Cross Her Heart (Bree Taggert) by Melinda Leigh

Author:Melinda Leigh [Leigh, Melinda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781542006927
Published: 2020-03-16T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Bree pulled out her weapon and put her shoulder to the wall on one side of the doorway. Matt positioned himself on the other side. He held Brody back. The dog whined and shifted his weight back and forth. He wasn’t growling. As much as Bree avoided getting close to K-9s, she knew individual dogs had their own alert cues.

“Threat?” she mouthed.

Matt shrugged and mouthed back, “Not sure.”

Great.

Bree peered around the doorframe. A white F-150 SuperCab sat in the middle of another large, concrete-floored shipping bay.

Her heart double-tapped. Erin’s truck. She didn’t see anyone in the vehicle through the windshield. She scanned the rest of the room but saw nothing. Giving Brody some leash, Matt let the dog lead him through the opening.

Bree followed, sweeping the room from corner to corner with her weapon.

She moved forward, passing the dog and approaching the side of the vehicle. As she neared the driver’s door, the dog barked once and lunged toward her. Bree startled and jumped sideways, away from the dog. Her heart continued to beat in double time.

Matt leaned back against the leash, but he was clearly having a hard time managing his dog.

Tension radiated through Bree.

The dog lunged again, and she jumped even higher.

“Can you control him?” she snapped.

“Yes. Sorry. He’s never like this.” Matt shortened the leash and issued a few sharp commands in German. The only visible reaction in the dog was a single flick of an ear. The truck commanded all his attention. His weight was squared on all four legs and shifted forward. Matt dragged him back a few feet, but he remained 100 percent focused on the pickup.

With one eye on the dog, Bree approached the vehicle. She pointed her weapon through the driver’s window. “Come out of the truck with your hands up.”

Nothing moved.

She rose onto her toes and scanned the interior of the vehicle, front and back. She expected to see a body inside, maybe Justin’s, but the cab was empty. Looking closer, she noticed dark-red stains streaking the dashboard, steering wheel, and driver’s seat.

“What do you see?” Matt asked.

“Blood.”

Matt was at her side in two seconds. Brody stood on his hind legs, scratching at the truck’s door, his nose working. He huffed. His mouth opened as if he were tasting the air. On instinct, Bree moved away from the dog.

“I’m sorry he’s freaking out.” Matt grabbed the dog’s collar and pulled him back.

Bree moved to the other side of the vehicle. “Not your fault. I’m sorry I snapped before. I need to work through my fear of dogs.”

With the truck between her and the dog, Bree took three deep breaths, concentrating on exhaling slowly to lower her heart rate. Her brain knew Brody was no threat to her, but her response was a reflex.

Matt made the dog sit. “You can’t control it.”

And that fact irritated Bree more than anything.

She studied the gray interior of the truck. “That’s a lot of blood.”

“There was a handprint smear on the frame of Justin’s bedroom door,” Matt said.

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