Powerful MAFIA BOSS Bought A Helpless Military Dog At Auction — What He Saw That No One Else Di

Chapter 5

The military records arrived encrypted on Cole’s secure server. He’d paid heavily for them — military files weren’t easy to acquire, and these had been sealed with a level of classification that screamed cover-up. Cole’s controlled expression finally cracked when he read them.

Titan hadn’t been an ordinary working dog. He’d belonged to an elite special operations detachment, the kind of unit that handled interagency work so classified it officially didn’t exist. Handler listed: Captain David Reyes. Status: KIA, classified circumstances. Do not investigate further.

When someone tells you not to look, Cole had learned, always look. He dug through underground channels, spending money that would have funded a small war. What he found made him understand why someone had tried so hard to make Titan disappear.

Captain Reyes had died three years ago in what was officially a training accident. But here was where the pattern emerged like blood in water. Seven other soldiers from his unit had died within six months. Every single one worked with military working dogs. Every single dog had subsequently been classified as unstable and scheduled for euthanasia. Cole pulled up their files one by one, his jaw tightening with each name — training accidents, equipment malfunctions, vehicle collisions, accidental discharges, climbing falls, a drowning.

Eight soldiers, eight different accidents, eight working dogs, all labeled unstable and disappeared. This wasn’t coincidence. This was systematic elimination of an entire special operations unit. Someone with power, resources, and access to falsify military records had orchestrated mass murder. They’d needed to kill the dogs too, to erase every witness to whatever these soldiers had discovered.

Cole’s mind worked through Titan’s three-year survival strategy with new clarity. The dog had become exactly what his killers labeled him — too dangerous to approach, too unstable to trust, too risky to get close enough to kill quietly. So they’d settled for making him worthless enough to eventually be sold and euthanized by some rural shelter where no one would look closely. Then they’d tracked him, waiting for the day they could finish the job when attention had faded.

Diego arrived as Cole was reviewing files he shouldn’t have been able to access. “The connections you asked for,” he said, dropping a folder on the desk. “Hayes has been operating in the region for five years. Officially, military liaison. But his actual job seems to be facilitating weapons transfers for joint operations.”

“Or stealing them,” Cole murmured.

“What?”

“Hayes wanted to move military equipment through our port three months ago. What if Captain Reyes and his unit discovered Hayes wasn’t facilitating transfers? He was stealing weapons and selling them to buyers who should never have had access to them.”

Diego went very still. “That’s treason. That’s a death sentence.”

Cole looked at the dates again. “Reyes’s team investigates weapons discrepancies. They find evidence of Hayes’s operation. Before they can report it, they all die in accidents within six months. The dogs get scheduled for elimination because—”

“Because dogs have memories,” Diego finished. “Working dogs especially. They remember patterns, locations, faces. Titan isn’t just evidence. He’s the only evidence that survived.”

Diego studied his boss carefully. “We could kill the dog. Remove the threat entirely.”

“He’s not the threat.” Cole’s voice was cold iron. “He’s been waiting three years for someone to figure it out, to see past the act and understand what really happened.” He looked up. “And Diego — I think he’s been testing me, making sure I’m smart enough, careful enough to help him finish what his handler started, which is bringing down the man who murdered eight soldiers.”

Diego absorbed this. “Hayes will come for him.”

“I’m counting on it.”