Chapter 30

His first warning that something was amiss—something more than Jeremy hurt—was the crushed bush thirty yards from the house. Raider had stopped to sniff—another not good sign—so Brendan stopped as well, looking at it more closely. Half of it had been trampled, the soft earth around its base broken. Brendan didn’t need to crouch down to see more than one set of footprints in the dirt.

He glanced back at the house. The front porch was still visible through the foliage. Jeremy hadn’t gone far before someone had surprised him.

Brendan took off as soon as Raider started running again. Away from the house. He had his gun in hand within two paces.