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Ethan and his team headed back in the direction they had come, hoping on the way back to come across Oakley, Kroner, or Agent Ryerson s scent trail before the men had split up and the wolves had taken different paths to search for them.

The sun was beginning to rise, and Ethan smelled Renault s own scent change from being more anxious to relieved.

Ethan was glad he had such great night vision.

He couldn t imagine how hard it would be to fumble around in the dark otherwise.

He heard someone coming and motioned for Renault to get down. Both of them crouched behind some shrubs as they watched and listened. He was certain Renault hadn t heard anyone coming yet.

Then Ethan saw movement off in the distance.

He frowned. It was Noah and Josh. They were still some distance from him and Renault, scouring the area.

Ethan motioned to Renault that it was their guys out there.

Ethan and Renault remained hidden in case Noah and Josh chased one of the guys they were after in their direction and they could ambush him.

That s when Ethan heard someone moving low in the brush closer to them. Whoever it was had been hiding, but he must have heard Noah and Josh coming up on him, so he had to move. Hell, good news. It was Agent Ryerson.

Ethan indicated to Renault that their prey was headed straight for them, to keep down low until it was too late for Ryerson to change course. Noah and Josh would also be closer and the four of them could take the agent down.

Agent Ryerson was practically right in front of them when Ethan jumped out of the brush with his gun at the ready, Renault following his lead. Ethan shouted, Down on the ground now. You re under arrest.

What? You re making a mistake. I was searching for Kroner to arrest him. I was sure he went this way. Agent Ryerson was sweating profusely, despite the chilly morning air, and he smelled anxious.

Sorry, not buying it, Ethan said, disarming him. Grainger put me in charge of the operation, and he would have told me you were joining us.

Renault shook his head. Not to mention we watched you go inside the warehouse with Kroner. Care to tell another story?

Not that Ethan or Renault would believe anything he was going to tell them.

Josh and Noah ran to join them, now that they didn t have to worry about the agent ambushing them.

He s playing the innocent, that he s just one of us trying to catch Kroner, Ethan told them while Renault zip-tied the agent s wrists and read him his rights.

Ethan texted Ty: We ve got DEA Agent Ryerson in custody. We ll take him to the same place where your other officers picked up Officer Davis and you can transport him out of here.

Ty texted: Good show. Sending a car to pick him up.

Then Ethan texted Adam: We got Agent Ryerson. As soon as he s hauled out of here to face charges, we ll be joining you. Josh and Noah are here with us too.

Adam texted: Good. We found Oakley s scent again. He s headed to the coastline.

Ethan thought it was way too much of a coincidence that Kroner, Oakley, Officer Davis, and Agent Ryerson had headed to the coastline. To steal a car from one of the oceanside homes? Or was one of the homes another of their safe houses?

Ethan texted: Kroner, Officer Davis, and Agent Ryerson were headed that way also. What are the odds that they have a place along here where they planned to hole up?

Adam texted: Good thinking.

Ethan texted Ty: Oakley was also headed to the coast. Can you learn who owns the houses cliffside near where we found Davis?

Ty texted: I ll check into it.

To hopefully speed things up, Ethan asked Agent Ryerson, Which house were you going to along the coast?

I don t know what you mean.

Really? Ryerson was going to play dumb now?

Ethan folded his arms. Listen, you know you re in a lot of hot water. If you cooperate, the DA might give you a break.

He ll kill me.

Kroner?

Yeah.

You think he s going to let you live anyway?

If he has contacts on the outside, you know you re a dead man.

He could very well believe you had everything to do with us learning he would be at the warehouse.

Ethan raised his brows, waiting for that bit of news to sink in. Who tried to kill Officer Baker?

Kroner.

Ethan was glad they had confirmation from both Davis and Ryerson as to who had shot Baker. So see? If he believes you re going to spill the beans on him, disagree with him in any way, the next thing you know, you re dead.

Is Baker going to pull through? Ryerson asked.

The odds are in his favor. That means he ll talk and put Kroner away for life, and you ll be stuck with the rest of the gang in prison for nice long-term sentences. So where s the hideout you were headed for? Ethan asked.

Agent Ryerson let out his breath. He didn t have anything further to lose so he finally said, I ll show you the way.

Who all knew about this? Ethan asked as they walked with him to where the house would be. He was hoping Oakley and Kroner would be on their way there and they could give them a nice welcoming party.

Kroner and Oakley. Me, Baker, Davis, and Agent Pete Cohen. But none of the other men working for Kroner knew about it. Kroner figured if too many people knew the location, someone might talk. He trusted us because he needed us on the law enforcement side of the house to keep him out of trouble.

So much for that working out, Ethan said wryly. Why did Kroner shoot Baker?

Baker said Kroner had put them all in danger when he d called the meeting at the warehouse and had them all arrive at the same time.

I think we all agreed with Baker, but we kept our mouths shut because we knew how volatile Kroner could be.

Baker had been paranoid about getting caught for his participation in all these drug deals for some months now.

He told me on more than one occasion he thought the detectives who conduct internal criminal investigations were looking into him.

Did he tell Kroner that? Ethan asked.

Agent Ryerson shook his head. He told me, Agent Cohen, and Officer Davis that he was sure Kroner would kill any of us if he thought we could be up on charges and then be flipped to testify against him.

And Baker couldn t quit. You can t just say to the boss you re not going to do this anymore and live to tell of it.

But he was getting more vocal, maybe hoping the rest of us would agree with him and convince Kroner it wasn t a good idea.

Kroner was getting a big payment for a shipment of heroin and Kroner wanted everyone there to make sure he had the muscle to ensure the guys delivering it didn t stiff him.

So Baker was the one saying he didn t want to be there, that he felt something would go wrong.

Kroner assumed he had talked to the DEA about it.

In the tunnel, Kroner accused Baker of setting him up and shot Baker, then left him for dead.

All of us were shocked and we thought any one of us could be next on the chopping block.

But then Kroner said men would drive two stolen vehicles out of the auto body repair shop garage to lead the police on a chase.

If it worked, they could get out of there and not get caught.

Still, whoever took the job knew they were serving as the decoys, and nobody wanted the job.

Kroner said either he got a couple of volunteers, or all of us would end up like Baker.

Finally, two of the men said when they were younger, they used to race cars down the city streets in the middle of the night.

They thought they could get away with it, so they finally volunteered.

It didn t matter to Kroner who did it. He just wanted to make sure he could get out another way and not get caught.

So he and the rest of you backtracked through the tunnel into the warehouse and took another tunnel out of there, Ethan said, bypassing a wounded Baker.

Yeah. He looked like he was dead. Maybe he had been playing possum.

Smart of him, really. None of us had known about the tunnels.

I figured the only reason Kroner told us about them then was so that there would be a bunch of us out running in the dark like chickens with our heads cut off.

Then those of us who knew where to go—Kroner, Oakley, me, and Officer Davis would go to the safe house.

Believe me, I was afraid that when I got there, Kroner would have me killed as a loose end.

But I had the notion he and Oakley might not make it, and I could slip into the house and be safe until I could figure out what to do next.

Ethan noted that not once had the agent mentioned the hurt his family or the other families could be in if Kroner went after them. So what does your wife think of all this?

Agent Ryerson s face lost all its color.

The guy had two little girls, ages five and seven.

Ethan couldn t understand how these men who had good jobs—had an income, although maybe not like the criminals had—found it so easy to risk it all for just some extra money.

Risked losing their families. Or was there more to it than that?

The thrill of being the bad guy for once? Ethan couldn t understand it.

She doesn t know about any of it, Ryerson finally said.

When they reached the beach house, Ty arrived with a search warrant and handed it to Ethan. The owner is Clara Snyder.

Hell. The grandmotherly, retired teacher hadn t been a sweet, old lady who had been bamboozled into buying cars for these guys. She appeared to be in the middle of all this business.

Ethan pounded on the door and when Clara answered it, her eyes widened. But she was fully dressed, looking tired with dark bags under her eyes like she d been up all night. Yes? she asked, sounding perfectly innocent, but it appeared she was up to her eyeballs in working with Kroner.