Operation Unleashed. Justine Davis

the edge of the forest, beside a tall hemlock with a long branch dragging downward, and looked back over his shoulder at them.

      “That’s my secret path! He does know!”

      He took off after the dog at a run.

      Quinn and Hayley followed. At least this, Quinn thought, should be quick. Return the kid home, and then they themselves could go home. And he could get back to his thoughts of luring Hayley back to bed for a leisurely afternoon of enjoying the miracle of them together.

      He tried to ignore the little voice in his head reminding him that with Cutter, nothing was ever that simple.

      Chapter 2

      Alyssa Kiley paced because she couldn’t be still. Panic was edging its way upward from some low, gut-deep place she hadn’t heard from in a long time. Her fingers tightened on the phone she held as she resisted the urge to call the police, the fire department and anyone else she could think of. Drew was on his way. He’d fix all this. He always did. Despite the arguments, despite his sometimes presumptuous manner, he always did.

      And her common sense told her he was right, Luke had been missing less than an hour. But she’d checked every place in the house, with some nightmare memory of a murdered child found in her own basement. She’d checked every neighbor on their short, narrow street, and no one had seen him. She’d called his best friend Dylan’s house, even knowing they were out of town for the weekend, just in case they’d changed their plans.

      She wouldn’t be so anxious if it hadn’t been for that weird feeling she’d been having lately. It was silly to think someone had been watching her. When she’d mentioned it to Drew he’d naturally wanted details she couldn’t provide, because she’d never actually seen anyone. But even his assurances didn’t make that crawly feeling at the back of her neck go away.

      Now she was wondering if what she’d been feeling was some sort of precognition, a foreshadowing of disaster.

      She stared at the stand of trees across the road from the house. Normally, she loved looking at them—tall, strong evergreens, softened by the misty rain. But today that forest had never seemed bigger, or more endless. Even knowing that was silly—that they hadn’t changed—didn’t help. There was nothing normal about this morning.

      It had been a while—quite a while—since she and Drew had argued like they had this morning. But it was Doug’s birthday, and that was always a rough day. How did you deal with a man who would just as soon ignore the fact that his younger brother had ever existed?

      Luke must have heard them. They were usually careful to avoid that, but this morning it had flared up too quickly. She’d been on edge, knowing what day it was, and all it had taken was one exasperated glance from Drew to set her off.

      And now her son was missing. Guilt stabbed through her. This wasn’t all Drew’s fault, she could have, should have, held it in until Luke was out of earshot. But Drew had a way of—

      A noise from across the street, followed quickly by the sight of a dog bounding out of the trees startled her out of her useless musing. God, she was standing around wasting time treading old, tired ground, while Luke was gone.

      To her surprise the dog, a large animal with a black head and shoulders shifting to brown over his back and tail, headed straight for her. He didn’t seem at all threatening, but she watched him warily. It was a strange dog, after all.

      The animal came to an abrupt halt two feet in front of her. And unexpectedly sat, his ears up, his gaze fastened on her. She felt strangely pinned, as if she couldn’t move if she’d wanted to. But the dog was sitting so politely she didn’t feel the need.

      She knew he wasn’t from anywhere on the street; there were only two dogs who lived here and they were both the little powder-puff kind of things that seemed as if they’d break if you just looked at them funny.

      The dog cocked his head at an angle and made a low, odd sound. If he’d been human, she would have said it held a note of reassurance. But of course he was a dog, so that was silly.

      And then he looked over his shoulders, back to where he’d come bursting out of the trees. To where someone else was coming. She could hear the noise of branches pushed aside, rubbing on each other. For an instant she wondered if the dog had in fact been fleeing something bigger and more threatening than he, no matter that something about him made her think he wouldn’t be afraid of much. But bears weren’t unheard of around here, and—

      Her son came through the trees at a dead run.

      “Luke!”

      She ran for him, sweeping him up before he could say a word. Just the other day she’d been thinking how big he was getting, but now he felt like the slightest of weights, so glad was she to have him back in her arms.

      “He knew the way, Mom! I didn’t even show him, but he followed the exact way I came.”

      It took her a moment to realize he meant the dog. And a moment more to realize they weren’t alone. Two adults had come along the same path through the trees. A man and a woman, the man carrying what looked like Luke’s little backpack, the one Drew had bought him for their hikes and fishing trips. They must be the dog’s people, she thought in the moment she spared them before turning back to her son.

      “You were at the park?”

      He nodded. She felt a twinge of relief; that would have been her next stop, so she would have found him. Somehow that made her feel better. But it wasn’t enough to quell the overwhelming relief and the flood of wobbliness after being so frightened.

      She wanted to be angry at Luke, to scare him into never, ever doing anything like this again, but she was too glad he was back and safe. She compromised, hugging him fiercely while saying, “Don’t you ever do that again. I almost called the police I was so worried.”

      “Hard, isn’t it?”

      Alyssa looked up as the woman spoke. The newcomer was a little taller than she was, maybe about five-five, her hair was a rich shade of auburn touched with gold, a shade that Alyssa guessed had to be natural, it had so many layers. Her eyes were lovely, a green that matched the surroundings and reminded her of Drew’s. And right now they were warm with empathy.

      “They scare you to death so you’re angry, but you want to smother them with love at the same time because you’re so glad they’re all right.”

      Alyssa smiled at the apt description. “You have kids?”

      “Not yet,” she said, and flicked a glance at the man beside her. “But I remember my mother wearing the same expression.”

      Alyssa stole a look at the man herself; he’d be enough to have any woman thinking about forever. She’d noticed the engagement ring on the woman’s left hand, and suppressed a little sigh. It must be wonderful to have done it the normal way, fallen in love, planning a life from the beginning. She looked upon her own plain, gold wedding band as a symbol of everything she’d done wrong as a stupid, naive girl.

      “I’m Hayley Cole,” the woman said. “This is my fiancé, Quinn Foxworth.”

      “I’m Alyssa Kiley,” she said, not willing to release Luke enough to shake hands. Neither one of the people before her seemed to take offense. “Thank you for bringing him home.”

      “And this,” Hayley added with a gesture toward the dog, “is Cutter. It’s him you really have to thank, he found Luke and brought us here.”

      Alyssa was loath to let go of Luke, but the boy was starting to squirm, his gaze fastened on the dog. Reluctantly she let him wiggle down. To her surprise when the dog moved, instead of going straight to Luke he came to her, and sat at her feet. She looked down at him, a little startled by the intense, steady gaze. She felt drawn, and leaned over to put a hand on the dog’s silky head.

      “Well, thank you, Cutter,” she said, not sure what else to do.

      The dog lowered