Page 60 of Operation: Chosen

“He doesn’t understand why I don’t want Dee here.” Brendon looked up at him.

“I guess you’ll have to convince him or trust the process.” Eric stood. “It’s not easy.” Lord knew it had been the hardest thing he’d done in a long time.

ChapterTwenty-Three

Ali took a critical look at herself in the mirror. Over the last four days, she’d started wearing a cowgirl hat from the Wayside Ranch hat shed. She’d turned to wearing the tees she’d purchased in Cheyenne and had even broken her rule and purchased two pairs of jeans and some boots that actually fit her feet.

But she hadn’t told Eric yet that she’d quit her job. What if he really had wanted her to go back? If he knew there wasn’t really a date for her to leave, would he be disappointed? She looked in the mirror again, feeling as if she’d forgotten something. Earrings? Check. Cute top that would remind Eric of the things he may have forgotten? Check. Boots that wouldn’t give her blisters? Check.

What could be bothering her? She turned around and her open laptop, though asleep, beckoned her. Something about work… She slapped her forehead and groaned. Cole. If she didn’t actually work for the government anymore and wasn’t working under the protection of an office, how could she help him?

Poor Cole and his situation had been left behind with everything else. Amelia could do the job, but would she? She’d seemed angry to have to do Ali’s job, and this would just be added on to the load. She slowly closed the laptop, settled by the softclickas it closed. This was not a day for that kind of work, and she would deal with the situation when Cole returned.

Today she had to think about Eric and the stolen horses. Today she could test her idea. Was becoming a PI in her future? Would they even need a private investigator around Piper’s Ridge? Would she be able to do it without law enforcement training or would her lawyer knowledge be enough? She shook away the questions. Too many things to think about that she would face after today.

Eric knocked and opened her door. “You ready? The drive is about two hours. Just so you know how long you’re stuck with me in the truck.”

His blue tee hugged his muscled arm on one side and crumpled up to his shoulder on the other with the cast. Despite having had it put on at a veterinary clinic, he’d taken good care of himself and it was still fairly white and clean. He carried a red-and-black plaid flannel draped over his hand at his waist and his jeans showed off his lean legs.

“Why do cowboys wear their jeans so long?” Ali stared at the pool of fabric around his ankles at his boots. “Do you purposely buy them too big?”

“If you’d let me take you for a ride, you’d understand.” He grinned. “Nothing says ‘new rider’ like showing off your entire boot every time you climb on your horse.”

She laughed. “I thought that’s why they made all those cool designs on the legs of cowboy boots. Are you telling me those never see the light of day?”

He waggled his eyebrows, and his eyes warmed. “Well, they usually get seen by two people, but that’s all that really matters.”

A vision of Eric’s boots sitting by her front door filled her mind momentarily, and the dirt didn’t even bother her, though she did have to also picture a scrub mat just outside. “Is that so? Well, I guess I’ll avoid buying such cute boots next time if no one is supposed to see them.” She put her foot up on her kitchen chair to show off the purple and teal leather that she’d loved the moment she saw them.

Frankly, she’d been surprised that all-leather boots had been more affordable than a lot of the other shoes she owned. Shoes that had to be easier to make and definitely were made of less material.

“They’re great. We’ll need to get them a little dirty next week.”

Ali didn’t remind Eric that he’d told her she could leave and that she should’ve been gone already. And he hadn’t asked her about leaving like she’d expected him to. Then again, maybe he didn’t want to know. The time had gone so fast. Her life hadn’t slowed like she’d hoped it would at her age.

“I’m ready whenever you are,” she said.

He opened the door again and held it for her. A few hours later, she stood at his arm as they waited in line for admittance to the auction. She wasn’t used to the scent, stronger than the barn at Wayside, and pungent. She stayed at his side until he led her up into the small covered arena area, though the barn itself was open-air. Hundreds of people sat scattered around them, holding their auction fans and talking in small groups who all seemed to know each other.

“I suppose I should be careful not to use this to cool off.” She fanned her face.

“Unless you decide you want a horse or two of your own, I wouldn’t.” He laughed.

She enjoyed the feeling of just talking to him, just living alongside him, and doing what needed to be done. While here, she could experience things Eric liked to do, which gave her more joy than she’d expected. She loved the race of her heart when his arm brushed against hers, and she fought against wanting to touch him whenever he was nearby.

“Terrell is staying. We got word late last night. The other boys will be headed back to California in the morning. Sam took drug-sniffing dogs through their room, since one of our dogs was a retired police dog. He scented, but Connor found nothing else new. There must have been some residual scent from before. Neither boy would talk about how they are getting information from the outside.”

Ali watched the people around her, especially the teens, trying to use them as examples of ways the boys might be communicating with the outside. More than half of the children there, the twelve-to-eighteen crowd, seemed attached at the hip to their phones. Despite their parents being active in conversations with others around them, the younger generation was stuck in tech.

“Do Big E and Jayzon have access to phones?”

Eric shook his head. “No, and our Wi-Fi is fairly spotty. Even if they had phones, they couldn’t use them at the ranch unless they could tap into Connor’s special satellite internet. They’d need a device and the password, though.”

But it was possible. “What about gaming devices? Some of those have chat capabilities and can seem innocent.” Phones seemed to be the common denominator in the crowd, but kids would use whatever device they could get their hands on.

“As far as I know, they didn’t have anything when they came to Wayside, but they also managed to hide meth. It wouldn’t surprise me if they hid other things. I think the boys thought this was going to be a vacation, maybe even a chance to escape.”

She slowly nodded her agreement. “And everything was checked last night?” Maybe she was looking in the wrong place, but a device seemed the easiest way for Big E to get word from the outside. “What about the monitors? Did you get access to see where they went while they were on?”

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