Page 14 of Silos and Sabotage

He dropped her hand and scooted closer to draw her into his embrace. “I’m sorry, Ella.” He was more sorry than she would ever know. “I miss him, too.” As she wept against his shoulder, it hit him that she was still living five years in the past inside her head, which meant her grief must still feel fresh to her. What a bizarre situation! She was going to need professional counseling, police protection, and goodness only knew what else during the coming days.

“I’m sad, but I’m also m-mad,” she quavered between sobs. “Mad that it happened. Mad at everyone who let it happen. Including God.”

That was a tough one. He cradled her against his chest, wishing he had the answers she was looking for, but he didn’t.

A nurse worriedly popped her head through the doorway, but Gage waved her away. A scripture from the Book of Ecclesiastes was running through his head — the one about how there was a time for everything.A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. At the moment, it felt like the time to weep and mourn.

While she continued to weep, he let his own tears flow, something he hadn’t allowed himself to do before today. It hadn’t felt right to unleash his grief and seek any sort of closure while Mick Lawton’s killer was still running around freely. It felt very appropriate, however, to mourn alongside Mick’s long-lost daughter.

They wept together until her tears dampened the front of his shirt. Since he was normally off work on Saturdays, he wasn’t in his Lonestar Security uniform today. Just a navy t-shirt, jeans, and boots. Even though the sheriff had put him back on guard duty, he liked the fact that he wasn’t dressed for work. He didn’t want the woman in his arms to feel like a duty. He wanted her to feel like…

Eh, he didn’t know what he wanted her to feel like. Not his sister, that was for sure. The moment the whole non-biological brother comment had slipped out of his mouth, he’d regretted it. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d called her beautiful. She radiated a natural form of beauty from the inside out that no amount of cosmetic surgery had been able to alter. The fact that her hair was tousled this evening and her accent had a hint of a twang in it only served to accentuate her appeal to him. Under different circumstances, he would’ve labeled her as smoking hot. Under different circumstances, he would’ve flirted with her in a heartbeat.

“You must’ve really cared for my dad.” She gave him a squeeze hug before letting him go, wincing in pain as she leaned back against the pillows. She shifted from one hip to the other, looking like she was trying to find a more comfortable position.

He swiped his face a few times to get rid of the dampness, then wiped his hands on his jeans. Once she got settled in, he reached for the box of tissues on a silver stand beside her bed and held it out to her. She gratefully pulled out a wad of fluffy white tissues and buried her drenched face in them.

“Your dad was my company commander.” He eagerly told her the story of how he’d met her father. “By the time he retired from the Army, he was one of my best friends.” He used that sidebar detail to transition into another necessary topic. “Since he didn’t have any other family besides you, he made me the executor of his will.” Any other family that acknowledged his existence, that is.

Ella’s face popped up from the wad of tissues. “My father had a will?”

“Every soldier has a will,” he explained soberly. “It’s standard procedure for us to sit down with a legal adviser and have one drawn up before we deploy.”

“Oh.” It didn’t sound to him like it was something she and her father had discussed.

“You’re his sole heir, of course.” She had to be wondering.

She drew a deep, shuddery breath. “After I left home for college, he bounced around from apartment to apartment. I’m pretty sure he didn’t own much. Not even a car.” She gave him a tremulous smile. “He rode his bike for small errands, took the bus or a taxi for larger errands, and flew everywhere else. It helped that he had his pilot’s license.”

“You’re right. He didn’t own muchoutsideof the bank.” Gage stressed the wordoutsideto give her a moment to register what he was leading up to.

She scowled in puzzlement at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’re about to inherit a nice chunk of change.” He quoted a figure that made her jaw drop. “That’s what’s in his savings and checking accounts after five additional years of accumulated interest. Then there are the proceeds from his life insurance policy.” He stated another number that for some reason made her teary-eyed again.

“He was worth so much more to me than that,” she choked. “It feels wrong to reduce a person’s life to a dollar amount.”

“I hear you.” It amazed Gage that she didn’t seem the least bit interested in hearing when and how the grand sum of a little over a million dollars would get transferred to her name.

“I would give it all back in a heartbeat,” Ella declared in the same fervent voice. “Every last penny of it if it would bring him back!”

He believed her. “I’d gladly add every penny in my name to the cause.”

She gave him a watery smile. “I could kiss you for saying that.”

Really?He felt his face turn red. For the first time in a very long time, he was rendered speechless.

She burst out laughing, though her gaze was still glassy with unshed tears. She dabbed a tissue at the corner of each eye. “What’s wrong? You’re not into gals with red-rimmed eyes, snotty noses, and hospital gowns?”

“I didn’t say that.” His voice came out strangled. For the life of him, he couldn’t tell if she was flirting with him or simply having fun at his expense in the sisterly arena he’d introduced her to. Either way, his single and lonely guy brain was all tripped up over the thought of kissing her.

“You didn’t have to,” she sighed. “I can only imagine what I look like. I sure as all get out know what I feel like. Every inch of my body surface is screaming.” She shoved her right sleeve up and frowned at the ugly bruises rising on her upper arm.

“So help me,” Gage snarled, fisting his hands on his knees. His earlier embarrassment was gone. In its place was a feeling that bordered on murderous. “That was Billy Bob’s doing, wasn’t it?”

She blew out a breath instead of giving him a direct answer. “Believe it or not, my feet hurt worse than my arm. Ugh!” She dragged one knee up to her chest and slid her foot out from beneath the white blanket. A clean white bandage covered the entire back of her heel. “I must have walked my heels off in those old boots.”

She pulled the bandage back and shuddered at the sight of the festering blister beneath it.

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