Page 17 of More Bite than Bark

“What are you finding?”

“Nothing you’ll like.”Cypher took a deep breath and met Hex’s gaze.“From what I’m piecing together, Harry has a side business.On the surface it looks like he’s breeding horses and selling the foals.But the more I look into it, the fishier it gets.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not any one thing, it’s a lot of little things all adding up, but first, all of his foals have female names.They’re coded like horse names, but all have some kind of human woman name in them.”

“That’s weird but not unheard of,” Hex said.He wasn’t hugely familiar with horses, but he’d been to the track once or twice.

“Agreed, and if it were just that, it would be nothing.But He’s consistently selling yearlings for far more than they’re worth.That got me looking deeper.I’m still looking into Harry the Horse, but I suspect he’s deep into the black market and he’s letting men out of their debts for providing women for him to sell.”

Hex blinked.He clenched his fists and forced himself not to respond.

“Who’s on the gate?”

“Not sure off hand, give me a sec,” he clicked a couple of times and the feed for the camera that showed the inside of the small guard shack next to the gate.Inside sat Bobby Lee, leaning against the corner, his head tilted an odd angle that made it clear the prospect was asleep.“Bobby Lee.”

Hex clenched his teeth.“Son of a bitch.He ever fallen asleep on duty before?”

Cypher shook his head.“Not that I know of.”

“Then maybe this won’t cost him his patch.Do your thing, I’ll be right back.”

Hex headed out of the command center, then out of the clubhouse, taking care not to stomp, but not bothering to try to remain silent.He made his way to the open door of the 8x8’ room and stepped inside.Bobby Lee didn’t appear to have moved a muscle.Hex hooked a boot around one of the chair legs and with swift jerk, pulled the chair out from under the sleeping prospect.

The younger man let out an exclamation that could only be called a scream, but it only lasted as long as he fell, because his collision with the ground seemed to knock the wind out of him.

“What?”Bobby Lee blinked up at Hex from where he lay on the floor.“What happened?”

“What’s your assignment?”

“Guard duty.”The prospect looked confused.

“I’m going to guess you haven’t developed x-ray vision?”

Bobby Lee frowned, looking confused.“No.Why would you ask that?”

“Because why else would your eyes be closed for more than the time it takes to blink while you’re on guard duty.”

Bobby Lee blinked and went white.

“Shit.”

“You named it.I expect you to finish your shift, without falling asleep again.If I ever catch you sleeping on duty again, you’re out.I’ll discuss it with the other officers, and we’ll decide what the consequences for this will be.”Hex spun on his heel and left the prospect lying on the floor.

He went back to the clubhouse, stopping to start a fresh pot of coffee before heading back to the command center.

“What did he say?”Cypher asked.

“Not much.”

“No excuses?”

“There is no excuse good enough for sleeping on guard duty.”

“I know and you know but most will at least try.”Cypher picked up a TV remote from where it sat in a caddy hanging off one side of his desk and hit a button before putting back.A second later the screen hanging on the wall between Cypher’s desk and the one on the other side of it flashed and the TV powered on.Cypher hit a few keys and the camera feed they’d seen Bobby Lee sleeping on was on the screen.Only now they could see the prospect sitting in the chair, tilting his head side to side as he stretched the muscles in his neck.Hex didn’t fail to notice that he hadn’t put the chair back in the corner where he could lean his head against the wall.

“I take it we’re gonna go with the usual on this one?”