Page 68 of Operation Rescue
His words played back in her head, and did more to calm her than any self-recrimination could.
“No tent,” Rafe said, straightening up. “But a tarp that looks like it might be a rain cover for one. And a couple of spikes.” He looked as if he were about to say more, but stopped. Erin wondered if she’d imagined the slight ramping up of tension.
“So they took it with them,” Blaine said.
“Maybe they wanted a camp spot farther in, away from where cars could reach.”Or helicopters.She glanced at Blaine. “Good thing we came in on a tourist-looking thing, in case they saw us.”
He nodded. “Good cover.” He shifted his gaze to Rafe. “Which I’ll thank you again for later. After,” he added, rather tightly, “you tell me what you found in there that ratcheted up your alert level.”
So she hadn’t imagined it.
Rafe remained silent, but he held something out to Blaine. It looked like a small, flattened cardboard box. Blaine took it, looked. His gaze immediately shot back to Rafe.
“Crap,” he said.
“Indeed,” the other man agreed.
She held out a hand, and without comment—or, thankfully, hesitation—Blaine handed the thing to her. And she read, with dismay, that she was holding what had once held fifty rounds of 9mm ammunition.
They all turned to look when a short, sharp bark, came from the trees toward the front end of the car. Cutter stood there, looking back at him with obvious impatience.
“He’s got the scent,” Rafe said. “We’d better move.”
And now, Erin thought grimly, they weren’t just looking for some kids hiding out on some crazy adventure. They were looking for some kids with lousy judgment and misguided ideas, who apparently had a gun.
But they were closer to Ethan than they’d been in more than ten days, and she’d risk a lot more than confronting those kids to save her son.
Chapter 35
“You’re sure it’s Ethan he’s scenting?”
Blaine saw Rafe look back at Erin. “I can only say that in the more than three years I’ve worked with him, he’s never been wrong.” He paused, and with a crooked smile that reminded Blaine of how much the man had changed, he added, “About anything.”
“Or anyone?” Erin said softly.
“That, too,” Rafe agreed.
Blaine looked at Erin. Had she gotten the point? The point that even couples who thought they had nothing left but debris could rebuild and be stronger even than before? Sharing all that seemed a bit touchy-feely for the rugged former Marine, but Rafe himself admitted he wasn’t who he used to be.
And neither are you.
They followed the dog. Cutter was clearly both intent and intense. Even a rustle of some creature in the bushes off to one side, and a raucous call from a raptor above didn’t sway him. He moved like someone who knew what his job was and wasn’t about to let anything distract him from it. Blaine had the feeling only a direct order from Rafe would even slow him down.
And they were moving fast now, fast enough that Blaine said to Rafe, very quietly, “We’re making some noise.”
Rafe nodded, but also spoke quietly. “He knows when to shut it down. Knows we less skilled humans need time to assess before we barrel ahead into whatever it is.”
Blaine smiled in spite of the situation. “You said he just appeared out of nowhere on your boss’s wife’s doorstep one day.”
Rafe nodded again. “After her mother died. As Hayley says, when she needed him most.”
“Sounds like he was a gift, then.” Erin said it just as quietly as they’d been speaking.
“He is,” Rafe said. “To all of us.”
Well, that proved more than anything yet just how much Rafe had changed since he’d last seen him. The tough guy had never, ever been given to such whimsy; in fact had had a darker, grimmer view of life and the world than most.
“I’d like to meet your Charlie someday,” he said.
