Page 18 of Operation Rescue
“Ty?” he said into the phone. “August.” A pause. “All right. You’d better tell her what you need. Give me a second.”
Rafe lowered the phone and gave Erin a look Blaine could only describe as intense. “I’ve got the Foxworth tech expert on the line. I want him to track down the name Ethan used on that game, and who he talked with. There might be a clue there to where he went, or if someone there talked him into it.”
Blaine saw Erin go pale as she swayed slightly. “I never thought…could that be…”
He instinctively reached out to steady her. He supposed it was a measure of how distraught she was that she let him grasp her arm without pulling away. But she kept her attention on Rafe.
“You’ll have to trust us, Erin,” the man said. “I know you don’t know me, but you know of Foxworth, and I swear to you we live up to the reputation.”
He felt as much as saw her pull herself together. As she had so many, many times in various hospital rooms and rehab facilities. “What do you need?”
“Access to your computer.” He gestured with the phone. “Ty can set up a way he can remotely connect, but you’ll need to install a piece of software. He’ll walk you through it.”
She glanced at Blaine. “Trust him. Trust them,” he said.
She took in a breath. “All right,” she said, sounding determined. Sounding like the Erin he used to know, the woman who had never let go of his hand on their walk through hell.
The Erin who had loved him.
She took the phone Rafe handed to her and headed with him down the hallway. Blaine followed, because he was curious, wanted to see this office of hers. Ethan had told him she was doing something with designs for advertisers, but that was about all he knew.
When he stepped into what probably would have been a den but had been set up as an office, he stopped dead. Stared at the walls, which contained several framed graphics, some dramatic, some graceful, some clever, but all undeniably effective. The one on the wall above the computer desk really caught his eye, and if he’d been in the market for a dog groomer, it would be enough to have him checking this one out. Which was, after all, the whole point of advertising. Maybe he should point this one out to Rafe, for Cutter.
She was good. Really good.
Erin apparently saw him gaping, because she said, rather sharply, “Is there a problem?”
“No,” he answered quickly. “I just never realized… I didn’t know you did this. So well.”
“Because of course I have no skill or talent for anything.” There was no denying the snap in her voice.
“I never said—”
“Later, both of you,” Rafe interrupted. He gave them both a pointed look. “Look, I know exactly where you are. But it can’t matter now. You can fight it out after Ethan’s home safe.”
Blaine felt a kick of inward disgust that they’d done it again. Rafe was right, this was not the time. And judging by Erin’s suddenly flushed cheeks she felt the same. She sat down at the desk and began to follow the instructions the Foxworth guy on the other end of the phone was giving her.
“When you’ve talked to him before, has he mentioned this game?” Rafe asked.
“Not by name, so I can’t help there,” Blaine said. “I know he was playing a lot, but I didn’t know if that meant one game or a bunch of them.” He let out a compressed breath. “I just knew that was the only thing he sounded enthusiastic about.”
He was surprised at how quickly the program was installed, giving the man on the phone access to Erin’s computer. She ended the call and pushed back from the desk after barely ten minutes. Then she looked up at them.
“He said to just give him time, and not to do anything on it while he’s working on it from… I forgot to ask where.”
“St. Louis,” Rafe said. “At our headquarters. Well,” Rafe added with the slightest of smiles, “what was our headquarters. Our chief financial genius has relocated, and I think the headquarters designation went with her.”
Blaine studied him for a moment. “Is she the one?” he asked.
“She is definitely the one.”
There was such satisfaction in Rafe’s voice that it rattled Blaine. From what he’d told him, they’d been as blown up as he and Erin were, and yet…
The phone Erin had handed back to Rafe rang. He glanced at the screen, then answered. He listened for a moment, smiled and nodded, as if an expectation had been fulfilled.
“Just getting started here, so no need yet,” Rafe said to the caller. “I’ll let you know. And thanks, my friend.”
When he’d ended the call he looked at Blaine. “Teague, the guy from the office I work out of that I mentioned.” He shifted his gaze to Erin as he added, “Also a former Marine, so he was offering any help we needed.”
