Page 37 of An Adventure For Aster

“It’s not that it hurts me,” he said. “But I don’t want you upset either.”

“I won’t be. I mean, I’ll try not to be,” she said, “but seeing the scar makes it more real for me.”

“It’s real,” he said. “Trust me.”

“You told me that you saved a girl from a kidnapping,” she said. “Did they find the person who did this?”

“They did,” he said. “I told Carrington to run several times while I was fighting them off. She didn’t.”

“Why?” Raine asked. “Fear had her frozen?”

“I thought that but later learned that it was her sense of honor. She felt if I was saving her, she wasn’t going to leave me to die. She was prepared to fight back more than she already had but didn’t need to. Or did it in her way. She videotaped what happened. Kids these days, they just hit a button faster to catch things than I can do.”

“Tell me about it,” she said.

“She got a good shot of the guy’s face that shot me and the van as it pulled away along with the license plate. Then she called nine-one-one while she applied pressure to my wound.”

“Oh God,” she said, her eyes filling. “She was a kid. How did she know to do those things?”

“Watching on TV,” he said drily. “But she did all the right things and probably saved my life. It wasn’t until I was in the ambulance that she called her father. Then she followed me there. The police wanted her statement, they wanted to take her into custody for protection and she said she couldn’t leave me.”

“How old was she?” she asked.

“Sixteen. More mature than most sixteen-year-olds. She’s an only child; her mother had passed when she was a kid. Her father, he spoiled her, but he instilled a lot of values in her too.”

He wasn’t going to say anything about the money. It was no one’s business. It wasn’t anything that was public, but his parents knew. His sister too. He’d even told Zane and wasn’t sure why. Maybe because he wanted to make sure Zane didn’t try to charge him less or something for rent.

Then he wondered if his parents had ever bragged about it, but he started to think they didn’t because in their way they wanted a cut of it.

“I’m glad it worked out,” she said. “And that Carrington didn’t get hurt.”

“She didn’t,” he said. “She didn’t even post that video when a lot of kids would. Just gave it to the police.”

“That would make me sick,” she said.

“I saw it. It still does. But shit like that happens.”

He didn’t care about the fact that he saw himself fighting the guy. It was seeing his body get thrown back when he was hit by the bullet. Good thing the guy had a lousy aim.

“Are they in jail?” she asked. “I’m assuming so.”

“They are. They haven’t gone to trial yet. I’ll fly back to Texas when that happens. As I said, things take time.”

“They aren’t pleading guilty?” she asked. “They are on video.”

“They will, but the police are trying to find out who hired them. No one is talking there. Not my problem.”

Though he did worry about Carrington, but also knew her father would have her protected at all costs right now.

“I can’t believe you just walked away and aren’t worried,” she said.

“I can’t control that situation,” he said. “There are things in my life that are easier if I walk away.”

He’d never said those words to anyone before. He was surprised he was now.

“Like your parents?” she asked. “Were they not there for you when you were injured?”

He sighed. “They were there for me. I moved home when I was recovering and out of the hospital.”

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