"I try."
"You succeed. Always." Shane smiled at her before looking down at Kevin. "Ready?"
Kevin stood immediately, suddenly serious. "Yeah." He looked at Jodie. "Thanks, Ms. Jodie. I wish I could finish the puzzle with you, but me and Shane have matters to discuss."
Jodie's eyes widened and she quickly swallowed a laugh. "Matters to discuss, huh? Well then, I won't slow you down, Mr. Taylor."
"Can you keep the puzzle like it is though?" he said, right back to being a kid. "Maybe we can finish it later?"
"I'll set it up on the credenza behind me until your next visit," Jodie said solemnly, eyes twinkling. “But, maybe next time you’ll let your mom bring you, or at least tell someone where you’re going?”
“Yeah, okay.” He rolled his eyes, but it was a good-natured gesture.
"Ready?" Shane nudged Kevin.
"Ready."
They headed for Shane's Watchdog SUV. “Hang on,” Shane said, stopping. “Where’s your bike?”
Kevin looked blank for a moment. “Oh yeah, my bike.” Then he tore off around the building.
“Kevin, wait!” Shane and Pete jogged after him. By the time they got around to the other side, he was gone.
“Kevin!”
The boy reappeared out of the woods surrounding the entire Watchdog compound, which included the main buildingand kennels, a shooting range, two obstacle courses—one for humans and one for canines—a town front façade for training dogs and their humans to find enemies and explosives, and three safehouses. Arden’s farm was just up the road, safe behind Watchdog’s gates. Everything was on one of the solitary foothills just a few miles east of Lyons, which was in the Front Range foothills proper.
Grinning, Kevin pushed his bike out of the trees and headed toward Shane and Pete. Shane had to laugh—Ellie had appeared the same way, walking her bike out of the woods and into Bear’s life as he was fixing up one of the safehouses. She’d put all of them on high alert and Kyle had beefed up the cameras.
Looks like he’s going to be dropping some more cheese on cameras for the woods.
Got it!” Kevin shouted needlessly.
“Double-time. Your mom’s waiting.”
Kevin hopped on the bike and sped past Shane and Pete to the back of the SUV. Shane followed, shaking his head. When he got to the vehicle, he opened the passenger-side door.
"Hop in. I'll get Pete and the bike secured, then we'll be on our way."
Kevin peeked around the side from the back. "Can I help?" he asked eagerly.
At first, Shane thought Kevin might be stalling for time, that maybe the reality of an angry mom waiting for him was sinking in. But the eagerness in the boy's face told him a different story. Kid was absolutely crazy about dogs, Peetie especially.
We’ve got that in common. His heart constricted even as he smiled at Kevin. "Sure, yeah."
He should have been mine.
Those selfish, forbidden words slipped past his defenses for the thousandth time since he first laid eyes on April's son. Followed immediately by the same old shame and regrets. If hehadn't been such a pussy and stood up to his father. If he hadn't been so selfish and gone off to college like the old tyrant wanted. If he'd tried harder to find her after he rebelled, dropped out, and flew to California to enlist in the Navy with the hopes of becoming a SEAL.
Selfish.
With Shane’s help, Kevin lifted his bike into the back of the SUV and secured it. Then, Pete jumped up, and into his cage he went. Kevin made sure Peetie was comfy, had enough toys, and wasn’t going to get car sick.
Shane started to open the passenger-side door again and stopped.Oh, shit, I didn’t think. I don’t have a kid’s car seat. And kids can’t ride up front anyway, can they?
“Sorry, Kev. You’ve gotta sit in the back.”
“Can I… I need to sit in front to talk to you. Man to man.”
