Page 19 of Operation: Return

“Yes, Erica is the woman Cole brought from Rock Point. She will be helping to clear the mess on Teddy’s desk before Lacy returns next week.”

“She’s my . . . regret.” He hated titling her in that way. Erica was more than that. But since they were focused on second chances, regrets and making them right, that’s what Erica was. Without the mission to make peace with their pasts, she wouldn’t be there.

“I see. And she’s doingLacy’sjob until she returns? That could be problematic.” Brendon’s face held no emotion, no condemnation or support.

Edwyn again answered, as he should. “More likely, she’ll act as support. There are things Erica can’t know about but there are plenty of things that she could do that would help pave the way for Lacy’s welcome return.”

“How long is she going to stay?” Sam asked from where he leaned against the wall, ever the silent man in the room, he kept his voice low like he didn’t want to ask the question.

“I invited her to stay for a month, but I doubt she’ll stay that long. Her son Pete had to miss out on a week-long horse ranch experience because Erica lost her job right before I arrived. I hate to say that I kind of used the experience to get her agreement.”

Eric elbowed him. “I’ve never seen you so quiet. You usually have plenty to say.”

Cole bit back a comment. He usually let himself say whatever came to mind without any filter. Why not say what he thought? But now he didn’t want Erica to see this side of him and acting one way around her and another around his friends was difficult. He’d been doing his best to curb his temper and his tendency toward snap judgement and biting comments. “What can I say, I’ve turned over a new leaf.”

Sam laughed. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

Junior opened the door and laid a stack of mail on Edwyn’s desk. “Teddy asked Gabby to bring the mail up before she headed to the office. His arthritis is bothering him.”

Edwyn’s forehead scrunched. “What’s that?” He lifted a plain white envelope off the top. There were no addresses on it. He ripped it open, then pulled out a single sheet of folded, white copy paper.

“Take a look.” He laid the paper down and held his hand up to indicate they shouldn’t touch it. It was cut from pieces of newspaper headlines in various sizes, the black print easy to read. “I doubt it has any prints on it, but let’s make sure no one other than me touches it.”

I have not forgotten.

“I suppose that’s from Viceroy,” Brendon said.

“We could guess that. I doubt he did the work of putting it together, but we’re supposed to think he did.” Edwyn waited until all of the men had looked at the note. “Anyone see anything on surveillance? Like someone other than the postal carrier going to our mailbox?”

Each of the men around the room shook their head until they reached Eric. He frowned and took a breath. “I saw a dark car parked at the end of the driveway yesterday. The hood was up and it looked like they were having car trouble. I watched the screen along with the other cameras to make sure nothing was going on. They were only there about fifteen minutes before they put the hood back down and drove off.”

Edwyn nodded. Everyone in the room knew that until these men did something illegal they couldn’t take action. That type of situation—someone having car trouble—wouldn’t have normally bothered any of them. “Did the hood block your view of the mailbox on the other side of the driveway?” Edwyn asked.

“I didn’t notice at the time, but that’s where they were parked. I assumed at the time that they just used our driveway to pull over, so they were off the road. I can check the recordings, but they were sideways so the plate number wouldn’t show.”

Cole held in the deep sigh that normally was his signature response. “Was the car a dark blue?”

Eric nodded. “I think so. So dark it was almost black.”

“Just like when they followed Cole, they are inching closer to us to strike. They’ll start doing what is perfectly legal until they see how close they can get. What can we do to increase security?” Brendon asked.

Junior lifted his head slightly. “I think, since Scarlet and Trace are the two these guys are mainly after, Cole and I should work together to make sure they aren’t alone or unprotected at any time.”

Edwyn slowly shook his head. “I think that’s a start, but not enough. We’ve got those two, plus two other clients and Erica with her son to watch right now and only six of us. That’s a one to one ratio, but also means none of us get a break for possibly a month.”

“Let’s be real, there are five who are allowed to proactively go out and protect. I’m relegated to secure areas where I can get to easily.” Brendon crossed his arms and glowered at Edwyn.

“You are no less a part of this team, and I don’t find your ability to protect those staying here any less than any of the rest of us. I’m following the protocols Connor set.”

Teddy came in from the doorway, a little bent because of the soreness in his hip. “And certainly better than me,” he snorted and tapped his chest. “The old ticker isn’t what it used to be and I don’t get around as easily anymore.”

None of the room contradicted him out loud, but none of them wanted to see anything happen to Teddy. “This doesn’t help. What can we do to make sure nothing happens? Each one of us has a day where we are not actively working with our clients because they have meetings with Brendon on those days. What if we took our days off and instead worked to clear brush and tree limbs away from the fences so no one could get near the fence without being seen? Once that’s done and we have a clear line of sight, let’s put in more cameras.” Sam leaned on his knees and glanced at all the men around the room.

Sam wasn’t usually one to open his mouth and Edwyn nodded his approval. “That’s a good start. I need double the men on camera duty. We have enough of them that having one person watch isn’t enough. If that isn’t possible, I want someone on call to go check out anything that our security person sees on the cameras. There will be no good reason for leaving the cameras. If you need a break, make sure you call in someone else to sit there. Understood?”

“And what is the protocol if they do what they did before?” Junior narrowed his eyes and waited as a heavy silence fell over the room. “They drove right onto our property and started shooting at people. We can’t let them do that again.”

Edwyn straightened his spine and went in defensive mode. “We had the gate put up, similar to the one protecting the underground house. The only way through it is with the code and the right program on their phone. There is no way they could hack that.”

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