Rats. She dropped the keys back into the drawer and sighed. “I’ll call an Uber then.”
“Why don’t you just ask someone for a ride?”
“Because if you’re referring to the two someones in this house, I know they’ll try and talk me out of it.”
He narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. The T-shirt pulled across his chest and the tattoos rippled with the movement. She found it fascinating. “Come on, I’ll take you,” he said.
She blinked. “You will?”
He shot her that one-sided smile again. “You’re a big girl, Sarah. I figure you can make your own decisions. If you want to go to the hospital to ask about Brianne and probably Dustin too, I don’t mind taking you.”
She caught her jaw before it swung open. “Are you a mind reader?”
“Of course not. It’s just a little deductive reasoning. Caden’s questioning and lack of answers didn’t satisfy you, so you want to go get your own.” He shrugged. “You’re an investigative reporter. It’s what you do.” A pause. “It’s what I’d do if I were in your shoes.”
“But . . .” Why was she protesting? “Okay, thank you.”
He did a one-eighty and headed down the hall with an “I’ll be in my truck whenever you’re ready” thrown over his shoulder.
Sarah hurried after him. “Hey, I’m ready now.”
“Don’t you need a purse or something?”
She wrinkled her nose. “I have my phone. It’s got a credit card and my driver’s license in the little pocket attached, so it’s all I need.”
His brow lifted, but he simply held open the door for her and she slipped through. He followed her to his truck and waited for her to get in the passenger side. “Where’d you get the phone? Caden?”
She nodded. “He pulled some strings and got a copy of my license for me and then gave me one of his old phones.” She shifted and winced, but tried to cover it by pressing her lips together.
“Are you sure you’re up to this?” She shot him a black look and he nodded. “Right. Seems like you’re pretty fluent in bro-language yourself.”
“It’s a matter of survival some days.”
He laughed and shut the door.
Sarah leaned back and closed her eyes, already tired from the walk to the car, but she couldn’t put this off any longer. Dustin’s death had left so many unanswered questions rolling around in her head. And that poor woman’s cries were haunting her. She had to see if there was anything she could do to help her.
Assuming she could even find her.
And she wanted to know who Dustin’s last visitors had been, what they’d talked about, if he’d made any phone calls, gotten any emails or text messages. Because if Dustin had truly jumped off the roof of the hospital under his own power, she had to know what the trigger had been to make him do it.
Caden stood in front of his father’s desk in the house he’d grown up in, once again feeling like a twelve-year-old and trying not to show it. He waited until the general looked up with a raised brow. “Can I help you with something?”
“You got her discharged from the Army.”
“I did.” The man didn’t even blink and Caden bit off a scoff.
“Why?”
“She doesn’t have what it takes to make the Army her career. I managed to save her reputation by getting her an honorable discharge.”
“Her reputation didn’t need saving. She’s one of the most highly respected journalists over there. She speaks the language, she has a relationship with the locals—and she writes the facts. People who don’t trust their own family members trust her. And she’s not suicidal.”
“She has PTSD.”
“Yeah, well, you would too if you went through what she’s experienced, but using your clout to get her discharged wasn’t your call—and not really something I thought you were capable of.”
“I was trying to save her life!” The words burst from his father’s lips, a momentary loosening of his iron-clad self-control.
“It’s not your life to save,” Caden said, purposely lowering his voice. “She’s an adult. A very smart and capable one, if you’d open your eyes and take a good hard look at her.”
“You know how she was in high school. She’s not capable of looking out for herself. And since you baby her, I have to take measures to make sure she’s safe.”
“I accept her. Sarah is who she is. She’s not who she was. That was a long time ago. She’s forgiven herself for all of that. At least I think she has. But