They’d lost the third of their trio, Candy, in the bombing. She had been almost eight. She had been the dog Nat had first trained and learned with.
The first dog she had loved.
Nat would always grieve for Candy. Candy had been her heart dog. And always would be. Candy had helped her heal from the trauma that had been her childhood.
But Kudos and Karma were her loves now.
A familiar redhead caught her attention. Jac. Nat pulled in a breath.
She always had mixed emotions whenever she first saw her sister. Jac was the only human left on earth that Nat allowed herself to love.
That always reminded Nat of exactly how alone she was.
“You take the east quadrant,” her new boss said. He stared at her out of eyes so dark they looked black—eyes that told her everything she needed to know about him. She’d learned early on to read a man by the look in his eyes. “If you think you can handle it.”
The east—which looked to be the least strenuous terrain. Of course. Because he didn’t think she was capable of anything more.
“I can handle it just fine.”
There was skepticism in the man’s eyes.
Micah Hanan, FBI tracker extraordinaire, didn’t think Nat could cut it. Not him, the great and wonderful Micah Hanan who never messed up at all.
Very few on her team now actually thought that she could cut it.
She understood. Nat barely made it to five two. She weighed in at ninety-six pounds now. The FBI had no minimum weight or height requirements—a good thing, as she would never have made them. They hadn’t had those requirements since the mid-1970s. Thankfully.
Nat had passed the sprint requirement three minutes faster than required. The sit-ups and pushups had been nothing for her.
She was just small.
People thought she was insignificant. Maybe she was.
The dogs were her great equalizer.
Kudos, a Tervuren cross, at ninety-eight pounds actually outweighed her.
Nat didn’t care. People had been making assumptions her entire life. All she cared about was doing her job and making a difference. An impact on the world. Leaving her mark in helping others.
So that she wasn’t insignificant after all.
Right now, her job meant finding those two little girls, as fast as possible.
“In a moment. I need to check in with my sister. See if there is anything to help us out.”
“What is this? A family reunion? Is your sister here anywhere? If she’s a civilian, Jones—”
“Stupid isn’t on my resume, Hanan.” Nat shook her head. Did he think she was that incompetent? Jerk. There was only one other woman on the scene in the first place. Jac was close enough for him to see the resemblance between them. Total ass. “Jac is the agent in charge of this investigation. She’s with PAVAD: CCU. Over there,” Nat said pointing. “I’d be checking in with the AIC, anyway. The AIC is my sister, by the way.”
She didn’t like Hanan. Something about him had her on edge. Scared her. There was an indefinable element about him that told her he was a threat to her well-being. She’d always trusted her instincts. That lesson had been beaten into her by the time she was ten and Jac thirteen.
“Agent Jaclyn Jones? We’ve met, worked together before. That’s your sister?”
Nat just nodded once. Nat had a reputation with S&R. Jac had a reputation in the field. Nat was so proud of her sister. “She’s almost as good as I am at S&R. She can work Karma, if needed. They’re very well bonded.”
“She’s good at what she does. I’ve seen her work before.” For him, that was a real compliment.
Nat just nodded. Of course, Jac was good at what she did. Being the best at anything they did had been a requirement for survival when they were children.
Failure had never been allowed. Failure was always instantly punished. Only being the best was good enough. Some lessons stuck for life.
Jac looked up. Nat studied her sister quickly. Jac looked thinner than she had before. There were dark circles beneath her sister’s eyes.
That wasn’t unusual, though. Considering that Jac most likely had been up all night. Nat shivered as the case details sank in.
This had been a bloodbath. Her sister dealt with these kinds of things every day. Concern for her sister hit her. Jac seemed so alone sometimes.
Not that Nat had room to talk. Jac at least had friends now. People she worked with. Nat didn’t even have that.
If something were to happen to her out there, no one except Jac would even care.
She’d come to terms with that lying on her back in the hospital room, missing James with every breath she took. Losing him had devastated her.
It always would.
He had been the one man she had ever let close to her. Then he had died. That still stung every minute of every day.
A tall man approached behind her. Nat didn’t have to turn around to know that it was Hanan.
PAVAD: SEARCH had twelve people in it. Teams of two were often sent out in various directions, with the ability to pull PAVAD auxiliaries to beef up numbers whenever needed.
She’d only been sent out twice with someone other than Hanan. Nat was the last one sent out at all. Only as a last resort.
Nat was well aware of that.
He didn’t trust her. No one on her team trusted her.
Hanan definitely didn’t trust her skills.
She’d only transferred to the FBI because the director of PAVAD had asked her to specifically. And promised she’d be closer to her sister.
That was invaluable to Nat.
Jac was all she had.
Kudos bumped her leg. Besides Kudos and Karma.
Nat didn’t want to keep living alone. She wanted to have the kind of life that she saw other people leading. The kind with friends, families of their own. Just people who cared. She and Jac had never had that. Their father had seen to that. He wanted to be the only
