The Vacation

Chapter 28

It didn't take long to backtrack through the woods to her car. The trunk was still open. She slammed it closed and opened up the back door. Mac laid Reego carefully on the rear bench seat as Brenna circled around to the other side and climbed in beside him. She spoke soothingly to him and touched him gently.

The keys still dangled from the ignition so Mac turned over the engine and put it in reverse. In the headlights he saw two large red gasoline storage cans sitting in the roadway. He glanced back but didn't think that Brenna had spotted them, she was completely focused on Reego.

"That bastard was going to burn her," he realized.

The road widened and Matt swung the rear of the car into a bend to get turned around. Once facing the right direction, Mac brought his radio up and told dispatch to relay the gasoline cans to the deputies on scene so they could confiscate them for evidence and fingerprint them.

Herrick was gone, there would be no trial but the scene still needed to be preserved. Procedure and protocol still had to be followed. The world needed to know who and what he had been and why he'd been killed.

He glanced in the rearview mirror. Brenna was tenderly stroking Reego's ears and speaking to him softly between sobs.

His love and his partner were both injured and distressed and all he could do was drive. He'd wanted to scoop Brenna up and hold her the instant he'd seen her. After shooting Herrick he'd needed to feel tangible proof that she was ok.

Leave it to his Brenna to competely disregard her own injuries and focus completely on Reego. Her face was a mess. He didn't even want to consider what other injuries she had that he couldn't see. If Herrick weren't dead Mac would pummel him to death. She'd have a fat lip and a black eye and bruised cheek for weeks and the thought of that made his blood boil.

He'd only seen the very end of Reego's fight but it looked as if he'd taken a beating. Mac had to struggle to keep his emotions in check. He couldn't tear up and blubber while he was driving. The amount of gratitude and love he felt for the dog in the back seat couldn't be put into words.

Reego had been willing to give his life to protect Brenna and had only let go when he absolutely could not hold on any longer. Mac prayed he wouldn't truly be giving the greatest sacrifice tonight.

If only he'd ran faster; he could have caught up sooner and taken care of Herrick before he'd been able to hurt Reego. The run through the woods has seemed like a high paced eternity. They had moved swiftly and covered a lot of ground quickly but Mac had been frustrated in his expectations to find her around every bend and not doing so.

The other deputy had truly been straining to maintain their pace. At the last fifty yards Reego had really put on the speed and Mac had chased the last sighting of him into the little copse of trees where he'd stumbled upon Reego latched onto Herrick and Brenna yelling and pleading to God for Reego to be ok.

It had only taken a moment to size up the situation. Reego was thrown to the side and Herrick was advancing on Brenna. Mac had had seconds to make the decision, taken aim and finish the man only feet from Brenna's shaking form.

Now they were racing through the night to the emergency veterinarian clinic praying they'd make it there in time.

Traffic was light as the merged onto the highway.

"How's he doing?" he asked over his shoulder.

"He's still breathing but not really responding to me anymore," her voice broke in pain. "He's hurt so bad." She finished in such a tiny forlorn voice.

"We're almost there." Up ahead he could see the lit red and white sign that marked the clinic. Mac pulled in and quickly, but carefully, pulled Reego from the back seat as Brenna ran ahead to get the clinic door.