Chapter 1
“COME ON,Evie,” Atlas De Vaus said as he stood by the back door of his small row house on East Pomfret Street. Evie pranced up with her Kong between her teeth. Once she saw he was holding her harness, she set the toy in her box and sat down right next to him. The harness meant that playtime was over and that the two of them were going to work. “That’s my good girl,” he said warmly as he ran his fingers through her thick tan and black Belgian Malinois coat before putting on her harness.
Atlas adored Evie. They had been through K-9 school together, and at first no one thought Evie would make it through the training. It had been tough; early on she hadn’t caught on to what they had been teaching. But there was no way Atlas was willing to give up. He worked with her outside of class because she had more heart than any person he had ever met. In fact, Atlas often wished he could meet a guy with as much heart as his dog. He swore the day he did was the day he’d marry. But that wasn’t bloody likely.
Evie sat next to him, waiting as Atlas put on his coat, and then they were off. He led her through the yard and opened the door of his Bronco. Evie took her place in the back, and he closed the hatch before getting into the driver’s seat, heading to the station.
“Morning,” Larry Melvoin said as Atlas and Evie walked into the station together. Evie watched him and didn’t react to anyone else. She was working and focused, the way she alwayswas. Atlas had known as soon as he saw her at the training facility that she was perfect for the program. The leaders had already written her off, but Atlas saw something the others didn’t, and in the end they had graduated near the top of the class. “Too bad about the other day.” Melvoin snickered quietly. The guy really needed to develop some people skills… and fast. “I guess not everyone is perfect.”
“Leave them alone,” Carter Schunk said as he strode out of the station.
“The only reason you didn’t find anything was because you didn’t look deep enough,” Atlas said. “Evie scented drugs, and you kicked a little bit of dirt and said there was nothing there before moving on.” He rolled his eyes. Larry could be a real ass sometimes.
Carter cleared his throat. “Stop it,” he snapped and then turned to Atlas. “The captain asked to speak with you as soon as you got in.” He tilted his head toward the office, so Atlas headed down the hall with Evie right next to him. He knocked and entered.
The captain was on the phone, but motioned him to sit down.
He ended his call and sat back. “I wanted to be the one to tell you.”
“I already got razzed by Larry on the way in.” Atlas placed his hand on Evie’s back. No one got to call her skills into question. “He was practically gloating.”
“Melvoin is jealous because he flunked out of K-9 two years ago. But….” He cleared his throat; it was what he did to change the subject. “Anyway. I sent a squad car back to that scene after I heard what Larry did, and they found a stash of pills and other drugs a foot below the surface in a plastic container wrapped in cellophane. She did good, and I wanted you to know.”
“But Larry…?”
“Melvoin is my next appointment,” the captain said just as his phone rang again. He answered it and motioned toward the door. Atlas left with Evie alongside him, going right to his desk.
Atlas opened his bottom drawer and pulled out a bowl. He added water and set it down for Evie. They were partners, and she relied on him and only him—that was the deal. So in his mind, she came first too. He took her pad from the corner, placed it next to his desk, and Evie curled up like the amazing girl she was. Now that she was all set, he logged in and got to work himself.
It took an hour for him to answer all his emails and submit the last reports from the day before. With all that done, he led Evie out to their K-9 patrol vehicle and headed out. There were limited teams like them, so they had to be ready to go when needed, and their first call of the day came almost immediately. Atlas drove to an address on Louther where he and Evie assisted in a call at the home of a known dealer. They had been trying to nail this guy for months, and as soon as they entered the house, Evie went to a section of living room wall and sat down, looking up at him.
“Right there,” Atlas said, pointing.
“Are you sure?” the officer in charge asked. It would mean tearing out the wall, so they had to be right. His belly did a single flip, the way it always did at moments like this, but he trusted Evie with his life.
Atlas nodded and stepped back, drawing Evie along with him as another officer took a sledge to the wall, knocking through a combination of drywall and plaster. A brick of cocaine fell to the floor almost immediately, and the dealer was taken into custody amid a flurry of protests that he didn’t know any of that was there. He and Evie checked the rest of the house, finding drugs behind outlets and cabinets in almost every roomof the building. Once they were done, Atlas took Evie back to their vehicle, where he fed her and gave her some water.
“You did good, like you always do,” he told her before closing up the back of the vehicle and pulling away.
They had gone maybe a block when a call for backup come over the radio from the state police. They had made a stop of a semi on the freeway and needed an additional unit. Atlas waited for a response but didn’t hear one, so he signaled that he was on his way, ETA two minutes. He flipped on his lights and took off, thankfully not needing his siren. He used it as little as possible out of concern for Evie’s sensitive ears.
He pulled up behind the trooper’s vehicle and got out, recognizing Nelson, a fellow officer. “Hey, Wyatt, what’s up?” It was unusual for troopers to ask for general backup like this.
“The truck was all over the road.”
Atlas nodded. “Better safe than sorry,” he said. “You take care of business, and I’ll follow your lead.”
“Thanks. Is Evie with you?” Wyatt asked. “You could have her sniff around. I just have a feeling about this one.”
“No problem.” She probably needed to pee anyway, and this would be a good opportunity. Wyatt went to speak to the driver while Atlas got Evie out of the back. He walked her to the side of the road, where she squatted and did her business. Then he brought her up toward the back of the truck, and Evie almost immediately barked twice, which was an unusual reaction for her. “Good girl,” he told her calmly, waiting for Wyatt to take the driver’s license and other information before coming back to join him. He knew something was wrong, he just wasn’t sure what it was. Atlas did know that Evie had amazing instincts.
“You need to check the back of the truck.”
“Evie found something?” Wyatt asked as Evie panted and managed to look pleased with herself. “All right.” He returned to the driver, who came to the back. “Open it,” Wyatt said, allbusiness. The driver looked around and grew more and more nervous by the second.
“There’s just a load of detergent,” he said, his hands fumbling as he opened the lock. Atlas swung the door open to two pallets of boxes side by side, creating a wall. Wyatt called for additional backup, taking charge of the driver. Atlas returned Evie to the back of his patrol vehicle before climbing into the truck. Using his flashlight, he peered over the boxes to a second set of pallets. He climbed over them to what appeared to be empty space. Once he reached the far edge, he angled his light down.
Eyes stared back at him, as big as saucers: a group of women huddled together with a slight young man standing in front of them. “You no hurt them,” he said firmly, as though he were ready to fight.
