Page 14 of Operation Rescue
But that left only one thing he could think of, one thing that could have made Ethan angry enough to run away.
She’d broken up their family.
But that had been two years ago. Why would Ethan take off now, after all that time? Was it simply that he was older now, going through those early teenage years? Or had something else triggered this?
He stood up abruptly. “Where’s his room?”
“The far end of the hall,” Erin answered, starting to rise as well.
“No. Stay here.” He didn’t want her with him when he looked at Ethan’s room. He wouldn’t be able to focus, and he wanted to look at every inch of it.
“Erin.” He heard Rafe’s voice, low, gentle, but commanding. Blaine didn’t look back but kept going in the direction she’d pointed.
She didn’t follow.
* * *
Erin wasn’t sure why she’d felt compelled to stop herself from following Blaine down the hall. But something in the way the other man had spoken…and then the dog had gotten up and put himself between her and the hallway, not aggressively, not like a dog who wanted something, or a dog who was hungry or wanted out, but one who wanted to tell her she shouldn’t take another step.
Politely.
“He needs a minute,” Rafe said, nodding in the direction Blaine had gone. “Maybe a few.” He hesitated before adding, as if he wasn’t sure he should, “This isn’t easy for him, either.”
At least he’d acknowledged this was uncomfortable for both of them. She sat back down and looked at him again, studied him in a way she hadn’t before, because she’d been so distracted by Blaine’s presence.
“Blaine said, back then, that you were…a sniper?”
“I was.”
“He said you were one of the best ever, short only of the man the trophy you kept winning is named after. Sorry, I can’t remember—”
“Hathcock. Carlos Hathcock.”
She nodded, recognizing the name now. But she couldn’t quite suppress an inward shudder, which she hoped didn’t show. She knew they were crucial, that they saved lives, but…
“That makes you nervous?”
“Not nervous. I admire anybody who does such a…rough job. I just can’t imagine what it must be like. Killing like that.”
He studied her for a long moment, and she wondered if she’d offended him. It would figure, he comes to help a friend, and she screws it up.
Finally he spoke, and if he was angry, it didn’t show. “Hathcock probably said it best. He said he never enjoyed killing, but it was his job. And if he didn’t do it, they were going to kill a lot of kids dressed up like Marines.”
“I…never thought of it quite like that.”
“He had a unique viewpoint. And saved a lot of our guys.”
“Blaine said you saved another pilot he went through training with. Who was about to get shot down with an RPG.”
“I remember,” Rafe said after a moment of thinking. “And Blaine told me he came home, got married and has three kids. So far.”
She smiled at that. And didn’t miss his point, that if not for him that father would be dead and those kids wouldn’t exist.
“So,” she began again, shifting to what he’d said, that Blaine had told him about the other pilot, “you and Blaine have stayed in touch? I didn’t realize.”
“Sort of,” Rafe answered. “I mean, we touched base now and then. Probably should have done better, given he saved my life, but…reality gets in the way.”
“And yet when he does call you, after all that time…”
