Page 27 of Operation: Chosen

Eric lockedthe door behind him and headed in for the evening meeting in Connor’s office. They would have a lot to discuss after the conference with the boys earlier that day. At least supper hadn’t been as stressful as Terrell had thought. The other two boys had sat at a table looking sullen and unapproachable, and he’d invited Terrell to eat with him and the guys.

When Terrell had declined the offer but looked worried about where to sit, he’d suggested a place with just two seats, one for each of them. The meal had taken longer than he’d planned. Now that evening was here, the day had seemed to drag out way too long and he wanted to get back to his room and rest.

The moment the thought entered his head, so did Ali. He’d been thinking about her all day and how he could broach the subject of forgiveness without scaring her. She’d never been a Christian, which was also an issue, but he’d cover that later. With prayer and God’s plan, anything was possible. He’d just keep praying for her.

He stopped for a moment to look around at all the horses, barns, corrals, and buildings near the house. He’d never felt more at home than here at Wayside. He’d loved his home growing up, but his father had trained him from early on that their home was not his home. He would someday move on and have a place of his own. He shouldn’t get too comfortable with them because a man had to do manly things and take care of his own life.

He couldn’t help but feel like they’d died disappointed in him. His one love had turned him down, and he’d given up seeking anyone after that. He hadn’t dated or tried to find anyone else. Then he’d moved far away on a ranch full of men who would become his closest friends. Not an available woman in sight. Until Ali, the one who ran away, came back.

He was still in love with her if he were honest with himself, but it didn’t take the questioning skills of a lawyer to know she wasn’t happy at Wayside Ranch. She wanted closed-in streets with huge houses and a town full of shops, while he wanted wide open spaces.

He shoved those thoughts far away as he entered Connor’s office. Junior wasn’t there yet, so he left the door open. “Evening,” he said in greeting.

Connor nodded. “Is Terrell settled in?”

“He is. He also knows he can keep the front door locked since I have the key to get in and the only other person who has that key is you.” That way he wouldn’t have to worry about his former roommates coming after him. Even if they’d only planned pranks, Eric wasn’t in the mood for that. “He was very concerned about retaliation.”

Connor shook his head. “If those boys do anything else, I have to call in the police. I can try to talk to Micha, their caseworker, but he made it clear that if the boys messed up, they were all to be returned.”

“I don’t need to say that isn’t fair, but we all know how this works.” Eric settled into his usual seat.

“We do,” Teddy replied from his seat along the wall. “While we wait for Junior, let me show you what I have from the cameras this morning.” He picked up a remote on Connor’s desk and flipped a picture up on the large screen behind the desk.

A blurry image of the black car appeared, with one boy visible. The others stayed completely hidden from the camera’s view as if they’d done this before. “We know that the boy in the picture is Big E’s brother, Clayton, a.k.a. Bones. Big E’s real name is Indie, his brother’s last known address was Oakland, California. We don’t know if he’s still there or not. We suspect that’s his mother’s address.”

“Then, we know where Big E lives,” Edwyn said.

“Yes, but that doesn’t help, since Big E is not going home. Especially if he doesn’t take advantage of this time here at Wayside.” Teddy flipped the image to another. The camera on the front of the house came up, and the car was in the parking area. Four of the boys had gotten out. Teddy zoomed in to see the faces more clearly.

“As you can see, they stayed too far away for me to get a good image of the other three. We don’t know who they are. There are no security cameras near the fire pit, so we didn’t catch any of them over there.”

“We know one of the four is Jayzon’s brother, Damion, but not which one. How do we get past the fact that two of the boys in the car were direct relatives of two of the boys staying with us? We’ve never had to keep out family,” Brendon said.

Connor frowned. “Except with Scarlet. Her aunt wouldn’t have been allowed in. We have precedent. Let’s lock out anyone from entering.”

Junior walked in and closed the door behind him. “Sorry I’m late. Gabby needed some help with her car. It’s been acting up after work the last few days. I don’t know what to make of it. I’m no car expert, but everything looks fine. It’s like her battery gets drained while she’s working, but as soon as she gets a jump from one of the other people in town, her car is fine.”

“Could someone be targeting her car?” Connor asked.

“Has to be. But who and why? It feels pretty petty.” Junior scratched his chin.

Eric swallowed hard. Viceroy was familiar with Gabby. “Could this be someone with Viceroy, trying to see if she can find help in this kind of situation or seeing when she’s more vulnerable?”

Junior scowled. “Don’t even say that. I struggle with her being at work, knowing there’s nothing I can do if anything goes wrong. I had to work through letting her be herself because she’s good at what she does and I need to be here. If she’s in danger, I don’t know how I’ll handle that.”

“It might not be. We also had those would-be horse thieves come up. I haven’t seen any other issue here, so maybe they are trying another tactic. It’s crazy though. Draining Gabby’s battery isn’t going to make the horses any easier to steal,” Connor said, glancing to each man around the room. “So, we’ve got the boys who mostly refuse to work with us. We’ve got the car full of gang members who want to get in here for the boys staying here. There’s someone pulling what is hopefully a harmless prank on Gabby daily. Lastly, there’s a group who tried to break in and take horses.”

Edwyn spoke up. “Teddy, Sam, and I got that fence patched up. Looks like they found two of our cameras and destroyed them.”

Connor nodded. “We’ll have to go back to watching like we did when we had regular guests. I know we all thought watching three boys would be easier, but that just isn’t the case. I never dreamed gang members from California would drive all the way here for three young teens. You’d think they’d have easier pickings right where they were.” He scowled out the window. “Any idea who our thieves could be? Do we know who might want to target our horses? The police have no leads.”

Two barks came from outside. All the men froze for a split second before Connor raced for the window and flung it open. More of the dogs started barking. “The kennel…” Sam ran for the door.

Eric followed close behind him. While he wasn’t as good with the dogs as Sam, he knew animals and could help better than some of the others. Sam slowed near the edge of the cabins and peered around the corner. He motioned for Eric to follow.

Before Eric raced through the open, he glanced all around. A figure in dark clothing dashed toward the barn. Eric held up two fingers and pointed where he was headed. Sam nodded that he understood drew his pistol and continued toward the dogs. Eric drew his pistol from the holster on his waistband and headed for the barn. While there was a gate on the driveway into Wayside, someone alone on foot could easily scale the wall, and that’s what they must have done.

Junior stopped in the position Eric had just left. Eric motioned his intent to Junior, who responded by pointing to the cabins. Junior would take care of watching the boys and Ali while Eric went after whoever was in the barn.

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