Chapter 2 - THE REMOTE
Titan’s scream ripped through the darkness.
“DOWN!” Roman shouted.
A gunshot shattered the front window.
I hit the floor.
Glass sprayed across the tile.
Somebody grabbed my shoulder.
I swung blindly.
“Easy,” Roman snapped. “It’s me.”
Another shot cracked through the store.
Titan launched himself over my body.
Not toward Roman.
Toward Adrian Vale.
A man cursed.
Something heavy crashed into a shelf.
Then one of the guards shouted, “Vale!”
Emergency lights flickered on.
The scene came back in ugly red shadows.
Vale was on the floor.
Titan stood over him.
The remote had fallen several feet away.
Roman saw it.
So did I.
“Titan,” I said quietly.
The dog’s ears twitched toward me.
“Back.”
His eyes never left Vale.
But he stepped away.
Roman picked up the remote.
His expression became unreadable.
“What is this?”
Vale pushed himself upright.
“Training equipment.”
I laughed once.
“Training?”
He looked at me.
“Stay out of this.”
“You just electrocuted a terrified dog inside my store.”
“The animal was becoming unstable.”
“No. You made him unstable.”
Roman turned the remote over.
There were three numbered buttons.
A red indicator light still blinked.
“How long?” Roman asked.
Vale said nothing.
Roman looked at him.
“How long have you been using this on my dog?”
“Mr. Calder—”
“How long?”
Vale’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
Fear.
Roman Calder scared people.
Even his own people.
Especially his own people.
Vale straightened his jacket.
“It was necessary for operational control.”
Roman walked toward him.
“Operational control?”
“Titan has become unpredictable.”
“He has slept outside my bedroom door for five years.”
“He’s an animal.”
Roman stopped inches from him.
“So am I, according to half this city. Yet nobody puts a shock collar on me.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
Then Titan barked.
Once.
Loud.
He turned toward the broken front window.
Roman reacted immediately.
“Everyone away from the glass.”
We moved.
Seconds later, another bullet punched through a display behind us.
This wasn’t random.
Somebody outside was shooting into the store.
At us.
Or at Titan.
Roman’s guards returned fire toward a dark vehicle across the street.
I grabbed Titan’s harness.
“No!”
Roman looked at me.
“If he runs out there, he’s dead.”
He nodded.
“Back room.”
I pulled Titan through the employee door.
Roman followed.
One guard came with us.
Vale did not.
I looked back.
“Where is he?”
Roman turned.
Vale was gone.
The back exit alarm suddenly screamed.
Roman’s face turned cold.
His security chief had just run.
Not from the shooter.
From Roman.
We reached my stockroom.
Titan immediately began pawing at his damaged harness.
“Hold him still,” I said.
Roman crouched beside me.
Together we unbuckled it.
Inside the torn inner seam, my fingers touched something hard.
Not leather.
Not padding.
I pulled out a tiny metal capsule.
Roman stared at it.
“What is that?”
I twisted it open.
A microSD card slid into my palm.
There was dried blood on the casing.
The guard beside Roman went pale.
Roman noticed.
“Do you recognize this?”
The man swallowed.
“Yes.”
“From where?”
His voice shook.
“It belonged to Owen Price.”
“Who is Owen Price?” I asked.
Roman didn’t look away from the card.
“My internal security analyst.”
“And where is he?”
The guard answered before Roman could.
“He disappeared yesterday.”
Roman slowly looked toward the broken window.
Then toward Titan.
And finally toward the bloody memory card in my hand.
May you like
“He didn’t disappear,” Roman said.
“He gave something to my dog.”
