Operation return wayside.., p.19
Operation: Return (Wayside Ranch Book 2), page 19
Teddy turned the screen to the room, and everyone moved forward to get a better look. A man, holding tightly to a boy in a red t-shirt, was frozen mid-step on the image. The brim of his cap covered his face, but the clothing looked very similar to what Dominic was wearing. That didn’t prove much of anything though because that type of clothing was readily available online and common for anyone wanting to hide.
Edwyn pointed to the image. “It’s interesting that up until now Viceroy’s thugs have either worn cheap suits or looked almost homeless. This guy looks like someone who knows what he’s doing,” Edwyn propped his chin to his palm. “He doesn’t fit with the type of men we’ve dealt with in the past. Either Viceroy has changed tactics, or we’re dealing with a new arm of this particular spider.”
Dominic studied the image, pulling the computer closer. “I wish I could say with any kind of faith that isn’t one of my men. The only thing I have to go on is the trust I have for them, because, you’re right, that looks just like my uniform. It’s hard to tell his build the way he’s standing, but I don’t immediately recognize him.”
Cole didn’t either, but at least now they had something solid to go on.
Erica forced herself to stay seated, to wait until they had a concrete plan. The picture of Pete being carried off by that goon tore at her and she had to look away. How had that man found her son, and why? Why had they chosen her son of all the people in the world to choose?
“We need a plan. This can’t wait. When are we supposed to make the trade?” Cole took charge once again.
She’d noticed that he was the first to decide to take action. He was the first to dispute the claims of the kidnappers. He was the first to offer to go with Junior. But what did he have to gain by doing it? She’d all but told him Pete wasn’t his.
Was he being selfless? That didn’t jive with the way he was acting. He was back to being caustic, glaring, and short-tempered. He was back to being all-Cole. But was she making him out to be a Jekyll and Hyde where there wasn’t one? Were these just two sides of the same man?
She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on the flurry of arguing going on around her. Arguing that had nothing ultimately to do with getting back her son.
“What if I would go?” she interrupted all of their bickering.
“No,” Cole answered before anyone else. “I won’t allow that.” He finally came and crouched in front of her, locking eyes with her. “I know you want to see him returned. I know waiting here is probably harder than anything you’ve ever done before. But please let us get him back.”
“Then work with the police and do it.” Her voice shook and she swallowed hard to be heard. “We’re sitting here arguing over an outfit when Pete is alone and scared and waiting for us to come get him.” She wanted to reach out and shake Cole, just for emphasis, but touching him would break the dam and she would melt into tears.
“She’s right. Let’s just sit down and form a plan.” Cole stood, but instead of going back where he’d been before, he sat at her side. He took her hand, cradling it in his own.
She wasn’t sure what she’d done to deserve his loyalty, but having him there helped her to feel like she belonged, like her voice mattered to all these strong men who made life and death decisions all the time.
“Connor would get out the whiteboard.” Teddy stood and headed for Connor’s closet. He opened the door, then rolled a giant whiteboard out and placed it at the front of the room. Brendon came in and waited for an update.
Edwyn grabbed the marker from the bottom and wrote down the facts they knew, when the trade was supposed to happen, and how it was to be made. Then, on the other side, he wrote, clandestine operations.
“This part of our conversation has to remain completely top secret. None of the men outside of this room can know. Not Wayside men nor Dominic’s men. Understood?”
“Does that mean Trace and Scarlet will not be there for the trade?” Dominic asked.
Erica wasn’t sure if it was possible, but the man looked even more unhappy than usual.
“Deputy?” Edwyn asked, finally deferring to the only law enforcement in the room.
“I think we should substitute either someone fully trained in hostage situations or one of my men. Otherwise, we risk people getting hurt,” Deputy Blake answered.
“We risk that anyway,” Brendon rolled forward. “That ranch doesn’t even have the tree coverage we have here. It’s not like the roadside rest stop where they set up the trade last time. We’d planned to have men hiding there then. This trade is completely on their terms. Any wrong move and people will die.”
He rolled to the board and started drawing the layout of the Lakely ranch. She’d never been there, but it looked similar to the setup on Wayside.
“There’s nowhere else to keep Pete except the house. We have no idea how many men are watching him, how many men they have in town waiting for us, and how many men they have watching us. There are a lot of unknowns in making this plan.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “I also think that we need to make sure Trace and Scarlet are aware of this plan, even if we don’t bring them. This situation impacts them, even if they never leave the safety of the underground. Last time we relied on that safety, it failed. They need to be aware.”
Cole nodded. “I’ll talk to them right after this meeting. Finding a decoy is going to be difficult, but I agree. They need to know.”
There was a deep comradery in the room, one that would be changed if Cole wasn’t there. He belonged. Erica glanced around at the people sitting nearby her and realized she could never be with Cole, no matter how good of a father he might be. There was no way she could stay on the ranch after this. She didn’t belong here.
Raising a child on a healing ranch sounded like a wonderful prospect, but not when that prospect meant the child could be in danger. When she thought of home before, her little house in Rock Point had come to mind. Now, she couldn’t picture home as anywhere.
Was that because Pete was missing or was her heart changing? Where would she go when Pete was returned and she was safe to leave? They had very little to pack at the old house, but she also had no way to move. She had no car, nor any friends besides Cole to help.
How would he respond to a request to help her move? He’d said she could leave whenever she liked once they could be sure she was safe. Would he ask her to stay or understand that she couldn’t live here?
She glanced at the men who had moved to a huddled position by the whiteboard while she was musing. Her mind and body were exhausted, but rest wasn’t an option. She wouldn’t be allowed to go along to get Pete, meaning she’d have to say behind and pray.
She knew God held all the strength needed but staying behind to pray still felt like doing nothing. She wanted to be active, but they’d asked her to be passive. She stood while they were distracted and headed back to Teddy’s office.
In all the questions from so many people, she’d forgotten about the dentist. He’d been the one strange part of her day, but there was no way the dentist could know her son or what was going on out at the ranch. There hadn’t even been time enough for someone to drive between Piper’s Ridge and Wayside, yet she still felt like holding back the information about the call was wrong.
Was she hindering her son’s return by keeping the call a secret? Would Lacy have said anything? This was just more proof she didn’t belong here. Just like every other job she’d had; she was doomed to fail and be asked to leave.
The difference was, at this job she had Cole by her side. Somehow, deep down, she’d hoped the men at Wayside would be so happy with the work that they would find a job for her and ask her to stay. Even if it meant she had to live in town and drive out to the ranch.
Wishful thinking.
Everyone who worked at Wayside lived there. They weren’t going to make exceptions for her any more than any other job she’d had. And if anything happened to Pete and they didn’t get him back, she didn’t ever want to see Wayside Ranch again. Maybe not Cole either, since his sudden appearance in her life was what ultimately led them down this path.
But that still left her with the question, where was home now?
Chapter Twenty
After the meeting, Cole lost track of Erica. He’d wanted to talk to her and make sure she understood that, despite all the discussion, her son was the top thing on their minds. They were concerned with Scarlet and Trace as well, but at the moment they were safe. He’d checked through the building but couldn’t find her.
Junior met him in the kitchen at the entrance to the underground hideout. “I hope Scarlet isn’t having flashbacks. She told me as she’s started to deal with what she went through, she gets scenes in her head, like feelings from her past. Last time she was down there was right before the last trade.”
Cole could imagine. If he had to deal with the same situation as the battle that had cost him friends and the life he knew, the battle they’d used to kill Taylor and create Cole, he might not handle it well either. “What do you think of the plan?”
Junior shrugged. “I’m not sure about it. I don’t think Deputy Blake understands what he’s asking. Just like the police didn’t understand the last time.”
“We don’t have any other women who could stand in for Scarlet, and none of our men are built like Trace.”
He was wiry and short, unlike any of the Wayside men. There would be no easy way to put a decoy in place for either of them, but Deputy Blake had put out a request.
Blue lights appeared in sequence down the stairs to the undergrown hideaway that very few people knew existed. As soon as Cole and Junior began their descent, more lights illuminated lower and lower until it reached the bottom.
Cole stopped and plugged in his security code to close the door above them, starting a timer for them to descend all the way to the bottom before the lights would shut off and each stair tread would tip upward, making going down in the dark impossible.
Junior reached the bottom a few steps ahead of Cole and waited until the lights went out, then made their way down the hall to the lightly illuminated thumbprint pad that would open the door to the hideout. Junior pressed his thumb to the pad and the door made a soft click, then opened.
Gabby waited just inside the door, her eyes wide. “It’s us,” Junior said and she immediately relaxed.
“I was hoping. We could hear you making your way down the hall and weren’t sure if we should be terrified and shut off the lights again or hopeful that our stay might be ending.” Gabby looked hopeful.
Junior shook his head. “Sorry, honey. We still haven’t found Pete, but we did get a ransom.”
She seemed to deflate. “I’ll take the others back into one of the rooms to give you some privacy.”
“Thanks.” Junior gave her a quick hug then she showed the other two guests to a room down the hall.
“We can’t keep doing this,” Scarlet said, raking her arm with her nails. “As long as we’re here, they’re just going to keep coming. We should leave, go somewhere they will never find us.”
Trace pounded his fist into his hand, over and over, until Scarlet touched his shoulder. “I’ll tell him.” She turned to Cole. “Trace wants to help.”
“Help? He doesn’t even know what is going on.” How could he? They’d collected the guests shortly after Pete had been taken just in case Pete’s abduction was a dry run for their other guests.
“He does. He wants to go along when you make the trade. He wants to make them pay.”
As if Trace had spoken the words himself, he emphasized them with another punch.
Cole was again faced with being unsure how to deal with Trace’s anger. How could he help Trace if he wasn’t willing to communicate when they needed him to? “The kidnappers want to trade both of you for Pete. We are not going to do that. Deputy Blake wants to send body doubles for both of you with a professional hostage negotiator and see if a miracle will happen.”
“You don’t sound convinced.” Scarlet cocked her head. “I thought you believed in miracles.”
He believed they used to happen. He believed what the Bible said was true. But he didn’t believe they still happened. Not this kind of thing. The chances that the man who took Pete would just release him were somewhere between slim and none.
Cole changed the subject away from his own faults. They held no bearing on the situation. “What do you want to do?”
“Me?” Scarlet asked. “I can’t go through with a trade, obviously. They’ll be expecting me to do something like last time.”
Trace paced to the end of the room, then back again. His jaw moved like he was gnawing on something, or hiding something. When he’d been talking about Trace with Erica earlier, she’d looked like she was hiding something, but he hadn’t wanted to press it. She’d hidden a lot from him, then again, he’d hidden the fact that he was alive from her so he couldn’t judge too harshly. Had she known Trace could speak?
“Deputy Blake is trying to find some people to stand in your place. We don’t have much time and it’s proving to be difficult.”
Trace turned to face them and pounded on his chest.
“He wants to go. But I’m going to warn you, if you thought he was defensive at the gas station, you’ve seen nothing. There’s a reason they did to him what they did. Trace is a fighter. He considers Pete like a brother. Pete was kind to him. Sometimes that’s all it takes.”
Junior sat down on a nearby sofa and Cole took the cue. Sitting would help everyone talk more clearly and focus better. “You mentioned leaving. Do you have somewhere in mind?”
Scarlet directed Trace to a seat. “I don’t know. I haven’t looked. We’d have to be secretive or there would be no point. Wherever we go, we’ll be alone. That has its own risks.”
Cole had questions they didn’t have time to delve into. “What if The Guardians take down Viceroy? Would you stay then?” Though he couldn’t help but doubt Viceroy would ever be captured. Dominic and his team might be great, but from what they knew most of the people who were the leaders of these big trafficking rings were very important, very influential people. People so connected that they would never see prison and never stop.
Trace looked at Scarlet and gave her a nod. She sighed and bit her lip. “Trace’s parents are from Montana. We’ve been thinking of going there. The trouble is, they don’t believe we’re only friends. We lived together for years, but our relationship has never been romantic. It never will be. If we go there, I’m worried his parents will push us to marry.”
Surprise would be unsensitive, but Cole found himself hiding just that. Trace and Scarlet, though there was a definite age difference, acted like a couple who’d been married for years. He’d assumed the two would eventually marry once they both were able to move beyond what they’d been through. Maybe he believed in miracles more than he thought.
“You thought we’d marry too?” Scarlet gave a rare smile. “Not all relationships need to be amorous.”
He thought about his and Erica’s relationship, how they’d quickly moved right back to kissing instead of talking like they should. He needed to be the one to set the standard for them, to keep them discovering their path without clouding things the way they did the first time.
“You’re right. I’m just surprised.”
“So you see our issue? Neither of us want to be married to the other, but we don’t want to keep bringing danger to Wayside. Now that they know where we are, finding us won’t be as difficult. So, Montana is a good choice in that it’s far away.”
Cole held up his hand. “Let me talk to Edwyn and maybe Connor, since he should be back very soon. We’re not giving up on you and this conversation feels like giving up. Junior and I came down here to tell you what the plan is with Pete.”
Trace stood and strode forward, thrusting his hand forward for Cole to shake.
“He wants your word that you’ll take him with you,” Scarlet said. “He will not back down until you give your word.”
He still wasn’t sure about Deputy Blake’s plan, but Trace’s was even riskier. “What does he have in mind? We can’t put Pete in danger by just rushing in and punching people.” The gas station incident had been an eye-opener.
Trace thrust his hand forward again.
“He will do what you tell him to do, but Trace will not rest until Pete is home safely. He feels a little retribution is his due. I’ve tried to tell him about forgiveness but I’m still so new to all of it that I don’t think I explain it well. I told him about my 3:16 tattoo.” She tugged her sleeve up, showing off the tattoo that Viceroy had forced her to get. It had originally just been the number. She’d added the colon as a way to take ownership of it. She wanted to add the word John above it at some point too, to show she belonged to Christ.
Cole was a man of his word. Even though the plan wasn’t his and he’d hoped that both Trace and Scarlet would refuse, he’d do whatever he needed to do to make the plan successful. He gripped Trace’s hand and gave it a shake.
Trace nodded once and paced back to the other side of the room. Junior stood and took a deep breath. “We only came down to tell you what’s happening. When the police are ready to do this, we’ll come back down here to get you. If you hear people coming and it scares you, don’t feel like you have to sit in this room and wait.”
Cole stood, offering his agreement with Junior. “It won’t be long now.”
Erica slowly turned the blinds on her bedroom window until she could see the various men swarming around in pairs. The façade of a trade was supposed to happen soon, but she was keeping her eye on the men she didn’t know for treachery.
Cole seemed to trust Dominic and he hadn’t done anything that should make her distrust him, but something about having all the men around bothered her. This was a place of healing and rest learning to be comfortable with the world, but these men were the opposite of that. They represented war, fighting, and everything about the world that felt the opposite of peaceful.
