Page 6 of Operation Rescue
Blaine drew back slightly. “He is?”
“It’s okay,” Rafe said, the smile widening. “We’ve got Teague Johnson, too, and he’s one of us.”
“So the Marines outnumber the Army? Always a good sign.”
“Exactly.” Rafe said it with another grin. Blaine wasn’t sure which was harder, adjusting to the changes they were driving through, or the changes in the guy driving.
“But what is it they—you—do, exactly?”
“We help the little guy in the right against the big guy in the wrong.”
Blaine blinked. It sounded so simple, but he’d had enough experience with the big guys to know it had to be very far from simple or uncomplicated. “A lot of that last part going around these days,” he said.
“We’re rarely short of work,” Rafe agreed as they pulled to a halt at a stoplight that had just turned red.
“How does that little guy you help pay for your services?”
Rafe looked at him. “They don’t. We’re very careful, and if we take a case, the only cost to the people we help is a promise to help us help someone else down the line, if they can.”
Blaine stared this time. Rafe Crawford, toughest of the tough in the Marines, lethal sniper, was now a…do-gooder? For the first time since Erin’s phone call, his brain locked onto something else.
“What is it, exactly, you do for them?”
“Whatever they ask.” Rafe didn’t even blink. “Including what I used to do in uniform, if necessary. Only now the goal isn’t to kill, just to succeed.”
Blaine recognized now what he was hearing in Rafe’s voice. Satisfaction. The kind he used to get, knowing he was on the side of the angels. Not so much anymore, but once…
“If your…customers don’t pay for it, who does?” he asked.
He wasn’t prepared for the expression that he saw on Rafe’s face then, a bemused but joyful look he would have never expected to see. The man he’d known had been a silent stoic, who, if he’d ever known how to be happy, had long forgotten the lesson.
But all Rafe said was, “Quinn’s sister takes care of that. Among many other things.”
“So this is a family business?”
“In more ways than one, yes.”
Blaine thought he understood the implication there. That not only was this business owned and run by a family, everyone who was part of it was also part of that family. He didn’t know much about Rafe’s blood family, but he knew all he needed to know about this new family just by looking at that expression. And at the changes in him. Now he seemed so darn solid it was almost hard to believe it was the same man he’d known.
“We’re about twenty minutes out from Foxworth Southwest,” Rafe said as the light changed and they moved on. “Want to use it to fill me in?”
“Foxworth Southwest?” The two words together tickled something in the back of his mind, but he focused on the first question that occurred. “How many are there?”
“Five, now. I’m stationed out of Northwest, but we’ve got one in all four corners, plus an HQ in St. Louis.”
Blaine figured he was probably gaping now, but he couldn’t help it. “And they all do the same thing?”
Rafe nodded. “Same mission. Quinn’s wife is Hayley, and her brother, Walker, runs this office. He also happens to be married to Hayley’s best friend.”
Blaine gave a quick shake of his head. “This Foxworth…”
“Is as incredible as it sounds. Anyway, they’re on a job over in Arizona at the moment, so we’ll have the run of the place.” He gestured at the dash of the SUV. “Including this or anything else we need.”
“Where’d you fly into?”
“Closest. John Wayne Airport.” Rafe’s mouth quirked. “I liked the statue. Ironic, given I hear he hated the noise from the jets when they flew over his house on takeoff.”
Blaine smiled. “I remember. It’s a busy field, for being pretty small.”
