Justine Davis - Operation Unleashed

She had no idea what to say to that piece of fancy, so she merely laughed. In her heart, she was happy the boy could even manage such fanciful thoughts still. Because of his rocky start in life, he was ahead of many kids his same age in leaving childhood behind. But he was clearly able to still indulge in wild imaginings, and somehow that comforted her.

“Can I go now?” Luke asked, trying to tug his hand free from hers.

“No,” she said. “We need to talk to his people first.”

But it seemed the decision was out of her hands, the dog was already racing across the park toward them. She saw Hayley and Quinn spot them, and Hayley gave a friendly wave as they started their way as well.

The approach of the happy dog was too much for Luke, and he broke loose to run toward him. The dog yipped in greeting, and immediately dropped into what was clearly play mode, front end down, tail up and wagging.

“Hello,” Hayley said cheerfully as they joined them. Quinn merely nodded at them both. “I should have known there was a reason Cutter wanted to come here this morning.”

Drew blinked. “What?”

“He was determined,” Quinn said drily.

Alyssa laughed. “You say that like it was his idea.”

“Oh, it was,” Hayley said. “He made it quite clear.”

“He’s a dog,” Drew said, rather pointedly.

“Maybe,” Quinn said in the same tone.

Hayley laughed, probably at their expressions. Alyssa guessed she looked as skeptical as Drew did right now.

“It’s kind of hard to explain,” Hayley said. “He’s kind of hard to explain. But trust me, he brought us here, not the other way around.”

Drew was looking at them in that assessing, considering way of his. “He brought you,” he said slowly.

“He’s got his ways,” Quinn said. “He usually just makes your life impossible until you do what he wants.”

“But he’s helpful, too,” Hayley said, still chuckling. “He brings us our outdoor shoes. That’s usually our first clue we’re going somewhere. Then we wait to see if we’re walking or going in the car. Today was the car.”

“I suppose he gives you directions, too?” Drew sounded more amused than sarcastic, Alyssa thought. Thankfully, since he could carve a turkey with that sharpness sometimes.

“Actually, he does,” Quinn said. There was something, Alyssa thought, about this big, strong and clearly tough man accepting the eccentricities of a dog that warmed her. “It sort of consists of blessed silence when we’re going the right way and booming barks if we dare make a wrong turn. If we’re lucky, we figure it out before we go deaf.”

“We figured this one out fairly quickly,” Hayley said.

“Which is why we can still hear well enough to have this conversation,” Quinn said, his mouth quirking.

Something about this made Drew grin suddenly. Alyssa’s breath stopped in her throat. She tried to remember the last time she’d seen it, and couldn’t. Doug’s smile had been easy, his grins frequent.

And worth less because of it?

Alyssa blinked. What an odd thought to have.

“Can we go now?” Luke said, on the edge of a whine.

“Is it all right if they play for a while?” Alyssa asked.

“I think that’s why we’re here,” Hayley said.

Taking that as assent, Luke dashed off, Cutter at his heels.

“In sight!” Drew called out the reminder.

“A little fallout from last week?” Hayley asked.

Drew nodded. “He scared his mother half to death. I don’t want him forgetting that any time soon.”

It was such a simple statement, Alyssa didn’t know why it made her throat tighten up. She had appreciated the edict Drew had lain down, even appreciated the way he’d done it, approaching Luke for a man-to-man talk in a way that had the boy listening carefully, wide-eyed and intent. And for a six-year-old, Luke had followed the rule pretty well.

“At that age, boys need rules,” Drew had said after he’d sent Luke to bed that first night, telling him to think about it until he went to sleep. “They need to know where the boundaries are.”

“What about girls?” she’d asked, grateful enough at his reaction to this entire episode to merely tease.

Drew had given her a sideways look. “No idea,” he said. “I never was one.”

No, Alyssa thought now, you certainly never were.

“—in construction?” Quinn was asking Drew. “Mind if I pick your brain a little? Thinking about some remodeling of our building.”

“Sure,” Drew said.

“We’ll keep the rascals in sight,” Quinn promised Alyssa as they walked toward where boy and dog were romping in some self-invented game of tag that had no rules Alyssa could discern.

“It’s silly, I suppose,” she said to Hayley as the men walked away, talking. “But I’m still nervous.”

“Not silly at all.”

“I think Drew thinks I’m too jumpy, or imagining things. But I’d been feeling like somebody had been watching me, and then Luke vanished....”

“Someone was watching you?”

“No, probably not really. It was just a creepy feeling.”

“Quinn taught me that those feelings are often just your brain interpreting signals so fast that what’s really a logical process seems like a leap of intuition.”

Alyssa blinked. “Really?” She wasn’t sure if she was referring to the idea, or Quinn saying it.

“I’ve learned he’s right. If you go back over the details of what made you feel that way, you sometimes find there were a lot of little things that, added together, made your brain make that jump.”

It made sense to her, and she promised herself when she had a quiet moment she’d try to do that. In the meantime, she was grateful to Hayley for not simply brushing it off.

“Drew obviously cares a great deal about you and Luke.”

Alyssa said the one thing she was certain was true. “He feels responsible for us.”

“You have an...interesting family relationship.”

“Ya’ think?” Alyssa responded with a laugh. “I know, it seems weird to those on the outside, me being married to the brother of my son’s father. But I don’t want to think about where we’d be, where Luke would be, if he hadn’t found us when he did. I can honestly say he saved us.”

“Quinn kidnapped me.” Hayley said it as casually as if she’d said they’d met at a community picnic.

Alyssa blinked. “He what?”

Hayley explained about the night the proverbial black helicopter had dropped into her life and changed it forever.

“What,” Alyssa said, her eyes wide, “exactly does your fiancé do?”

“He fights,” Hayley said proudly.

So he was military? Alyssa had thought he might be—something about the way he carried himself. “Navy?” she asked, since this was Navy territory around the Sound. She thought he might even be a SEAL, he was just that impressive.

“Former Army. He used to be a Ranger. But he’s still a fighter. Only now he fights for people in the right who can no longer fight for themselves.”

Chapter 5

Alyssa blinked. She glanced across the park to where Drew and Quinn Foxworth were watching Luke and the dog play. It sounded so...noble, that sentiment. No wonder Hayley sounded proud.

“Why?” she finally asked.

“Because once he was helpless in the face of tragedy. He lost hope. He made it his mission to help others who were feeling that way. And I’m proud to be part of that now.”

Helpless. Oh, how well she knew that feeling. She would never forget, never wanted to forget, and was determined she would never be in that position again. It made her even more curious about these people.

She looked across the green expanse toward the swings, where Luke was weaving around the uprights with Cutter hot on his heels. Drew and Quinn were right there, deep in conversation but clearly with an eye on the boy.