Framed Shadows: Shadows Landing #6, Kathleen Brooks [great novels of all time TXT] 📗

on Maurice’s scent. We’re going in. I thought you’d like to watch.”

“Yes,” Paxton said, swinging his feet over the side of the bed and not trying to be quiet. “Put it on video. Did you call Connor?”

“Yes, but he’s tied up with our husbands. He’ll get here as soon as he can. We’re moving in because we just saw a light turn on in a bedroom,” Annie whispered. “We can’t chance them leaving. Here we go.”

“What’s going on?” Tinsley asked sleepily.

“Buttercup is on a scent,” Paxton told her as he turned on the video call and began to record it.

That woke Tinsley right up and she moved to sit next to him as they stared at the video feed of a home in a middle-class neighborhood. “That’s Maurice’s car,” Tinsley whispered.

Paxton nodded. His heart beat wildly in his chest as if he were on the raid with them. Where was Connor? Two women shouldn’t go into the house alone. They would be outnumbered. He should be there with them.

Buttercup led them right to the car, then up the walkway, and to the front door. Instead of baying, she sat and rested her nose against the closed door.

“Annie, take Robyn around back and put her on a sit-stay,” Bridget whispered. The video then showed Annie and Robyn running silently around the house to the back patio. Annie put Robyn on a sit-stay hidden in the shadows between two patio chairs before running back to the front of the house. Bridget came back into view. Buttercup was on a long tracking leash that Bridget held in her left hand. On her right, Susi was on a short leash, obviously amped up and ready to go. Bridget opened a package and told Susi, “Scent.”

“Open it,” Bridget whispered as Annie moved to place the phone in a backpack strap on her chest.

With two free hands, Annie picked the front door lock and then pulled out her weapon. Bridget handed her Buttercup’s leash and then reached out with her free hand and slowly opened the door. “Scent,” Bridget whispered to her dogs.

Paxton saw a gun appear in Bridget’s hand as Susi took the lead and strode inside with her nose to the ground. The house was a ranch style and Susi headed straight for the side of the house where all the bedrooms were located. Maurice must be sleeping. However, Buttercup took a detour. She headed straight for a door off the kitchen.

Annie opened it slowly and flipped on the tactical flashlight attachment to her Glock. She made her way down the stairs into a basement that couldn’t be seen from the street. Buttercup pulled her through the dark, and Paxton held his breath as he watched the scan of the light while Annie cleared the area. Buttercup had something. She was pulling hard as she led Annie away from the stairs.

He saw what Buttercup had scented at the same time Tinsley did. He heard her gasp next to him. “I think we found your paintings,” Annie whispered as she used her flashlight to scan the area. At least forty wrapped items were leaning against the far wall.

They couldn’t celebrate, though. Suddenly there was shouting from upstairs. Annie was running with Buttercup beside her. She took the basement stairs two at a time to find the front door open and the back of Curtis Engle running out of the house.

“Stellen!” Bridget yelled from deep inside the house. Susi shot past Annie and out the open front door.

Annie raced after her and Paxton watched as Susi leaped onto the car. She was snarling and barking on the hood of the car as she used her paws to try to claw at Curtis through the windshield. It was too late, though. Curtis threw the car into reverse. Annie called for Susi who leaped from the moving car and into the front yard. Annie was about to go after Curtis, but then they all heard Bridget.

“You asshole!” Bridget yelled.

“Susi!” Annie yelled but didn’t need to. The Mal was already bolting back into the house to rescue her handler.

The sound of glass breaking had Annie turning from the hallway to the back door. There were the simultaneous sounds of men screaming. One from a bedroom and the other from the backyard.

“Bridget?” Annie called out.

“I’m good. Get the one who went out back!” Bridget yelled, but Annie was already running that way.

Paxton chuckled as Annie opened the back door. “That’s my girl,” Paxton called out to where Robyn had Maurice by the balls—literally. Maurice was frozen in place with tears running down his face.

“Get him off me,” he pleaded.

Paxton had muted the phone and covered the camera. “We don’t want Maurice hearing or recognizing us,” he told Tinsley.

“Only a girl would bring a man down by the balls, dimwit. Hold him, Robyn,” Annie ordered as she placed cuffs on Maurice.

The sounds of sirens could be heard in the distance as Annie and Bridget hauled the men to the front porch. Connor was the first to arrive. The second vehicle was an SUV filled with Davies brothers.

“What are you two doing here?” a man sputtered at Annie, who looked completely unconcerned.

“That’s her husband, Cade,” Tinsley told him.

“Weren’t you were going to a spa or something?” a very scary-looking man asked Bridget in an aggrieved voice.

“That’s Ahmed,” Tinsley filled in. “And there’re Cy, Miles, and Marshall.”

“Oh, we did. It was great. Had a mud bath and a facial. Then we found a hundred million dollars worth of stolen art and captured these two men,” Annie said with a smirk.

“How’s your fishing trip going? Catch anything?” Bridget asked sweetly and Paxton lost it. He was glad he was on mute because he was laughing so hard Tinsley had to take the phone from him.

“Yup, that’s my family,” she said, laughing.

“I can’t wait to join this family,” Paxton admitted and liked seeing the radiant smile Tinsley gave him in return.

“Really?”

“Sweetheart, I love you even more because of your family. Maybe I didn’t make it