Page 11 of Silos and Sabotage

Speculation about her role in the homicide had blown across the news and social media sites like wildfire. Some folks postulated that she’d had a hand in her father’s murder, while other folks postulated it had been a double homicide. Gage was sketchy on the details, since the Corpus Christi police had refused to tell him anything.

The air clogged in his chest as his mind raced over a whole new set of possibilities. “Ella?” He reached over to reverently touch the back of her hand. Was it really her? After all the time she’d been missing, had she somehow found her way to him?

He wrapped his fingers around her much colder ones. Cupping his other hand around them, he gently rubbed them, trying to warm them up. “Come on! Keep fighting,” he begged huskily. “Do it for your dad.” He gently squeezed her hand for emphasis and was about to let it go, but her fingers moved against his. At first, he thought he’d imagined it, but her fingers moved again.

Glancing toward the door in elation, he hollered out hoarsely, “Nurse!” Their Jane Doe was waking up.

Except she was no longer a person without a name.

She was Ella Lawton, a woman he’d never laid eyes on before today. A woman most folks had assumed was dead, himself included.

Chapter 3: A Time for Everything

Ateam of medical personnel converged on the room to take Ella’s vitals and remove her air tube. They replaced it with an oxygen line that they clipped beneath her nose.

“It’s a miracle,” one of the nurses breathed as she helped make Ella more comfortable.

More like a series of miracles. Everything about Ella Lawton’s sudden appearance in Heart Lake felt nothing short of miraculous to Gage. The better part of an hour passed before he was alone with her again.

She watched him shyly as he moved to the foot of the bed, strumming his fingers against the metal railing.

“Hey, you.” Something kept him from immediately confessing that he knew who she was.

“Hi, Gage.” She was looking better than she had at the diner —much better. For starters, she was awake and sitting up. Her white-blonde hair had been removed from her braids and was waving silkily against her shoulders. The color was back in her cheeks, too. “I don’t remember if I thanked you for jumping between me and that creep at the diner.” Her voice sounded a tad raspy, probably from the breathing tube that had previously been down her throat. “If you hadn’t come along when you did…” She shivered.

“But I did.” He liked the fact that she had a fresh bag of fluid dripping through her IV line. As the doctor had promised, the medical staff was doing everything they could to bolster her strength. “Do you know him?”

“No.” She shook her head, looking confused. “I feel like I should, though. There was something familiar about him. His eyes maybe?” Her voice rose to a questioning pitch.

Intensely intrigued, Gage gestured for her to continue.

“He acted like he knew me.” She shook her head again, growing visibly agitated. “Then he said something about being paid to deliver me to some people who wanted to talk to me.”

“Interesting.” It sounded like a borderline kidnapping attempt to him. “Did he say who these people are?”

“No. He only referred to them asthey.” She raised her hands to make air quotes around the word. “It was all so weird. Really. I’ve never laid eyes on the guy before today.”

“You’ve never laid eyes on me before today, either,” Gage pointed out, “yet you called me by my name earlier.”

Unshed tears glinted in her eyes. “Only because my dad showed me pictures and told me all about you.”

The sight of her tears tore at his heart, but all he did was raise his eyebrows. “And your father is…?”

“Was,” she corrected in a trembly voice. “He died while I was, um...” She paused, fighting to regain control of her emotions. “You knew him as Colonel Lawton.”

He gazed down at her, utterly floored. It was one thing to hypothesize about her identity inside his head. It was another thing entirely to have her confirm his wildest hopes.

As she watched his response — or lack thereof, since he was purposely keeping his expression bland — she raised her chin defensively. “I’m not making this up. My father told me you have a crescent shaped birthmark on your left shoulder.”

Though it was true, he continued to keep his expression carefully schooled. Someone had murdered her father, possibly in front of her. Under the circumstances, it was better to keep her talking.

“He said you and your younger brother were adopted by an older couple. And after your adoptive dad died and your adoptive mom got sick, you managed to get guardianship of your brother and basically finished raising him.”

His jaw dropped open. Not because he was adopted, but because of the other things she’d said. Very few people knew he’d been officially granted guardianship of his brother. It hadn’t been easy for a soldier in his early twenties to be thrust so suddenly into single parenthood. He’d worked long hours, hired a lot of babysitters, and wasn’t much of a cook. Somehow, though, he and Rock had survived on macaroni and cheese, hotdogs, and what little quality time he could scrape together for stuff like homework and football practices. Looking back, he wasn’t sure he would’ve fared half as well without the fatherly guidance of his company commander, Mick Lawton —a man who’d also been a single parent.

“Your dad said all of that, eh?” Though Gage’s heart thumped at the memories, he fought to keep his voice neutral.

“That and more.” Ella gave him a piercing look, like she was trying to see inside his very soul. “He also said you were the one who provided security for my kidney donor on her way to the hospital.”

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