Operation Unleashed. Justine Davis

      “I did. He’s not listening.”

      “I think,” Drew muttered, “I’ve lost my mind. We need to get out of here.”

      “And away from the crazy people who talk to a dog like he’s a person who can understand?” Hayley said.

      Drew blinked. “I....”

      “It’s okay,” Hayley said with a smile that was impossible to ignore. “We understand, believe me. It took us a long time to accept that...he really does understand. Not the words, perhaps, but he knows what’s going on.”

      “Well, I don’t,” Alyssa said, watching this all with much more amusement on her face than anything else.

      “He knows there’s a problem,” Hayley explained. “And it’s in his nature to want to fix it.”

      “You mean to want us to fix it,” Quinn amended drily.

      “Well, yes,” Hayley agreed with a laugh. “It is our function to figure out what he wants and try to do it.”

      This time Drew and Alyssa were united. They both looked from the dog to his people in wary disbelief.

      “You’re saying he wants to fix our problem?” Alyssa asked.

      “He wants it fixed, yes,” Hayley said. “He likes people. He loves some. And he doesn’t tolerate fixable problems well.”

      Drew looked back at the dog, who was still staring at him in that way that made him faintly uncomfortable. “Fixable?”

      “Yes. But he thinks everything’s fixable. At least, he has so far.”

      “I don’t think so,” Alyssa said. “Not this time. I’ve been trying for years.”

      Drew’s gaze snapped to his wife. “What are you talking—”

      “Let him try, Dad!” Luke said, sounding anxious, as if he thought a fight was about to start. “Please? Mom? Maybe he can help. He’s really smart.”

      “This,” Drew muttered, “is ridiculous. We’re down the rabbit hole.”

      “Luke, honey, why don’t you and Cutter go play a little more, because we will have to leave soon,” Alyssa said. “Let us talk to Quinn and Hayley.”

      Luke hesitated as Cutter didn’t move. Hayley stroked the dog’s head. “Go ahead, boy. We’ll talk.”

      The woof that came this time was much more pleased sounding. And Drew shook his head sharply at how willing even he seemed to be to assign human emotion to the dog. But the pair raced off to continue whatever boy-dog game they’d made up.

      Alyssa watched her son go, then looked at Quinn. “Hayley told me what you do. What Foxworth does, I mean. And it sounds good, and noble, and all that. But there’s nothing you can do to fix us.”

      Drew winced inwardly. She sounded so certain. Not that he thought this Foxworth outfit could fix them, but Lyss sounded so sure they couldn’t be fixed at all.

      And she was probably right.

      “Drew told me about his brother,” Quinn began.

      “Oh, I’m sure he did,” Alyssa said, her voice fairly dripping with resentment.

      “I only told him the truth,” Drew said.

      Hayley stepped in before things escalated, saying calmly, “And Alyssa told me her side of things. Which I’m sure is very different.”

      Drew stayed silent this time, reminding himself of his determination to never fight over this again.

      “You each have your opinions, your interpretations of what happened, then,” Hayley said.

      “I know what happened,” Drew said.

      “You weren’t there—I was,” Alyssa pointed out.

      “You weren’t with him when they robbed the place. Or when he crashed, thank God. And you never accepted the truth, even when the cops told you.” So much for his determination, Drew thought.

      “The police didn’t know, either. They didn’t know Doug, not like I did. They assumed.”

      “So,” Quinn said, “neither of you knows for sure what was in his head, you just have what you believe but can’t prove. And the two versions are not compatible. That about it?”

      “I know,” Alyssa said stubbornly.

      “And you can’t fix willful blindness,” Drew snapped.

      And there they were, back to square one.

      Quinn sighed. He looked at Hayley. “I’m not sure even Foxworth can fix this one. How do we prove what was in a dead man’s heart?”

      “But Cutter...” she said.

      “I know. He’s as determined as I’ve ever seen him.”

      “We could look into it, couldn’t we?”

      “Wait. You’re saying you’d go against your own policies because of a dog?” Drew asked, sounding as incredulous as he felt.

      “Not just a dog. This dog,” Quinn said. At Drew’s look he chuckled. “Believe me, not so long ago I sounded just like you. But it’s hard to argue with the kind of stats this guy has piled up.”

      “So, he’s never wrong, is that what you’re saying?”

      “No. He just hasn’t been yet.”

      Hayley cut in. “Maybe somebody, somebody not emotionally involved, might know something. If anybody can find somebody like that, Foxworth can.”

      “Somebody without a dog in this fight, you mean?” Drew joked, unable to quite believe he was taking this discussion even semi-seriously. “This is crazy.”

      “On that, I agree,” Alyssa said. “Dog aside, I don’t want anybody digging around in this. Luke’s been through enough. I’m not going to risk destroying his image of his father.”

      Drew’s stomach knotted. Had she really said that? Did she even realize she had acknowledged the possibility that there even was a risk of that image—that illusion—being destroyed?

      That quickly, Drew changed his mind. From what Quinn had said, Foxworth was big, had great resources, better people, and tremendous results. They also had time, time the police never had, and as Quinn had explained, once they took a case, they never gave up unless their client told them to.

      It was almost dizzying how quickly he’d flipped, but Drew couldn’t deny the allure of this being settled once and for all. But he knew Alyssa would never voluntarily seek out truth that might contradict her image of Doug.

      But if Foxworth could do it...

      “—I appreciate the thought, but no,” Alyssa was saying.

      “It’s going to be interesting,” Quinn said. “We’ve never really tried to pull Cutter back once he’s gotten his teeth into something, so to speak.”

      “Maybe he’s right,” Drew said.

      “What?” Alyssa’s head snapped around and she stared at him.

      Careful, he cautioned himself. There’s only one way to get her to see reason. And in this case, it had the advantage of being true, and being the one thing that had made him sickest about this whole thing.

      “Luke,” he said quietly.

      “I told you, I won’t have him thinking his father was some common criminal who didn’t love him!”

      “That’s not the reason to do it,” Drew said, keeping his voice low, even with an effort.

      “Then what is?” she demanded.

      “He doesn’t even have to