Page 50 of Operation: Chosen

“Then I don’t think you should.”

“It will cost me everything.” All the work. All the things she’d done had led to this place in her life. She’d pushed everyone aside so she could have her dream.

“Not everything. There are things no one can take from you.” He flipped on his turn signal and turned down a shadowy gravel road that would take them out to Wayside.

Like serendipitous texts. Reminders that she was more than flesh and she deserved to be treated like a person. “The loss of twenty-five years is not insignificant,” she whispered so he wouldn’t hear the tremor in her voice.

“No, but until you’re six feet under, you can start over.”

The faint lights of Wayside came into view in the dark night, and suddenly she knew exactly why her body was worked to a tizzy and her mind wouldn’t settle. She couldn’t let Eric face this alone. “I’m going with you tonight. Don’t even try to stop me.”

* * *

Play it cool.Eric kept his speed just where it was, his face impassive. Inside, he was roiling like the sea in a storm. He couldn’t sit with Ali all night under the cover of darkness, waiting for danger to show up.

How could he protect her? How could he find a place where they were both safe and could see people arrive? He’d already thought being on a stakeout would be hard enough alone, but with Ali? Would he even be able to pay attention? “I don’t think that’s going to work.”

She laughed. “We’ll make it work.”

Maybe he could rely on Connor to talk her out of it. The woman was as stubborn as any he’d ever seen, but her life had made her that way. He’d almost felt her trying to come to some kind of decision earlier, and her statement that she was joining him seemed to be a way to head off her thoughts.

“I can’t imagine why you’d want to spend a long string of silent hours with me.” He slowly drove his truck around the parking lot, then carefully backed it to the front of the barn. He had to check Skyfall and the other horses, and the only place with enough light to do so was in the barn.

Ali jumped out the passenger door before he could even kill the engine and headed for the trailer. He finished putting the truck in park and followed as quickly as possible. His arm was throbbing after a day of doing far too much. And it wouldn’t be over soon.

Ali had the trailer opened but had enough sense not to walk right into the back of it and scare the horses. Trailering a horse wasn’t easy, and many horses didn’t prefer to travel that way, especially down a freeway, then down a gravel road. Skyfall’s flanks twitched in the meager light.

“It’s okay, girl,” Eric said. “We’ll get you out of there and where it’s safe and you can relax. Just let me get you there.”

Ali made a soft noise in her throat and backed away from the door.

“There’s a light switch just inside the barn door. It’s old. Looks a little like a button. Press it.” He left Ali, knowing she could figure out something as easy as a light switch and focused on Skyfall.

Ali’s phone flashlight turned on, and she made quick work of flooding the barn with light.

“There you are!” Connor’s voice boomed from the direction of the ranch house. He joined them a few seconds later. “Would it kill you to text me?”

Eric held up his useless arm. “I was down a few digits.”

Skyfall’s head bobbed up and down as she came down the ramp of the trailer, then headed into the barn. Something about her gait bothered Eric. He loosely tied her to a post and checked all of her hooves. The front right frog was caked with something. She pulled away instead of leaning in like she usually did when he cared for her.

“Should I call in the farrier, have a look at her?” Connor leaned in to get a better look.

“Usually I can manage. In this case, I think I’d prefer if Dr. Willis took a look at her. He can check the others then too. This shouldn’t be enough of an issue to cause her that much discomfort.” Then again, the thief had ridden her down the rocky gravel road. Had the rider ridden her all the way to that ranch? It wasn’t far by truck, but was a long ride if they were trying to escape police cars.

“I wonder where you’ve been.” He released her leg.

“I’ll call the doctor in the morning. Is Terrell with Junior?” Connor asked.

Ali nodded. “I asked him to stay with Junior and Gabby. No leaving out the window this time. Eric and I will be busy tonight, so he’ll have to stay there anyway.”

This was the perfect chance for Connor to talk Ali out her plan. If he laid out what he wanted from the start, Connor would agree with him. “I offered to sit at the place they found Skyfall and see who comes by. We have no leads into who this could be.”

Connor nodded. “There are only a few who it could be, but finding evidence would be the difficult part.”

And neither suspect made sense. Either the boys had some connection to stealing horses and—as Big E had flippantly said—they were using the money, or the owner of the auction where Eric used to work was the culprit. There were no other suspects unless someone unknown was pulling the strings and had just happened to choose Wayside.

“You both?” Connor glanced between the two of them. “Are going to watch for whoever is doing this?”

---