Chapter 9
“Let’s lay this out,” Rafe said. “Erin, you said you talked to him that night, before he disappeared?”
She nodded. “Late, too. I had to go in and tell him to shut down.”
“What was he doing?” Blaine asked, knowing they needed every bit of info they could get, even if it didn’t seem important now.
Erin grimaced. “Playing one of his games. He wasn’t happy when I told him he had to go to bed.”
“How unhappy?” Blaine asked.
“Unhappy enough that he refused. I had to threaten to cut off the Wi-Fi.” His ex-wife gave him a pained look. “If you mean was he unhappy enough to run away, then probably. I told you, he hates me.”
“Erin,” Blaine began, but Rafe cut him off. Probably didn’t want to hear them fighting, and he couldn’t blame the guy.
“What kind of game?”
“Something about kids—well, teenagers—riding dragons and battling…some other creatures. You get to pick a character to be.”
“Did he play it on a computer, or a game console?”
“Both, depending on where he was.” She grimaced again. “I have a feeling he was playing it a lot lately, because I got a call from his school that he’d cut a few classes.”
“Did he take the computer with him now?” Blaine asked.
“Yes, his laptop is gone. He actually got a part-time job last year to pay for it, because he wanted one capable of running the game. I would only give him enough money for one that would handle his schoolwork, because he already had the console.” She sighed audibly.
“And I only got him the console because he kept sneaking into my office to use my computer to play whenever I wasn’t home.
He inadvertently destroyed some important work. ”
“This game,” Rafe said slowly, “is it one he plays with others?”
She nodded. “A lot of them, apparently. I think he spends as much time messaging with them as he does playing.”
“Do you know what name he signed in with?”
“I…no. Not his real name, though. I did ask that, and of course he looked at me like I was an idiot.”
Blaine watched as Rafe reached for the phone in his jacket pocket, a slightly different sort of model with some extra buttons he’d never seen on a phone before. Erin was looking at him warily.
“I didn’t think it was bad, or dangerous,” she said, sounding a little anxious. “And at least he was home when he was playing.”
“The game may be fine,” Rafe said as he tapped the screen. “The other people who play—and message—may not be.”
Blaine heard her breath catch. He had to admit he hadn’t thought of that, either, but then the world of online video gaming, especially what he thought were called RPGs, role-playing games, were out of his experience. He’d been busy enough fighting the real villains of the world.
“Ty?” Rafe said into the phone. “Yeah. I need some help, and it’s right up your alley.”
He walked toward the other end of the room, talking rapidly into the odd phone. Which left him and Erin essentially alone together. Something that hadn’t happened in two years, since the divorce had been final.
She didn’t—or wouldn’t—look at him. Or speak.
His jaw tightened, but then he consciously released it.
He’d given up trying to figure out how she could throw away what they’d had over something that was already over and done.
Yeah, he’d been pretty messed up, and it had taken him a year to get fully back on his feet and operational, but he’d done it.
Only because she was there fighting beside you.
He’d never denied that. She’d been there every step of the way, fighting alongside him, and many times fighting for him, against medical people who made assumptions she thought they shouldn’t, or a couple of times when, as she’d put it then, the right hand wasn’t talking to the left hand and some important wires got crossed.
He wouldn’t be here now, pretty much back to his old self except for a few scars and a shoulder that tightened up on him now and then, if not for her.
When he thought back to those early days, he wondered if he’d have pulled through at all if not for her.
So many times he’d just wanted to quit, to take the easier way out.
But how could he give up when she was there, fighting so hard for him, for them?
And then she walked away, after all that, just when things were right again.
“Thank you. For coming.”
The quiet words, uttered barely above a whisper, snapped him out of the old, useless, ever-repeating cycle of memories. But the effect lingered, and there was an edge in his voice when he answered her.
“Ethan’s my son. Of course I came.”
“I was afraid you might not. Because…of me.”
He stiffened. “You really think I’d put that above Ethan? That I’d abandon him because—”
He cut himself off. Stopped the words that would have been downright pitiful. Because you abandoned me? Threw us away?
He was beyond grateful when Rafe walked back toward him. He was focused on Erin. “How long ago did he last play that game on your computer?”
She looked as relieved as he felt when she shifted her gaze to Rafe. “He got the laptop right before school started, so probably August?” she answered, her answer a question in itself.
“Ty?” he said into the phone. “August.” A pause. “All right. You’d better tell her what you need. Give me a second.”
Rafe lowered the phone and gave Erin a look Blaine could only describe as intense.
“I’ve got the Foxworth tech expert on the line.
I want him to track down the name Ethan used on that game, and who he talked with.
There might be a clue there to where he went, or if someone there talked him into it. ”
Blaine saw Erin go pale as she swayed slightly. “I never thought…could that be…”
He instinctively reached out to steady her. He supposed it was a measure of how distraught she was that she let him grasp her arm without pulling away. But she kept her attention on Rafe.
“You’ll have to trust us, Erin,” the man said. “I know you don’t know me, but you know of Foxworth, and I swear to you we live up to the reputation.”
He felt as much as saw her pull herself together. As she had so many, many times in various hospital rooms and rehab facilities. “What do you need?”
“Access to your computer.” He gestured with the phone. “Ty can set up a way he can remotely connect, but you’ll need to install a piece of software. He’ll walk you through it.”
She glanced at Blaine. “Trust him. Trust them,” he said.
She took in a breath. “All right,” she said, sounding determined. Sounding like the Erin he used to know, the woman who had never let go of his hand on their walk through hell.
The Erin who had loved him.
She took the phone Rafe handed to her and headed with him down the hallway. Blaine followed, because he was curious, wanted to see this office of hers. Ethan had told him she was doing something with designs for advertisers, but that was about all he knew.
When he stepped into what probably would have been a den but had been set up as an office, he stopped dead.
Stared at the walls, which contained several framed graphics, some dramatic, some graceful, some clever, but all undeniably effective.
The one on the wall above the computer desk really caught his eye, and if he’d been in the market for a dog groomer, it would be enough to have him checking this one out.
Which was, after all, the whole point of advertising.
Maybe he should point this one out to Rafe, for Cutter.
She was good. Really good.
Erin apparently saw him gaping, because she said, rather sharply, “Is there a problem?”
“No,” he answered quickly. “I just never realized… I didn’t know you did this. So well.”
“Because of course I have no skill or talent for anything.” There was no denying the snap in her voice.
“I never said—”
“Later, both of you,” Rafe interrupted. He gave them both a pointed look. “Look, I know exactly where you are. But it can’t matter now. You can fight it out after Ethan’s home safe.”
Blaine felt a kick of inward disgust that they’d done it again. Rafe was right, this was not the time. And judging by Erin’s suddenly flushed cheeks she felt the same. She sat down at the desk and began to follow the instructions the Foxworth guy on the other end of the phone was giving her.
“When you’ve talked to him before, has he mentioned this game?” Rafe asked.
“Not by name, so I can’t help there,” Blaine said. “I know he was playing a lot, but I didn’t know if that meant one game or a bunch of them.” He let out a compressed breath. “I just knew that was the only thing he sounded enthusiastic about.”
He was surprised at how quickly the program was installed, giving the man on the phone access to Erin’s computer. She ended the call and pushed back from the desk after barely ten minutes. Then she looked up at them.
“He said to just give him time, and not to do anything on it while he’s working on it from… I forgot to ask where.”
“St. Louis,” Rafe said. “At our headquarters. Well,” Rafe added with the slightest of smiles, “what was our headquarters. Our chief financial genius has relocated, and I think the headquarters designation went with her.”
Blaine studied him for a moment. “Is she the one?” he asked.
“She is definitely the one.”
There was such satisfaction in Rafe’s voice that it rattled Blaine. From what he’d told him, they’d been as blown up as he and Erin were, and yet…
The phone Erin had handed back to Rafe rang. He glanced at the screen, then answered. He listened for a moment, smiled and nodded, as if an expectation had been fulfilled.
“Just getting started here, so no need yet,” Rafe said to the caller. “I’ll let you know. And thanks, my friend.”
When he’d ended the call he looked at Blaine. “Teague, the guy from the office I work out of that I mentioned.” He shifted his gaze to Erin as he added, “Also a former Marine, so he was offering any help we needed.”
Erin gave a tiny, wondering shake of her head, then flicked a glance at Blaine. “Just like that.”
Blaine nodded. He would and had done the same. Some people thought that brothers-in-arms stuff was made up, but he knew it was utter truth. And even if he hadn’t believed it, he’d have to now.
Because when he’d called for help, one of the most famous Marines in sniper circles had come running.