“We called 911. The ambulance is on the way.” Her voice shook despite her effort to steady it. “Deputy Vaughn is still unconscious. Caleb is outside with him. I just came in here to check on the dogs.”
Max hurried back outside, Naomi on his heels, and rounded the corner behind the kennel. His gaze locked onto the figure sprawled on the ground.
Deputy Vaughn lay on his side, one arm bent awkwardly beneath him. His chest rose and fell in shallow breaths.
For a split second, Max’s mind flashed to another body on the ground—another moment he’d arrived too late.
Sarah.
He shoved the memory away.
“Vaughn hasn’t moved,” Caleb said. “Whatever happened, he’s out cold.”
“Any signs of injury?”
“None.”
Max nodded, his focus still on the deputy. What had happened to him? Then he remembered Susie.
She’d been drugged. Had Kendra done that to Vaughn as well?
“Kendra is behind this,” Max announced.
“What?” Caleb stared at him.
“It’s a long story. I can explain more later. Right now, we need to find Hadley.”
Howling started in the background again, louder this time.
“It’s Juno,” Naomi explained. “She’s been doing that since before I stepped inside.”
Max slowly exhaled. “If only she could talk . . . she could tell us what happened.”
He turned back to the deputy, scanning him more carefully this time. He needed confirmation of his theory.
His gaze slowed at the man’s neck, and he leaned closer.
A small pinprick was barely visible in the dim light.
Caleb crouched beside him. “What is it?”
Max pointed. “Right there. See it?”
Caleb leaned in, his brow furrowing. “That looks like?—”
“A needle mark,” Max finished.
Naomi sucked in a breath. “You think Vaughn was drugged?”
“It looks that way.” Max rose to his feet, and his gaze swept the back of the kennel.
The door there led to the customer-access side of the building, the part of the property anyone could reach without clearance.
“Kendra must have entered from that side,” he said. “She must have known Hadley would come here.”
Juno let out another broken howl, and Max’s jaw clenched.
He forced himself to breathe, to focus.Think. Don’t react—think.
