Parker (The K9 Files Book 6)

by Dale Mayer

  “Meaning, we were trying to bring him in on it, but he wasn’t interested.”

  “And how did the dog play into this?”

  “He didn’t. Ronnie opened the cage to give the dog an option to go or to stay. We were trying to move a bunch of gear into our private little stash. We needed the window, and then, when Ronnie let the dog go, all hell broke loose. We weren’t sure if he’d done it on purpose, not until we talked to him. That’s when we knew he wasn’t interested in being a part of it. He didn’t know how to get himself out though.”

  “You took care of him though, didn’t you?” Sandy said sadly. “He didn’t need to die for that.”

  “Everybody dies,” snapped Corporal Gregg from behind her.

  “And who else is in here?” Parker asked.

  “If you don’t know, ain’t no point in me trying to tell you.”

  “It’s the other guy with Ronnie that night,” Sandy said. “I didn’t recognize him until he was lying in the ditch face up. It took me a while, but he’d been one of the two men who were there that night.”

  Just then they heard footsteps. “Everything under control?”

  “Yeah, sure, Mike. Everything is, except for your buddy,” Corporal Gregg said. “He’s out of commission. Compliments of these two.”

  “God damn it, I told Drake to not go on his own like that.”

  “He’s a bit of a cowboy,” Gregg said. “You better go get him.”

  “Ha! He can fucking stay out there in the ditch for a while.”

  “Oh, how’d you know he’s in the ditch?” Gregg asked.

  “Watched these guys come back,” he said. “Figured out what happened.”

  “Why didn’t you shoot them then?” Gregg asked in exasperation. “Jesus Christ, that would have been the easiest.”

  “Because they were coming inside. It would make less noise if we kill them inside. You know the shots ring out forever with a hell of an echo in these hills.”

  “You should go and pop your buddy,” Gregg said. “He fucked up big-time.”

  “I’ll talk to him about it,” Mike said. “Let me go get him.”

  But as he turned away, Corporal Gregg lifted his gun and fired.

  The new arrival, Mike, dropped to his knees, then fell to his side, a look of complete astonishment on his face.

  Sandy cried out, her hand clapping over her mouth. She stared at Parker in shock because, if nothing else, she now knew there was no escape from this. Gregg would take them all out if given a chance.

  She watched Samson, who was now on his belly creeping forward, no longer held back by a leash. And she realized all Samson needed was an opening, and Sandy herself was in the way. She was literally blocking the space between Samson and the handler behind her. Would Corporal Gregg be able to control Samson right now because it was his dog? Because Gregg had had a longer relationship with the dog? Yet Samson stared at Gregg like he would take him out no matter what.

  How did that work? Where did this dog’s loyalties lie?

  She stared at Parker, half motioning toward Samson. Parker nodded and held out three fingers for her to count.

  She stared at them, her gaze going from his fingers to his eyes. Fear choked her. She could only hope that Gregg was distracted right now.

  “Goddamn assholes,” Corporal Gregg said. “They never do anything right.”

  “You have to shoot the guy in the ditch yourself now, don’t you?” Parker asked.

  “Yeah, and now I’ll have a lot of bodies to get rid of,” he said in disgust. “Why can’t people just take orders? Just follow through and stop questioning things. The military should be good for that, but instead you get all these yahoos who think they know how to do this better. No way they should have been running this, and they sure as hell shouldn’t have shot Ronnie here. They should have taken him out to the woods and popped him and left him for the buzzards. Instead they killed him here, thinking enough people would be around that they wouldn’t get blamed. What idiots.”

  Corporal Gregg grabbed Sandy by the shoulder and said, “I want you to stand up slowly.”

  She said, “I will. Just please don’t shoot.”

  She stood, but now she was an even bigger block between Samson and his handler.

  Gregg said, “Now take a few steps forward.”

  She took one step forward. The doorway was right there.

  “Now I want you to go about three more steps.”

  Her gaze locked on Parker, and she could see the tense lines around his mouth. She realized three more steps would be her death.

  Parker held up his fingers—three, two, one. At one, she threw herself out of the office door and to the side. Parker whispered, “Attack.” And Samson let loose.

  Shots were fired, but she could still hear Samson growling and the man screaming, trying to order Samson to stop.

  From where she was, she couldn’t figure out who was who, but Parker was no longer where he’d been, and nothing but chaos was happening in the small space of the office.

  Not enough room to fight. Not enough room for Samson to get at anybody. But, as long as that gun was out of commission, then her team had a fighting chance.

  Then she saw it. A handgun was just around the corner of the doorway. She raced forward and snatched it. Only she didn’t dare shoot, not with men and dog fur flying, fists pounding and men grunting. She fired a shot over their heads. It slowed them, but it didn’t stop them.

  “Stop, or I’ll shoot,” she ordered.

  Parker pulled back and gave an extremely strong fast uppercut to Gregg’s jaw. His head snapped back, and he sank to his knees and went down.

  As soon as he went down, Samson went down, his jaw still attached to Gregg’s shoulder.

  Parker looked at her, his hand reaching around to grab her wrist and to gently remove the handgun from her. “It’s over,” he whispered.

  She stared up at him, wordless.

  He pulled her close and repeated, “It’s over.”

  “I sure as hell hope so. We have to get Samson off him.”

  Parker turned, faced Samson and said, “Samson, stand down.”

  Samson unhooked his jaw, looked up, whined and lay down in front of his handler.

  Corporal Gregg groaned once, shifted, as if trying to get up, and then fell back down again unconscious.

  “This is just great,” she said. “How does this shit just never quit?”

  “It’ll stop now,” Parker said. “Don’t you worry.”

  She shook her head. “Not only will it not stop but there will now be a full investigation. They’ll push our flight back.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “I don’t know. Let’s see what happens.” Just then his phone rang.

  She took a few steps away, crouched to cuddle Samson, who stared at the man who’d spent so much time with the dog. “I’m sorry, Samson,” she said. “It really sucks. It really does. And maybe it’s the best thing that you’re away from here. Because this just adds to your stress again.” She gently talked to Samson, calmed him down. She heard part of the conversation behind her.

  Parker hung up the phone. She looked up at him. Samson was now half on her lap and half off, the unconscious man still out cold in front of them. “What was that about?”

  “That was the colonel, not Commander Cross this time. He was following up on Badger’s text I sent earlier. He wanted to know more details. I gave him an update on what happened here. He’s sending out a sergeant and several more men. He says he’s coming himself too.”

  Sandy frowned. “Great,” she said. “More brass. More headache. More paperwork.”

  He smiled and said, “Sure, but we aren’t dead. We don’t have bullets in us. We’re not recovering from major wounds. So, no matter what they throw at us, remember we can handle it. It’s got to be over now.”

  She shook her head. “I wouldn’t count on it. There’s just been way too much of this so far. People will go to any lengths to stop themselves from going to jai
l.”

  “Not only that,” Parker said, “we’ve got one in the ditch to retrieve.”

  Leaving Sandy beside the trussed-up handler and Samson on guard, Parker snuck out of the building and, not seeing anything suspicious, crept along the yard till he got to the ditch. They now had one man down here and one man inside, but he wanted them both together, so he didn’t have to worry about both. Keeping an eye out, he dashed into the ditch and froze. He was gone. The man they’d tied up was gone.

  He pulled out his phone as he flat-out ran back to the hangar. Sandy’s phone kept ringing and ringing in his ear. He hadn’t been gone that long, but, God damn it, he’d been gone long enough. He blasted into the hangar, not even giving a shit about being quiet and came to a dead stop.

  She stared up at him. But, once again, terror was in her gaze. He spun around to see the man he had left tied up holding a gun pointed at him, his shoulder bloody but his grin … feral.

  Parker looked at Sandy to see she no longer had the weapon he’d left her. He closed his eyes for a long moment and started to swear. “Drake, by any chance?”

  Drake laughed. “You should be swearing. You left her with a gun. That wasn’t hard to take away from her.”

  “How did you get out of your ties?” Parker said. “I left you knocked out and tied up.”

  “You did,” Drake said. “I had a knife in my boot, and you didn’t check for that. Not that it’s very big. It’s more of a razor blade and easily missed,” he said cheerfully. “Which is exactly why I use it.” He motioned the gun at Parker. “Head over there toward her.”

  Slowly Parker dragged his feet as he considered the possibilities. Once again they were caught up behind a weapon with no actual way out. As he took a few more steps, Drake’s eyes shifted. And Parker realized that, pretty soon, he would be facing two of them. As he walked past Corporal Gregg, who was just waking up, Parker kicked him hard on the head to make sure he stayed down.

  “Hey, what was that for?” Drake roared. He went to his buddy and dragged him back and away from them.

  “I just wanted to make sure he didn’t wake up,” Parker said. “Of course maybe I should have let him. Because Gregg was intending on killing you too. You know that, right?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “By the time I’ve taken care of the three of you, it’ll look like you shot everybody anyway.”

  Parker groaned. And then he realized one thing was missing. Casually he looked around, but he saw no sign of Samson. He reached out a hand; Sandy grabbed it. He squeezed her fingers and sent her a flashing question in his eyes. But she didn’t seem to understand.

  “Both of you turn and look at me,” the gunman snapped. “And, if you’re right, then maybe I’ll set the scene a little bit better. I just have to think about it.”

  “If I’m right about what?”

  Drake motioned to the man on the floor in front of him. “If Gregg was actually planning on killing me, I need to put things in motion so everything looks like it was him. The two of you got into an altercation, where he shot you guys, and you overcame him, but you still died, and so did he from his wounds.”

  Parker thought about that.

  “I just have to place the wounds properly,” Drake said. “Make sure you guys die from each other’s shots. It happens in gunfights all the time.”

  Unfortunately it did, Parker thought. And that was just too damn bad. It could work, but it would have to be done properly. His job now was to hold that off until the colonel arrived. “What about the two men we ID’d in the colonel’s quarters?”

  “Interesting. That’s the problem with being out here at the airport most of the time,” he spat out. “So what happened to those two?” Drake asked.

  Parker shrugged. “I don’t know. The men were taken away by Sergeant Hall.”

  A funny light came into his gaze. “Well, that’s good,” he said. “That’s very good.”

  Parker frowned, not liking that. “Why is that?”

  The gunman gave him a grim smile. “None of your business,” he said. “You’ve been enough trouble already.”

  “We didn’t want any trouble,” Sandy said, a plea entering her tone. “We came to pick up our brothers. And to go home and bury them.”

  Drake shrugged. “I understand that, but you got yourself mixed up in a shitload more trouble.”

  “You could just let us go,” she said, a note of desperation this time.

  Parker squeezed her fingers as he tried to figure out where the hell Samson was. If this guy had shot Samson, that was seriously bad news. Another animal that needed a second chance. But so did Sandy. All of them did.

  They were leaving this life to find another life outside of the military, and to think that this asshole was looking at taking it away from them. Well, that wasn’t happening. Parker shifted his position, and the gun swung in his direction.

  “You could let her go,” Parker said. “She doesn’t know anything. She’s not part of this.”

  “Well, she is part of it now, isn’t she?” Drake said. “I get you trying to save your little girlfriend here. But she’s collateral damage.”

  At that, Sandy stiffened. “Collateral damage?” she cried out. “Are you serious? My life is so much more than that.”

  “Your life might have been, but your death isn’t. You’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. So sorry.”

  “I’m pretty sure you don’t want to shoot us all in here,” Parker said. “Just think of how obvious that’ll look.”

  “Not when it’s you doing the shooting,” he said and motioned at the unconscious man.

  “But he’s unconscious still, and you know that forensics will be able to tell how old his wounds were, and you’ll end up screwed.”

  “He needs to wake up soon,” Drake said. “And, yes, I know all kinds of shit about forensics too. Thanks very much.”

  “Then you should try to wake him,” Sandy said. “That’ll be the first thing.”

  He stared at her, but there was a question in his eyes as he contemplated that. He walked over, still holding the gun on Parker, turned on the tap from one of the sinks into a big bucket of water but never gave them a chance to actually move. Parker shifted again, and Drake looked at him. But Parker had seen enough. Samson was behind Drake. But all Parker could see was his nose on the glass door in the office behind Drake.

  Damn. Drake probably had put Samson in there on purpose.

  They were just outside the office, and Samson was lying just inside. He couldn’t even get out because the door was closed. Parker glanced around to see if there was any way to help open it so Samson could get out and add to the fray.

  His opportunity would be when Drake tossed the water on Gregg. Drake would need two hands in order to make that happen. Parker waited quietly for the right moment. All around was nothing but silence. Vehicles should be coming soon. There should be a crew coming to take out the bad guys. So where was everybody?

  “Did you set up our trip back supposedly leaving early on your own?”

  Drake shook his head. “No. Gregg did. It was a combined effort actually,” he corrected. Maybe he was afraid he wouldn’t get his just rewards for that clever move.

  “So, no pilot is coming?” he asked.

  “Not for a few hours yet.”

  Parker glanced at Sandy to see the hope diminishing in her gaze. Again he squeezed her fingers and gave a subtle shake of his head, trying to get her to realize they weren’t out of options yet. Not that he had any idea what those options would be, but he’d take a couple bullets before he let this guy go after her.

  And Drake would have to be damn accurate or have very good luck in order to stop Parker with one bullet.

  He tensed as the gunman came back holding the bucket, trying to tilt it with the handle, but the bucket kept shifting with the water to stay level. Finally, in frustration, Drake said, “Don’t move.” He tilted the bucket of water with both hands, the gun still in one hand, and dumped the water ov
er Corporal Gregg’s face.

  In a sudden move, Parker jumped backward and kicked his foot out, opening up the office door. Samson bolted forward, growling. He jumped high and grabbed for Drake’s firearm, and the man screamed. His gun fired once and then twice, as he tried to get the dog off him.

  Sandy bolted back for the office and hid behind the wall as Parker bolted forward. And he took out the gunman with several hard chops to the jaw. It surprised him that it took three uppercuts. This guy had jaws of steel. Finally the gunman collapsed to the floor, Samson still growling.

  Corporal Gregg, wet and barely conscious, was trying to get up on his hands and knees, struggling to decipher what the hell was going on. He ordered, “Samson down.”

  Samson let go and whined. He sat up and cuddled the dog, then turned to Parker with a smile.

  Parker knew he was in deep shit. “Samson! Come here.”

  And caught sight of something unexpected.

  Bang.

  Corporal Gregg went down with a hard thump. Samson whined.

  Parker called him over. “Come, Samson. Good boy.”

  Samson came running to him and sat down beside him.

  Parker turned his gaze to Sandy, standing in front of him and a long way from the open office doorway where she’d come from, holding a small metal toolbox she’d clunked Corporal Gregg over the head with. He grinned and said, “Aren’t you a handy person to have around.”

  She stood, shaking, tears in her eyes. He bolted to his feet and, with Samson at his side, he wrapped his arms around her. “We’ll be fine. Take it easy.”

  “I want these men to never wake up,” she cried out.

  “I get that,” he said. “Never waking up is one thing. Let’s make sure they can’t get free again.” He handed her the gun. “Shoot them in the knees if they move. At this point, we can’t take any more chances.”

  She stared at him in shock.

  He nodded. “I know it’s not what you do. But we’ll make sure they can’t recover to attack us again.” He walked around the mechanic’s shop, finding some lightweight chains, some bungee cords and some rope. He came back, dropped the whole lot and secured both men back to back with their hands above their heads. They were strung together and weren’t going anywhere.