Page 37 of Operation Rescue
“Like he lost whatever friends he made on base or at school?”
She nodded, and finally met his gaze. “God, I feel so awful. Why didn’t I realize—”
“Because it was as hard on you as it was on him,” Blaine said. “Don’t think I don’t know that.”
For a moment she just stared at him, looking into those deep blue eyes, so much darker than her own. A silly memory struck her, of the day they’d joked that Ethan’s medium blue was what happened when you mixed their two colors together.
She nearly jumped when Rafe stood up suddenly. He held out a hand toward her. “Give me your car keys,” he said.
For a moment she just stared at him, wondering how one man could look so intimidating and yet be as kind as he’d been to her. Somehow she trusted him, and pulled the keys out of her pocket and held them out to him.
“Here’s the deal,” he said briskly as he took the keys, with a slight snap in his voice now. “We’ve done all we can until I get some answers on those last calls I made.”
“I should go home, then,” she said. “Be there just in case, like you said.”
“Yes. But not this instant. I’m going to do a little work on your car, and the tools are here.”
Erin blinked. “What?” She hadn’t realized he’d meant he would personally deal with her overdue vehicle service.
“I’ll see what we’ve got in the garage here, but I’ll probably have to pick up some parts. While I do that, you two are going to sit here, on neutral ground, and talk.”
She stared at the man, because there was no doubt that that had been an order. “I don’t think—”
“This isn’t the time to overthink it.” Rafe shifted his gaze to Blaine. “Either of you. Just talk it out until you can work together. For Ethan’s sake.”
He turned as if to go. As if assuming they would of course follow orders. She wondered if anyone had ever dared not to, when given by this man. And she was suddenly very curious about the woman who had the backbone to stand up to him.
But then he turned back slightly. “Cutter?” The dog’s head came up. “Peacekeeper,” he said, in that same tone, that of command.
The dog let out a little yip of acknowledgement.
And then Rafe was gone, and she and Blaine just sat staring at each other.
“He can really order him to…do that,” she said.
Blaine nodded. “Rafe told me he—” he reached out to scratch behind the dog’s ear “—has done this job before.”
“I’m sorry he has to do it for us.” She looked down into the gold-flecked dark eyes, remembered the feeling of soothing warmth that seemed to emanate from the animal whenever she touched him.
Silence spun out between them for a long moment. Then Blaine grimaced and stood up. “It just feels wrong.”
“Sitting here doing nothing while Ethan’s out here, somewhere?”
He turned to look at her. “Yes.”
“Yes, it does,” she agreed. “That’s why I had to leave, even if it was just to walk around. But I did do a little research, when I was going crazy just sitting at home. Foxworth is quite an operation.”
“Seems like it.”
“They don’t promote themselves much, but if you check out the places online where they’re mentioned, when you read the statements and comments and posts from people they’ve helped, they’re so heartfelt and the people are so grateful for whatever they did. I saw it over and over and over. It’s staggering. They all said that if you’re in the right and can’t get help anywhere else, they’ll help. And that no case is too small, if Foxworth believes in it.”
“Rafe told me one of Quinn’s—Quinn Foxworth, who started the foundation with his sister—first cases was finding and returning a stolen locket. It was a little girl’s only memento of her dead mother.”
Erin stared at him, amazed at what he’d said. “That’s…wow.”
“Better yet, the guy who stole it got his head straight and now works for Foxworth, helping other ex-cons who want to go straight.”
“Wow,” she said again, and now she could feel her eyes stinging, and a tightness in her chest. “It’s…wonderful to know that there are still people out there who care that much.”
