About This Book
Welcome to the all new K9 Files series reconnecting readers with the unforgettable men from SEALs of Steel in a new series of action packed, page turning romantic suspense that fans have come to expect from USA TODAY Bestselling author Dale Mayer. Pssst… you’ll meet other favorite characters from SEALs of Honor and Heroes for Hire too!
Heading to Ashland, Kentucky, where his ex-wife’s family lives, is not in Jenner’s plans anytime soon. But, given a War Dog is potentially in trouble, well, Jenner will even face his past. Arriving at a small bed-and-breakfast, he meets a woman more interesting than anyone he’d met in a long time. His job to find this missing dog seems like a long shot, until he learns about the B&B neighbor’s son and his pack of dogs, who have been scaring Kellie …
Kellie loves her bed-and-breakfast establishment, as much as she loves meeting new people, particularly when she doesn’t have a great relationship with many of the locals, who judged her harshly for a past mistake. Determined to enjoy life regardless, she tries to move on but finds it hard to leave her past behind. And now there’s her neighbor …
Having Jenner around makes Kellie feel more secure and gives her hope that maybe good people still exist in this world. Yet, before they can truly move forward, there is a canine issue, … and a neighbor with something else on his mind …
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Prologue
Badger read the text and looked over at Kat. “Wow, look at that,” he said, holding up his phone, showing the text message of the heart emoji.
“Ah, looks to me like we have another happy success story. It just blows me away that it’s happening time and time again.” She smiled, looking over at him.
“I know. So who do we have next?”
“You want me to look?” she asked.
“Yeah. Do you know anybody who needs rescuing?”
“I don’t know about rescuing, but I have a case that’s driving me crazy.”
“What do you mean by a case?”
“Somebody who isn’t adapting well to his prosthetics because he’s pushing them too hard,” she admitted.
“What’s he doing?”
“Tons of outdoor hiking, survival-type stuff,” she noted. “He’s all over the board. He brought me back one of the latest titanium prosthetics that was damn near broken.” Badger stared at her in shock. “Well, he’s also big,” she added, “and I guess I hadn’t made quite enough allowances for that.”
“How big?”
“Six feet two,” she replied, “and I suspect, with both legs, he would be somewhere around two-sixty.”
“Right.” Badger nodded. “That’s big. Does he like dogs?”
“I can ask him.”
“Sure, ask away. What does he do for a living?”
“He’s ex-navy,” she stated. “Why?”
“Because I don’t have anybody around here to recruit. We’ve pretty well tapped out all our resources, at least for the moment, though we always have new guys coming and going. But you know what? We do have another missing War Dog.”
“I could ask anyway. He seems to keep himself so busy because he has nothing else to do.”
“Does he know anything about dogs but also horses, cattle, or anything like that?”
“Why?”
“Because it sounds like this War Dog was taken to a ranch in Kentucky,” he explained.
“What happened to it?” she asked, astonished.
“Nobody knows. It just disappeared.”
“Coyotes?”
“Not likely,” he said.
“Is this dog injured?”
“No, it seemed to be healthy, but, according to everybody we’ve talked to, it just vanished.”
“You don’t sound like you believe that.”
“Nope, I sure don’t. Not if the dog was well treated.”
“And, of course, that’s the trick, isn’t it?” she stated. “Not only do you have to find sincerely good people but you also have to find someone the dog bonds with.”
“I’m thinking that, in this case, we have a problem because the wife died, and the dog was basically bonded to her.”
“Of course, and now the dog is dealing with yet another loss.”
“Exactly,” Badger agreed. “I need somebody who’ll give the dog an outdoor life.”
“Well, maybe my client would be a good fit,” she suggested. “I can ask him.”
“What’s his name?”
“Jake,” she said. “No wait.” She stopped and reconsidered that. “Jenner. It’s Jenner.”
“Not a problem,” Badger said. “Give him a call.”
She grabbed her phone and called him. He sounded surprised to hear from her. “Have a question or two,” she stated. “I know you’re really active outdoors, but I just wondered if you ever had any experience with dogs.”
“Of course,” he said. “Why?”
“My husband has been dealing with some of these retired K9 War Dogs. I think I told you about that.”
“Yeah, I heard something about it. So, what’s up?”
“A dog in Kentucky went missing, and we were sitting here brainstorming, trying to find somebody willing to make a trip up there to take a look for the dog.”
“Why Kentucky?” he asked, his voice hard.
“The dog may be at a ranch there.” She hesitated and asked, “Is that triggering something for you?”
“Yeah, … my ex-wife is there.”
“Ah,” Kat replied, “so I gather you’re not the right person for this job.”
“I don’t know,” he stated. “What’s involved?”
“Well, no money for one thing,” she noted. “I can tell you that.”
“I don’t need money,” he said quietly.
“I know. It’s one of the reasons why I thought about you. We just need somebody to go see what happened to the dog. I mean, if it died or something, that’s one thing. Or if it’s been adopted by somebody else and is happy, that’s all good. But if it’s suffering out there somewhere, we need it brought into a better situation. You mentioned your ex-wife. What kind of scenario did you leave behind?”
“She didn’t like military life and chose somebody else instead,” he noted quietly.
“Ouch, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me too,” he said. “I haven’t spoken to her since.”
“Maybe it’s time to make peace?”
He hesitated. “Maybe, … not exactly what I was thinking I would be doing.”
“No, but how do you feel about a dog in need?”
“That,” he replied, “I would do in a heartbeat.”
“That makes you the right man for the job then,” she stated. “I’ll pass you over to Badger now. And by the way,” she said, before she handed the phone over, “what is your wife’s name?”
“Laura,” he said. “Why?”