.”
“What?”
“Yeah. They had evidence that the airport’s chief security officer was involved. A number programed on a phone they confiscated, the keying of the baggage storage room to your master but not Max’s, and other bits of information. Now we know it was the former chief security officer, Dennison. We have Gallagher. We’re getting Aaron Wilkes, and Dennison will soon be in custody, too. We’ve got them,” Logan said. “You don’t have to worry anymore.” His eyes were fathomless. “Things will go back to normal for you now.”
They could see the team running toward them now. The hurt and disappointment caused by George’s betrayal sliced through her again, but it didn’t match the pain caused by losing what could have been between Logan and her.
“Goodbye, Logan, and take care of yourself,” Ariana said, before she rose and walked toward Max.
* * *
LOGAN WAS MORE than happy to turn Gallagher over to members of his team for booking. He was equally relieved to have Rick and Nitro on the scene to check the bags to ascertain that Gallagher hadn’t done what they’d feared and placed explosives in any of them.
It was obvious now that Gallagher had taken over from Dennison to run the on-site smuggling operations after Dennison’s retirement. With the cartels not getting the firearms he’d promised them, he would have known it was more than loss of revenue; his life was at risk. Before Logan handed Gallagher over, he told Logan that at first, he’d just wanted to be rid of Ariana, with hopes of everything going back to normal if she was gone. For a period, he’d hoped that Dave Langdon might have gotten the position. That would have meant the smuggling operations could have continued unfettered, not because he was involved in the ring, but simply because he would have been lax.
As Logan watched Ariana walk away with Max and some of the others, again clearly in charge, the pain in his chest overshadowed that in his arm.
He loved her. She’d handled herself well. She hadn’t fallen apart at the sight of guns or blood. But he’d destroyed whatever chance they could have had together through no choice of his own. Although his belief in her had never wavered, he could not pursue a personal relationship with her, nor could he have told her about the smuggling ring investigation when she was a suspect. How ironic that when he’d finally found love, forces conspired to keep them apart.
The pain intensified and he nearly shouted after her. Instead, he let Carl Rossi help him to the vehicle so he could be transported to the hospital. He prayed that the painkillers they’d give him would at least dim the excruciating ache in his heart.
Even as they drove off, he couldn’t take his eyes off Ariana. He kept his gaze on her until she walked out of his sight and...now that he’d hired another handler to deal with the airport...out of his life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ARIANA STRODE INTO the Security and Asset Protection office area. Cyn immediately pushed out of her chair and rushed over to her. She clasped Ariana’s arms and peered into her eyes.
“Are you okay?” Cyn asked.
No, she wasn’t okay and probably wouldn’t be for a long, long time. Ariana understood that Cyn’s concern was about the trauma she’d been through helping to apprehend Wayne Gallagher and discovering that she’d been a suspect in a major smuggling operation. All weekend she’d stayed inside her apartment, barely eating or sleeping. She was deeply shaken by what had happened, yes, but that wasn’t what bothered her the most. She would never have guessed that loving someone could hurt so much, if that love was not returned. It didn’t surprise Ariana that Cyn would be worried about her. In the year they’d worked together, this was the first time Ariana had arrived at the office after Cyn, with the exception of when she’d had off-site meetings.
She surprised herself by rubbing a hand over Cyn’s in a comforting gesture. “I’ll be fine. Thanks.”
Based on the expression on Cyn’s face, she hadn’t convinced her.
“Okay,” Cyn said skeptically. “I’ll get you a coffee.” She hesitated a moment. “You really don’t look well. If you’re not up to work today, you could go back home. There’s nothing today that I can’t reschedule.”
“Thanks again, but I really need to be here.” For her sanity, if nothing else. The last thing she wanted to do was to continue to sit at home in her apartment with nothing to do but think about Logan.
Ariana was just starting up her laptop when Cyn walked into her office, a mug of steaming coffee in her hand. She placed the mug on a coaster and handed Ariana an envelope. “This arrived for you.”
The last time Ariana had received an unexpected plain white envelope was not a good experience. Turning it over, she noted with mild relief that this one had her name typed on the front with the SDPD logo on the top left. It was marked private and confidential. “Any idea what this is...or who brought it?” she asked hopefully, thinking of Logan.
Cyn shook her head, her bright gold hair bouncing around her face. “I have no idea. It was dropped off by an SDPD officer I hadn’t seen before just before I poured your coffee.”
Ariana waited for Cyn to leave before slicing the envelope open.
The note was on official SDPD letterhead and carried the seal of the chief of police. She scanned the letter and slumped back in her chair.
Then she read it again, to convince herself it was real.
The San Diego Police Department and I, personally, are grateful to you for your selfless act on behalf of one of our dedicated public servants.
We cannot adequately express our gratitude to you for your heroic conduct in saving the life of Police Service Dog Boomer.
As a token of our appreciation, we would like to bestow you our medal of valor. The honor of your presence is requested at our awards ceremony this month to give me the pleasure of presenting the medal to you in person, along with my heartfelt appreciation for saving the life of one of our finest.
Police Chief Marcia Cohen.
It was all there, in black and white. Ariana was getting a medal of valor from the police force that had deemed her unfit to serve. She let out a breath, followed by a nervous laugh. She was excited...until she read the honor roll at the bottom of the page and realized that Logan was also up for a commendation for his actions.
After having kept it together—barely—when she’d said goodbye to him at the airport, she’d have to face him once more. Panic swelled in her chest. Would she be able to do it again?
She glanced at the date and time of the event. Should she decline the presentation, make some excuse that she had a prior commitment?
That would be plain stupid and cowardly. She had to go.
