Her skin tingled to awareness as the faint sound of boots down the hall letting her know Cole was close by. She shook her head. That was ludicrous. How could she know Cole by his footsteps already?

  “Cole! You’re here early! I thought I was going to have to sit quietly in Mom’s office all morning.” Pete didn’t bother keeping his voice down.

  Cole held up his finger to his lips to remind Pete of the rules and she couldn’t quit staring. Those lips had been pretty amazing when she’d known Taylor. His gaze swept up and met hers, filling her face with heat. Had he realized she’d been staring at his lips and thinking about Taylor’s kiss? Taylor or not, the man sure looked good.

  “Morning.” He raised his brows and one side of his lips in a smug smile.

  “Morning.” She turned back to her task with fumbling fingers and a heartbeat racing like she’d run there instead of walked. Her presence didn’t seem to have the same effect on him and that irritated her slightly.

  She finally unlocked the door and pushed it open. “What will you be doing today?” she asked the obvious because she couldn’t think of any other question.

  “Mostly the same as yesterday. Trace will be there too and maybe Scarlet, which means Junior will be there to watch too. We want to make sure we’re there for everyone who needs us.”

  He’d practically insisted they come after the danger had come to light, but before that he’d given her the choice. He hadn’t told her how much extra work this would be for him and she’d assumed someone else would be with her son. “Thank you for taking Pete under your wing when now is probably a really bad time to have him here.”

  Pete looked between the two of them, his face turning frightened. “Mom, do I have to go? You haven’t even ridden with me yet.”

  Cole gave Pete an appraising look. “I told you that you could stay as long as your mom said you could. You’re going to have a good time.” Cole’s firm tone surprised her. She hadn’t expected him to sound so fatherly.

  “Okay.” Pete sat on the chair in front of the desk and swung his feet under it.

  Erica picked up the phone and hit the voicemail button, intent on only listening to the new messages. Once she heard the raspy breathing, she’d stop listening again. A voice came over the line that sounded professional and clipped, similar to Cole, giving her the immediate impression he was with law enforcement or the military.

  “Good Morning. The time is 0500 hours on Tuesday, June sixth. My name is Dominic Anderson of The Guardians Security Agency. Cole Bradly is a former associate of ours and I’ve been made aware that he, or you, may be in need of our special services. You can reach me . . .”

  She paused the recording. The whole message seemed strange. How would they know where Cole was, and that he needed help? Was this Providence, or was there someone feeding information to the outside from inside the ranch?

  “Is something wrong?” Cole appeared at her side and laid a hand on her shoulder. The contact sent sparks tumbling in fissures down through her to her heart making her tug away. She couldn’t let him distract her like that.

  “That call was for you,” she mumbled holding the phone toward him.

  “Me?” Cole looked confused. “Anyone I know personally would call my phone.”

  “Ever heard of Dominic Anderson?”

  Cole’s mouth quirked slightly. “Yeah, I know him. He went security. Secret forces. Paramilitary.”

  That explained the way he spoke. “Yeah, he sounded all-business. If you have his number, he wanted to see if you needed his help. He thought you might.” She hung the phone back up, wishing she didn’t have to deal with calls at all.

  Cole didn’t answer right away, twisting the worry in the pit of her stomach. She found herself hoping he brought in more help. How could it hurt to have more men to make sure nothing happened, especially to Pete?

  He gave nothing away of whatever plan he had. “I’ll talk to Edwyn. Thanks for letting me know.”

  Cole had barely reached the barn with Pete when he heard a car racing toward the house and screech to a stop. He couldn’t take any chances with who it might be. What if Viceroy’s men had made it past the gate? He picked up Pete then raced toward Trace’s cabin. He managed a quick glance over his shoulder to identify the car and came to an abrupt stop as Gabby got out of her car wiping her eyes.

  Junior sped from the barn toward her. Cole had to make a decision whether to go and see what was happening with Pete, or let Junior handle what could be a personal situation alone. The only thing holding him rooted to the spot was the fact that Gabby wasn’t easily ruffled. She was a thinker, not emotional.

  He made the decision to leave them alone and turned back on his way when Junior waved him over.

  “What’s going on? Is she okay?” Pete asked in his ear and wrapped his arms around Cole’s neck. At six, the boy was good at handling a lot, but he was still a kid and this was an uneasy situation.

  “Let’s go find out and make sure she’s alright.”

  The closer he got, the more he could hear Gabby’s sobs and what she was saying chilled him.

  “. . . almost captured. . . Good thing I had my taser.”

  Junior held her close, rubbing her back and meeting Cole’s eyes with a silent request to follow. “Let’s go inside and tell Edwyn. Where did it happen?”

  “I should go with my mom,” Pete whispered.

  “You’re right. You’ll get a ride in later. I promise.” He’d only just left Erica a few minutes before but seeing her again relaxed him. She could take the best care of Pete while Cole helped Junior handle whatever had happened with Gabby.

  He popped back into her office, startling her. “I’m really sorry. Gabby just came back. She’s supposed to be at work right now. Something happened and I need to be there.”

  Erica rushed to her feet and took Pete from his arms, brushing her hands against his arms. Now was not the time to think about how good her touch felt. He set aside his own feelings and headed for Edwyn’s office.

  Junior sat with Gabby clutched to his side on Connor’s sofa along the side of the office. Brendon had already come in and Cole closed the door behind him. He tugged out his phone and sent a text to Trace that he would be a few minutes late and to please stay in his cabin until Cole came to get him. He couldn’t assume anyone was safe after the little he’d heard Gabby say.

  “Tell them what you told me,” Junior murmured, rubbing her shoulder.

  Gabby took a deep breath that seemed to calm her a little. “I had just arrived at my office. My office manager wasn’t there yet, which was odd. Usually, the sign on the door is flipped to open by the time I get there. I got out of my car and out of habit, pulled my taser out of my pocket.”

  “When did you start carrying that?” Brendon asked.

  “Right after I was kidnapped. Some things just never leave your memory. I don’t feel safe walking alone. Not even from my car to my office. Not even in such a small town.” She shivered.

  “What happened then?” Edwyn asked.

  “I thought I heard something and turned. There was a van coming down the street toward my office. I didn’t think anything of it until they pulled into my lot. I hurried to get to the door, convinced that if I got inside, I’d be fine. I told myself I was silly for being afraid of a van, but my instinct told me to run.”

  Gabby swiped the tears from under her eyes. “The side door slammed open and two men were inside. One tried to grab me into the van. I turned on him and gave him the full voltage of the taser as I tried to run. He grabbed my purse, and I ducked out of it, which is why I couldn’t call you right away. He kept my purse.”

  “But you managed to get away,” Edwyn said.

  “Yes. I realized that trying to unlock the building would take too long. I’d never make it. So, I ran around the back of the van because I thought they’d just run me over if I went in front. I climbed into my car and sped away, glad that my keys are on the ring with my taser.”

  Fury coiled in Junior’s eyes. “I’m not keeping Gabby in a situation that isn’t safe. If this group is going to continue to target us, then it’s time we took an active stance against them. We’ve been reactive until now, but I’m finished. We need to make sure Wayside is safe for anyone who comes here.”

  Edwyn nodded. “I’ll call the police. If they have Gabby’s phone, we might be able to find out just where they are with the location services. They may just have made their worst mistake.”

  Erica glanced at the door for what felt like the hundredth time then back at Pete. She’d found him a few coloring pages and printed them off, then found some colored pencils in one of the desk drawers, but that would only keep him occupied for so long.

  She wanted to know what had happened with Gabby. Something important or frightening had to have happened for Cole to skip a session with Trace. Pete was an extra duty and his work had to come first, but this had been even more important than work.

  The voicemail from that morning got her thinking. Had Dominic known Cole for a long time, like, when he was supposedly Taylor? Would she believe Dominic even if he was? He could just as easily have sworn to cover for Cole, especially since he was offering to come help Cole now.

  And why had he called Lacy’s phone when it sounded like the two were friends? Wouldn’t he have called Cole’s phone? She picked up the receiver and listened to the man’s voice. There was a pleasant, very masculine quality to it, but Dominic didn’t make her heart race like when Cole spoke to her.

  She wrote down the number he’d left, then hesitated. What if Gabby was right and doing all this snooping around eventually hurt her? If Cole was Taylor, he would see her mistrust as a reason to end any relationship they’d begun. He’d literally taken on a new life because of mistrust.

  “Mom?” Pete sat up on the couch and looked at her.

  “Yes?” She thanked God for Pete’s distracting her away from where her thoughts had taken her.

  “Do you think my dad would’ve liked Cole?”

  Sudden mist filled Erica’s eyes and she blinked away the moisture. “Why do you ask?”

  Pete’s brow furrowed and he pulled his knees to his chest. “He’s nice to me, but he doesn’t treat me like my teachers at school or church. He’s different. He acts like he wants to spend time with me and he’s not afraid to tell me I’m doing something wrong, but . . . I don’t know. He’s just different. I just was wondering if my dad was like him. I’d like it if my dad was like him. Then I would know he was a good guy.”

  Erica wanted to speak, to tell her son that his father had been an even more amazing man than Cole. To her, he had been. This person who was so like Taylor, still wasn’t the same. There was an edge to him, a coldness that made her want to stay back and protect her heart. Because what if her intuition was wrong and her head was right? What if Cole wasn’t Taylor at all? Then she would fall for a stranger and a lie.

  “Your father was a lot like Cole, yes.”

  Pete beamed and held up a picture of a horse with a small rider and a man in a great big cowboy hat standing to the side with his arm up. There was a bright sun in the sky and someone standing off to the side. “Is that Trace in your drawing?”

  Pete laughed. “No, silly. That’s you.”

  She took a minute to think deeper about that and decided that was a bad idea. Pete wouldn’t be putting her in the background intentionally. She should be glad she was in the picture at all. Having anyone but her be the focus of Pete’s art, was sobering.

  Edwyn stood and leaned over Connor’s desk as they continued their meeting. Cole didn’t envy the position. He probably wished Connor was back right about now. But wishing wasn’t going to turn this tide back. Edwyn remained silent for a moment as if gathering the right words. “We will need to call in help. There just aren’t enough of us with me, Brendon, you both, Teddy, Sam, and Eric. Even if Connor were here, we don’t have the manpower.”

  He hadn’t had a chance to think deeply into the phone message Erica had told him about that morning. The timing of his friend reaching out was odd but the Lord worked in mysterious ways. “I have someone I can call. One of the men I worked with is in private security. He would be able to help.”

  Edwyn’s shoulders dropped about an inch. “I don’t know that we have the extra funding for help like that and Lacy isn’t here to petition our supporters for more financial backing. That’s not something we can have Erica do. She doesn’t have the relationship with these people that Lacy has.”

  “I won’t know what they will charge until I ask. They offered to come.”

  Brendon turned slightly in his chair to look at Cole. “Offered to come? What do they know?”

  That part had confused him the most. Dominic hadn’t known where Cole worked, nor did he have Cole’s number. Calling at all was strange. Though maybe he’d hired someone to find Cole. “Nothing as far as I know. You can listen to the message yourself. His offer came in on the main line.”

  Edwyn picked up the receiver and set it to the side, hit speaker phone and pressed a few buttons. Soon, Dominic’s gruff voice filled the room. He said just what Erica had reported, offering to help them.

  “That’s very interesting, but how did he get the number and how did he know about our trouble?” Brendon frowned. “That seems very strange and suspicious.”

  Cole shrugged. “I know I can trust Dominic. He’s good. I’ve risked my life alongside him. I don’t know the rest of his team, but I can’t imagine he would let anyone work for him who wasn’t trustworthy.” Dominic had always followed rules and made sure he followed regulations to the letter.

  Edwyn nodded. “Working the way we do, we don’t have much choice. It’s not like we can just call up the regular police force or the FBI and have them understand the scope or the issue. A security force might be just what we need.”

  “Understood.” He hadn’t talked to Dominic in years, but he’d heard what Dominic was doing through other friends he tried to keep up with.

  “Why don’t you go to Teddy’s office and get the ball rolling there. Junior, why don’t you take Gabby to Brendon’s office. You can all have a few minutes to talk before Brendon’s next client.”

  “I don’t have a meeting for another hour. We have time.” Brendon slowly turned his chair around and headed for the door. Cole wondered as he trudged toward Teddy’s office if the others in that room had felt the difference like he had? Had they felt the shift from defensive to offensive action?

  Ever since he’d learned about Viceroy and what he’d done to amass this huge group of what were literally slaves, the use of the term victims almost seemed too light for what had happened to them. Victim made it sound like there was one event when in fact many of these survivors had years of pain and suffering to overcome.

  He pushed through the office door to find Pete asleep on the couch and Erica behind Teddy’s desk, doing some work with yet another stack of papers. He hated to interrupt Pete’s nap, but Edwyn had given him an order.

  “Mind if I come in and make a call?”

  She shook her head and turned the phone so he could reach it. He noticed her trying to act like she wasn’t listening, but he would be if he were in her shoes.

  He dialed the number and waited as it rang, hoping that Erica wouldn’t be able to hear the other end of the conversation. He wasn’t about to ask her to leave though, even if she could.

  “The Guardians Security Agency, Copper speaking. How may I direct your call?”

  “I’d like to speak to Dominic Anderson, please.” He reached for a notepad Erica had left at the center of the desk and she handed him a pen.

  Copper paused. “Is he expecting your call?”

  He chuckled. “Yes, I think he is.” Or he wouldn’t have left the message he had.

  Music filled his ear after she put him on hold. He hated that cheery music, it grated on his nerves. He heard a click, then the voice he recognized, “Cole. How’s it going?”

  “Been better, but it sounds like you already knew that.” He watched as Erica’s spine stiffened at his comment. How would she take him talking to his friends? He wasn’t about to be fake with them. He might put on Mr. Nice for her, but that was because he wanted her trust and respect. His guys, were just his guys.

  “I heard you were working on a ranch over in Wyoming and that you offered some help to some people. I was told you were having a time with some people showing up who didn’t belong. Shooting the place up.”

  That much might have gotten out in the news, but he hadn’t been aware that his name had been revealed anywhere. “That was a few months ago now, but seems like they might be preparing to hit us again. How did you hear and what are you offering?”

  Dominic waited for a minute. “When do you get to tell me the whole deal. What’s going on?”

  Cole couldn’t tell him anything and the question made him pause. Could his friend have been paid by Viceroy unknowingly? “I can’t tell you that until we get the files on your guys for clearance. Too much high-risk information here.” How had Dominic even known the name of the ranch? As far as he was aware, Connor and Edwyn had always kept the information scrubbed. Unless he’d known one of the people who’d been here, how was that possible? Dominic was good, an intelligence guru of sorts, but this went beyond guru.

  “Give me an email where to send the files and I’ll do that. And Cole, this one’s on us. I owed you one. That shooter would’ve taken me out if not for you. When we make life safe for you again, you can consider yourself repaid.”

  History explained why he’d been keeping tabs on Cole. A life for a life. He’d saved Dominic years ago but he still wasn’t so sure he liked that Dominic knew more than he should.

  Chapter Eleven

  Cole strode back to Edwyn’s office and knocked, waiting for his cue and not sure what to say.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28