Page 15 of Operation: Return

“Small force, so I get it.” Eric reached down and touched the tire, running his thumb over the sidewall. “The puncture is in the top, where you’d see it.”

Cole had noticed each cut was like a calling card. “Not only that. They did all four. They wanted me to know what they’d done and that it was on purpose.”

A police cruiser pulled into the parking spot next to them and got out of his car, his partner followed. “Morning, Officer Muster.” He nodded to the car. “Has anything been touched or changed?”

Cole hadn’t done anything besides noting that it had happened. “Both Eric and I touched that tire, but I’ve done nothing else.”

“Do you folks have a way to be on your way or are you stranded here in town?” He wore a wide duty belt with lots of gear and gripped it with his left hand as if that was his relaxed position.

Eric nodded the officer’s way. “I brought a second car for them and I’ll stay here until this one is towed and repaired. The service center said they could get to it today once the tow truck gets it there.”

The second officer crouched beside the car. “We don’t usually see anything like this. The cut is wide, too. It’s not like they jabbed a screwdriver in. This had to be a decent sized blade.”

Erica made a quiet, high-pitched noise behind him. He’d hoped to give her a get-away, a vacation from her cares. After she’d teared up from the soda yesterday, he’d realized she’d given up everything to be a mother. She had no parents to help her, so she was literally alone other than friends. This wouldn’t end up being a rest for her at all.

“I wasn’t sure if there was anything you could really do to find out who did this. I doubt they left behind any clue as to who they are. There’s no footprints or tire tracks because of the asphalt. There wouldn’t be any fingerprints if they used a knife.” Cole shrugged. He’d been thinking about whether or not calling the police was a good idea. In the job they did, where secrecy was key, working with various police agencies wasn’t always the best idea.

“We’ll start by asking the hotel if they have video footage. Beyond that, we’ll make a report. While four tires isn’t an inexpensive repair, I don’t think there’s much else we can do,” Officer Muster said.

Video footage would be good, but Cole doubted there would be any. He was certain now these guys were with Viceroy, which meant there was no way they’d let themselves be caught on tape. The only reason he’d seen them was because he hadn’t let on that he’d noticed them the day before. When they’d stopped to run into the hotel, that had to have tipped off whoever was following them that they’d been noticed.

Eric clapped his shoulder. “We’ll get this taken care of but you need to get everyone back where it’s safe.”

“Right. Safe.” He wanted to believe that but couldn’t quite force the emotion. Running from a group of people who wanted nothing more than to have a herd of people doing the most mentally debilitating work, and often physically too, was no place for Erica and her son. He had to make sure Viceroy never touched them.

He couldn’t leave them behind, but would he be able keep them safe. There had to be a way to turn Viceroy’s focus off of Wayside for good. Because catching a man who was practically a ghost would be impossible.

* * *

After what feltlike a long drive, especially with Pete asking how close they were every few minutes, Cole turned the car down a long driveaway and Erica breathed a sigh of relief. When she could no longer see the road in the rearview mirror, he stopped at a thick metal security door. While it was pretty, it was obviously for safety and not just for an aesthetic. He pulled out his phone, typed a code into an app, and the door slowly opened.

Fences went in both directions as far as her eye could see. Pete squealed from the back seat, scaring poor Bubbles. “Mom! We’re here. This is it! I’m going to ride horses!”

She didn’t want to put a damper on his fun, but she suspected there would be no riding until Cole met with people to determine if riding would be safe. After driving around so much just to make sure they weren’t followed, she doubted they’d be able to do anything they wanted.

The further Cole drove up the lane, the more peaceful she felt. There was no view of what was up ahead since it was hidden by trees amid the long, curved road. Not to mention the somewhat hilly landscape helped with the general feeling of a secret hideaway. Her shoulders relaxed and she leaned against the headrest, finally allowing herself to feel tired after the last 24 hours of stress and hardly any sleep.

“Peaceful. Isn’t it?” Cole glanced over at her and one side of his mouth turned up in a smile that made her insides flip.

Her heart pounded at the look of pride on his handsome face. She didn’twantto think of him as handsome since he could be a scoundrel trying to pretend to be someone she’d loved. But he’d also admitted to making a mistake in coming to get her, or at least that his doing so had put her in danger, and he’d done everything he could to fix the situation.

“Yes. It’s so strange because I haven’t even seen anything yet besides a fence.” But the feeling was there all the same.

“There are the horses!” Pete yelled, bouncing in his booster seat.

“I see them.” She tried to sound excited, but knew she failed. At least he hadn’t picked up on the danger and stress from the adults. In fact, though Trace seemed completely incapable of making any noise besides some grunts, he and Pete had managed to communicate.

She’d worried at first about what Pete would learn from Trace after what Trace had been through, but in Pete’s presence the man seemed to gain almost a childlike attitude. Instead of the silent, brooding look he carried around the adults, he smiled and played with Pete.

Cole pulled the car into a small parking lot next to a large ranch house with gorgeous wood siding and a porch that wrapped around the front and toward the back on the end furthest from them. A few rows of cabins sat to the left, just like at a real camp. Behind that were two huge barns with various other small buildings.

“Wow.” She stood there taking it all in. For some reason, she’d assumed the ranch would be like the horse camp she’d toured where she’d planned to send Pete. It was smallish with a bunch of horses housed in one barn with various trails that covered a couple acres. Compact. This was massive.

So why did her heart feel at home when she’d only just arrived? Did her heart and soul need healing just like the people who came to live there? Maybe not as much, but her life had been full of secrets, full of adjustments, full of stress, and shame, and disappointments. Single mothers who weren’t divorced were still judged.

A tall, muscular man with about the same build as Cole came out of the ranch house and made his way toward them, another man at his side. Were all the men at Wayside fit, muscular, and tall?

The man who seemed to be in charge stopped in front of Cole. “Glad you made it back. I just heard from Eric. The car should be finished within the hour. They had the right tires on hand. He hadn’t seen any sign of the blue car since you left.”

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