Page 13 of Operation: Return

Without a job, she couldn’t pay rent. She’d barely managed to pay the rent and buy groceries last month. Her landlord had warned her, one more payment even a day late and she would have to leave. Since he only owned her place, he didn’t have to follow landlord rules of eviction. As long as she paid, she could stay. The moment she didn’t, he could tell her to leave.

Since Rock Point was so small, she’d pretty much worked her way through all the jobs she could do. She’d left messages about working administratively, but they’d always turned her down in the past. Nothing would make them more likely to accept her now.

With no job, she had no house. With no house, she had nowhere to live with Pete. There were no shelters in Rock Point and she had no close friends because moving from job to job added a layer of discomfort with every new person she met. Why would they keep talking to her after she’d left a job?

Cole sat on the bed near her feet making her realize she hadn’t closed her eyes again while her mind had wandered. She’d hoped to make a decision about what she could do while everyone else slept but that wouldn’t happen now.

“You’re still awake?” Cole muttered softly.

She nodded, propping her elbow under her head. “There is no good decision between my two options. My life has been, for a long time now, a choice between the less bad of two uncomfortable options. This tops all of them.”

He swallowed and she watched his Adam’s apple bob. “I spoke to the foreman at Wayside. He’s looked at the security footage and talked to all the guys. So far, there’s no indication of any breach there. I think you’ll be safest there. You will absolutely be safer there than at your own house.”

“Unless you hadn’t come.” Not that turning back time was an option.

He gave a resigned nod. “Seeing you was part of why I was in the area. I suppose I could’ve skipped it when I first saw that car, but I might not have had the chance ever again. And I felt it was time to come clean with you.”

She held up her hand, tired of the charade. There were enough differences, like his hair being darker than it was before and his strange attitude shift, that she couldn’t trust his word. Taylor would’ve found her if he’d been alive. But were they somehow related? That was the only way she could describe how similar they were.

“I can’t force you to stay like we talked about. I told you I’d take you back when you were ready. If that’s now, then tell me. But I won’t leave until you call the police and tell them you might be in danger. I won’t agree to this any other way.”

Chivalry wasn’t dead, whoever this Cole Bradley was. She’d give him that much at least. He said this ranch was safer and while she was there she’d be surrounded by a bunch of people to keep her and her son safe. If she went home, she’d have to rely on her very tiny firearm and the very small police force in Rock Point, who didn’t have the resources to do anything.

“He’s sure? How sure can he be?” She wasn’t certain how things worked on a ranch, but they were usually huge. How could anyone watch a massive plot of land and say that it was secure?

“With the security cameras we have in place, the various dogs we have for protection, and riding the perimeters to see with our own eyes, pretty good. I trust his evaluation of the situation.”

“So you could be wrong? This could be nothing? There might not be anyone after us at all?” Though the acid in her stomach said that was too much to hope for.

“It’s a possibility. But after a life of training, I don’t ignore things when they look off. Even if this isn’t the people I think it is, something isn’t right.”

Though she couldn’t claim to know Cole, she could sense that he wouldn’t have gone to this trouble needlessly. Even though she’d wanted to argue every step of this journey from stopping to get drinks at the gas station to coming to this hotel, he’d made the choices he had to keep them safe.

Which made his insistence that he was Taylor even more confusing.

She wished Taylor’s parents were still alive. If they were, solving this mystery would be easy. One trip to their house would prove this man to be a liar. No one ever fooled Mrs. Creed. Erica had loved them like they were her own parents. In a lot of ways, they had been. Even when Mr. Creed was unduly hard on Taylor, he was always good to her. As a child who’d gone through the foster system and been blessed enough to have good homes but no adoption, they’d filled in where others hadn’t.

“Trusting you is hard. I don’t know you.”

He reached out to touch her leg through the blanket, then pulled back. “I know. Your life was never an easy one and you haven’t had it easy since I left. I’m trying to be the man I was to make this easier on you, but I’m not comfortable in this skin anymore.”

She didn’t want to think about that too deeply, especially when it didn’t matter at this moment. What he’d done so far may be overprotective, but it was more protection than she had ever had with Pete before. Cole could very easily be wrong and if she turned back now, she’d lose the one chance she had to have help with her son and give him a summer he would remember.

“I’ll go. But I can’t just sit around all summer. Is there a chance I could find a job in a nearby town?” Maybe someone could let her borrow a car, so she could get there. Then she’d have money to pay rent after.

“Gabby drives into town every day and she might be able to help you find work and give you a ride. You’ll need to talk to Edwyn about that. Gabby was the first person they’ve ever approved to go on and off the ranch daily. We try to keep to ourselves as much as possible.”

“Because of the people you help.” It seemed like the only likely answer.

“Yes.” Cole’s glance moved quickly from her over to Trace and back again. “The closer we keep our ranch to an environment without outside forces acting on it, the safer our residents are.”

She turned her focus to Pete. Was she doing this to get a break? Was she risking his safety for a few minutes of alone-time? Or was she really considering all the potential issues and making the wise decision? She’d seen the blue car. They had been followed. She was no match alone against anyone wanting to do something to her and her son.

“I guess I’ll have to take that up with Edwyn when we get there. I’ll go with you. All I ask is that you drop this ruse. Saying you’re Taylor just hurts. I don’t know what your goal was to come into my life and push this on me, but I’m asking you to give it up. At the end of a few weeks or whenever Edwyn determines it’s safe for me and Pete to go home, then I’ll go back to pack and move again.” Because now that he knew where she lived, she couldn’t stay.

His brows dipped momentarily as he examined her face. She wanted to scoot away but that would wake up Pete and she didn’t want that right now.

“Moving so I don’t know where you are?”

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