He was bigger than her brother, and leaning over Trigger, he looked more like a giant. His dark blue eyes landed on her with the tiniest hint of question and she shivered. He seemed like he really wanted to help Trigger.

And she’d failed to stop Dale in time…

She’d busted the speed limit from her father’s shack out in the woods to rescue Trigger before Dale destroyed him like he’d tried to destroy their family.

Her heart ached with the ghost pains of a missing vital organ. Alive but only half alive. Eating, but not tasting the food she put in her mouth.

She’d been on a cruise the week before Jeremy died, sipping pina coladas on the Lido deck without a care in the world. Meanwhile, her brother had been suffering. He’d tried to call her the day before he died, but she hadn’t had service on the ship.

She’d gotten his video message the day she disembarked.

Her brother’s cryptic last words replayed over and over in her mind. “Don’t trust anybody, especially anyone in the military, got that? There’s something bad going on here. I got involved. I’m trying to fix it.” He’d looked away from the camera then, dark shadows lining his lean jaw. He’d looked so tired. “They’re sending me on one more mission before we leave. I need you to do something for me if I don’t make it. Take this to Smudge so I can tell him goodbye.” Jeremy had looked straight into the camera then, fear in his eyes. “Please forgive me, sis. I never meant to hurt anyone.” He’d continued talking after that, but to Smudge, his best friend from high school. “Hey bro, I should have listened to you and joined the frog men. Ya’ll learned all kinds of mad skills I didn’t. Watch out for my sister, for me, okay? And tell Morris I said I shoulda listened to him, too.”

Then the screen had gone dark and her brother’s beautiful buzz cut blond head had disappeared. Forever. She had no idea who Morris was and she hadn’t been able to find Smith Sims, a.k.a Smudge. When she’d called his mom, she’d told her he was on deployment for the next six months and was unreachable.

The thought made the acid in her stomach squeeze into her heart, singeing the edges. Jeremy wasn’t supposed to have been sent on another mission. He already had his plane ticket home…

“Hey, the dog’s gonna be okay,” the man said in a gentle voice, as if he was sensing the turmoil ripping her insides to shreds. She glanced at the bat, broken in half, and lying on the side of the road. Covered in Trigger’s blood. She didn’t have to get closer to read the inscription on the handle; she knew what it would say—Jeremy’s nickname, The Boom.

Audra shut her eyes, holding in the fresh prick of tears threatening to spill free once more. Her father had tried to destroy the only connection she had left with her brother. And he’d done it with Jeremy’s bat.

Dale destroyed everything he touched. Her mother. Her chance at a normal life. And now this.

She forced herself to open her eyes and plaster on a small smile to thank the handsome stranger for his help when the sun glinted on something silver hanging from the tear in his shirt. Her chest squeezed and she took an involuntary step back. Was he wearing dog tags?

The acid churning in her gut bubbled. “What’s your name?” she said suspiciously.

“Diggs.” He knelt near Trigger and put his hand on his fur, tilting his head towards the dog and away from her.

“Where’s your car? Why are you out here alone?”

Trigger let out a low, almost inaudible growl and Diggs pulled his hand away. “I told you. I live near here. I was out on a run.”

He was lying. She could sense it in the way he kept his face averted. Was he one of the men from the military her brother had warned her about?

Suddenly, his gaze shot up and searched the sky. Audra followed the direction of his intense stare but saw nothing except clouds and sun.

“We have to go, ma’am.” Diggs shoved his arms under Trigger and shot to his feet. Trigger let out a whine of pain and Audra rushed to his side.

She grabbed Diggs arm and tugged with all her might. “Put him down. You’re hurting him!”

“He’s not going to make it if we don’t get him medical attention now.” Diggs brushed off her efforts like nothing and turned towards her car.

“Hey! You’re not coming with us.”

He spun so quickly she stumbled back a step.

“Look lady, you don’t have a choice. I have medical supplies at my home and know how to treat him. The nearest town is over an hour away. The dog doesn’t have time for you to argue.”

She couldn’t help but stare at the blood on Trigger’s fur. Surely, he’d be growling if he sensed a threat? Unless he was too injured to growl. Oh, but he needed help now. She couldn’t let him die, that would mean she’d lose the only living piece of Jeremy she had left…

“But how do I know – “

“I’m not going to kidnap and murder you.” Diggs threw back his head and his dark hair tumbled back on his head. When he dipped his chin back down, his gaze burned. “If I wanted to hurt you, I could’ve easily knocked you unconscious at any time.”

“I didn’t give you the chance.” She waved her pepper spray in the air as a reminder.

He snorted and began walking to her car. “Lady, that can of pepper spray is about as effective against me as it would be against a grizzly bear. Believe me, I'm here to help – not hurt. And if that means leaving you here alone while I save the dog, so be it. Either way, me and him are leaving. Now."

He shifted Trigger to his left arm, grabbed her back door and yanked it open. Then he eased the dog into her back seat and stood back, his arm propped on the open door. “You coming or not?”

Audra clutched her pepper spray and stared at his chest, trying to catch another glimpse of his dog tags, but all she saw was bare skin and cut muscles. “Fine. But if you try anything, I’ll make you regret it.”

Audra slid into the back seat and took Trigger’s head onto her lap, fighting the flinch when Diggs slammed the door shut. Then she remembered the bat. Jeremy’s team had surprised him with it at graduation. She couldn’t leave it here, forgotten and rotting in the dirt. “Wait! I need the bat!”

Diggs paused half-way into the front seat, his jaw ticking. “Why?”

She thought frantically for an answer that wouldn’t invite more questions. “Evidence.”

He let out a muttered curse, then slid out of the car, returning seconds later to open the back seat and toss the pieces of the bat onto the floor board at her feet.

She touched the broken pieces with trembling hands. She’d clean it and glue it back together. And when this was all over, she’d make her father pay.

Trigger whimpered and she felt like she’d been stabbed. Don’t worry, boy, I’ll take care of you.

Trigger was going home with her. That’s what Jeremy would have wanted, and she’d make sure he lived out the rest of his life surrounded by every luxury a dog could have. That’s the life he should’ve had in the first place before the military sucked him into their dark vacuum of violence and forced him to become a bomb-sniffing dog. It was the military’s fault Trigger no longer had his front leg.

And it was their fault her brother was dead.

It was all just too much, too soon. Losing her brother. And now, close to losing Trigger.

She’d completely failed to protect those she loved.

Not again. If it took her the rest of her life, she’d find out the truth behind her brother’s death and persecute those responsible.

Diggs cleared his throat. “We good to go?”

Audra caressed Trigger with one hand, and with her pepper spray in the other hand, she took a deep breath and said, “Yeah, let’s go.”

Diggs closed the back door, went around to his side and wedged his massive frame into the front seat of her tiny smart car. He had to work at it too, shifting his shoulders over inch by inch so he could shut the door. His knees were jammed up against the steering column and he had to work at getting around his legs to push the start button. The image was so silly that it managed to pull her out of her dark shell the tiniest little bit. “I don’t think my car was made for people your size.”

Diggs glanced over his shoulder, some of his expression tempered by annoyance. “Are you calling me fat?”

Audra slapped a hand over her mouth and leaned back in the seat, only able to capture back part of the giggle that escaped her lips. Fat? The man was a walking talking god. She’d bet if she lifted up the edge of his shirt, she’d see a six-pack chiseled from concrete. Big, yes. Gorgeous, most definitely. Fat? Not in a million years. “I was thinking more along the lines of … tall.” She’d just met the man. She had no intention of telling him she thought he was hot.

He grumbled but turned back to the steering wheel. “Whoever makes cars like this should be shot.”

Audra gently stroked Trigger’s sweaty hair, trying to give him some measure of comfort. His eyes were closed and his tongue hung out as he panted in short rapid bursts. He didn’t need to whimper for her to know he was in acute pain. If she kept thinking about how close she’d come to losing him, she’d go insane. So, she grasped on to the thin straw of distraction that Diggs offered with his mindless conversation. “This car gets fifty-eight miles to the gallon, and doesn’t pollute the environment.”

Cramped or not, the ozone thanked her every time she hit start on her car.

Not the empty water bottles covering her floor—well, no one was perfect.

Diggs took off, swinging her smart car in a wide arc to the left, making a U-turn in the road. He kept shifting trying to get comfortable but it was like a Bengal tiger trying to get comfortable in a Chihuahua’s cage.

He grumbled again. “I feel like I’m driving a toy car.”

This time she did smile. “But you’re saving the environment.”

The glare he cast her in the rear view mirror was enough to melt ice. “If you say so.”

The car slowed and he turned in between a minuscule break in the trees down what appeared to be an overgrown paved road, just wide enough for a car to squeeze through. Limbs scraped across her windows and doors and she cringed.

“Sorry, we lost our lawn maintenance man. I need to get up here and trim these bushes back some.”

“It’s okay, I don’t care as long as you can help Trigger,” she said. He could scrape all the paint off her car if it meant saving her brother’s dog.

“I like that name.”

Diggs pulled to a stop and rolled the window down. Within the thick growth of bushes there was a shiny silver keypad about the size of her hand splayed open wide. He punched in a long sequence of numbers and then the gate she hadn’t even paid any attention to slid open and they pulled through. Inside the gate was just as overgrown as out.

“So, you still haven’t told me your name,” Diggs said.

“Audra,” she answered automatically.

“Fits you.”

“What’s that mean?” she said.

“I don’t know. You look like an Audra, I guess.” Diggs hunched forward, both hands on the wheel.

“Is that a compliment?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Tingles bubbled up in her stomach. She’d have to be blind, deaf, and dumb not to have a reaction to the walking sex god, but that still didn’t blunt the crash of guilt battering her senses. What right did she have to crush on Diggs when her brother lay fresh in a grave and his dog was only a step from joining him?

Audra stroked Trigger’s fur, fighting back the constant sting of tears burning up her throat. She couldn’t lose him too. Trigger was the only connection to her brother she had left. The way Jeremy had talked about his dog had been so heartfelt, they’d formed a bond stronger than any blood ties. Every time Jeremy sent home a photo or did a video call with her, Trigger had been at his side. They’d been best friends. No, according to Jeremy, they were brothers.

She felt the muscles on her face twist up and she screwed her eyes shut to keep the tears from leaking free. I will find out what happened, Jeremy, and I will avenge you. I swear it on my life.

“Everything okay back there?” Diggs asked.

“Fine, just hurry up. He’s in a lot of pain,” she barked and immediately regretted her harsh tone. She’d been on edge since she’d gotten the video the same day she found out Jeremy was dead. She couldn’t seem to stop the bitterness creeping in like black tarry fingers around her soul.

She’d begged him not to join the military. He’d been offered an amazing contract from the Amateur Baseball League. The scout said Jeremy would make the pros within a year. But Jeremy had said he needed to do something to serve.

Scenery buzzed by in a blurry haze of unshed tears. She knew she should cry and let out the emotions churning up her insides but she couldn’t. Not until she tracked down whatever asshole commander had gotten Jeremy killed and got justice for him. Audra dashed the heel of her palm against her cheek and firmed up her chin. She had to stay strong for Jeremy.

Suddenly the car stopped moving, and Audra pulled herself from her thoughts to look around. They’d parked beneath a giant awning made of stone pillars that rivaled a Greek temple. Diggs was already out of the car and around the side, opening her door and offering his hand. Feeling just the tiniest bit remorseful for snapping at a man who’d only sought to help her, she placed her hand in his. A sizzle of heat passed down her fingers and she became instantly aware of the thick rough calluses and the strength in his grip as he gently helped her from the car. His thumb grazed across the back of her wrist as his dark chocolate gaze bore into hers and for the life of her she couldn’t look away.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

She licked her dry lips and nodded, not trusting her brain to form a response.

“I’ll take the dog inside. Melissa should have a change of clothes for you. I don’t think we can salvage yours, but I can try if you want,” he said still holding her hand.

Melissa? He lives here with a woman?

Audra snatched her hand back and rubbed her palm against her hip. Of course, he was with someone. Men like him weren’t single bachelors living in mansions in the country. Men like him were never single.

“I’m fine, I’ll change clothes later.” She really wanted to get a fresh shirt and shorts; hers were covered in Trigger’s blood as were her hands and arms but she’d be damned if she accepted clothing from his girlfriend or wife or whoever.

“Suit yourself.” Diggs brushed past her and leaned down low into her car. His massive arms slid beneath Trigger who whimpered when Diggs picked him up and cradled him against his huge chest.

Trigger still had the bandage on the stub where his front leg had been. The bomb that had killed her brother had taken out Trigger’s leg, too. Now seeing him hurt so badly—the pain bordered on physical incapacitation. It was all she could do not to grab her sides and sob. Instead she gave them her back, staring at the stone column near the huge front doors, fighting and clawing to get her riotous emotions under control.

Finally, the muscles binding her lungs loosened enough for her to draw in a breath. She’d wasted precious time Trigger didn’t have, and bless him, the godlike man behind her was giving her room to breathe. The godlike man who was married.

Audra snapped out of her selfish haze. “Are we just going to stand around outside, or are we going to help him?”