Page 5 of Found By You
McCrae
The next morning, I thought back to picking up that woman the night before.
Who was she?
Today was my day off, but I was anxious and edgy.
I told myself that I would let Damon and the other guys run down the leads, but my brain kept churning.
My mind flashed to the card she’d given me. On one side it’d said, “Pete’s Trucking” on the other side, it had “T. Carter.”
T. Carter.
I ran harder. Of course, last night, I hadn’t been able to calm down and I’d run “T. Carter” through the national system.
The woman’s plea for help had been difficult to hear. I wasn’t good at committing to people. Strike that—it felt like whenever I did commit, I was ruined.
Okay. Fine. Rose Jones was another story.
The unknown woman had been shaking so badly at the hospital, so we put warming blankets around her. My eyes had kept drifting back to her delicate features—her pale skin, her green eyes, her red hair matted against her face from the rain …
She was like a broken bird that I’d found in the woods when I was twelve. I’d been so careful with it, taking off my shirt to cradle it in the makeshift blanket. I had taken it back to the house so my mother could help me. We’d tried to coddle the bird and nurse it back to health, but in the end, it had died. I had been heartbroken by that bird dying.
I pushed the thoughts aside as I finished my run and entered the lake house through the side door. I gulped down a glass of water, did some stretches, then poured some coffee that I’d left brewing. With a steaming mug in hand, I went back out to the lake. I loved this time of day when everything was peaceful, when there was nothing but my thoughts and the coffee.
I took a sip and closed my eyes. T. Carter. The simple “T” in front Carter had me bothered.
I walked back into the house, took a protein shake out of the fridge, and grabbed my stuff for the gym.
It was boxing time for the Armstrong family.
I drove to the local gym in town, a converted warehouse with exposed beams and concrete floors. It was barely seven, but I could see my brothers’ cars out front, and I pulled in at the exact time as Kayla, who was blasting her music—some teenage version of Taylor Swift. Dang, I hated that music.
I cut the engine and got out so I could greet her. “Morning.”
As we walked into the gym together, she turned to me. “Tell me about the woman you brought in last night.”
I glared at her. “Thereissuch a thing as confidentiality.”
She stuck her tongue out at me, which was in character for Kayla. She was a blonde, short, spitfire. She had cancer when she was little, but you would never know it from looking at her now. My brothers and I were protective of her.
Noah already had his wraps and his gloves on as he sauntered over. “Hey. I heard about that girl last night on the radio. Canyon and I were already called out to Casper.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “People said there was an accident, but it ended up being a woman shot in the head.”
I paused. “What?”
He nodded. “Sad.”
“Wow.” We usually didn’t have that level of violence in the area. I moved to his side.
He lightly tapped me in the shoulder with his glove. “What’s the story with the woman you found?”
Kayla winked at me. “He has to beconfidential.”
Canyon joined us. “Really bro?”
