The Truth (The Hillers of Barratt County #5)

Chapter 1

1

Sometimes he struggled with accepting the evil that humanity could unleash upon others. Pastor Gunn Hiller of the Hope Life Church in Value, Texas tried to reconcile what he had seen happen to his little sister today and his faith.

Not in God. That was not in question.

It was his faith in humanity that was shaken tonight.

There had been a pair of six-inch scissors jammed into his little sister’s shoulder. Twice. He hadn’t been close enough to stop it. To protect her.

Gunn had been there at the hospital emergency department to counsel an ailing parishioner. He’d seen his sister and one of his brothers in the ER where they both worked. He’d been hanging around, waiting to see if Genny needed a ride home after her shift.

Then the attack had happened.

He had watched it happen to Genny, and had been completely helpless to stop it. Terror had filled him. He had started running toward her the instant she had screamed.

Just running, trying to get there before the monster who had hurt her could hurt her again and again, or the woman next to her. Her close friend, Aubrey. That monster had just kept hurting them.

Right there in the middle of the hospital where his sister worked as a nurse and Aubrey as a doctor. His brother Guthrie had been there, too. Running toward Genny and Aubrey, too.

He and Guthrie had wanted to protect, and had been helpless to. To stop it all.

Helpless.

Their good friend, Chad—a man who had grown up next door and gone to med school with Guthrie—had been the one to stop the man from hurting Genny again.

Thank God Chad had been close enough to do something. Gunn meant that literally.

Genny was in surgery now. Her friend Aubrey would most likely end up with a black eye where the man had roundhouse punched her when she’d tried to protect Genny. Stitches along one arm. Defensive wounds. She’d have scars herself from those scissors before he’d plunged them into Genny’s body.

Gunn didn’t understand it at all.

Together, Aubrey and Genny didn’t even weigh what that man did.

The man, a doctor, had a good fifty pounds on Gunn’s own two-forty, and had been just as tall as Gunn’s six-three, maybe taller. Why would a man that size think it was okay to hurt someone so much smaller, weaker? They had been defenseless against a threat like that.

Genny was the stereotypical ninety-pound weakling, and the most kind-hearted person Gunn had ever known. She had never hurt anyone. She’d do anything to help someone who needed it. Anything.

She hadn’t deserved this at all.

He adored her. Flat-out adored her. He hadn’t wanted to leave the hospital until they knew she was on her way out of surgery. But Aubrey had been panicking, worried for her own younger sister, as the other doctors were trying to keep Aubrey still long enough to tend to her arm.

It was late, and she hadn’t wanted the younger woman waiting after dark at the library where she volunteered part-time. Aubrey had been more worried about her sister than herself, this woman who had been hurt trying to shelter Genny.

Gunn would never forget tonight, and what it had shown him about humanity, and love. Sacrifice. He would see Aubrey Fisher’s arms wrapping around his little sister’s body in a desperate attempt to protect Genny in his dreams for a long time to come.

Genny’s best friend had tried to get between Genny and a madman tonight. She hadn’t hesitated for even a second. Aubrey had tried so hard to protect Genny. Even though she would be hurt, too. Could have been killed.

Gunn had volunteered to drive over and get Aubrey’s younger sister. It was a simple task, and he could do it. At least then he was doing something. Besides sitting there in the waiting room, praying. Not that he was averse to praying—he was a man of God, after all. And he felt that down to the bottom of his heart. But at least now he was doing something to help.

It had hurt him to see Genny’s close friend so upset if he could do something to make it better. The least he could do for her was pick her sister up at the library a mile away. Keep her sister safe, like she’d tried to keep his.

He would never forget what Aubrey had done tonight.

The rest of their family were on their way in, anyway. He would do this one little task, then get back to the hospital to be there when Genny came out of surgery. He’d take care of Aubrey’s sister, like she had tried to take care of his.

He owed her that much, no question.

He parked in front of the library and headed inside. The woman he was looking for was right there, next to the checkout desk, and the man who ran the library. Gunn had known Jake Dillon his entire life—he’d been friends with Gunn’s older brother Gene since kindergarten. Jake was now married to Gunn’s brother George’s wife’s youngest sister.

Small towns were like that. Connections. Gunn appreciated the connections he had in his life every day.

The Dillons attended his church almost every Sunday. Aubrey’s sister was perfectly safe there with Jake to watch over her. Jake wouldn’t have left Ayla there alone. Gunn would bet on that.

But Aubrey was upset. Ayla was all the family the woman had, his sister had told him once. And that mattered. Gunn adored his family, dramatic though they could be. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for them. Genny wouldn’t want Aubrey upset—so Gunn was going to make things better, however he could.

At least then he’d be doing something.

Instead of standing in the hospital waiting room, feeling… helpless. Like he had once before. Fifteen years ago wasn’t really long enough to dull some memories. It just wasn’t.

“We’re just about to close up, but we’ll make an exception,” Jake teased, limping around the front desk. He had been injured in a drive-by shooting when he’d been in high school, gone through multiple surgeries, and used a single forearm crutch to maneuver now, when he wasn’t in his wheelchair.

Ayla, Aubrey’s sister, used two smaller crutches. Gunn had never asked how she had been injured, or if it had been something from birth. That was only his business if Ayla wanted to share.

The woman in question looked up at him.

“Hi. I know you are one of Greer’s brothers, but which one? I know you are one of the twins… ” She peered at him like he was a bug. The woman had no real sense of filters, he’d noticed that before. But then again, she was open and honest and approachable, too. Gunn still didn’t quite know what to think of the woman he had met a few times before. She wasn’t much taller than his sister Genny, who at five feet was, as Genny put it, the smallest adult Hiller in existence ever. This woman was a few inches or so taller. Ayla just looked delicate, with pale blonde hair, big blue eyes, and China doll prettiness.

“I’m Gunn. The minister at the Hope Life Church. And… tonight, I’m your ride.”

Suspicion immediately hit the big blue eyes and she stiffened. Defensively. As if she didn’t trust him at all. “Why? What’s happened? Where’s my sister? Is she okay?”

Gunn held up a hand. “She’s okay. There was just an incident at the hospital and she wasn’t able to leave to get you. I was there, and volunteered.”

“What happened?” She came toward him, faster on those crutches than she probably should be moving. “Aubrey always calls or texts if plans change. Always. What’s wrong with my sister?”

He was going to have to tell her at some point, and Jake had stepped aside to clean up the toys in the children’s section. “Another doctor at the hospital was angry at Dr. Fields. He went… went after my sister. He… stabbed her. She’s in surgery now. Genny.”

He cleared his voice and continued. Fighting the memories, recent and fifteen years in the past. “Aubrey tried to get between them, and he hit your sister, cut her, too. She’ll probably have a black eye and was getting stitches when I left. She’s going to be fine, but she had to stay at the hospital to talk to the police. She was worried about you. I was already at the hospital visiting a member of my church, and volunteered. I couldn’t just sit there, waiting.”

“How badly are they hurt?” She was grabbing her bag with one arm and slinging it over her shoulder. It was the fear in the big blue eyes that hurt Gunn the most. “Let’s go.”

“Ayla, you okay?” Jake asked, quietly. “You know Reverend Hiller?”

“Yes. He’s my best friend’s big brother. And his sister is best friends with mine, too. He’s going to give me a ride to Aubrey. Thanks, Jake. I’ll see you Wednesday, okay?”

Then she was looking at Gunn expectantly. Big blue eyes, in a pixie gorgeous face, with long blonde hair in two sweet braids. She looked so… young and defenseless. Like the evil in the world could destroy her in a heartbeat. His heart clenched just to imagine it.

“Will you take me to my sister?”

“Of course.”