Rainier.Diggs glanced at the rest of the team, all their expressions as ominous as he knew his had tobe.
* * *
“You getthat dog’s profile pulled up yet?” King shouted across the expanse of the war room, half his body hidden inside the caged weapons facility in the backcorner.
Diggs’ fingers flew over the keyboard, pulling up site after site, hacking into the Department of Defense’s internal website. “Jeez, man, I know you think I’m a pro but even I take more than thirty-seconds to hack into the DoDmainframe.”
There were a couple of grunts followed by some loud clangs signaling guns being tossed into a duffle bag. King’s voice was muffled as if he’d suddenly gone behind the wall. “You think I need to pack the dart gun? I have no desire to be bit by amutt.”
Diggs paused in his search and spun to see King bent over completely, digging through a low trunk shoved beneath the shelf in thecloset.
“You afraid of dogs now?” Diggs glanced down at his own hand. Trigger’s bite hurt like hell, but he’d been out of his mind. If the dog truly was trained military, he wouldn’t be feral or rabid. But he might feel cornered—and any cornered animal could bedangerous.
“Fine, you catch him then. I’m packing the gun. If he so much as lunges in my direction I’m knocking himout.”
“And you can deal with the girl,” Juarez strolled toward King with three clips of ammo and a small air assault rifle slung over hisshoulder.
King paused and straightened to his full height so that his head nearly touched the top of the door frame, a look of complete consternation on his face. “Didn’t think of that. Definitely don’t want to get on her wrongside.”
Juarez tossed him the clips. “Don’t think you were ever on her right side, bro. Don’t think any of us were, except him.” Juarez tilted his head in Diggs’direction.
Diggs chose not to engage. Instead, he swiveled in his chair and picked up where he’d left off. Five minutes later, the homepage of the DoD sat ready and waiting. This wasn’t the first time he’d hacked into the mainframe—hell, he’d hacked into the NSA—but it was the first time he’d done it in less than five minutes. It was a new personal record, one definitely worth bragging about. But “I’m in,” was all he said, knowing his teammates couldn’t possibly understand the complications of computer code, encrypted software, orfirewalls.
“About time, your woman’s getting away.” Hicks clapped him on the back and flopped down into a chair a few feet from him, using his heels to pull himself closer. Within minutes Juarez slid into the seat on his other side, and King stood behind them all, arms crossed and feet spread like a granitestatue.
“She’s not my woman. I just met her,” Diggs grumbled and hunched his shoulders forward. Funny, it had been a hell of a lot more entertaining to poke fun at Hicks when he’d fallen head over heels for Melissa’s sister. Watching him play the puppet to her strings had been one of those little gifts life hands you at the most unexpectedmoments.
“We all know how much that matters.” Juarez rolled his eyes and propped his chin on his fist, nodding in Hicks’ direction. “He moved in with Whitney in less than two weeks. Freakin’ Reaper is about to have ababy.”
King joined in, “At this rate Diggs will be married by the end of theweek.”
Diggs gave his teammates a wide eye. Married? Hell no. His parents had gotten married and popped out six boys within nine years. He sure as heck had no intention of having a wifeorchildren. Dating—yes. Short term relationships—maybe. Shacking up or shackling—noway.
“If you three are finished, how about we focus on finding the girl and the dog? You know, do ourjobs?”
Juarez chuckled and rubbed his thumb and finger together as if he were handling a wad of cash. “I got fifty on it. End of the week. Diggs and thegirl.”
Diggs gave his teammate an incredulous look. “What’s up with you and betting? You bet oneverything.”
“Because I win, brother. You guys are way too easy to take money from. It’s like taking candy from a baby. Don’t even have to think aboutit.”
“Asshole,” Diggs muttered as he returned his focus back on hiscomputers.
“What do you see?” King asked as he locked the cage at the back of the warroom.
“Just a search database. I’m going to try his name first.” Diggs looked at the inside of the collar, making sure he had the spelling for Trigger correct while trying to ignore his disappointment in her desperation to escape him. She’d left without a word. He’d known she’d been scared, but he’d thought he still had time withher.
He’d wanted moretime.
Diggs entered the dog’s name. The search turned up 20 German Shepherds throughout the services. Apparently, Trigger wasn’t a unique military dogname.
Then Diggs cross referenced the dog’s blood type against others listed and narrowed the field down. “Crap, there’s six of them.” Six dogs meant six times longer to locate the correctone.
“Pull up their pictures, let’s take a look.” Juarez came to stand behind Diggs. “Surely we can tell themapart.”
Diggs selected the “view all” option and six thumbnail images of the dogs in front of an American flag background popped on thescreen.
Juarez scrubbed a hand through his jet-black hair, ruffling the short curly locks. “Man, they look exactly thesame.”
