Page 4 of Radar (Iniquus Certified Cerberus Tactical K9 #2)

Xander

Tuesday

Bratislava , Slovakia

Anna got herself a club soda and ordered Xander a White Russian, just to be funny.

Belov comes from the Russian word belyy , meaning "white."

It was an old familiar joke they had shared, but tonight, Xander didn’t find it particularly humorous. At this point, he needed something to take the edge off; he’d accept any port in the storm.

Xander thought his ribs were probably just bruised. Though it was possible the thugs cracked one or two. Something was making every inhale into a wince-inducing stab.

“You go to a doctor’s when you leave here,” Anna said with a schoolmarm’s inflection.

He tapped his glass on the table before he threw back the creamy alcohol as best he could with all the ice cubes. “I’ll do that.” He put the glass back on the table and used his cocktail napkin to wipe his mouth.

Anna turned to the bartender, calling out some word that Xander interpreted as “Shots” because she held up four fingers.

Leaning forward, she scrutinized his face.

“Street thugs,” she announced. “They didn’t hit you where the bruising would be evidence of a crime.

It’s always so much harder to convince the police that you just got the shit kicked out of you when your face is still pretty.

” Anna lifted her jacket from the table and draped it across the back of her chair.

“I thought they were aiming for my nose, but in retrospect, it was just so I’d use my trash can lid as a block, and I’d expose my diaphragm. They’ve done this a time or two.” He pushed his glass to the end of the table, then caught Anna’s gaze. “You think I’m pretty?”

“While you’re rough around the edges, I can see the family resemblance, and I am gorgeous.”

A teasing smile spread across her face, but Xander thought that it was accurate. She was gorgeous by almost any standard.

Her smile dropped off. “What did the thugs get off you?”

“Nothing.”

“No phone? No wallet? No hotel key card?” she asked.

“I’ve gotten into the habit of carrying nothing on me when I can at all help it. I left the key card with the desk,” Xander said.

“They didn’t think it was strange that you did that? That move didn’t make you stand out?”

“Let me be clearer. I left it in the plant beside the desk,” he said. “I’ll retrieve it when I crouch down to tie my shoe when I get back.”

“Clever boy.”

“I would have been more clever had I brought along a broken phone and fake wallet, but the airline delayed my luggage, and I didn’t have time to invent a substitute. The thugs said they wanted money and my phone.”

Anna leaned in. “They asked in English?”

Xander rubbed his fingers on the scratched finish of the wooden table, giving himself time to think that question through, trying to remember the details that were so crystal clear during the fight but were getting fuzzy now.

“They were commanding me in Slovak, and I said, ‘English.’ And the head guy asked, ‘Where is these?’ They said monies and phone.”

She let that sink in with a slow nod of her head. “It’s hard to come up with words in a foreign language when a) you’re not expecting it and b) adrenaline is flowing.”

“Agreed.” Xander slid his hand forward and tapped his index finger in front of Anna. “How do you say ‘fire’ in Slovak?”

“ Oheň . You can remember it because fires are orange, and if you drop the r, it sort of sounds like the first half of orange.” She tipped her head. “Why?”

“Just something I thought during the fight.” He licked his lips, then said, “Oheň.” He waited for her nod, then repeated it again a few times to cement it in his mind. The orange mnemonic helped.

“I’m sorry that happened.” She reached for his hand and squeezed it between both of hers. “I was looking forward to a nice visit with you—short-lived as this is going to be.”

“I haven’t said thank you yet.”

“That’s not a thing we say to each other. It’s a given that we help when we can.”

“Still.” Xander swallowed as the bitter taste of bile slicked up the back of his throat. Fear was fear. They trained his team to feel it, deal with it, and do their job. But they could never train a soldier enough to make fear go completely away. “Thank you.”

The bartender showed up with the shots on his tray and set two in front of each of them.

When he was back behind the counter, Xander said, “I haven’t seen you since Peter was brought home. You know about that?”

“Johnna White got word to me, yes. His death has been hard,” Anna admitted, pulling one of the shots in front of her and looking into the amber liquid. “Here in Bratislava alone and all. It would have been good for the team to get together.” She lifted her gaze. “Have you seen Tink?”

“Tink is having a lot of mental health issues. She just wanted her husband buried at home, and the time it took the Kyrgyz government to repatriate him seemed to have broken her.”

“God.” Anna’s face melted into grief.

Xander lifted his glass and waited.

Quietly, Anna intoned. “Peter, never forgotten.”

“Never forgotten.”

They tossed the whiskey back. The shot slid aggressively down Xander’s throat, landing in his gut.

As they sat in silence, each in their own head, Xander remembered Peter and Tink falling in love, getting married, and serving side by side.

He wondered if being in the same fight, shoulder to shoulder, made the job easier or if it was a distraction and added burden.

Xander didn’t have a good point of reference. He’d never been in love. He didn’t even know if he had the capacity for the kind of devotion he’d seen between Tink and Peter.

Of course, with his job, Xander was never in a single place long enough to form those kinds of bonds.

When Xander dated, he wasn’t seeking out the type of woman who wanted a stable relationship.

He dated busy women. Distracted women. It worked best for everyone.

But, as he stared into his empty glass, he thought he was probably making a mistake.

Just not a mistake he knew how to correct.

Xander lifted the second shot. “This one is for f’ing Delta Force Echo and Jett finding and saving Scott and Tink.”

“To Echo and Jett with gratitude.” Anna downed the shot, then dragged the back of her hand across her lips to catch the drips. “Just say it, Xander.”

“Say what?”

“You’re always saying ‘f’ing.’ If you want to drop the F-bomb, have the balls to drop it.”

Xander shook his head. “I promised my grandmother I’d never say the word again. It’s stress relieving, though, biting my teeth into my lip and hissing out my frustration, so ‘f’ing’ is my compromise. Has been and will be.”

Anna tipped her head. “How old were you when you made this promise to your grandma?”

He shrugged. “Six, maybe.”

“Six,” she repeated with emphasis, maybe some exasperation. “This was your Babka Belov?”

“Babka Belov swore like a drunken sailor. No. This was my Oma Meyer, my mom’s side. A promise is a promise. I never go back on my word.”

Anna rested her elbows on the table, leaning forward with a heavy sigh.

“I know it’s not me putting the world in danger.

It’s my family. But I still feel responsible for what happened to the AWG team in the Kyrgyzstan mountains, for Tink’s pain and Peter’s death.

I keep thinking that if I had done my job better, I could have pinpointed The Family’s damned doomsday machine and would have known exactly what they were testing out there and why.

” She frowned deeply. And Xander sat silently, giving her the space to say what she needed to say when she had so few opportunities to express herself freely.

The pause was long and poignant.

“While the team was roaming the Kyrgyzstan mountains and facing death,” tears filled Anna’s eyes, “I was fine dining and going to the opera in beautiful ball gowns.” She shifted her gaze off into the distance, looking miserable.

“We each have our roles to play,” Xander said. He understood that guilt. He felt it acutely. His AWG team needed him, but he was elsewhere doing his bit. This spring, though, he’d get his turn in the mountains searching for the Zorics’ Machine Against Humanity.

“You’re the first person I’ve seen from the old team. When White told me about Peter, she’d started to tell me about Scott getting injured, but we were interrupted before I heard the story.”

“Here’s the short version,” Xander said.

“When Peter and Tink were in trouble, Peter set off a flare, hoping his signal would get them help. Scott was up on the mountain alone with his AWG K9 Digger. Scott saw Peter’s signal and raced up the mountain to see the trajectory so he could figure out the point of origin, and his foot went into a crag. ”

“Shit.”

“Completely stuck, there was no way for Scott to save himself. Digger was indefatigable and mission-focused,” Xander shook his head as he spoke.

He still couldn’t wrap his head around Scott’s survival.

“Day after day, night after night, week after week, that doggo was always doing the right thing until he was successful in saving Scott. If there is such a thing as a miracle of a dog, it’s Digger. ”

Anna put her hand on her heart. “Have you heard much from Scott since then?”

“Not really. I don’t think he wants the memories.”

“Or the look of pity in your eyes,” she said. “But he recovered?”

“They have him up on his feet again, but he’ll never walk without a limp. When AWG shut down, they did right by Scott and his mental health by letting him keep Digger. Sort of.”

“Least they could do is what I’m hearing in your voice. What does ‘sort of’ mean in this instance?” Anna asked.

“AWG wasn’t all that benevolent. Digger was Army-owned.”

Anna leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest. “So, what happened?”

“When they handed Digger’s lead over to his new handler—or tried to—Digger refused to work. Wouldn’t follow a single command, wouldn’t even get up. They decided that since Digger seemed to have PTSD, it was time to retire him and—”

Anna nodded. “Per military policy, the last handler gets the first right of refusal.”

“I swear Digger knew that and did what he had to, which would allow him to continue to save and protect Scott. Loyal to a fault. Smart. Yup, a miracle of a dog.” Xander moved a hand to his side to support his ribs as he took in a deeper breath.

The ache was growing more intense. “After seeing that, I bought myself a German Shepherd named Radar.”

“Radar! Did you name him that because he was to be tasked with going into the mountains to find 'we don’t know what, but it’s bigger than a breadbox?’”

Xander blew a short, derisive breath through his nostrils and shook his head at the absurdity of it all. “I’d show you a picture of him, but—” He watched as her face hardened the way it did when her brain was churning. Xander waited.

“He’s yours, right?” Anna asked. “You bought him and had him trained on your own dime?”

“Yes, well, Iniquus Security is doing his training, so I wouldn’t say ‘dime’. When I get home, I’m going to pick Radar up for our regular bonding time.”

Anna let out a low whistle. “Did you mortgage your home to get Radar trained by Cerberus?”

“They trained Digger, and Digger saved Scott. I consider it life insurance for when I go into Kyrgyzstan after the snow melts.”

Anna reached for one of the empty shot glasses and twirled it between her fingers, avoiding Xander’s gaze. “What would you do with Radar if you weren’t assigned to the mountain search?”

“I’m not sure.” Xander tightened his stomach muscles as if he were about to take another blow.

“Radar’s my brother. But if I’m not crawling all over the Kyrgyzstan mountains looking for s omething, I don’t know what I’d do.

If there was a Mrs. Belov who didn’t travel, then Radar could be home when I’m not using him on field missions. ”

“That’s the dream, isn’t it? A home and family, a place to anchor.” She paused with emotions storming in her eyes. “The reality is that it’s hard to find love and solidity in our line of work.”

“You did it.” Xander nodded toward Anna’s hand. “Finley’s a good man.”

“From the intelligence reports you’ve read on him and us?” Anna grasped her engagement ring and turned the diamond around and around her finger. “He is a good man. But he’s in my life to the extent that The Family will allow him to be.”

“For now, maybe that’s true. But Anna, we’ll figure out a way to take out the core of the Zoric enterprise. The Family will implode. Then you’ll be free. We all will.”

Anna held Xander’s gaze without blinking. “We either succeed at that soon, or they’re going to destroy the world as we know it.”

“Wait.” Xander angled forward. “The whole world? Not just targeted attacks?”

Anna whipped her head around to assure herself that the bartender stood on the other side of the room before turning back to Xander. “Have you rested enough from the fight now? Caught your breath? Because I need to get you up to speed.”