Page 74 of Operation Protector
She drew back, her eyes widening. “You think she saw me do that?” He nodded. “And that…that’s all it took?”
“For her to be wary of you, and of the influence you have with Grace, yes.” He grimaced again. “No one, but no one, owns her child except her.”
“‘Owns’?”
“That’s how she thinks of her. A helpful possession. Something to make her seem more human to the people she wants to manipulate. Same reason she allowed the dogs.” For a moment Ali just stared up at him, her expression pained, as if she were feeling queasy. He shrugged one shoulder as he shook his head. “I can’t explain her. Any more than I can explain how I was so stupid for so long.”
“I should have thought,” Ali said, her voice even more troubled now. “We always wait until we’re past the trees to pick up Ziggy and start to head here fast. I should have thought first, shouldn’t have hugged her out where she could see.”
Colby sat down on the edge of the big coffee table directly opposite Ali. He took her hands in his, squeezed them. “You couldn’t have known. You’re sane, normal, your mind could never work like hers does. Thank goodness.”
She managed a slight smile. She looked at their clasped hands. Then, with a tiny gasp, her gaze shot back to his face. “You don’t think she knows, do you? About…us?”
Now, that hadn’t occurred to him. He thought about it, trying to see from all angles, then said with some certainty, “I don’t see how she could. Not already.” She looked nervously over at the Foxworths, and his mouth quirked. “Oh, they know.”
Ali drew back slightly. “What?”
“They’ve been expecting…what happened.” She blushed. And he kind of liked it. “Remember what they said about Cutter’s matchmaking?”
She blinked. “That was a joke, wasn’t it? Or anthropomorphism?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. But Hayley insists he knows when people…should be together. And does what he has to do to make it happen.”
“I know they say he brought them together, but…”
“And Liam and his wife. Teague and Laney. Even Gavin de Marco and his wife. Who is, by the way, your local librarian.”
Her eyes widened. “Katie? I met her when I went in there right after I moved in, when I needed an internet connection and mine wasn’t hooked up at home yet. She’s married to Gavin de Marco?”
He nodded. “Hayley said his most extreme case was that sniper I told you about. He tried to walk away and Cutter literally put him on the floor. Now he’s about to marry Quinn’s sister. And that’s just the Foxworth part of the list, apparently. All of it thanks to this guy,” he said, reaching out to give Cutter a scratch behind the ears.
When he looked back up at her, she was staring at him, still wide-eyed. More than this amusing but silly idea warranted. Then her eyes darted away quickly, as if she felt…caught? Embarrassed? Simply upset?
The Foxworths came back to join them in front of the fire, interrupting his rather crazed string of questions.
“Let’s get the dogs outside for a bit,” Hayley said. “We have some planning to do. Cutter, outside?”
Ali set Ziggy down on the floor, and the moment the bigger dog headed for the back door, the black-and-white puppy scrambled after him, as if he remembered it led out into that expansive meadow.
“We need to know,” Quinn said to Colby in a businesslike tone as the door closed behind the dogs, “that you’re still up for going full bore on this.”
“I won’t let her steal Grace out of my life, if that’s what you mean. No matter what it takes.”
“You trust us to get it done?” Hayley asked. “Even if it means you may have to pretend a bit?”
He flicked a glance to the woman in front of him. “I trust you and Ali, yes.”
Ali’s head came up, and she was smiling now. And he had the thought that he would give a great deal to see that smile often, and for a very long time. But then he made himself focus.
Quinn nodded. “All right. We’re going back to our old friend Sun Tzu, then. When in conflict, don’t rely mainly on physical and material power, but on mental power.”
Colby drew back, his brow furrowing. “Mental power?”
“They’re not used to having people stand up to them, especially people they feel beneath them. So you convince her you won’t…before you do.”
“So…she’ll be surprised. Off-balance maybe.”
“Yes. You’ll have to judge carefully, you can’t roll over too easily or she’ll be suspicious. But at the same time let her think she’s won, that there’s nothing you can do.”
