he was helping out his future son-in-law. When the future son-in-law didn’t need either of them anymore, he said goodbye.”
“Ouch.”
“After that, she kind of swore off guys and focused on her career.”
Gavin blew out a low breath. “A career she no longer has, thanks to her own father.”
“Right. I tried talking to him, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“I did too. He accused me of collaborating with you and ganging up on him.”
This time it was Caden who grimaced. “He’s stubborn.”
“A family trait apparently.”
“I believe we’ve already established that.”
Gavin rubbed a hand over his jaw. “Is Sarah going to be okay with you telling me this stuff?”
“I didn’t tell you so you could rat me out.” He sighed. “I want Sarah to be happy. I’m just trying to help you understand her a little.”
“I’ll take all the help I can get in that regard,” Gavin said.
“And if you break her heart, I know places to bury a body that no one would find.”
Gavin wasn’t sure whether to laugh or not. He met the man’s eyes—and decided not to laugh. “What happens if she’s the one who breaks mine?” She’d almost done it once. While she hadn’t broken it before, she’d sure left it hurting.
Caden clapped him on the bicep. “Then we can drown our sorrows together.”
“Our sorrows? Who broke your heart?”
Caden shook his head. “That’s a story for another day.” He nodded to the porch. “Looks like Sleeping Beauty has awakened.”
Sarah stood on the porch, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. Gavin gulped. How long had she been there?
Sarah sat on Caden’s couch and sipped a mug of hot coffee loaded with creamer and three sugars while she only halfway pondered the information her brother had just passed on. She was still curious about whatever it was she’d interrupted when she’d stepped outside. He and Gavin had been immersed in conversation when she opened the door. So deep it had taken Caden a moment to notice her. Whatever they’d been talking about, she had the strangest feeling it had something to do with her.
Unsure what she had to do with them drowning their sorrows, she’d let it go and demanded every last piece of information Caden had acquired. He’d been forthcoming, and now she had even more questions.
She focused back on Caden. “So, let me get this straight. Wilmont had a seizure and is in a medically induced coma?”
“For now.”
“And you believe his whole ‘I’m innocent, I didn’t do it’ routine?”
“Somewhat.”
“In case you forgot, he held a gun to my head.” She could still feel the press of the weapon against her temple. A shudder rippled through her.
“Trust me, I haven’t forgotten,” Caden said. “He’s guilty of that for sure, but that doesn’t mean he shot the ladies.”
Her gaze flicked back and forth between the men. They both looked at her with expressions that said they were worried she might snap at any moment. Great. “All right. Let’s recap. I was kidnapped in Kabul, discharged from the Army unfairly—and probably illegally—thanks to my father and that spineless psychiatrist. I ran into a woman in restraints who said that she knew too much and they were going to kill her, overheard Dr. Kilgore and another man talking about something that sounded suspicious to me because they used phrases like ‘she’s better off’ and ‘the other girl was so drugged up, I doubt she’ll remember anything’ and—”
“And,” Gavin said, “you think they were talking about you.”
“Who else?”
“Another patient?”
She shook her head. “No. And Brianne kept calling for a guy named Max.”
“Max?” Caden asked. “That’s the name of the guy Wilmont said asked him to deliver the pills to Brianne.”
She frowned. “So, who is he?”
“I don’t know. Elliott and Caroline said they’d look into locating him.” He tapped a message into his phone, then looked up.
Sarah picked up where she’d left off. “Dr. Kilgore also said that if his phone fell into the wrong hands, he’d be in trouble.”
“Sarah—”
“I wasn’t drugged up. I’d quit taking the meds and was quite lucid, thank you very much. Except for the fever making me a bit light-headed. And then there was the mention of a package . . .”
“What package?”
“Beats me. They said something about a package and that it would turn up eventually.”
Caden frowned. “I don’t want to disagree with you, but I feel like I need to play devil’s advocate here. All of that could have multiple meanings. I think you’re reading more into it than is there.”
“I suppose I imagined someone shooting at us and the bullet