Page 125 of Carson

Cole wraps his arm around my shoulders as Carson speaks. “He told us he sold them.”

“Sold them?”

Carver lowers himself to the other side of me. “I’m going to find them,” he tells me. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head over it.”

“Is that what he was going to do with me?” I ask, looking him directly in the eye.

“Yeah,” he says, shaking his head like he doesn’t quite believe it himself.

“So he really was planning on taking me in Cheyenne?”

The three men exchange a look because I’m a hundred percent spot on.

“We got what information we could out of him, but Dad shot him in the thigh, and he lost a lot of blood, so he kept passing out on us.”

“Selling women is his profession?”

Carson places his hand on the side of my face. “Was. He won’t be selling anyone else.”

Suddenly everything comes rushing back to me. “He told me Dan was letting him camp on the other side of the stream. He said his camper was over there. He tried to get me to go fishing with him.”

Carver stands up. “I’ll go check it out.”

Cole rises too. “I’ll go with.”

As soon as they’re gone, Carson closes the door. He gives me my antibiotic and then encourages me to lie back, crawling up beside me.

He pulls me into his arms, and I rest my head against his chest.

“Do you think you want to try coming home today?” he asks quietly.

My eyes fall closed.

My nonanswer is my answer.

He gives me a little squeeze. “That’s okay.”

Cole comes back a little later, and they hang out in the room with me. He said they found the camper and that Carver was going through it with a fine-tooth comb over at the warehouse.

At least I was able to help out. I hope he finds something that will lead him to the missing women.

After they leave, and I’m settled in for the night, I hear Dan and Lily talking in their room across the hall. If it was a personal conversation, I would close the door to give them privacy, but they’re talking about mundane things.

“Did you turn the dishwasher on?” Lily asks.

“Yep.”

“Kelsie and Tank are talking about building a house in that spot she loves to the south.”

“They are kind of outgrowing the church,” he says, and then he laughs. “RayRay will be over here all the damn time. He’ll be able to throw a rock and hit our house.”

“Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?”

“It does, and you know Khloe’s going to love it.”

“Maybe we can extend the path over to their new house. You know I have enough rocks.”

“Plenty of rocks, just not enough time.” He laughs.