Page 8 of Operation: Return

A month. What was she thinking? She cast a glance over to Cole as he pulled off the highway. The streetlights flashed over his face as they drove through a residential part of town, then out to a motel. Only a single floodlight stood above the long building and a single cabin had a light on above one of the doors.

“Why are we here?” She wanted to believe she’d made the right choice but so many things could go wrong. Her gun pressed hard into her back, reminding her she wasn’t completely alone. If he tried to get her into one of those rooms, she’d blast him.

Cole sat there staring at the derelict building. “Please wait here. Lock the doors until I come back. This place might not be as sketchy as it looks, but I wouldn’t chance it. You alright?” Cole asked her, surprising her out of her thoughts.

“Fine.” Of course she was fine. Who wouldn’t be? She was sitting next to the man she’d loved, the only man she’d ever been with intimately enough to have a child. The man who’d been dead for five years. She stopped herself. No, not the same man. A doppelganger for sure, but not the same man. Ghosts weren’t real.

“Good, I’ll be right back. Trace is expecting me so he should be packed and ready to go.”

She hadn’t understood why they had to pick up someone else and really didn’t like the fact that this someone would be sitting in the back seat with her son, but she also didn’t want to get out of the car now. Not with the shadows around everything so deep they could swallow her.

Cole went to the one door with the light on and knocked. A moment later, a man came outside and stood under the light. He was shorter than Cole by quite a few inches. Then again, Cole was tall. The stranger was narrow in the shoulders compared to Cole too. She shook herself. Why was she comparing this guy to Cole?

The man had a single suitcase with him. It looked like it had been purchased in the early 70s. It was. Her first thought was that it looked big enough to hide a body inside. She clutched her stomach. What was wrong with her tonight?

Cole opened the trunk and she felt something land in it, then it closed a moment later. When Trace tried to open the back door, she remembered locking it like Cole had told her and she clicked the button to let him in. He opened the door and climbed inside without saying a word.

“Hello, I’m Erica.” She tried to smile.

The man nodded and stared but said nothing.

Cole got back inside the car and fastened his seatbelt then turned his attention to her. “This is Trace. The information we were provided says that he’s incapable of speaking. He knows some general sign language, but we won’t pressure him to talk. He can text if you want to speak to him that way.”

Give this stranger her number? Erica shook her head. “There’s no reason to do that now. It’s late.” She hoped she didn’t offend him.

“The ride back to Wayside will take about an hour and a half from here. I’m going to go to a nice, well-lit gas station and get a few things. If you need to go inside, go there.” He started the car and pulled out onto the road.

Erica fought against her inner desire to keep an eye on her son every second. With every movement in the back, she turned to look and found that it was just the dog shifting to accommodate another passenger on the seat. Trace had laid his hand on the dog’s back and was gently scratching, making Bubbles snuffle in his sleep.

Cole pulled into the gas station and she committed to herself that she wouldn’t leave. Even if she had the smallest bladder in creation, she wouldn’t leave her son all alone in the car. Trust was usually hard-won with her, and she’d already stepped outside her norm once today and that once was a doozy.

Cole took a minute gathering his wallet and phone. She grabbed hers too, hoping to do a little secret hunting with the gas station free Wi-Fi while she waited. She typed in Wayside Ranch, Wyoming and hit search. The little circle came up, letting her know it was thinking.

Odd, her phone usually came up with hits instantly. Even far out ones. She waited and a few things popped up from other states. A cattle ranch in Montana, a horse ranch in Kentucky, but nothing about a healing ranch in Wyoming.

She searched forhealing ranch and Wyomingand flicked through the options, none of which looked like what she wanted to see. Glancing up, she saw Cole at the counter paying for his purchases. She only had a minute to do one more search. She gritted her teeth and typed in Taylor Creed, Colorado, marine.

Nothing. Everything with that name had been scrubbed. He had no record of birth, no mention in the newspapers, not even old social media accounts. Her hand shook as she shut off the screen on her phone. Cole opened the door and gave her a faint smile.

He sat down and dug in the bag, setting an energy drink in the console between them. Then, he reached back inside and pulled out a sugar free cream soda. Her favorite, though she hadn’t had one in years. Why spend the extra money when Pete had needs? She wouldn’t deny him anything.

The cold can made the tips of her fingers turn red, but she couldn’t open it, couldn’t even move. How could this man know about her favorite soda? She swallowed hard and tears welled, unbidden. She refused to believe because she couldn’t allow him into her heart and mind. If this was Taylor, then he could take her son. His life on this mysterious ranch that didn’t exist any more than the man sitting next to her had more to offer him than she did.

Her hands trembled and she shoved the can into the other slot in the console. “Thank you.” She turned her face away so he wouldn’t see her cry. He couldn’t know that he was getting to her.

“Want me to open it for you?”

“I’ll get it later. It’s a long drive.” Too long. Especially when she would have to sit there with her thoughts, trying to figure out what to do next.

She couldn’t go home if things went wrong because she didn’t have a car. He’d promised to take her back, but a ranch was a busy place. And if the ranch helped people like Trace, what did that even mean? She had no way of knowing what was wrong since he didn’t speak.

Either way, she was not going to give up Pete without a fight, which meant Cole couldn’t be Taylor. She would refuse to believe it. His parents were gone and there was no way to test paternity. Even if they could, she would never agree to such a test on her son.

Cole laid a hand on her arm and she jumped, tugging away the strange tingly pressure. He gave her a questioning look. “Everything okay? I know this is strange.”

That was one way to put it. She glanced back in the car and her son was still fast asleep. “I didn’t tell him, but I lost my job today. I couldn’t pay for him to go to horse camp. I can’t pay for a lot of things. I’ve tried so hard to give him a life that was better than what I had growing up, but I fall short. Instead of day trips to amusement parks, he goes to summer school. Instead of trips to the zoo to see all the cool animals, he helps me at the animal shelter because the guy that owns it also owns the only cellular store in town. He gave me a bare minimum cell plan if I help him clean stalls and give dog walks.”

“And that way you have a phone in case there’s ever an emergency,” Cole filled in.