Page 15 of SEAL's Angel
“I know. We’ve talked about it, too. Dawn keeps telling me that the thought of leaving the house and uprooting the kids freaks her out. But I think it’s more the thought of leaving everything familiar behind than anything else. She’d have you and Meghan, and the rest of the team. She couldn’t ask for better role models for Chase.”
Jake had offered to let her and the kids stay with him. He had plenty of space, and they could all have their own rooms. Although, he’d prefer it if Dawn wanted to share his room. But he was getting way too far ahead of himself. She did that to him, made him think of a life he’d never thought he’d have or want.
“Agreed. I guess we’ll just have to see how it plays out.” Rafe made a left into the parking lot for the local ball field.
“Nice setup,” Jake commented.
“Yeah, the town pitches in to keep it up and make improvements as needed. It’s been here for as long as I can remember. I’ve hit more than my share of balls over the fence.”
“Baseball? I’d have bet anything on football.” Jake grabbed the small pack from the backseat of the Jeep and slung it over his shoulder.
“Football was at school. Baseball was for hanging out and playing with all the kids in the neighborhood. At least, back then. Not sure how it works these days,” Rafe replied.
“You think Chase is here?” Jake took in his surroundings. Except for the overnight lights near the snack stand, it was dark and quiet.
“Yeah. There are some dense woods back behind the diamond. It’s where I’d have gone if I were him.”
A chain-link fence surrounded the baseball diamond, and they followed it around toward third base. Rafe hadn’t been kidding. The forest just about appeared out of nowhere as Jake shone his flashlight in front of him.
“What’s the plan? Make lots of noise and call his name? We don’t need to use stealth. Hopefully, Chase is ready to be found…if he’s here.”
“Yeah, let’s stay together. I don’t want to have to search for your sorry ass, too,” Rafe teased.
“Like that would ever happen.” Jake chuckled.
* * *
The woods were dense, and even though fall was in the air, most of the leaves were still on the trees.
“I wish we had NVGs. It would make this a lot easier,” Jake said in between shouting Chase’s name. They were excellent trackers, but it took them the first fifteen minutes to remember that they needed to look lower and not the height for an adult.
“Chase? Chase. It’s Uncle Rafe. Where are you?”
They took turns yelling for the boy.
“I don’t see any sign of him,” Jake said. “Is there another way to get here?”
“Yeah, behind the school, if I remember correctly. But I want to say that Dawn mentioned they’d put up a huge fence to keep the kids from going into the woods during recess.”
“So there’s a chance he might be on the other side of this thing? How far is that?”
“A couple of miles, I think. Maybe more.”
“Let’s head there. Dawn said no one saw him after school, so that would make more sense than coming over here and ending up in the same place.”
“Guess that’s why you’re Eagle 1, huh?”
“No, I’m just not as close to this as you are—yet.”
Rafe nodded as they changed direction to go west toward the school’s location. Jake prayed they’d find him soon. If Chase wasn’t hiding in the woods, he could be just about anywhere.
Thirty minutes later, they heard what sounded like a weak voice. The men exchanged looks, and Rafe smiled.
They ran toward the sound and kept calling his name, listening for a response. They ran through a dense group of pines and came to a clearing where Chase lay against a tree trunk.
“Chase, thank God. Are you okay?” Rafe exclaimed. Reaching the boy’s side, he kneeled and pulled him into his arms.
Relief flooded Jake’s chest as Chase nodded.
