Page 52 of Operation Rescue
She was just pulling on her shoes when she heard the knock at the front door. She got to the living room just as Blaine was opening it. Cutter trotted in, followed by Rafe, who turned back to look at the man behind him.
Erin went still. This was the man who’d been recalled to help? The man who ran this branch of the famous Foxworth Foundation? His dark hair was a bit unruly, and his eyes were a striking combination of gold and green. All in all, he was quite a good-looking guy. But in her current mode, she mostly noticed he looked more like some kind of street thug, with his neck chains and tattoos.
The moment she thought it she realized it was likely intentional.
Rafe had clearly seen her reaction, because he looked back at the other man and said, “I see you’ve still got it.”
The other man laughed, and then Rafe introduced him as Walker Cole. She smiled—how could she not when she knew he’d come back just to help?—and shook his hand.
“The tats are temporary,” he said as he saw her looking at the one that crept up the side of his neck. “But it helps to blend in. My wife didn’t care for that one either, until I showed her how if you looked at it right, it’s her name.”
Erin’s smile then was genuine. “Lucky lady.”
Walker shook his head. “I’m the lucky one.”
Then he turned to Blaine, who also shook his hand but was looking at him differently. Not just with welcome and thanks, but respect. And just that look brought back the history of this man, in the moment before Blaine spoke it.
“That was a hell of a thing you did, Mr. Cole. I doubt I’d have had the nerve to stick it out as long as you did. But you saved a lot of lives, and put away some atrocious people.”
“Just Walker, please. And they had to be stopped,” the man said simply.
Suddenly Erin was struck with the simple fact that she was standing with three heroes. Men who, as Blaine had told her, had done what they did so others didn’t have to.
Walker smiled then, briefly, and for that moment he was a different person, a good-looking guy who no doubt had women looking twice just walking down the street.
“Let’s get to it,” Rafe suggested.
“Right,” Blaine said briskly, and proceeded to tell them what they’d discovered last night, that for a while at least, Ethan had been close by in the park.
Walker nodded. “All right. Good to know he didn’t start out intending to connect with those guys in the video, or plan it ahead of time.”
Erin was glad he’d reached that conclusion, just as she had. That was the reason finding out he’d been here in the park for at least a couple of days had so relieved her.
Walker went on. “I talked to a friend of mine at the local sheriff’s office.” He glanced at Rafe. “A guy Brett Dunbar put me in touch with when I first got here.”
Rafe smiled, then looked at Blaine and Erin and said, “Detective we often work with up north, but he used to work down in this area.”
“And has a rep the size of Alaska,” Walker said with a brief grin. “Anyway, the guy here looked at the video Ty found, from the pet store. And he thinks he recognizes one of the kids, although it’s fuzzy enough he can’t be sure. But he told me a couple of places they frequent. So I’m going to go hang out a bit, see if I can find out anything. And he’s going to try and rattle Missing Persons a bit, make sure they’re working it.” He grimaced. “They’re understaffed these days, but what department isn’t? Anyway, he’ll try.”
Erin felt a little overwhelmed. She’d felt so alone in the first days after Ethan had vanished. She’d spent that time worrying, but also assuming he’d come home on his own, or the local law enforcement would find him. When neither happened, she’d broken and called Blaine.
And now she felt like she had a veritable army at her back. Or better yet, the Marine Corps.
“Thank you,” she said. Or tried to, it came out as barely a whisper.
Cutter stepped over to her and nudged her hand. She almost automatically stroked his head. And felt it again, that odd sense of…not peace, but calm. As if he were telling her it was safe to believe it would all come out right.
She stared down at the dog, but it was herself she was bemused at. Had she been passing up this kind of comfort all her life simply because she’d never had a dog and didn’t know? Was this what Ethan had wanted, and she had denied him? If so, she was the fool, because this was…amazing.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Blaine’s voice was quiet as Rafe took Walker down to Ethan’s room, to get a feel for him. “Just petting him calms you down.”
That he would use the exact word she’d thought didn’t surprise her. Blaine had always been on her wavelength. She’d never realized how truly precious that was until he was no longer in her life.
You had what many people search their entire lives for, and you threw it away.
Belatedly—very, very belatedly—a thought struck her. He hadn’t given any indication, but suddenly she had to know. “Is there…did you leave someone to come here?”
His brow furrowed. “I got leave to come, from my commanding officer,” he said. “We’re between flight classes at the moment, so they won’t miss me.”
