Walton (The K9 Files #26)

Chapter 12

W hen they arrived at Chelsea’s house, she was tired, worn out, and yet still amped-up in a way. She sighed, as she looked up at her house and smiled. “It’s still lights-out here.”

“It absolutely is, and it’s fine,” he replied. “Let’s go in and get you settled. I’m happy to stay the night, or I can go home, whatever you’re comfortable with.”

“I’m not sending you away now,” she declared. “You drove all the way home. The least I can do is feed you.”

He smiled. “I sure won’t say no to a meal.”

“I’m not even sure I have any food,” she muttered. “There may be something, but probably not much. So that could be a limiting factor.”

He chuckled. “It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if we ordered something in.”

“Julie would be horrified.”

“No way, she of all people would understand,” he replied.

She looked over at him and nodded. “I’m really glad you met them. They really liked you.”

“I don’t think they liked anything about me in the first place,” he noted, with a big grin, as he unloaded their bags. “I think they were worried that I was a cripple and that you had some savior complex.”

She stared at him. “Wow, you got all that from a couple days with my brother?”

“Yeah, I sure did,” he declared, with a smile. “But then again, I really liked Rick too. He’s just worried about you, and I can understand his point of view.”

They walked into the house, and she groaned with joy, spinning around and crying out, making Brutus jump and bark happily at her side. “Is there anything quite like home?”

“Nope.” He smiled as he looked at her. “I’m glad you’re happy to be back.”

“I am definitely happy to be back,” she muttered. She walked around to the kitchen and then asked him, “How about some coffee?”

“No thanks, I’m pretty well coffeed out.”

“Okay, so what about… What do you want to do?”

“I thought you would feed me,” he said, with a smile, but then shook his head. “Yeah, I’m not quite ready to eat though.”

“Okay, unless you are,” she noted.

He shook his head. “I think I’m pretty good. That would be nice later though.”

She caught the expression on his face. Out of nowhere, he suddenly stood in front of her. She was about to say something when he snatched her up in his arms and planted a huge, long kiss on her lips.

When he finally lifted his head, she sagged against him and whispered, “Wow. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Yes, you were, just maybe not right now.”

She smiled and nodded. “You’re right, maybe not now.”

“Are you okay with the timing?”

“I’m absolutely okay with the timing,” she said. “I kept waiting for you to come back for your next appointment, and, when you never booked it, you broke my heart. I put so much time and effort into making sure you were happy and healthy and all that good stuff, but then I never heard from you again.” She looked up at him. “You have no idea how crushed I was.”

He frowned, then leaned over and kissed her gently on her temple. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”

“I know,” she muttered, “you weren’t trying, but we had spent a lot of time together. We were working together a lot, and I thought we had a great rapport. I was hoping you would ask me out, and instead you just ghosted me.”

“I never ghosted you,” he protested, but then he thought about it and shrugged. “I guess maybe from your perspective I did. But I was just trying to come back bigger, better, stronger, so you didn’t feel as if you needed to nursemaid me.”

“I never nursemaided you,” she stated in astonishment. “Needing physical therapy isn’t a nursemaid thing. I’m not a nurse. I’m not a doctor. I didn’t save your life,” she explained and kept on going. “I’ve simply been helping you reach your highest potential, be the best you can be, and that is a completely different story.”

He smiled, then nodded. “I’m glad to hear that.”

“I can’t believe you disappeared from my world to have surgeries and never told me,” she muttered. “A couple times I wanted to call you and tell you that I had an opening for an appointment, if you were ready to take the next step, but I never could bring myself to make it happen.” She looped her arms around his neck and smiled.

“I’m glad to hear that you thought about me,” he whispered. “I was also worried that you would find somebody else to fill all your appointments with.”

“That’s what I do,” she stated. “I work with people. Some cases are really bad. Some aren’t, and some are incredibly rewarding because I may become too attached to the people I work with.”

“Ah,” he muttered, with a smile, “and I didn’t want to be one of the people you became too attached to on a strictly work level.”

“You’ve got that whole work level thing in your brain,” she noted, tapping his temple. “You need to let it go.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I don’t get attached to people in my work. I care for them all. I work with them. I work hard with them,” she explained, all with a smile, “and there are certainly benefits to working with them, but I don’t want to get physical with them.” She laughed. “And I don’t even think about calling them to see if they want appointments.”

“Did you ever call me?”

She nodded. “I did, but then I disconnected because you didn’t answer right away. I took it as a sign I needed to not do it,” she muttered. “But then I ran into you anyway, and here we are.”

He smiled and kissed her softly. “Good.” Her yawn caught him off guard, and he laughed. “You, my dear, need to get some sleep.”

“I slept on the road, so why am I still tired?”

“Because neither one of us got any quality sleep at Rick’s place.”

“Right.” She groaned. “So how about we pick this up later? We can both grab some sleep now, and then we’ll talk—and eat—later.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” he murmured.

She grabbed her bag and said, “Come on upstairs.” She led the way to the second floor of her modest two-bedroom home. “This is a fairly new place for me.”

“Is it? It’s quite nice.”

She showed him the spare room. “I’ll go get a shower, then I’ll crawl into bed.”

“Good, and if you wake up in the night terrified…”

“I know where you are,” she said, with a big smile. “Let’s hope I don’t. The last thing I want is nightmares.” She kissed him ever-so-gently on the lips and walked away. “Good night. We’ll talk in the morning.” And, with that, she disappeared into her room, and, as she closed the door, she caught herself grinning. Like a fool, she was head over heels with love and excitement, and yet she’d sent him to his room, alone. “Idiot,” she muttered.

Then again she wasn’t so sure. She didn’t want to take things too crazy fast. Yet she had no intention of letting him go, not ever.

Once in his room, Walton phoned Badger. He winced when he heard the sleepy voice on the other end. “Sorry, I didn’t check the time.”

“That’s all right,” Badger replied, as if trying to wake up in a hurry. “What’s up?”

Walton quickly brought him up-to-date on what was happening with the car accidents on the highway, causing two more deaths.

“Jesus Christ, seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously.” At a woof beside him, Walton looked down at the War Dog and smiled. “On the other hand, I do have Brutus here, and he’s been a godsend on this trip.”

“I’m glad something good worked out,” Badger noted. “Everything else on that trip has been a nightmare.”

“It is, and it won’t end anytime soon.”

“What do you mean?” Badger was never one to be slow on the uptake, and it was pretty obvious that he sensed something was wrong too.

“I don’t have any justification for what I’m feeling. I don’t have any reason for the suspicions that I have,” Walton began.

“Ah, give me the rundown on what the hell you think is happening or about to happen.”

Walton began, “I know it sounds ludicrous, but you found that George had a twin brother. I think the brother is up here.”

“Yeah, and what about him?”

“I think he’s the one behind it all.”

“He does have a military record, and he certainly could be out there, living off the land quite easily,” Badger agreed cautiously, “but what would his motivation be for killing all these people?”

“I’m not sure I have an answer for you on that one yet,” Walton replied, staring out at nothing. “What I do know is that I don’t think this is over. I feel as if he’s still on a rampage.”

“Did he see you?”

Walton hesitated. “I’m not sure, but he might very well have seen the War Dog, so it’s possible he could have seen me all the same.”

“Do you think George was telling him what was going on?”

“I think so, and, between the two of them, they managed to shoot Chad without anybody technically being on the scene.”

“So, the twin brother came up in another vehicle, stayed hidden, and took care of Chad, and then, on the way home, takes out his own brother?”

“That was my impression, yes.”

“So… that’s a shitty deal,” Badger noted. “The thing is, we’re speculating. We don’t even have a motive identified for any of this.”

“I know. I don’t have anything to even suggest that is what happened,” Walton admitted. “All I can tell you is, when I was in the woods out by the lodge, I swear to God that I saw somebody who didn’t want to be seen.”

Silence came on the other end, while Badger thought about it. “I’ll do a deeper investigation into the twins’ backgrounds. We didn’t even check out any of these guys ourselves because they weren’t part of our original mission.”

“I know, and, for that, I am sorry.”

Badger snorted. “Every one of you guys who goes out looking for a War Dog ends up finding all kinds of other trouble.”

“Not intentionally, though,” Walton noted, with a sigh. “Still, when you send one of us out, and we find trouble, not even one of us will turn around and walk away.”

“Nope, we don’t do that shit. I’ll get back to you in a little bit.”

“Okay.”

With that, Walton disconnected, then pulled out a notebook and sat here for a long moment, wondering what he was supposed to do. Then, with another thought—and pissed that it took him this long to think about it—he sent Badger a text, asking about Darren’s location. He got a response back quickly.

Give us a minute.

Somebody would have to track down where Darren had gone. Had he flown all the way back home again, or was he stuck in town back there where the car went over into the ravine? Not sure what to do, Walton got up and paced. He stopped when he realized that Brutus was pacing with him. He chuckled, then bent down and grabbed the big guy around the rough of the neck and gave him a hug. “Just because I’m trying to work out some stress doesn’t mean you need to as well, buddy.” As he continued pacing, the dog kept pacing with him.

He sighed. “No way I’m letting you go. You know that, right?”

A woof came right back at him, and he smiled. “I want to believe that you knew what I just said, but, even if you don’t, we’ll still make one hell of a team.”

Another woof came, and Walton continued to pace with Brutus. When his phone buzzed, it was a text message with the address of a hotel close by. Darren was staying there overnight, set to fly out tomorrow morning. As Walton read the message, his mind asked a question. Would Darren still be alive by morning? Walton realized that was the missing piece. It would take a little bit to get to the bottom of this, but Darren held the key. He was the last one alive, the only one who could provide some answers.

With that, Walton grabbed the lead and, motioning for Brutus, snuck downstairs. He slipped outside, jumped into his vehicle, and headed to the hotel. Making his way up to Darren’s room, he knocked on the door.

A man answered from the other side, his voice trembling, “Who is it?”

“Hey, Darren. It’s Walton, and I’ve got Brutus with me.” The bolt slid, and the door opened enough for Walton to see Darren, staring at him.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked Walton.

“I think we need to talk.”

“No, no, no, I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to do anything but go home and try to forget this godforsaken weekend.”

“What I’m trying to do is keep you alive.”

Darren paled visibly, as he stared at him in shock. “What do you mean? What the fucking hell do you mean? Why would you suggest that?” he cried out.

“You know exactly what I mean,” Walton said. “Somebody has been systematically killing off your entire group, and you’re the only one with answers, and, if you don’t give us answers now,… soon it’ll be way too late because somebody will get to you too. Then nobody will ever know why it all happened.”

“Don’t say that,” he snapped, shaking in his boots.

“Then come clean and tell me what the hell happened to Rudy.”

He looked at him and repeated, “Rudy?”

“Yeah, Rudy. That’s where it all started, wasn’t it?”

His shoulders sagged, and he whispered, “No, it started earlier. Rudy… was just the worst of us.”

“Oh, now that’s interesting,” Walton replied. “Do you want to fill in the rest of this for me?”

“Will you tell the cops?”

“Don’t you think someone should?”

Darren stared at him, and then just wilted, literally right here in front of Walton. Darren opened the door enough for Walton and Brutus to walk inside. He looked at the dog nervously. “You went up there because of the dog, huh ?”

“I did,” Walton confirmed. “These War Dogs mean a lot to the men they served with.”

“I can see that. He’s also a hell of a lot better with you than he ever was with Chad.” Darren threw himself down onto the small hotel couch and stared up at Walton. “What the hell do you want to know?”

“What happened to start all this?”

“What happened was,… we laughed at somebody,” Darren began. “That’s it. We laughed at him.”

Walton stared at him for a long moment. “Depending on who you laughed at, and why, a man’s pride is a pretty-big thing.” He remembered the conversation he had just had with Chelsea about how a man’s pride determined so many of his actions. “If you laughed at the wrong time, at the wrong person…”

“I know. I know,” Darren wailed. “It was so stupid. It was really stupid, but it got out of hand, and Rudy wouldn’t let it drop. He kept hassling him, making it out to be the joke of the year, but it was no longer funny.”

“What was it about?”

“A woman, of course. Isn’t it always about a woman?” Darren asked bitterly. “It was about a woman in a bar who Jacob was trying to pick up.”

“Jacob, George’s twin?” Walton asked.

Darren nodded. “She was pretty brutal with her rejection, and Jacob took it badly, but what we did to him afterward was pretty rough too, I guess. I wasn’t even there for most of it, and I don’t quite understand how it all got so bad, but apparently Rudy jumped in on it and started mocking Jacob for the rest of the night. Anybody could see that Jacob was getting angrier and angrier. Anybody could see a slowly burning buildup of fury grew inside Jacob, but Rudy just wouldn’t stop. We tried to cool it, but Rudy just kept at it and kept at it. The problem was, as soon as Rudy started it, then Chad picked it up too, and you saw how he could be.”

“So, they were the ringleaders?”

“Pretty much. They were two peas in a pod. As soon as Rudy did it, Chad wanted in on it. So he would egg everybody else on, making it so that he was just part of the group, instead of the responsible ringleader. It was a bad night. I went home, got heavily drunk, and tried to forget about it, tried to forget about the guys. In case you hadn’t noticed, they aren’t exactly the nicest people.”

“Were they all assholes that night?” Walton asked.

“I don’t know if they were all assholes. I got fed up pretty quickly and left early. I just put them out of my mind for a long time. I used to get a lot of ribbing from them, but most of the time they left me alone. I guess, according to what they shared today, that they already knew back then that I was gay, but they never really bugged me about it.”

“Maybe that’s because they’re also gay,” Walton offered, with a note of humor.

Darren shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. They couldn’t ever acknowledge being gay themselves. That’s why I’m surprised that they left me alone about it. Maybe they’d just had enough of bugging everybody or…”

“Or maybe they were getting ready to do something to you that was much worse.”

Darren paled. “That would be more like it with these guys. They sure weren’t acting normally. If Chad were still alive, and I announced I was gay to the group, Chad would have crucified me. He did crucify me, just individually, when blackmailing me to go on this stupid hunting trip. I have to admit that a part of me was pretty scared that I would end up… I don’t want to say, roasted alive , but pretty-well roasted alive in a figurative sense,” he muttered.

“And yet you still went.”

“Yeah, because I was hoping Chad wouldn’t tell anybody. Then I ended up telling them myself, and now they’re all gone.” Tears filled his eyes. “I don’t even know what the hell’s going on here,” he whispered.

“So, I’ve got a couple questions for you. What did Jacob have to do with you guys?”

“We’ve all been friends for a very long time,” Darren began, “and Jacob went into the military for quite a few years. When he got out,… he was different. His brother babied him, and we were like, Dude, something is wrong with him. Leave him alone .”

“He was ill?” Walton asked.

“To some degree. He seemed to get better over time, and he even seemed normal ish for quite a while. He didn’t go off half-cocked quite so often, but he did end up getting quite ugly at times. During those times we were always very aware that he had a really short fuse, and I was always worried and never got in his way. I never did well with confrontations with anybody,” he muttered, with a wave of his hands. “But Chad and Rudy? They just wouldn’t lay off pushing Jacob’s buttons. After this incident with the lady rejecting Jacob in the bar, I could tell it was bad news, but nobody would listen to me. I think… Hawk wasn’t of the same ilk, but it’s pretty-damn hard to walk away from the guys when they’re in that kind of a mood.”

“What kind of a mood exactly?” Walton steered him smoothly.

“They’re ugly. They just don’t stop. They keep badgering and badgering and badgering away at you,” he shared. “Jacob didn’t deserve it, and, as much as he seemed to be taking it, he wasn’t really taking it well at all.”

“Did anything happen to the woman?”

He frowned at him, startled. “You mean the woman who rejected Jacob?” He winced. “Yeah, something did happen, but it had nothing to do with Jacob.”

“That depends on what happened,” Walton stated.

“She got beat up in the bar’s alleyway.”

“You don’t think it was Jacob?”

He shook his head. “He was with us the whole time.”

“The whole time?” Walton asked. “Think about it. First, we have twins. Did you have your eye on George and Jacob for every minute afterward? It’s pretty easy to slip out, go to the washroom, then catch some female also coming out of the washroom and beat the crap out of her for rejecting him.”

He just stared at him and shook his head. “In that case… I don’t know for sure,” he admitted, “but, Jesus, I hope not. We should all have the right to reject whoever we want, and, if Jacob did beat up that woman, it would have been entirely because of her rejection of him at the pub that night. I wish I had never gone. God, I wish I’d never gone,” he muttered, tears once again forming in his eyes. “Look at the hellish nightmare we’re in now.”

“That’s what my question is about,” Walton added. “Was it Jacob who got rejected, or was it George?”

Darren frowned. “Jacob. It was Jacob.”

“Could you tell them apart?”

Darren grimaced, then shrugged. “Most of the time, yeah, and it wasn’t really a problem. Particularly because Jacob had a short fuse, so that reaction was pretty easy to see. You just had to prod the dragon to see one of them blow.”

“Do you think that your friends did that?”

“Oh, yeah, they did it all the time. I know that sometimes they did it just because they couldn’t tell them apart or because the two of them were trying to make it seem they were the other twin,” Darren shared, “and that was a sick joke that they played on us, and we hated it.”

“So, what are the chances that Jacob beat up that woman?”

“I would feel really terrible about it if he did,” he stared at Walton. “That woman,… all she did was say no. The rest of it was basically the guys hassling Jacob.”

“Okay, so this poor woman goes to a bar and ends up getting beaten up for rejecting one of the guys you’re out with, and then Jacob still gets shit from Chad and Rudy? Jacob didn’t tell Chad and Rudy what he did to the lady in the alleyway, yet he got his satisfaction, right? He got back at her for it.”

“Sure, but it doesn’t make any sense that he would turn around and do anything else. I mean, about the guys. She was the one who rejected him.”

“But who are the ones who made fun of him?” Walton asked.

Darren stared at him. “But they were just making fun of him. Teasing him the way they always do.”

“That’s what I don’t understand. Since when did teasing turn into something else, turn into a murderous rage? Because the teasing in this instance probably wasn’t just teasing, was it?”

“It probably was hitting on a whole lot of other aspects that Jacob wouldn’t or couldn’t deal with,” Darren admitted.

Walton stared at Darren, his mouth hanging open, maybe more fully aware now.

“Jacob was in sad shape already. He’d been having a lot of trouble since coming back from overseas. So, when he got rejected, the guys just threw him to the wolves, and it was rough, disgustingly rough. I couldn’t believe all the things that they were saying, but Jacob just took it and took it and took it.”

“And do you really think he really took it, just took it and took it?”

Darren looked at him and sighed. “No, I knew a fire was burning, a hatred was building inside. I just didn’t know how it would look coming out. When Rudy died, and all of us were around, yet none of us were guilty, I didn’t know what to think,” he said. “Honestly, I thought Chad had done it.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s that kind of guy, yet I don’t know that he had the gall to pull the trigger. He’s one of those background kind of guys. He incites the riot, then fades into the background. He regularly gets all fired up, then doesn’t follow through.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing.”

“Oh, it’s definitely a good thing. It’s just not an easy thing. Jacob is still kind of… I don’t know how to say it, but maybe not quite all there. That’s letting him off the hook though, and I shouldn’t do that.” He gave a wave of his hand. “I don’t know what his medical records say, but something is sad and outrageous about Jacob, and George used to always protect him. But that whole hunting trip thing? God, what a nightmare.” He reached up a shaky hand. “Are you keeping the dog?” he asked abruptly.

Walton nodded. “Chad did have the balls to kill somebody,” he shared, “because that old man died.”

At that, tears once again came to Darren’s eyes. He reached for a glass of water sitting nearby and drank nervously. “Jesus.” He shook his head. “Just an old man sitting there with a dog?”

Walton nodded. “According to the neighbors, he and Chad got into an argument about something. Then it escalated and turned bad. Chad beat him up badly, then grabbed the dog from the backyard and ran. We got the news that the old man had died of his injuries shortly before we left the lodge.”

“And, if Chad hadn’t grabbed the dog, you probably wouldn’t have him right now.”

“I certainly would have started on a different path to find the War Dog,” he stated, with a nod.

“And these guys might not have died.”

“You think I’m to blame?” Walton asked, looking at him.

“No, no. I don’t think you’re to blame. I don’t think that at all, man. I blame Chad. I’m just thinking about the series of events and how it all came about.”

“Jacob is to blame too—or George, whoever was the bad twin that night. Plus, Chad added fuel to the fire, and the rest of you just jumped right into it with Chad and Rudy.” Walton shook his head. “There is one thing here that I’m still trying to figure out. Why didn’t Jacob come on the hunting trip with you?”

“Oh, that’s easy. After all the teasing, Jacob wouldn’t have anything to do with us anymore. He was pretty pissed, seriously pissed.”

“So, knowing he’s pretty pissed, do you really think Jacob didn’t want to get back at you guys?”

“I’m sure he did, but I never saw him again, so I don’t know.”

“What if Rudy saw him beat up the woman?”

The color slowly drained from Darren’s face as he realized what Walton was saying. “Oh my God.”

“Is that something Jacob would do?” Walton asked him.

After just a moment of silence, he nodded. “Honest to God, yes. He’s the kind of guy who has a slow-burning fury. He is methodical and would hang on to that retaliation, not doing something upfront but definitely over time. A surprise attack of revenge. Christ,” he muttered, as he pinched the bridge of his nose, then dropped his hand and stared at Walton in shock, as if having a sudden realization. “You think Jacob killed the others?”

At that, Walton nodded. “Something is going on here that we’re not quite sure of, but that would make sense, wouldn’t it?”

“It would make sense, but that would also mean Jacob’s coming after me.” After saying that out loud, Darren paled further and started to shake. “Jesus Christ. Nobody will even know because everybody is already dead. And I’ll soon be dead too.”

At that, Walton kept his mouth closed as to which twin would show up, George or Jacob. “That would make sense, and that’s one of the reasons I’m here.”

“Why? You think he’ll come here?” Jumping to his feet, Darren raced to the door, checking that it was locked.

“It is a consideration.”

“No, no, no. I don’t need this crap right now. Do you know how much therapy I’ve gone through in my life, just to try and have a life?”

“I’m sorry,” Walton said, “but it does appear that you hooked up with some pretty difficult friends.”

“Ya think?” he quipped, tears still in his eyes. “High school was brutal for me.”

“Got it,” Walton noted. “What we have to do now is figure out just what the answer is here.”

“I don’t know that there can be an answer,” Darren wailed. “How does anybody get an answer out of this shit?” He looked down at the dog. “Will you guys stay here?”

“Here? With you?” Walton asked.

“Yeah, I fly out in the morning. I just need you to stay long enough to get me onto that plane alive.” Then he stopped, looked at him, and asked, “He wouldn’t kill a whole planeload, would he?”

“I don’t know. You tell me,” Walton stated, eyeing him intently. “How much revenge are we looking at?”

Darren shook his head. “I don’t know, but he’s already killed everybody but me. I don’t understand why it wasn’t me first, as the easiest target, a gay guy .”

“Maybe it was just a fluke. Were you all supposed to go to the lodge in one vehicle?”

“No, I was supposed to ride with Hawk, but, instead of me, George went.” He stopped, then looked at him with a horrified expression. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! Jacob didn’t intend for his brother to die, did he?” He stared at Walton in shock. “Please tell me that’s not what happened. Please don’t tell me that, by changing places at the last minute, that I lived and his brother died. Now Jacob’s… Oh my God, he’ll really be on the rampage now.”

“I don’t know,” Walton admitted. “I’m a little late to this party you guys concocted, so it’s a little hard for me to know the nuances quite the same as you.”

“Maybe you’ve come to the party at just the right time. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I feel as if I need police protection.”

Walton shook his head. “Small town, just on the edge of nowhere,” he pointed out. “You know perfectly well there won’t be much in the way of police protection.”

“No, there isn’t, is there? Jesus Christ, what the hell have I done?”

“Presumably you came with your friends to share a hunting trip.”

“I can’t even kill anything,” he shared, staring at him. “I would never shoot an animal. It was just another joke, another reason why they all wanted me to come,… so that I would suffer.”

“You need to get new friends.”

He gave a hysterical laugh. “Christ, maybe I’ll just avoid the whole friends thing from now on.” He looked around, almost in panic. “I don’t even know where I can go. What can I do to avoid Jacob? How do I stop him?”

“First off, you don’t do anything in a panic because, for one thing, we have to figure out where he is and how he could find you.”

“I registered here under my own name,” he cried out. “I wasn’t even thinking that I needed to hide. Why would I? And, even if I did want to hide”—he shook his head—“I’m not good at that shit, but that’s what Jacob does.”

“What he does ?” Walton repeated.

“Yes, it is exactly what he does,” Darren confirmed. “That’s the stuff he used to do in the military. Apparently he was really good at it.”

Which wasn’t good news as far as the current situation was concerned, but it wasn’t any surprise to Walton. The military was very big on training.

At that came a sudden knock at the door. Darren let out a squeak and jumped to his feet. Looking over at Walton, he whispered, “What should I do?”

He thought about it and whispered back, “You can answer it.”

“No way,” he muttered, “no fucking way.”

“How will you know who it is, if you won’t even ask? Even if you don’t, you’ll spend the rest of your life looking behind you.”

Just then somebody at the door called out, “Darren, let me in for Christ’s sake. It’s George.”

Darren stared at Walton in shock.

“Just open the door, will you?” George asked again.

“I’m exhausted. I’m so fed up, and I’m tired, and I’m heartsick. Do you know they’re all dead?” Darren cried out, and such pain filled his tone. “I mean, they’re dead , dead.”

“I know,” George replied, his tone somber. “Come on, man. Open up the fucking door, and let me in.”

Walton grabbed Brutus and hid behind the door, gesturing for Darren to open the door.

Darren frowned, not sure what he should, yet hesitant to see his friend, even if he was in need. Still, Darren walked to the door. “Are you unarmed?” he asked.

“What do you mean, am I unarmed? Of course I’m unarmed. Jesus Christ, did that K9 guy get to you? It’s not as if I have anything to shoot you for. Isn’t it enough that everybody’s dead? Isn’t it enough that all of us have suffered already?”

“It is for me,” Darren admitted, and the relief in his tone was almost overwhelming. He popped open the door and then stepped back. “Come on in. You look like shit.”

“Gee, thanks.” He stepped in, and, before Darren had a chance to even turn and walk back to the couch, George—if it was even George—jumped him, put him in a headlock, and dropped him to the floor, unconscious.

He pulled out a handgun, with a silencer on it.

Seeing that, Walton, already in the process of lunging, gave a silent command to Brutus. The War Dog jumped up, grabbed the other man by the gun hand, and brought him down with the force of his weight on top of the unconscious Darren. Walton jumped in, grabbing the gunman’s arms, stopping him from reaching for the gun, which had gone spiraling across the room.

Walton gave him a hard right to the side of the head, momentarily stunning him. Walton grabbed his hands again, pulled them behind him, and pinned him to the floor. He looked around for something to tie the man’s hands and saw the electrical cord on a lamp. Jerking on it, he shattered the lamp as he dragged it toward him. Quickly he tied up the man’s wrists, even as he went to also tie up his legs. The cord thankfully was long enough that he could do a couple loops around both sets of limbs.

Walton hopped to his feet and, after a moment, got Brutus to release the wrist he still had in his mouth and then to stand guard. With that done, Walton searched for anything else he could additionally use to secure the prisoner with. He found another electrical cord on Darren’s hair dryer in the bathroom.

With the gunman doubly secured and off to the side, Walton sent Badger a text, then bent down to see how Darren was.

Darren slowly opened his eyes, looked up at him, then whispered, “What happened?”

Walton motioned off to the side. “Your friend came to visit,” he said, with a sarcastic emphasis on friend .

Darren took one look, bolted to his feet with a shriek, and backed away. “My God, you were right.”

“Yeah, unfortunately I was right. I’m just not sure how much I was right about though.”

Darren frowned in confusion.

“Can you tell me if this is George, or is it really Jacob?”

He took a closer look but not very close, as if he were afraid the man would jump up and attack him again. “Jacob, I think.”

“Pack up your stuff and get ready to leave. I’m not saying you’ll get to leave, but the police are coming now.”

“Right,” he muttered, keeping a nervous eye on George or Jacob, whoever it was. Darren quickly packed up his stuff and set it by the door. “Jesus Christ,” he muttered, “you have no idea how much I want to go home.”

“Home is upcoming,” Walton said, “and, with any luck, this will put an end to it.”

“Put an end to what? Did he really kill everybody?”

Almost on cue, the other man spoke. “Kill who?” He sneered at Darren. “Are you asking about all those sniveling pieces of shit? Damn right, I killed them all. Did you think I would let that slide?”

Darren stared at him. “Why did you kill your own brother?”

After a moment he said, “I didn’t mean to. You were supposed to be in that vehicle, but you changed places at the last minute. Why did you do that?”

“Damn right I did. Jesus Christ, you should know that Hawk is a madman on the highway, and I never want to ride with him.”

“I was counting on him being a madman on the highway, and I knew that, once I cut that brake line, one of those nasty corners would send them off the road. I just didn’t know which one it would be,” he muttered. “What do you care? You got off. You survived, and you weren’t supposed to.”

“I’m sorry,” he cried out, staring at him.

“Of course you’re sorry. You’re all sorry now. You think Rudy wasn’t sorry when he realized what was happening? Do you think Chad wasn’t sorry when he saw me?”

“But did he know it was you and not George?”

“I don’t know whether he knew it was me or not,” Jacob replied. “He might not have noticed right at the beginning, but he sure knew by the end.”

“You were talking to him?”

“I was. Everybody thought they saw George, but it was me.” Jacob sneered. “After I killed Chad, I disappeared pretty-damn fast, then told my brother where the body was. He was pissed at me, but he understood.”

“What do you mean, he understood? How could he have understood?… You were killing all these people, our supposed friends.”

“Yeah, killing all these people, people who were blackmailing friends , people who were pieces of shit.”

“Did George expect you to kill all of us? Was that something George was okay with?” Darren asked, staring at Jacob, still nervous.

“I don’t know if he was okay with all that, but I wouldn’t stop until I knew everybody had paid for all the shit they put me through.”

“Even me?” Darren asked sadly. “I didn’t do anything to you.”

At that, Jacob shrugged. “Maybe not,” he conceded, “but, in my mind, you’re still associated with all of it. So, yeah, you too.”

“So, you came here intending to kill me?” Darren sat down, pulled his knees up to his chest, and just rocked back and forth. “I don’t think I’m ever traveling again.”

“Yeah, you probably shouldn’t,” Jacob agreed. “You’re really not built for it.”

“Ya think? Yet your brother and all the rest of the bros had such fun making my life hell.”

“In that case you should be happy they’re all gone,” Jacob stated, twisting his head to try and face Darren. Jacob’s gaze landed on Brutus, and his lips curled. “What the hell? A fucking War Dog? How the hell did I leave the military and end up with a War Dog bringing me down?”

“Did you leave the military or were you dishonorably discharged?” Walton asked.

He twisted ever-so-slightly. “You…”

“So, you sure made Chad pay, didn’t you?”

Jacob laughed. “I made sure they all paid. I guess it’s fair enough that a War Dog got me because those were the best days of my life. After my injury, I got sidelined, and it’s just not the same anymore. I was good at what I did,” he declared passionately. “I mean, the accident should never have happened to me.”

“I get what you must be feeling. Yet instead of taking it out on whatever caused the accident, here you are taking it out on your friends.”

“The accident was because of my friends,” he declared, “and partly because of the accident itself. I was home on leave, and we went out drinking. I forget who was driving, but we had run off the road and into a tree. We were all so drunk that none of us was badly hurt. Yet my head hit the dashboard, and I seemed to be different afterward. And that joke’s on you attitude they had just hit me wrong,” he explained, with another sneer. “I don’t understand quite how it worked, but I can tell you that, from one minute to the next,… all I could think about was taking them down and making them pay for laughing at me, over that damn bitch.”

“So, a payback plan was born. How did you do it?”

“After the car accident and my failure to follow orders , I was discharged. All of a sudden, I had all this free time available, and I needed something to turn my attention to. So I bided my time. I just waited, letting all that anger churn in my gut,” he explained, with a smirk. “That’s what I did. So, like it or not, it was worth every damn bit of waiting.”

“I hope you feel that way after you spend the rest of your life in jail,” Walton noted, “because that won’t be any picnic for a guy like you.”

“Maybe not,” he agreed, “but those assholes in jail? They won’t fucking touch me either. I’ll just kill them. I really don’t care. At this stage in my life, I would just as soon die by suicide or suicide by cop.”

“You won’t have that opportunity right now,” Walton murmured. “My job is to hand you over. After that, it’s up to you.”

He stared at him. “Got it.”

It was almost as if he made a plan at that very moment in time. Walton returned the stare. “Don’t take anybody else with you, Jacob.”

He shrugged. “Like I give a fuck.”

Another knock came on the door just after that, and the cops arrived, and that chaos began. Walton stepped back and looked over at Darren. He was trembling still. “As soon as you’re done here, get your ass to the airport and go home.”

Darren looked at him and nodded. “As soon as I’m done with the police, I’m taking a cab, and I’m going home. I’ll try and forget that I ever knew any of these people,” he muttered, crying now.

Detective Hogan had arrived and was talking to the officers on the scene. He stepped closer to Walton and Darren, nodding at both of them in acknowledgment. “Don’t forget,” he told them both, “you may have to show up for a trial.”

Darren swallowed several times and then nodded bravely. “I think I can do that.”

“That’s all good and dandy then.”

Walton turned to Detective Hogan. “Good, in that case I’m leaving. You can catch me for a statement tomorrow.” He handed him his contact information. “I’m taking the dog out of here. Way too many people got here very quickly, and I, for one, have had enough for now. So has Brutus.”

Detective Hogan looked at the dog and nodded. “We’ll catch up with you tomorrow.”

With that, Walton and Brutus headed outside and back to Chelsea’s place. As he walked in the door, she stood there, her arms wrapped around her chest, staring at him.

“Are you okay?” she murmured.

He gave her a small smile. “That’s a better greeting than I expected it would be. I figured maybe I would get reamed out for leaving.”

“No, I knew you were heading to Darren. Did you find him? Save him?”

He gave her a slow nod and smiled. “I did, and now it’s over.”

“Is it really?” She stared at him hopefully.

“Yes,” he confirmed. As he walked her upstairs, he explained what happened. He answered her myriad of questions, while she sat down on the side of his bed and just stared at him. “Dear God, people can be the meanest of the mean.”

“And yet you get a group of mean people together, and they turn into something even uglier,” Walton noted.

“He didn’t mean to kill his brother, huh ?”

“No, he didn’t, but he was also planning on ending either his brother’s life afterward or his own. I don’t think he even contemplated what his choices were back at that point in time.”

“It still sucks,” she muttered. “Poor Darren.”

“Poor Darren, but believe me that Darren is damn lucky right now. He’s on his way home,… probably to never ever leave it again. Although he has to face the trial. If this didn’t scar him for life, that will.”

“No, I’m sure he won’t ever leave,” she muttered, as she studied Walton. “What about you?”

“What about me?… I’m fine. I was thinking a shower and some sleep would be a good idea. I gave up on that earlier.”

“You sure did,” she muttered, staring at him.

“When did you realize I left?”

“Right away. I seem to have some insider cues, when it comes to you.”

He grinned. “I kind of like that.”

She laughed. “You do realize that just means, if you ever try to sneak around, you won’t do it successfully.”

“Wasn’t really planning on doing it at all,” he stated. “I just didn’t want to get you into another dangerous situation.”

She nodded. “Because of that I’m not pissed.”

“That’s a good thing,” he said, with a bright smile. “I wasn’t exactly sure how you would respond at the end of the day.”

“I’m a big girl,” she said, “and I understand that a whole lot in this world doesn’t work out the way we want it to, even if we thought we could make it happen in whatever way.”

He nodded in agreement.

“I am, however, very happy that you’re home, safe and sound.” She bent down and cuddled Brutus, who was stretched out on the carpet in front of her. “What about this guy?”

“I’m keeping him,” he stated. She looked up in delight, and he nodded. “Detective Hogan even suggested that I might want to start a career helping law enforcement around here. They could use an asset like Brutus.”

“Oh my, that would be excellent.”

“It certainly would be putting his training and mine to good use, and that is a great thing.” He pulled his T-shirt off over his head and then sat down on the side of the bed and pulled off his sock.

When he got up to take off his jeans, she stood up. “Do you need help with the leg?”

“Maybe, I’m pretty damn tired.”

“Of course you are,” she muttered. “You drove the whole way to the lodge and then back again and were supposed to go to sleep hours ago.”

“I was trying to. It just didn’t work out so well.”

She didn’t say anything. No recriminations, no telling him off, no scolding, no nothing. Whether that would come tomorrow or not, he didn’t know, but, for now, it was a godsend. By the time she had his leg off and ointment working its way up his sore muscles, he sighed happily. “I need the prosthetic, but I also feel a certain freedom when not wearing it.”

“Of course,” she agreed. “It’s one of those things that’s a necessary tool, but it comes with its own challenges.”

“Doesn’t it though?” When he got up and hopped his way to the bathroom, she stood. “Do you need any help?”

“You can turn on the shower for me, if you want to.”

She came in, fired up the shower, and turned around to see him, standing there completely nude. As he sat on the edge of the tub, he swung himself over inside the tub, then stood up.

She frowned. “It’s not the kind of shower you’re used to,” she noted cautiously.

He shrugged. “No, but I can make do.”

“We can make adjustments to it.”

He looked at her in surprise and then shrugged. With a grin, he asked, “What is the shower in your bedroom like?”

“Damn, I never even thought of that. I should have just had you shower in there. The bathtub and the shower are separate.”

“A standalone shower is easier for me to get in and out of,” he agreed, with a nod. “That’s all right. I can try it next time.”

A few minutes later, after sending her off, saying he could handle this alone, he finished shampooing his hair, shut off everything, and sat down on the side of the bathtub to give his leg a break. He quickly dried off and then, using the wall, hopped his way back out into his bedroom. She was sitting cross-legged on his bed, wearing just a tiny little nightie.

She looked up and smiled. “I know you’re tired.”

“I am tired,” he said, “but I don’t think anybody is ever that tired.”

She chuckled. “We can also just sleep.”

“We could,” he murmured, “but it’s been a rough day and a very rough evening, and I would very much like to hold a warm, willing woman in my arms and let everything else in the world disappear for a while.”

She immediately opened her arms. “Sounds good to me.”

He made his way to the side of the bed and collapsed down. Laughing, she leaned over and kissed him gently. “If you’re too tired, honestly, I’m totally okay to sleep. We do have time.”

“We do have time,” he murmured, as he nuzzled her cheek and neck. “But somehow I feel a sense of not urgency exactly, but”—he stared off in the distance briefly—“maybe just a sense of completion.”

“Oh, I like that too.” She slipped her nightie over her head and settled her warm body against his, still hot and slightly damp. She rubbed her chest across his and whispered, “There is definitely something freeing about being here like this.”

“I know,” he muttered, “and it would have been nice if we could have shared this at your brother’s lodge. It was a magical place.”

“He really wants us to return sometime,” she said, with a grin. “I just don’t want to go back alone.”

“Nope, but we can go back together.” He wrapped his arms around her and pivoted, so she was beneath him.

“Wow, you might not have a leg,” she muttered, “but it doesn’t seem to hold you back.”

“I’m not sure that not having a leg should have anything to do with it,” he noted, with a smile. “It’s a leg. I still have another one.” He lifted himself up on his arms. “Besides, it’ll be a long, cold day in hell if I don’t make the absolute most of every moment I have with you in my arms.”

She stared up at him, tears in her eyes, and whispered, “Me too.”