Page 18 of Found By You
I braced myself. This definitely didn’t have anything to do with the reunion.
“Some of my buddies have been investigating in Casper,” he said right off the bat, “and they did find tire tracks. A lot of tracks. It looks like a whole caravan of sorts must have been there.”
“A caravan? Are you sure?”
Noah nodded, then bit his lip. “Do you think she was part of it?”
“No idea.” Of course, there was that possibility, and at the beginning I had suspected she might’ve been connected to that night’s other incidents. Yet in the last couple of hours, I had started to see her as someone lonely who needed help. More than once, I’d had to tear myself out of a fantasy that maybe I would save her from something.
Noah sighed. “Do you think she could be involved in something nefarious? It seems they all left, and nothing was found except a dead body.”
My heart raced, and I looked at Noah. He had been a soldier for a long time, in charge of running special ops. He’d worked for his own third-party security company, and now he was part of search and rescue, but at his core, he was military. He wastrained to follow instincts, trained to find the bad guys. “What are you thinking?”
Noah crossed his arms and faced the crowd, analyzing people. He was standing so close that our shoulders were touching. He cocked his head to the side so only I could hear. “I think this woman has bigger problems than we know about. I think she was running from something. I think that’s probably what caused the car wreck.”
I digested this.
“I know we’ve speculated, but I bet someone’s after her. If she used a fake name, she was scared. She wrecked the car for no real reason other than the fact that she was scared. I talked to Ella. She said the woman had a very visceral reaction when Dr. Chavez suggested she should go to Denver. She was afraid. Bro, I think you’re into something that you should be wary of. There are bigger things at play here.”
“Sky.”
“What?”
“She wants to be called Sky.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
I thought about what he’d just said. I hadn’t wanted to face all that, but I pushed away any kind of fear that built up inside of me, and I puffed my chest out. “Well, then I’ll face whatever is coming for her.”
Noah nodded. It was in the Armstrong blood to face horrible things together. It was a gift from our father, a gift from search and rescue growing up, as we’d gone out and helped people in difficult situations. “We’ll face it together, bro.”
I sucked in a long breath and blew it out. My attention was drawn to the refreshment table with its white tablecloth and silver punch bowl. “I need some water.”
He hesitated. “I’m going to drop in on Kayla and the woman.”
That made sense to me. Of course he would. All of my family rallied when we needed each other. “Sky.”
Noah looked confused.
“Right.” Noah nodded. “I’ll check back with you. Thank you.”
The music changed, and people started heading to the refreshment table.
I hurried over to grab something before a line formed. I was so thirsty, I didn’t want to wait.
Suddenly, Dylan and Eliza walked over, and Dylan slapped me on the shoulder. “Hey, bro, you should have a dance while you’re here. It can’t be all duty, can it?”
I grunted at him and took a drink. “Nah, I’m good.” My mind was preoccupied, but I turned to Eliza and smiled. “How are you doing, Eliza?”
“I’m good. It’s good to be home. I haven’t seen you for a cleaning.”
I grunted again. “I’ll be in soon.”
Dylan gave me the kind of look that said he knew something was going on.
There was no point in continuing the conversation.
I just took my water and headed to the other side of the gym, where the bleachers were pushed against the wall, the metal glinting in the dim light.
