A Soldier's Heart by Alexis Morgan Page B

right now his skin was crawling, and the sense of being watched was back.
    “Nick?”
    His friend glanced back. “What? Did you see something?”
    “No, but I’m feeling something.”
    They both knew that after a long patrol it was easy to jump at shadows. Still, a gut feeling had saved their collective asses more than once.
    Leif moved closer to Spence. “Shit. Why can’t it ever be simple?”
    Nick didn’t offer up an answer, so Spence gave him one. “The powers of the universe like to fuck with us.”
    As soon as he spoke, the dog went into a frenzy. He stood at the mouth of an alley, his feet planted as he growled and barked like crazy.
    They all froze. “What’s wrong with your pal, Wheels?”
    That was from Leif. Nick glared at Spence as if this was all his fault. “Shut him up before he wakes up the whole damn neighborhood.”
    And how the hell was he supposed to do that?
“Anybody else got food? I already gave him my last piece of jerky.”
    One of the others tossed him a granola bar. Not a dog’s usual fare, but then a half-starved beggar wasn’t likely to be picky.
    Spence squatted down and held out the bar. “Here, boy. Come get it.”
    The dog barely glanced in Spence’s direction before turning his attention right back to whatever he’d spotted in that alley. His hackles were up, and his barking had been replaced by a deep throated growl. Clearly whatever he was staring at posed a danger. The only question was the nature of the threat.
    The patrol was still moving forward. Spence had a bad feeling about this. He hustled up to stand next to Nick. “Sarge, I don’t think it’s a cat in that alley. Let me check it out before we go any farther.”
    Nick nodded and signaled for the others to slow down and fan out. Spence inched forward with Leif right behind him. When they reached the edge of the alley, the dog wagged his tail to acknowledge them.
    Spence pretended to be irritated with the racket the dog was making. “Dog, get the hell out of here. I’m tired and the last thing I need is to listen to you raising hell over some cat in a damned alley.”
    He eased closer to the corner of the building, ready to risk a quick peek. When he looked, the alley was empty. Nothing. Nobody. Nada.
    Damn, he’d never live this down. “Dog, are you screwing with me?”
    But the animal wouldn’t back down. Before he could take another look, a single shot rang out. The dog yelped in pain and collapsed right there in the mouth of the alley, his white coat painted crimson with blood.
    In a roar of fury, Spence spun back into the alley firing as he did. There, halfway up the building on the right, the shooter ducked back inside a darkened window from a narrow balcony. No way to get him from the ground.
    Nick and the others were right behind him. “There’s at least one shooter inside. He was outside on a balcony waiting for us to cross the mouth of the alley. We would have been sitting ducks.”
    Nick immediately issued orders to secure the building. No one was going escape retribution now. Spence took point to make sure he had first crack at the dog-shooting bastard. He couldn’t bring himself to look back toward the furry mooch. How had the dog known to warn them? It didn’t matter now.
    Spence tamped down his temper and waited until Nick gave the signal to kick the door in. There would be time afterward to vent his fury. Right now, the situation called for cool and calm. He nodded at his friend and went to work.

Chapter 8
    Cleaning out the infestation didn’t take all that long, although in the heat of the moment, everything played out in slow motion.
    Back out on the street, Spence swiped at his face with the back of his hand. His cheeks were too wet for it to be sweat, but nobody said a word. They’d all seen what had happened and knew at least a couple of them were still walking around because of that half-starved fur ball.
    No way Spence was going to leave him lying out there in the street. The dog