Page 2 of The Truth

Small towns were like that. Connections. Gunn appreciated the connections he had in his life every day.

The Dillons attended his church almost every Sunday. Aubrey’s sister was perfectly safe there with Jake to watch over her. Jake wouldn’t have left Ayla there alone. Gunn would bet on that.

But Aubrey was upset. Ayla was all the family the woman had, his sister had told him once. And that mattered. Gunn adored his family, dramatic though they could be. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for them. Genny wouldn’t want Aubrey upset—so Gunn was going to make things better, however he could.

At least then he’d be doingsomething.

Instead of standing in the hospital waiting room, feeling… helpless. Like he had once before. Fifteen years ago wasn’t really long enough to dull some memories. It just wasn’t.

“We’re just about to close up, but we’ll make an exception,” Jake teased, limping around the front desk. He had been injured in a drive-by shooting when he’d been in high school, gone through multiple surgeries, and used a single forearm crutch to maneuver now, when he wasn’t in his wheelchair.

Ayla, Aubrey’s sister, used two smaller crutches. Gunn had never asked how she had been injured, or if it had been something from birth. That was only his business if Ayla wanted to share.

The woman in question looked up at him.

“Hi. I know you are one of Greer’s brothers, but which one? I know you are one of the twins… ” She peered at him like he was a bug. The woman had no real sense of filters, he’d noticed that before. But then again, she was open and honest and approachable, too. Gunn still didn’t quite know what to think of the woman he had met a few times before. She wasn’t much taller than his sister Genny, who at five feet was, as Genny put it, the smallest adult Hiller in existence ever. This woman was a few inches or so taller. Ayla just looked delicate, with pale blonde hair, big blue eyes, and China doll prettiness.

“I’m Gunn. The minister at the Hope Life Church. And… tonight, I’m your ride.”

Suspicion immediately hit the big blue eyes and she stiffened. Defensively. As if she didn’t trust him at all. “Why? What’s happened? Where’s my sister? Is she okay?”

Gunn held up a hand. “She’s okay. There was just an incident at the hospital and she wasn’t able to leave to get you. I was there, and volunteered.”

“What happened?” She came toward him, faster on those crutches than she probably should be moving. “Aubrey always calls or texts if plans change. Always. What’s wrong with my sister?”

He was going to have to tell her at some point, and Jake had stepped aside to clean up the toys in the children’s section. “Another doctor at the hospital was angry at Dr. Fields. He went… went after my sister. He… stabbed her. She’s in surgery now. Genny.”

He cleared his voice and continued. Fighting the memories, recent and fifteen years in the past. “Aubrey tried to get between them, and he hit your sister, cut her, too. She’ll probably have a black eye and was getting stitches when I left. She’s going to be fine, but she had to stay at the hospital to talk to the police. She was worried about you. I was already at the hospital visiting amember of my church, and volunteered. I couldn’t just sit there, waiting.”

“How badly are they hurt?” She was grabbing her bag with one arm and slinging it over her shoulder. It was the fear in the big blue eyes that hurt Gunn the most. “Let’s go.”

“Ayla, you okay?” Jake asked, quietly. “You know Reverend Hiller?”

“Yes. He’s my best friend’s big brother. And his sister is best friends with mine, too. He’s going to give me a ride to Aubrey. Thanks, Jake. I’ll see you Wednesday, okay?”

Then she was looking at Gunn expectantly. Big blue eyes, in a pixie gorgeous face, with long blonde hair in two sweet braids. She looked so… young and defenseless. Like the evil in the world could destroy her in a heartbeat. His heart clenched just to imagine it.

“Will you take me to my sister?”

“Of course.”

2

Her best friendGreer had the most gorgeous brothers on the planet. Ayla had thought so the last time she had seen them—at her first ever slumber party at his sister’s house recently. She, her sister, his three sisters, and some other friends had curled up in his ridiculously large living room at the family ranch and just hung out, talking and laughing. Ayla had never done that before.

This man and his two brothers that had still lived on that ranch had disappeared into their family room down the hall—it was a really large ranch house; big enough for three families in her opinion—and she hadn’t seen him again until breakfast the next morning. She thought.

Shemighthave. He and his twin were identical. But one was a full-time rancher and one wasn’t. She didn’t know how to tell them apart other than that.

He hovered as they crossed the parking lot. Some people could go a bit overboard with her mobility issues. Especially at first. He’d learn, though.

Well, if she kept running into him he would, anyway.

Then she was in his truck—and trying not to freak out. She’d never been alone in a man’s truck in her entire life, that shecould remember. Definitely not in the dark like this. She hadn’t realized she was that big of a wimp until now, either.

Ayla gave her wimpy side a stern talking to as she adjusted the bag that held her swim gear at her feet.

This was apreacher. And her best friend’s older brother. Not exactly a serial killer.

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