Page 30 of Operation Rescue
“I didn’t realize I was under house arrest!”
She hated the way she sounded even as the angry words left her mouth. What was it about him that just broke all her governors?
“You’re not,” he said, more gently than she deserved. “It’s just someone needs to be there, just in case. And we’re the new eyes, with a bit more experience in search and find.”
She only noted he didn’t use the more traditional phrase search and rescue, and for some reason that really registered. Maybe because it told her he, too, was trying to avoid thinking the worst.
“I’m sorry,” she said, meaning it. “Really, Blaine, I am. I was just going crazy sitting at home, waiting, not doing anything about finding him.”
Something flickered again in his gaze when she said his name. But it was different this time. As if it had nothing to do with their son and everything to do with them.
Before she could get lost down that rabbit hole, she said quickly, “But don’t be mad. Because I found something. Maybe.”
“Come on,” he said. “Rafe and Cutter are just up here.”
He gestured in the same direction she’d been heading, and they started to walk. He said nothing more, and the silence seemed more tense to her than it probably was. She was floundering in her mind, trying to think of something to say when she saw the tall, rangy man and the distinctive dog exiting a shop a few doors down. The pet store, she realized, and for some reason that made her smile just as Cutter apparently spotted them, his head coming up sharply. Rafe seemed to react almost as quickly, and they both headed toward them at a fast walk.
“Erin says she found out something,” Blaine said to the man without preamble.
She felt a little uncomfortable at the way that sounded. “It’s not much,” she said hastily. “But I know Ethan likes that game store back there, and I just talked to the clerk. She’s new, and hasn’t seen him, but she said that some other kids about the same age have been hanging out there, and they make her nervous because they look like a younger version of some adult gang types she’s seen in the news.”
“So we have the same sort he’s reportedly hanging out with frequenting one of his regular locations,” Rafe said.
She nodded, grateful that he hadn’t dismissed the tiny tidbit as useless. And that was what made her say, “I know it’s not much, but it’s something.”
Rafe nodded, then said, “I got a little something, too, thanks to Cutter here.” At her startled look a slight smile crossed his face. “I thought he was just being a dog when he wanted to go into the pet store. But he insisted, and I’ve learned not to say no when he gets that way. Anyway, the guy who owns the place was there, and he recognized Ethan from the photo. Said he comes in fairly often.”
Blaine let out an audible breath. “So this is definitely an area he frequents.”
“I should have thought of checking there,” Erin said, upset at herself. “He’s always wanted a pet of some kind, but the timing was never right.”
“For who?” Blaine asked.
The two words stabbed at her as if they’d been obscenities. Because she knew he was right. She had been the one who hadn’t wanted the added responsibility of an animal when she was barely hanging on as it was.
She was grateful when Rafe stepped in before she could think of a thing to say to the question that had seemed an accusation.
“He told me when Ethan first came in a couple of months ago, he was asking about a hamster they have that he seemed to like, asking if they made any noise.”
“Noise?” she asked, puzzled.
“Probably wondering if he could keep it hidden,” Blaine said. There was no accusation in his tone this time, but she knew that if he’d finished that sentence it would have been with “from you.”
She wanted to be angry at him for the sniping, but how could she when he was absolutely right?
“There’s more,” Rafe said, cutting off her unwelcome thoughts. She obviously didn’t know the man well, but something in the way he said it sent her pulse up a notch and made her almost afraid to breathe. “He said that Ethan was in looking at the hamster again, with a couple of other kids he didn’t like the look of.”
So that proved it. Ethan had definitely hooked up with the last group of kids she’d have ever wanted him involved with. She felt that faint queasiness again, but fought it down.
“Rafe?” Blaine said, looking at the man as if he sensed something else was coming.
Rafe’s gaze shifted from her to Blaine, then back as he added quietly, “That was yesterday.”
Chapter 16
Blaine couldn’t stop himself from closing his eyes and letting out a rather harsh sigh of relief.
Yesterday.
