K-9 Recovery

by Danica Winters

  A little girl couldn’t survive water like that even when it wasn’t ice cold and whispering of hypothermia. Only a monster would have killed a little girl, but monsters were one thing he was used to dealing with—and though Elle had been strong through this shooting, if Lily was lying out on the riverbank somewhere, that could break anyone.

  “I’m sure she’s okay.” Grant looked around like he would suddenly see the little girl just standing on the riverbank, silently watching them and grateful that they had finally found her. Yeah, right, like they could get that lucky.

  He looked over at Philip’s body. There had been a car seat in the Subaru. It was possible that Lily could have been around here, but maybe he had dropped her off with someone else—maybe Steve had told him to ditch her and run. There were any number of possible scenarios that could have played out before they came upon this man.

  But maybe there was something on the body that could help them find the girl. Something, anything, was better than nothing at all—and though he hated the thought, they needed to have answers even if those answers meant Lily was dead.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Elle tried not to focus on the pain in her side. She had told Grant she was going to be fine, that she wasn’t hurting too bad, but the pain threatened to burn through her like a hot iron. She’d heard it burned when a person had been shot, but she had never expected this kind of intensity. She could only imagine what it must feel like to have a baby; if it was anything like this, she would be adopting.

  Parents didn’t have to be blood relatives of a child. If Senator Clark had anything to do with his wife’s death and his daughter’s disappearance like they had come to assume, then it only proved the point that guidance and love determined parentage more than biology. She could provide those things to a kid. She wouldn’t even adopt a baby—rather, she would adopt an older kiddo. She wanted to bring a child into her life that had no one, nowhere to go and had felt abandoned by the world.

  If Lily was found safe and alive, she silently made a promise to the ether that she would follow through and adopt a kid someday. She would give them more love and guidance than even she had received. If she was hoping and praying to the ether, she added in a prayer for Daisy to be healthy, too.

  She also added a plea for Grant to be hers. This time, thinking about him and their future didn’t feel like such an outrageous dream.

  Maybe it was too much to ask for it all, but she didn’t care.

  Picking up the black phone she’d taken from the dead man, she reached over for Philip’s thumb so she could open up the device. However, as she moved to touch him, she noticed a tuft of hair. There, under his pointer and middle fingers, was a clump of fine blond hair. It was the same color as Lily’s.

  Her heart fluttered in her chest. What did that hair mean? “Grant,” she said, “look.” She pointed at Philip’s hand. “That’s Lily’s hair.”

  “Are you sure?” Grant asked, moving beside the body and taking his phone out and snapping a picture of the hand holding the wispy blond locks.

  The hair was dry. Did that mean she hadn’t been in the water or that he had been holding the hair in his hand long enough for it to dry after he had committed murder?

  “She has to be around here,” Elle said, standing up. “We have to find her.”

  “Elle, you aren’t in any kind of shape to go search for Lily. If she is out here, our team is on their way. We can start our search as soon as they get here.”

  She put her hand on the cottonwood tree next to her, steadying herself as she got up and on her feet. “And what if she is out there in the water somewhere? Wet and hurt? Do you think she can really wait? It’s cold and she is likely alone. She has to be so scared.”

  He looked down at Philip and then back up at her. “If you promise not to go anywhere—”

  “I’m not making any promises to that effect, Grant. So you can either help me look for her or you can get out of my way. We are so close to her. I have to find her. I have to know she is okay.”

  Grant shook his head. “I’m not going to let you put yourself in more danger. For all we know, you could be bleeding internally. You know I want to find Lily, too. Finding her has been the major driving force behind this entire case. But let’s say she is deceased. You risking your life is not only dangerous, but it’s downright illogical.”

  She knew he made sense and that his admonition was coming from a good place, but she wasn’t about to sit here and do nothing when the child she loved more than herself was possibly hurt somewhere near. “I’m telling you, Grant, if she is out here and relatively unharmed, she is not going to answer or come near anyone she doesn’t know or trust.”

  Grant ran his hands over his face in frustration, but he had to have known he wasn’t going to get anywhere in this fight. There would be no stopping her, not now.

  “You know kids. She is probably terrified right now. And they always make everything their fault. That means she likely feels everything that has happened to her up to this point is because of some mistake she made. What if she thinks she is going to get in trouble? Can you even begin to imagine how scared she is right now? She has been through so much.” Her voice cracked. “I can’t. I can’t sit by and do nothing.”

  Grant sighed like he understood and empathized with what she was saying but still didn’t agree.

  She loved him for the way he wanted to protect her and keep her safe, but this wasn’t about her. This was about someone else she loved, someone she had promised to protect and someone she had let down. This was about an innocent, sweet child.

  “I know you want to do the right thing by everyone here. It’s what makes you the man you are—the good man, the man I have come to love—but I have to find Lily.” She paused. “If only we had Daisy.”

  “How about I call in the other K-9 teams? We can get them on this.” He smiled. “And wait...did you just say you loved me?”

  She wasn’t sure if the faintness she was feeling was because of her admission or because of blood loss, but she found she needed to press her shoulder against the tree so it could support more of her weight. She sent Grant a sexy half smile. “Loving you is easy to do. You are the perfect combination of all the things I have been looking for in a partner. I never thought I’d meet anyone like you, and then you just appeared in my life.”

  He blushed and looked away.

  Shit. She hadn’t meant to admit her love for him. Not here. Not yet. And then there he was, not saying it in return. He didn’t love her. He was going to run away.

  She pushed herself off the tree, not giving him another second to come up with something to say instead of “I love you, too.”

  As she walked toward the river and away from him, she wasn’t sure what hurt worse, the bullet wound or the pain in having her love rebuffed.

  “Elle, stop. Wait,” he called from behind her.

  Yeah, right. The last thing she wanted to do right now was look him in the eyes. She had just made a hard situation impossibly harder. And there was no reeling back in the words she had let fall from her lips. She couldn’t believe her own stupidity.

  She knew better.

  She had always vowed to never tell a man she loved him before he told her. And there she went breaking her own rules for a man who didn’t even feel the same way.

  What an idiot.

  If she wasn’t going to die from her wound, she was certainly going to die from embarrassment. She started walking down the riverbank, downstream.

  “Elle, please stop,” he said, only steps behind her.

  She shook her head, afraid that if she opened her mouth to speak, all the pain she was feeling would come spilling out and she would say more things that she would regret.

  “Don’t be like that, Elle. You just caught me off guard. I didn’t expect you to—”

  “Lily!” she yelled, cutting him o
ff. She didn’t want to hear his excuses. There was only one acceptable response to someone telling a person they loved another. He started to make a sound. “Lily!” she called again.

  If Elle could have run away, she would have, but her feet slipped on the icy river rocks and every step she made was deliberate to keep from sliding and falling. She didn’t need Grant having to rescue her again.

  Thankfully, the third time he tried to talk to her and she called out Lily’s name, her adolescent stonewalling took effect and he stopped trying. She felt stupid for treating this situation—a situation she had caused—like this, but she couldn’t think of another way to make things less awkward. It just was what it was at this point, and she had no one else to blame than herself. She had read the feelings between her and Grant incorrectly.

  As they walked, the only sound became the gurgle and rushing sounds of the river, their footsteps clattering on the cobbles, and the occasional call of magpies and ravens in the distance. Her ego was definitely feeling more pain than her side, and it threatened to bring her to her knees.

  It was fine, though. After they got through this investigation, she could go back to being by herself. She could find another job, and if nothing else she could train dogs at some chain store or something. The last thing she wanted to do was go back into contracting work, going overseas and watching as hellish crimes happened to the most innocent people. Though, admittedly, she didn’t have to go overseas to find those kinds of monsters.

  To her right, she heard the sounds of whimpering. The sound was soft and mewing, and Elle stopped walking in hopes it wasn’t just in her imagination.

  “Ms. Elle?” Lily’s voice broke through the pain filling Elle’s soul.

  “Lily? Lily, is that you?” she called, her voice taking on a manic, relieved tone.

  Tucked into the hollowed-out center of a cottonwood, barely visible in the distance, was Lily. She was wearing a dark blue coat and white boots, and she waved a dirt-covered gloved hand.

  Tears sprang from Elle’s eyes and poured down her cheeks as she forgot about her own pain and rushed toward the little girl. She stepped over downed trees and pushed through the brush, and as she grew closer Lily stood up and started to run toward her. Lily extended her arms, throwing them around Elle’s legs as they found one another.

  As she pulled her up and into her embrace, Elle wasn’t sure who was crying harder or was more relieved.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The hospital staff had been incredibly kind in allowing Lily and Elle to stay together in the emergency room. In all reality, even if they had tried to pull them apart, Grant was sure that neither would have allowed it. Even during the ride in the ambulance, the two ladies had been inseparable, according to the EMS workers.

  After Elle had told him she loved him, all he could think about was her, and if Lily hadn’t called out to them, he was sure that he wouldn’t have seen her hiding away in the tree. Elle had been right, and as much as he had hated the idea of her striking out into the woods to find the girl, it was because of her that Lily had been found.

  He made his way toward their room and knocked on the door frame. Elle was lying down in the hospital bed, Lily’s head on her chest. Lily’s eyes were closed, and from the steady rise and fall of the little girl’s back, he could tell she was fast asleep.

  Elle looked up at him as he made his way inside. There was hurt in her eyes, but he doubted it had anything to do with her side. Whatever she had been feeling from that had likely been fixed with some kind of meds by now, which meant the pain in her eyes was one he had put there.

  “How are you two doing?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Lily is all good. They checked her out, and aside from a few bruises and a missing patch of hair, she seems to be not too worse for the wear. The only thing they want me to watch are her feet. Her little toes were pretty cut up after walking barefoot in the snow when Steve took her from the house.”

  “Is that what she said had happened?”

  Elle nodded. “She won’t tell me what happened with her mother, but I’m hoping it is because she didn’t see her mother’s death. I didn’t press her too hard about details. I’m sure when she is feeling a little better, we can talk more, and I’m sure she’ll be assigned a counselor. I just wanted her to feel safe and secure for now.” Elle paused. “The hospital asked if they should contact the senator.”

  “What did you tell them?”

  “She is a minor, and he is her parent. They were put into a tough situation.” She paused. “I told them we needed to wait to hear from you. You are in charge of this investigation.”

  “I appreciate that.” He smiled, stepping closer to her and putting his hands on the rail of her bed. “I think we can make that work. I’ll call my teams in and we can arrest the senator in the parking lot—away from Lily. They have already taken Steve into custody. He didn’t put up a fight, and he has been happy to talk.”

  “That’s surprising.” She chuckled gently, as though she wanted to keep her movement to a minimum in order to not disturb the sleeping child.

  “Yeah,” Grant said, smiling. “The only thing he was worried about was the stupid goat. He made sure that it was taken to the neighbor’s house before he left. Sounds like he is going to give up everything—including the senator. He already told my team all about the senator hiring him and his brother—and how the senator was going to try and pin everything on them thanks to the falsified death threats.”

  “No doubt the senator has lawyered up by now,” Elle said, rolling her eyes.

  He felt exactly the same way. “I’m sure he has.”

  “Did Steve tell your team why the senator hired them? Was it his intention to kill the girls?” Elle whispered.

  “I think he wanted his wife out of the way—they were having problems, she had even contacted a divorce attorney—but I don’t know about Lily. From what Steve said, with the election coming up, Dean Clark was hoping to pull sympathy votes thanks to his wife’s death. He’d already hired a publicist to handle the press and manipulate the public’s opinion of him.”

  “So, he was planning on killing two birds? Using his wife’s death to avoid public scrutiny and also to gain votes? He was pandering to the public’s sympathies to win?”

  “Are you really surprised? What won’t a seasoned politician do to make people bend to their whims?”

  “You have a point.” Elle nodded. “If it turns out that he was planning on having Lily murdered, too, what do you think will happen to the senator?”

  “Regardless of what he had intended, we will arrest him for a murder-for-hire plot, but what else the district attorney will go for is up to her—I’m hoping homicide gets added to his charges. The good news is that, no matter how good a lawyer he has, he will be going to prison. And if they prove that he was also planning on killing his daughter, then I’m sure he will likely never leave that prison.”

  “And what will happen to Lily? Where does she go from here?” She hugged Lily tighter.

  He sighed, knowing it was unlikely she was going to like the answer. “She will go into the care of CPS for now while they try to contact the next of kin. If they agree to take her, then they will be her legal acting guardians.”

  She nibbled on her lip. “I would ask that they go to Catherine’s side.”

  He nodded. “I’ll make sure to recommend that to protective services.”

  “I know that they have a large, distinguished family, so I’m sure they will take her, but I would love it if I could come and see her once in a while.”

  He reached over and brushed a strand of her brunette hair out of her face and pushed it gently behind her ear. “You saved this little girl’s life. She is alive because of your quick actions and unwavering efforts to find her. I’m sure that no one would have a problem with you seeing her. You are her hero.”

  She smiled and
tears welled in her eyes.

  “Elle, you’re my hero.” He smiled. “And I hope you know I love you.”

  She reached over and took his hand in hers. “You don’t have to say that if you don’t really mean it. It’s okay. You don’t owe me that.”

  “Elle, you know I say what I mean. And I may be slow to know my own feelings, but there is no question in my heart about how I feel about you. I love you. I know we haven’t been together for all that long, but I can’t wait to see where things go. And, as cheesy as this might sound, I can see being with you forever.”

  “I love you, too, Grant.” She smiled, and a tear trembled at the corner of her eye. “And I can see loving you always. You are the man I’ve been searching for.”

  He leaned in and gently kissed her lips. “And you are the woman I can’t imagine spending a moment without.”

  There was the sound of clicking, like toenails on tile, and then there was a knock on the door. Grant stood up.

  Standing in the doorway looking at them, wiggling manically, was Daisy. She wore an inflatable tube-shaped blue collar, and the effect made him chuckle. The dog didn’t seem to notice; she only had eyes for Elle. If anything, he could understand the dog’s need to be near her.

  “I hope we’re not interrupting,” Zoey said, smiling. “But someone needed her mom. She’s been whining ever since we left the vet’s office.”

  Elle smiled widely. “Oh, Zoey, thank you so much. Is she doing okay?”

  Zoey nodded. “She has a few stitches and will have to wear the inflatable collar for a while to make sure she doesn’t get at her stitches, but she will be fine.”

  “What about the other dog?” Grant asked. “If she doesn’t have anyone, I have a buddy who has been looking. We can get her a home.”

  “That would be perfect.” Zoey smiled. “And speaking of home, Elle, you are welcome to come back to our team whenever you and Daisy are ready.” Zoey let go of the dog’s lead.