Home of the Brave (Raine Stockton Dog Mysteries Book 9) Read Online Free PDF

back to her vehicle.”  He turned back toward his office.  “And, by the way, you and Deputy Nike are on Public Education Duty this weekend.  Raine’ll bring you up to speed.”
    I shot him an outraged look but he didn’t catch it.  He said over his shoulder, “Annabelle, tell Wyn to check with me when she gets in, will you?”
    Wyn .  That would be the woman he had left me for. 
    Once, before Buck had been appointed sheriff, she had been an excellent deputy and a pretty good friend, but after the affair was uncovered it had seemed only appropriate that Wyn leave the Hanover County Sheriff’s Department.  Now it would seem she was back, and working for the very man she was sleeping with.  That was great.  Just great.
    Like I said, we have our share of vices here in Paradise, and a good many of them are homegrown.  This, no doubt, was what Buck had wanted to talk to me about.
    I stared at his retreating back and saw his step hesitate as I said, in as neutral a tone as possible, “Wyn is back on the force?” 
    For a moment I thought he wouldn’t answer, wouldn’t even turn around.  But he gave me a glance that was tight and unreadable, and he said, “Let’s do this later, okay?”
    I replied, “I take it back.  You’re not a good politician.  You’re an idiot.”  I turned to Jolene, no longer in the least bit intimidated by her or her dog. “Can we go now?  I’ve got a business to run.”
    Her gaze shifted toward Buck and her nostrils flared with a breath, but it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that this was definitely not a good time for whatever it was she was about to say. She shifted her resentful gaze back to me and jerked her head toward the door.  I was already striding toward it. Both of us heard Buck’s office door slam before we left the building.
    I started to get into the passenger seat of the police unit, but as soon as I opened the door, Nike, the big beautiful brute, edged me out.  I ended up sitting in the back like a prisoner and I could have sworn there was the ghost of a coolly triumphant smile on Jolene’s lips as she opened the door for me.  Well, what did I expect?  With the day I was having, it seemed only right that I should take backseat to a dog.
    I pressed my head back against the seat and closed my eyes, deliberately ignoring my surroundings, my driver and her canine partner.  I couldn’t have been more surprised when, after we’d been driving a few minutes, she actually spoke to me.
    “Tell me about this Jessie Connor,” she said.
    I opened my eyes slowly and met hers in the rearview mirror. They were dark and piercing and accustomed to being obeyed; the kind of eyes you probably didn’t want to have boring a hole through you from the other side of an interrogation table.  What she no doubt saw in my eyes was resentment, pure and simple.  “Why are you asking me?” 
    “You seem to know everything.” Her gaze was on the road now.  “Or think you do.”
    “Way to get somebody on your side,” I muttered.  I looked deliberately out the window.
    She said, “I guess you people get a lot of bodies in burned-out cars around here.”
    I really didn’t like the way she said “you people.”  And I definitely didn’t like the way she kept pushing.
    I said, “Listen, I don’t know where you’re from or how you got here.  Maybe you miss the excitement of the big city.  Maybe you just like playing hero-cop.  But you can make things a lot easier on yourself if you’ll just settle down and pay attention to the way things are done around here.  Your boss told you to back off.  If I were you, I’d do it.”
    If I’d had a little milk and sugar I could have made ice cream, the atmosphere in the car was that cold.  I could practically hear her counting to ten.  She said, “Trenton, New Jersey.  That’s where I’m from.  I got here via Afghanistan.  So don’t you worry, I know how to take orders.  I also know a thing or two about