Page 65 of Operation: Return

“Mine,” he said, though it sounded like less of a question than she’d expected. He sat there, just looking at her. “I risked my life going after him. I proved before I ever left to get him that I cared. But you waited until now to tell me.”

She closed her eyes, feeling the wall between them, brick by brick, and she’d fired the kiln with her fears. “I know. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “Sorry doesn’t cut it.” He pushed away from the ambulance and walked away.

* * *

Cole strodetoward the edge of the cabins, holding in his raging emotions. He’d suspected Pete was his, assumed Pete was his, but finally hearing it from Erica as more confession than as a welcome tore his old wounds open.

When was he going to be good enough? Erica had taken the truth that he’d given her and ignored it, knowing that if he was being honest, he had a right to be Pete’s father. She’d allowed him to watch over Pete while riding. She’d allowed him to go after Pete and rescue him without the assurance that he was going after his own flesh and blood.

Just like his country had needed him to go after the man on his team who’d been a traitor. And when they were finished using him, had told him the truth, that they’d made a mistake that they’d known about for months but had neglected to tell him until he was finished doing his duty.

Dominic jogged after him. “Cole, wait up.”

He kept walking, wanting to avoid talking to anyone but Dominic caught up quickly. “We didn’t catch Frank or the man who spoke to Erica alone earlier. I don’t know who he is. Maybe they’re one and the same.”

Cole held up his hand, tired and ready to rest. Pete was safe and at least for now, so were Trace and Scarlet, though they couldn’t stay in hiding forever. “I need a night to process all this, Dominic. Thank you for helping me today. I’m glad you were here, but I need to decompress.”

Dominic clapped him on the shoulder and squeezed. “My men are planning to rest tonight, them mobilize in the morning. Deputy Blake must have been listening to the emergency scanner because he arrived after the second ambulance. He and two deputies were headed over to Lakely. I don’t expect they will find anyone there.”

Cole tried to take in a deep breath. His head throbbed and his throat burned. “They won’t find anyone left who can answer questions and they won’t find any evidence there of who those men were, nor who they worked for. Viceroy is too smart not to wipe any history they may have had. I know about wiping someone’s history.”

Dominic leaned against the empty cabin. “On a hunch, I called my office. Copper was still there and very worried about her cousin, Frank.”

“Frank, the one who took Pete?” The one they still hadn’t found yet and part of him hoped they would never see him again.

“Yes. After I spoke to her, I called our local police to let them know that she was an accessory to kidnapping and told them where to call to find out more information. Frank was from Cheyenne originally, but I can’t figure out if she was the one with connections to Viceroy and convinced me to hire Frank so he could come here to get Scarlet or if he was the one connected and asked her to get him a job so they could weasel their way in.”

“Did she admit to pretending to be Lacy?” He’d assumed someone in Dominic’s office had done that. Now that he knew someone had confronted Trace, he wondered if Frank had been in the area longer and had put all of this in motion, feeding information to Viceroy.

“No, but I’m sure that’s what happened. I’m sorry. I trusted Copper. She’s been with us for over four years and has never done anything that made me question her. Now I’m going to have to dig through every case we’ve handled and make sure secrets weren’t shared. This could destroy my team. I may have to pick up and move somewhere new.”

“I’m sorry for that. Where will you go?” He wanted to continue thinking about his son but if Dominic was leaving, he had to be an adult and deal with this now.

“I’m not sure. Travis has a similar team in Duluth. I’ll have to see how all of this shakes out. My team feels betrayed.”

“Is Spenser alright?” He should’ve asked right away but he’d been too distracted with his own issues.

“He was taken to a hospital. It’s small and local, but Edwyn tells me the care is good.”

Cole snorted at Dominic’s obvious lack of trust in that assessment. “From what I understand, Edwyn is right. And if his case is too much, they’ll send him over to Cheyenne where Connor is.”

“Your boss?”

Cole nodded. “He’s supposed to be home any day now. This place hasn’t been the same without him.” Connor’s rules about honesty didn’t help Cole’s feelings of betrayal. Connor’s rules demanded honesty as rule number nine. He’d lived with that since he’d arrived and now expected it from everyone.

Dominic gave a nod. “I’ll let you head off to rest. I hope you know that you can keep in touch.” He stalled for a moment. “I also wanted to tell you that our commander got a letter after you left. Typical military fashion to be late on anything involving paperwork.”

Cole hadn’t heard anything from his commander in years. Once he’d retired, he hadn’t tried to be in contact with anyone, though obviously Dominic had known how to find him.

“If you could find me, why couldn’t the commander?”

Dominic frowned with his face hidden mostly by shadow in the faint light of the distant emergency vehicles. “I didn’t know where you were. That was all orchestrated by Copper or Frank. Anyway, he said there was a private stash of letters for you, kept after your death. Being private information, I’m sure he can’t just mail it out and no one knew where you’d gone after you left.”

Which explained why Dominic hadn’t come or contacted him at any point before now. He’d been truly hidden behind his job at Wayside and his new identity. With a real social security number and his real name, he could work anywhere. He didn’t have to stay at Wayside.

If he’d had the information from his commander, he could’ve proven to Erica from day one who he was. “I’ll do that. Thanks for telling me.”

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