“Yeah? Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Gavin scooted closer, jaw clenched against the bursts of pain. “If I can get behind you, can you feel your way around the knots and untie my hands?”
“They’re kind of numb, but I can try.”
While the man fumbled with the knots from his awkward position, Gavin closed his eyes and ducked his head against his chest. His muscles burned and his blood pounded.
Hurry, hurry.
The ropes tugged, loosened?
The general stopped. Grunted.
“Keep going, sir.”
“My blasted fingers won’t cooperate with me.”
“Make ’em.”
He huffed a soft laugh. “Right.”
“What does he want with Sarah?”
“Her money.”
Gavin frowned, trying to focus beyond his abused body’s protestation of the contorted position. “What money? You disinherited her.”
“Yeah, but I can re-inherit her. I’ve got control of the funds. Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
One knot slipped free and they both sucked in relieved breaths. The general went back to work, pulling almost frantically.
“Slow down, sir, feel your way.”
The man stopped. Took another gulp of air and resumed his tugging. “Yeah. Sort of. I have to sign off to relinquish the funds and she has to sign that she accepts them.”
“How much are we talking here?”
“A little over ten million.”
Gavin gasped.
And his hands fell free.
Pain pounded through them, into his fingers, palms, upper arms, everywhere. He shook them and glanced at the door. “Good job, sir.”
“Get your legs free before you work on me. At least we’ll have a chance if one of us can fight back.”
Gavin went to work on his legs, when the sound of a door slamming reached him. He hurried, pulling the ropes and digging into the first knot with his fingernails. “He did these better than my hands. Ten million?”
“Compliments of her mother’s mother from Texas, who liquidated her oil field, then invested the money very wisely.”
“I’d say.”
“She split the money evenly between the three kids. Dustin’s share will be divided between Sarah and Caden.”
“Do they know this?”
He hesitated. “No. Well, not the amount, just that they have some money coming to them.”
“And she gave you power over it?”
“My wife had power. Until her death. Then it went to me.”
“When were they supposed to get the money?”
“When they turned thirty—or when I deemed them mature enough to handle it.”
“I take it you haven’t deemed it yet.” Gavin gave a growl of frustration. “I can’t get this knot undone.”
Footsteps sounded outside the room and Gavin grabbed the rope and pulled it behind his back, hoping it would fool the man into believing he was still tied up.
“There’s one thing you need to know, Gavin.”
Uh-oh. “What’s that?”
“I’ve already signed the papers. All he needs is Sarah’s signature.”
Caden paced the hospital floor while waiting for news about Sarah. “Why did she run?”
Asher raked a hand over his head. “I don’t know. Someone got to her. Can you access her phone?”
Caden pursed his lips and willed his heart to stop threatening to rupture in his chest. If anything happened to Sarah . . . “I’d need a warrant for her—no I don’t. Hold on, hold on. I know her Apple ID and password.”
Asher frowned. “How do you know that?”
“I watched her type it in her phone one time. As long as she hasn’t changed it, we should be good.”
“You watched her one time. And you remember it?”
“I remember a lot of things. I need a computer.” The door opened and Heather walked in with her laptop. “Perfect timing.”
She raised a brow. “How’s that?”
He told her and she handed him the computer. “Fine, but I have something I need to discuss with you.”
“Feel free to talk while I see if I can get into Sarah’s text messages.” He logged Heather off and said a quick prayer that Sarah hadn’t changed her login. Then started typing.
“So, here’s the deal,” Heather said. “I researched all of those little red dots on the map Dustin provided. Each place has a VA hospital and each one had at least one patient who has committed suicide in the last six months. While that may not seem like a lot overall, considering the number of vet suicides in the country, the thing that stood out with these is they all came from the same area of Afghanistan and from the same base as Sarah, Dustin, Helen, and Brianne.”
“All of them?” Caden looked up with a frown.
“Every last one of them.”
“Most of them died, but several actually survived their attempts. Not in great shape, but . . .” She shrugged.