Page 58 of Operation Rescue
Then the door opened and a tall, gangly figure came in. A moment later—thirty-two seconds, according to the timer in the lower right corner—the door opened again and two more people, shorter, younger, came in.
Blaine heard Erin gasp in the same instant his gut clenched. Because the second kid who came in was Ethan. There was no mistaking it—the image was much clearer than the one from the pet store.
And then he was swearing under his breath as it became clear what was happening. It began when Ethan and the other kid started a scuffle at the back of the store, near one of the refrigerated cases, at the very edge of the camera’s range. The clerk, a middle-aged man with a bit of heft to him, stepped into the frame, clearly headed to break up the scrap. In the center of the image, the bigger, older kid snuck around the counter and began to work at the cash register.
Ineffectively, as it turned out. He couldn’t get the cash drawer to open.
“Amateur hour,” Blaine muttered, wondering how much cash would actually be in there anyway, given the propensity for electronic payments these days.
“I’d say they planned everything but that little detail,” Rafe agreed, freezing the image just as the older kid slammed a fist on the register in frustration.
“You’re saying this was planned out?” Erin asked.
Blaine looked at her. “Obvious, isn’t it?” He gestured toward the corner where the clerk had pried Ethan and the other boy apart. “They were the distraction. I’d guess he—” he shifted to the kid behind the counter “—figured all he had to do was push a button and it would fall into his hands.”
“But…why? There can’t be much money there,” she said, echoing his earlier thought.
Blaine exchanged a glance with Rafe. “Initiation?”
“A little light for that. A line on the résumé, maybe.”
Erin’s gaze was shifting from him to Rafe and back. “You mean they did this to…try and get into that gang Walker was talking about?”
“To get noticed by them, maybe,” Rafe said. “They likely wouldn’t take kindly to some kids horning in on what they see as their territory.”
Rafe’s phone chimed a notification. He grabbed it, put it to his ear and said only, “Go.” Then, a moment later he said, “Hang on. We’re all here, just watched the video, so let me put you on speaker.”
Walker’s voice came through clearly. “I just talked to the clerk at the store. He’s also a co-owner, by the way. Couple of things. First, they got sort of lucky, because the leader couldn’t get the register open, so they spooked and just ran, didn’t even grab any stuff on their way out. So that’ll keep the legal situation banked a little.”
“And second?” Erin asked, tensely.
He seemed to hesitate, then said, “The guy said when he went back to break up the fight, the older, bigger kid just cussed a blue streak.”
“But Ethan?” she prodded.
Blaine thought he heard the other man take a breath. “The clerk said he looked scared. Said it looked like more than just getting caught, that the way he kept looking toward the front of the store, where the leader was, it seemed like that’s who he was afraid of.”
Erin winced visibly, and lowered her head. But when Walker started to say something more and then stopped himself, it came up again.
“Say it.” Her voice held as much command as Rafe’s had earlier.
“This is nothing but the guy’s feeling, okay? But he does have three kids of his own, so he’s not coming completely out of nowhere. He said he had the feeling that if he could have, if they’d been alone, Ethan would have asked for help.”
Blaine saw the shudder go through her. He moved automatically, instinctively. He put his arms around her and held her, because this was Erin and this was what he did when she was upset. And no amount of time or distance could kill that instinct, apparently.
At the same time he was fighting the urge to go charging into that space Walker said was theirs, guns blazing. He was not in a war now, at least not the kind he’d been trained to fight. No, this was a much deeper, more personal war. A battle for his son. And, he thought, almost overwhelmed by the feel of Erin in his arms again, possibly for even more.
And he would do whatever it took to win that battle.
Chapter 30
She was exhausted.
Erin could no longer deny it. She was so tired she should be asleep on her feet, and yet she knew if she went to bed she would lie awake half the night as she had the entire ten days Ethan had been gone.
Actually, it would probably be worse tonight. Because all she could think about was what Walker had told them the clerk had said.
…he looked scared.
