Page 13 of Silos and Sabotage

“Right before he…” She stopped and gulped, then tried again. “It was the last thing he said to me before…” A harsh sob tore out of her.

Gage gripped her fingers tighter. “Ella, are you telling me you witnessed?—?”

“Yes!” She gasped out the word, turning as white as the sheet on her bed. “I saw it all.”

He sat there, stunned, for a moment. “Did you tell the police?”

“Of course! I told them everything.” Her voice rose in distress. “I wanted to help search for his killer, but they wouldn’t let me out of that stupid bed. The rest of the time I was too heavily sedated to argue the point.” She raised both hands to her head. “I was in bed a long time. Days, I think. Maybe weeks. That’s where my memories get really hazy.”

What she was saying didn’t sound right to Gage. None of it sounded right. From what little the police had been willing to share with the press, there was one thing they’d been crystal clear about. According to them, Ella Lawton was still missing.

His investigator’s instincts scrambled to explain the mystery by reviewing everything she’d revealed to him today. An eye witness account of her father’s murder. Days or weeks of sedation. Cosmetic surgeries she didn’t have any recollection of.

A whole new set ofwhat ifsrose to the surface.

What if Ella hadn’t been telling her story to the police? What if she’d been telling her story to someone else instead? Someone who’d whisked her out of the hospital after her father had been murdered? Someone or several someones that, in her sedated state, she’d assumed were the police? Or was led to believe were the police?

Gage was starting to wonder if another call to Sheriff Luke Hawling was in order. He eyed the faint scars near Ella’s temples. “What can you tell me about the cosmetic surgeries you underwent?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” She shook her head helplessly at him, wiping at the dampness on her cheeks with the back of her hand. “How different do I look?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“I didn’t recognize you at first,” he informed her cautiously. “Then again, I’ve only seen you in photos before today, so there’s that.”

If anything, she turned paler. “It’s that bad, huh?”

“I didn’t say that.” He rubbed her chilly fingers between his some more, sensing she needed reassurance. “If a non-biological older brother is allowed to have an opinion on the matter, you’re still beautiful.” He chose his words carefully, not wanting to make things awkward between them by making it sound like he was flirting with her.

She stared at him blankly for a moment. Then her lips parted with a humorless chuckle. “Believe me, I’m not fishing for compliments. I’m just um…” She broke off whatever else she was about to say, swallowing hard.

He didn’t rush to fill in the silence, instinctively knowing she needed time to just breathe and take it all in. She was handling things pretty well, everything considered. If he’d been in her shoes, he’d probably be having a hard time keeping it together, too.

“Can I see…me?” she finally asked. Her head swiveled around the room, presumably in search of a mirror. “Never mind,” she sighed, catching sight of the adjoining bathroom door. It was standing ajar. “Something tells me you probably don’t carry around a compact mirror, and I don’t feel like getting up.”

“You’re right.” His lips twitched. “I don’t wear a lot of makeup.” None, in fact. He’d been trying to figure out how to safely pick her up and carry her to the mirror in the bathroom without jostling her IV line too badly.

A bleating sound of distress escaped her as another thought struck her. “If everything you say is true, then I’m twenty-nine now.” She added in a whisper, “I’ve missed five whole birthdays.”

“You’re a very beautiful twenty-nine.” He vowed on the spot to keep telling her that until she believed him. Until she understood that he wasn’t going to run from the fact that she was missing five years of her life. Until she believed he was going to remain by her side every step of the way while she struggled to dredge up the blank spots in her memories. Or if she didn’t.

“That’s what your father would say if he were here.” Since Ella had given him such a blank look over calling himself her non-biological brother, it felt safer to remind her how much her father had loved her.

Her cheeks grew pink as she cocked her head at him. “What would my non-biological brother say?”

He gave a huff of humor. Apparently, there was nothing wrong with her short-term memory recall. “You’re not going to let me forget that, are you?”

“Not a chance. Answer the question,” she commanded playfully.

“He would agree with your father.”

The pink in her cheeks blazed brighter. “As a point of reference, how much older than me is this newly acquired non-biological brother of mine?”

He chuckled, appreciating the fact that she’d managed to scrounge up a bit of humor to inject into the situation. “Thirty-eight.” He’d joined the military when he was seventeen, something his dirt-poor adoptive parents had all too willingly signed off on. He’d served twenty years in the Army and retired a year ago at the age of thirty-seven. He might’ve re-enlisted for another tour of duty if he hadn’t been so focused on seeking justice for Mick.

“That makes you nine years older than me.” Ella pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I hope you don’t intend to use that as an excuse to boss me around.”

Gage treated her to his most wicked smirk. “In my experience, older brothers don’t need much of an excuse. They come by their bossiness naturally.” He was twelve years older than his brother, Rock.To this day, he harassed him every chance he got, and Rock dished it right back — calling him dad and acting like a perennial brat. Unfortunately, Gage didn’t get the chance to harass him nearly often enough since he’d joined the Special Forces. Rock was currently deployed. It was anyone’s guess where.

“As experienced as you may be in the role, I’m not accustomed to being bossed around by anyone except….” Ella’s tears started to flow again. “My dad is really gone, isn’t he?” Her gaze went out of focus.

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