Page 46 of Operation: Chosen

“We shouldn’t have done that. We should’ve just called the police and told them to check out the property. We should’ve tried to get the address.” Ali couldn’t quit speaking. She’d wanted the next few days to really consider her options, but if she got arrested, her options were gone. “Trespassing. I was trespassing.” Ali’s heart was beating so hard her hands shook. “How could I have done that?”

“You were fine.” Lacy merged back onto the highway. “We didn’t do anything but look. He can’t say we stole anything or damaged anything. All we did was pet a horse that isn’t his. There is no doubt in my mind that was Skyfall, but how did he get her and does he know she was stolen?”

“I don’t know.” Ali needed calm, a way to center herself and bring the crippling worry under control. That was one thing she’d never mastered in all her years of controlling her environment. “How can you be so calm about this?”

Lacy laughed. “Did you see me running? I wasn’t calm. But I have a peace about doing the right thing. I knew that horse didn’t belong there. Getting it back to its owner is the right thing.”

“Eric will be so happy to have some news.” Not that she had much to give him. She hadn’t seen an address. “What will we tell the police? To look for a silver horse along the highway?” A silver horse they would probably move now.

“Nope.” Lacy shook her head. “While we were heading toward the pasture, I grabbed my phone and dropped a pin on our location. All I have to do is text that location marker to Officer Blake.” She shifted in her seat, dug the phone from her back pocket and tossed it at Ali. “Text him now if you want.”

Ali couldn’t do anything but sit there and stare at Lacy. She was so free. No password on her phone. No worry about whether what she was doing was right or not, even if Ali wasn’t so sure Lacy’s definition of right would qualify in a court of law.

But Lacy was happy, and Ali couldn’t answer that question. In fact, of all the questions she could answer, that one had proven to be the most difficult. She focused on the task and opened Lacy’s phone, saw that the officer’s number was one of about ten on that phone and sent off the message with the map to the location.

“Is this your only phone?” Why have one with so few people on it?

Lacy shrugged one shoulder. “I hate technology, but Connor requires that I be reachable. Even in the middle of a ride. So, I have to have a phone. I’d rather just have my landline and call it good.”

Ali was struggling to understand Lacy as a person. She didn’t want a phone. She didn’t want to live near people. Lacy didn’t want to wear clothes different from those she wore daily. Her actions were hers. She didn’t play fake with anyone and didn’t hold back when she had something to say.

“Despite the ending, I had a good day,” Ali said to get her mind off the things that made her so tense she was tempted to start itching.

“Good! I’d hoped you would. And I hope you go for that ride. With Eric. You’ll like it. I know you will. Well, I don’t know, but most people really do.” She laughed, and Ali caught a hint of nervousness in it.

“Thanks for taking me.”

Lacy grinned as she pulled off the freeway. “Any time. Seriously.”

They pulled into Wayside a few minutes later, and Ali ran to dump her new clothes in her cabin, then find Eric. She’d only been gone for a few hours, but there was so much to tell him. She raced through the barn and found Eric in the back pasture, working on a fence.

“Eric!” She ran toward him.

He straightened, then stretched his back. “Hey, did you have a good day?”

She hadn’t even realized how long she’d been gone. They had to have finished supper already, and she’d missed sitting with him. But nothing was as exciting as telling him about Skyfall.

“We saw Skyfall! Lacy made us stop and see her, she’s fine. We sent the location to the police. It was crazy and stupid and…I had a blast.” She laughed, realizing it was true.

Eric gripped her arm and tilted his head slightly, a confused smile curving his lips. “You saw Skyfall?” She’d barely nodded her agreement before he was tugging her back toward the parking lot. “You’ll need to show me.”

“Show you what?” She’d already broken the law once today and he wanted her to go back there?

“Where she is. I need to know.” Eric shuffled her back the way she’d come.

“Eric, we need to let the police handle this.” Was she a broken record? Didn’t anyone leave things for the proper authorities anymore?

“In bigger cities, they have investigators and crimes get solved. Out here, big crimes rarely happen, and we don’t even have an investigator on our police force. Officer Blake will go out there. I want to see.”

In the span of his hurried explanation, they’d made it to his pickup. Eric held the door open for her. “Climb in.”

“You’re driving?” Was she the only sane person, or was she worried about things that she didn’t need to worry about?

“Yes.” He turned on the truck and buckled in, then fished his phone out of his back pocket. “Officer Blake’s number is in there, send him a text to tell him we’re on our way with a trailer.”

Before she could find the number or buckle herself in, Eric threw the truck in reverse and backed it in alongside the barn. He hopped out and got to work hitching the horse trailer. Ali sent the quick text to Officer Blake and was even more shocked when he replied right away that Eric’s plan sounded good.

She would be no help with the trailer, so she waited until Eric climbed back in, then let him know what Officer Blake had said.

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