Page 35 of The Truth

“There was another… problem… at the hospital, Greer. Everyone is going to beokay,but Aubrey was injured. Guthrie wants me to get Ayla specifically.” Andhewanted to get her. To be there when she needed him most.

“We’re on 14th, now. Near the Athletics complex. Nearest address reads 1498 14th. We’ll wait here. She can’t walk around too much and there is a bench across the road.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen, at the most.”

“Here she is.”

“Gunn, what happened to my sister?”

He could hear the panic. The fear. “I’m not sure of the exact details. Just… I got a call from the hospital. Guthrie had asked Dr. Alvaro’s wife to call me, to track you down. She was going in with Aubrey. Aubreyisin surgery. Something to do with her arm. She said Aubrey fell or something, and it broke, when she was in the hospital basement. Sheisgoing to be okay, sweetheart. Dr. Alvaro was clear on that. They just wanted to let you know. I’m on my way. I’ll get there to you as fast as I can.”

“Hurry, please hurry.”

After he disconnected, he looked at the man next to him. “I’m not entirely certain why this kind of thing keeps happening to my family lately. Gene and Chantal were almost killed, Aubrey and Genny were attacked, and nowthis.I’m not so sure the seminary prepared me for random acts of violence against the people I care about the most.”

“Test of faith.” It wasn’t a question. Neither man thought it was. Gunn felt that was exactly what it was. A test of faith.

“A way of helping me see the truth about something, maybe.”

They discussed that as he drove. He got the feeling Emerson was trying to distract him. Gunn was trying not to worry about Ayla, or her sister. Something aboutAubreytouched him, too. In an entirely different way than her sister, of course, but she was a special woman, too. And he knew the truth—his brother loved that woman. Deeply.

The idea that she had been attacked againhurt him, too.

Then they were on 14thStreet. And he saw them—three beautiful women, sitting on the bench. Greer and Hala were on each side of her, protectively.

“There she is.”

“When you marry her, do I get to officiate?” Emerson asked. “If so, I need to find out what I need to do down here in Texas.”

“I’d like that. If she’s okay with it.” She told him that she and Aubrey attended church in Barrattville sometimes. When they could. But they weren’t—as she’d put it—religiousabout it, or anything. Aubrey usually had to work on Sundays, and Ayla spent the day at home.

“I think she will be. I like how she looks at you, you know. And… I noticed you didn’t deny that’s what you are after. She’s the one?”

“From about the second night we met. Something about her fascinates me.”

“I’m glad. You deserve to be happy. So does she.”

More than anyone he had ever met, Ayla deserved that. He was going to do his best to make sure that happened. He parked, then he and Emerson crossed the road to them.

Ayla was pulling herself to her feet, getting her balance. One hand reached for him. Gunn wrapped his fingers around hers. He wanted to pull her closer, but sudden movements could unbalance her. “Sweetheart, let’s get you to her.”

“We’ll follow,” Greer said. “Emerson can ride with us. Hala wants to practice her flirting skills again.”

Emerson didn’t protest. Then Gunn had Ayla headed toward his truck.

When he had her safely inside he told her what he knew. And promised he’d get her there, as soon as he could.

The tears on her cheeks almost destroyed him.

27

Fear kept her quiet.He had answered all of her questions the best he could, but he didn’t have much more information than she did. All she really knew was that the woman who owned the hospital had called him, saying Aubrey had been hurt and was in surgery.

Ayla was going to have to wait until they got to the hospital for more details about what exactly had happened to her sister.

Ayla hated waiting. She hadwaitedon better times her entire life, it seemed. Waited to be back with Aubrey when they’d been split up as little kids, waited to be given back to her mom whenever the courts thought her mom could be their mom again, waiting on word whether her mom was evenalive,when she’d been eleven.

Waiting in that stupid basement todietwo weeks before she’d turned eleven.

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