Operation Unleashed

by Justine Davis

  “I don’t know. You hate him so much—”

  “I don’t hate him, I’ve never hated him,” Drew exclaimed.

  “Could have fooled me.”

  “I’ve been disappointed in him, angry at him, furious in fact, but I’ve never hated him,” Drew said, knowing he owed her this and more, but hearing the clock ticking as Luke was out there somewhere, alone, scared.

  “He was trying to help us. You admit I’ve changed,” she said. “Why can’t you give him the same benefit? Admit that he changed?”

  In some part of his mind Drew realized what she was admitting, that Doug had been the irresponsible taker Drew had always said he was.

  “I’m not sure one good deed makes up for the rest,” he said.

  “Even dead you can’t forgive him. If that’s not hate, what is?”

  He stood up, needing to move. “What I hated,” he said, “was what he did to you. Doing something so stupid, getting himself killed, and leaving you to deal with everything by yourself.”

  An odd expression came over her face. “It’s not his fault I couldn’t deal.”

  “You were nineteen years old, pregnant, you’d left school for him. What were you supposed to do?”

  “I was twenty when he was killed,” she said.

  “And that makes a difference?”

  “It sounds older.” She shook her head, and stood up herself. “What makes a difference is that Doug was going to bring me home.”

  “And then what?”

  She frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “When you got here, what did he expect you to do? Go to your mother for help?”

  Alyssa paled at the very thought. “I would have given Luke up before I would let that woman have anything to do with him. He would have spent his life paying for my mistakes.”

  “Exactly.”

  She turned, walked over to the window, looked out over the clearing where not so long ago Luke had been playing with Cutter. “She would have made him pay horribly for my mistakes. Especially because he looks so much like Doug.”

  “Yeah, I noticed,” Drew said drily.

  Alyssa went still, then slowly turned to face him. “That’s part of it for you, too, isn’t it? That he looks so much like Doug?”

  “I’ve never held that against him,” Drew protested.

  “Oh, I know that. But...that’s part of why you’re so good with him, isn’t it? Why you work so hard at it? You think on some level if Luke comes out all right, it will make up for your brother.”

  He stared at her. Opened his mouth to deny. But the words wouldn’t come. With that knack she had for getting people, for understanding them, she’d somehow put her finger on something he’d never realized.

  “Maybe,” he muttered, turning the idea over in his head.

  “I think,” she said slowly, “Doug would have come to you.”

  “Please. He really did hate me.”

  “No. He admired you.”

  “Admired?” Drew asked, incredulous.

  She nodded. “He’d had you held up as an example his entire life. An example he knew he could never match. That doesn’t mean he didn’t admire you. He just knew he couldn’t be you.”

  “So, the way he was really was my fault, is that what you’re saying?”

  “No. It was his. He never saw that he didn’t have to be just like you, that he could have been his own man.”

  He stared at her again. She’d come a long way in the past two weeks. And something else struck him, something he should have noticed before.

  She still wasn’t wearing the necklace. The one Doug had given her. The one she’d so rarely taken off. In fact, she hadn’t worn it since that night.

  He tried not to read too much into that. Something out the window caught his eye. Large, brown and a flash of white as one of the eagles swooped down for a wings-out, gears-down landing in the large maple tree. He thought of Luke’s fascination with the majestic birds, and how excited he’d been when Liam had taken him back through the trees to show him the huge nest.

  Luke. None of this mattered, not now, not when Luke was out there in trouble.

  “Now’s not the time for all this. We need to find Luke.”

  “Yes. We do.” She looked at him steadily. “And when we do, you need to tell him that you were wrong about his father. He needs to know that Doug didn’t intentionally abandon him, that he didn’t purposely desert him before he was even born.”

  “He’s a little young to be thinking like that, isn’t he?”

  “He ran away because he thought like that, didn’t he?”

  “I thought he ran away because we were fighting.”

  “And what were we fighting about?”

  Drew threw up his hands. At this point he’d say whatever it took to get out of here and back to searching for his son. “All right. You got what you’ve always wanted, and you’ll get this. I’ll tell him I was wrong.”

  “It has nothing to do with what I want,” she said, getting to her feet and facing him down. “This is about Luke. It’s always been about Luke.” That had never been in doubt, at least not to him. For her, Luke was the center of the world. “I don’t matter, Luke does.”

  You matter to me, he thought. But said only, “Then let’s go find him.”

  At that moment Cutter leapt to his feet. Responding to the words “let’s go,” Drew assumed. Then realized he’d probably heard Hayley, who just then stepped back into the room.

  “They found the car,” she said.

  Chapter 30

  “Sometimes,” Quinn said, “all the tech in the world can’t take the place of boots on the ground.”

  Alyssa could hardly argue, not that she would have. Not when they’d found the car that Baird was driving when he took Luke, in less than two hours of searching.

  At least, she assumed it was Baird. As Quinn had said, it was the most likely possibility. He didn’t believe in that much coincidence, and in this case, neither did she.

  Within moments of Hayley stepping back into the room with the news, they’d all piled into her small SUV. Including Cutter, who’d sensed something had happened and beaten them all down the stairs and out the door, opening it himself by batting at the handicapped access control.

  “Oh, yes, my boy,” Hayley crooned to him as she opened the rear lift gate to let him in. “We’re going to need you. If Luke’s anywhere close, you’ll let us know, won’t you?”

  The dog swiped a pink tongue over her chin. Alyssa wondered if they had gotten Luke his own dog, if he’d have been as susceptible to Baird’s trick with the puppies. Probably, Luke was a loving kid. He still would have worried about a puppy in danger.

  Silence reigned in the car once they were moving. Hayley drove with a smooth competence, obviously knowing where she was going. Alyssa opened her mouth to ask where that was, then stopped. It didn’t matter now, and she’d find out soon enough.

  Quinn’s voice came through the speaker on the overhead console, asking their location. Hayley’s car obviously had the same comlink system installed as the others. When Hayley told him where they were, he instructed her to take the gravel road to the left after the next bus stop. They were almost on it, so she slowed immediately and made the turn.

  “Down past the blue house there’s a wide area. Park there. And keep Cutter in the car for the moment.”

  Hayley reached up and touched a green button. “Copy,” she said.

  Liam, wearing a heavy black nylon vest with a lot of pockets and a holstered weapon on his right hip, was there waiting when they reached the spot Quinn had mentioned. Alyssa wondered if the vest was also bulletproof, and suppressed a shiver at the thought. When they were out of the car, except for an anxious Cutter, he included them all in a nod and got ri
ght to it.

  “There’s what looks like an abandoned house back there.” He gestured with a thumb over his right shoulder, toward a rather overgrown area at the end of the gravel road. “The car’s parked in a carport behind an old shed about fifteen feet behind it.”

  “Luke?” Alyssa breathed.

  “Don’t know. Tossed a couple of rocks at the trunk, close as I could get without being seen from the house. Didn’t hear anything in response.”

  “I wonder whose car it is,” Drew asked. “Does he have help?”

  “Don’t think so,” Liam answered. “Quinn called the deputy who was at the school, he checked the plate for us and contacted the owner. Seems it’s an unreported stolen, from an older lady who doesn’t drive much anymore so didn’t notice it was gone until he called. He’ll be on his way here.”

  “So Luke could be in the house?” Drew asked.

  “We haven’t seen him yet. We need to know if Oliver’s there before we make a move.”

  Cutter whined, clearly wanting out of the car.

  “Easy, boy,” Hayley called to him.

  “The house the shed belongs to appears empty, no furniture or appliances,” Liam continued. “Looks like it’s been unoccupied for a while. We haven’t gone inside yet.”

  Alyssa wanted to demand why, but didn’t. And with a glance at her, Liam answered her unasked question. Perceptive bunch, these Foxworth people. Including Cutter.

  “The deputy should be here for that. We try not to step on their toes, but we will if we have to,” Liam assured her. “And we’ve checked it as best we can from a safe distance outside. I saw some blankets and food wrappers on the living room floor by the fireplace, and Rafe noticed the woodpile had been disturbed recently. We can’t see into the shed, there’s only a small window, and it’s on the side facing the house, where we’d be seen.”

  “I just don’t want him in Baird’s hands one second longer than he has to be,” Alyssa said, her voice tight with worry.

  “That’s what we’re all about,” Liam said. “Luke first, then we’ll deal with Oliver. Or leave it to law enforcement.”

  “Or me,” Drew said grimly.

  Liam looked at him for a moment, and then nodded. “I don’t think Quinn would be averse to letting you have a moment with the guy.”

  “Good.”

  Alyssa stared at him, a little stunned. Drew was strong, and tough, but he was also the most nonviolent man she’d ever known. But right now he looked more than capable of visiting mayhem on the hapless Baird Oliver.

  And she realized with a little jolt that she might just enjoy that herself.

  Cutter suddenly growled, audible even through the closed car. Simultaneously, a voice came through the speaker of the phone that was in its own pocket on Liam’s vest.

  “Movement in the shed. Still no visual.”

  They all froze. That had been the gravelly voice of Rafe Crawford, Alyssa thought. Immediately they heard Quinn’s voice in response.

  “Animal?”

  “Gut says no.”

  “Good enough,” Liam said. At Alyssa’s look he added, “Rafe’s gut is like a check that’s cleared the bank.”

  Cutter growled again, even more fiercely this time.

  “And he obviously agrees,” Hayley said.

  Liam nodded. “Cutter?” he said into the phone.

  “Yes,” Quinn said. “Bring him. But keep him close to you for now. Let me know when you’re within range.”

  Hayley, who had clearly been expecting the order, hit the button on the key she had in her hand. The lift gate beeped and started to rise. The moment there was a foot of space Cutter squirmed through, clearly agitated.

  “Cutter, stay with me.”

  The dog growled, looking down the road anxiously.

  “I know,” Hayley said, putting a steadying hand on his head, “but stay.”

  He did, but even Alyssa could see he wasn’t liking it.

  “You’ll get your chance,” Hayley told the dog. “But we need to be sure Luke doesn’t get hurt.”

  As if she’d presented him with the only acceptable argument, the dog’s growl subsided.

  “His chance?” Drew asked as they took the easier path down the shoulder of the gravel road, avoiding the telltale gravel itself.

  “Quinn may send Cutter in first,” Liam said. “I mean, we’re not one hundred percent certain Oliver or Luke is really here. He could have just abandoned the car like he did before.”

  “But this seems like a likely hiding place, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes. That’s why we’re assuming Luke’s here and being held, until we prove different. We’re approaching it on that basis.”

  Liam led them off the road and into the trees a few yards down the road. Cutter’s posture changed once more, and Alyssa sensed the dog already knew where everyone was.

  “We’re on the east side, twenty feet into the trees,” Liam said into his phone, quietly.

  “Teague’s still on his way from the other side. Send me Cutter,” Quinn replied.

  Hayley said softly, “Go to Quinn.”

  Cutter dove into the thick brush as if it weren’t there, and in seconds it closed behind him. Hayley spoke into the phone.

  “Cutter to you.”

  “Copy,” Quinn’s voice came back. “Going off speaker.”

  “Copy,” Hayley returned. She changed something on the phone, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a small earpiece she put in her right ear. Liam did the same. Alyssa felt a qualm. Clearly she and Drew were now out of the loop, and it made her even more nervous.

  The humans were forced to take a more zigzag route than Cutter had, along a path wide enough for them. The dog was already there when they met up with Quinn amid the thick trees that surrounded the house and shed. Alyssa looked around.

  “I thought I heard Rafe.”

  “He’s picking his spot,” Quinn said.

  “His spot?” she asked.

  Before Quinn could answer, Drew, who got there quicker than she did, muttered, “He’d better be as good as you say.”

  “He is,” Quinn said calmly.

  And Alyssa belatedly realized that what Quinn had meant was that Rafe was picking his spot to shoot from. She stifled a tiny moan that held, she realized, the same anxious timbre that Cutter’s growl had. The dog was now practically dancing with impatience, looking from Quinn to Hayley, as if awaiting the command that would cut him loose.

  “Rafe is our insurance,” Hayley said gently. “When the chips are down, or if things go sour, he’s who makes sure the innocents—in this case Luke—don’t get hurt.”

  She hadn’t thought of it like that, and it made her feel better. And if the fact was unsettling—that having a man around with a sniper rifle was a comfort—it was only a sign of the chaos her life had fallen into in the last two weeks.

  Oddly, it soothed Alyssa to look at them. She supposed it was the way of the world, that men who make ordinary people like her nervous were the ones they needed most at times like this.

  But it was perhaps Hayley, with her reassuring air and utter confidence in the men of this team, who eased the strain most of all. She had complete faith in the man she loved and the team he’d put together, and it seemed to be catching.

  Quinn put a hand to his ear, where Alyssa saw he also had one of the earpieces.

  “Copy,” he said, then looked at the others. “Rafe’s in position. Go.”

  Without even a nod Liam went, moving silently through the trees, in the opposite direction, heading back toward the road. She guessed it was so he could cut Baird off, if he made it that far.

  Before he was ten feet away Cutter’s head came up sharply. He gave a short, sharp bark and took off at a head-down run through the trees.


  “Damn,” Quinn said. “So much for our tactical approach.” He touched the earpiece and said “Cutter’s incoming.”

  “I think he heard something,” Hayley said.

  “Looked like it,” Quinn agreed.

  “There’s only one thing that would make him disobey like that,” she said.

  Quinn nodded, his jaw set.

  “What?” Alyssa asked, although she thought she already knew the answer.

  Hayley confirmed it.

  “Luke.”

  “Yes, Cutter’s taken the lead again,” Quinn said, touching his earpiece, sounding only mildly acerbic as he updated the team. That there was apparently no complaint or even further comment said a lot about their acceptance of what some would find absurd, Alyssa thought.

  “Let me go after him,” Hayley said. “Oliver won’t recognize me, I can be the neighbor chasing down her errant dog. I’m good at it because it’s so often true.”

  Quinn was watching intently as Cutter headed on a beeline for the carport. Was he going for the car he knew was the same one that had taken Luke, or was it something else? Could that amazing nose tell, even from here, that the boy had been in the vehicle, maybe in the trunk? Alyssa felt another shiver go through her, fought it down. She would be no use to Luke at all if she panicked and fell apart now.

  “Hayley,” Quinn began, clearly about to say no.

  “He’ll try to bluff, pretend he belongs there, maybe that he just bought the place. I can get a look, see what he’s nervous about, where he looks.”

  “What if he’s seen us together?” Alyssa asked. “You’ve been to the house and we know he’s been watching, we’re only guessing he hasn’t found the house yet.”

  “It’ll still take him a minute to figure it out. And that’s all they’ll need.”

  “The shed,” Quinn said suddenly.

  Alyssa’s head snapped around. She stared toward the small, ramshackle building. Cutter was there, along the far side, digging madly, as if he were trying to tunnel inside.

  Odd, she thought, how he had chosen that side, where he couldn’t be seen from the house. Or maybe not.