The guys were quick to follow, Jake coming up to his side. “You in a rush this morning, Kayden?”
“The sooner we leave, the sooner we’ll get back. Were you drinking with the other two last night?”
Jake’s brows shot up. “No. I play poker with them sometimes but never drink. And never on a work night.”
Kayden didn’t miss that the man didn’t deny Hendrix had been drinking too.
As the team leader, it was Kayden’s responsibility to make sure everyone was at their best at work, and that meant it was his job to give Theo a warning for his behavior. That shit wasn’t okay. It couldn’t be. Not when they had lives on the line.
Jake cleared his throat. “So…you know much about Tilly?”
Kayden sped up his run. “We went to school together, but she was a couple grades behind me, so I wouldn’t say I know her.”
“Her father stole from people, right? Was an investment broker, but instead of investing the money, he took it and ran?”
Images of his own father’s face when he’d told them that Martin Taylor had taken his money flashed through his mind. The disappointment when he’d revealed he’d had to sell their family home. The pain at admitting he’d re-mortgaged his bar and moved into the apartment above it.
“Yeah,” Kayden confirmed, “that’s what happened.”
“But it wasn’t her, right? She wasn’t a part of it?”
“I don’t know. Her and her mother left town a month later, and she only returned a couple months ago. I don’t know if she’s had contact with her father. If she knew what he was doing. Those are questions for her.” Questions he hadn’t asked yet.
Jake seemed to consider that for a moment. “Okay, yeah, thanks for the info.”
Kayden increased his pace again, trying like hell to outrun those green eyes. Why was it this hard? Because they were so wide and vulnerable that he felt like he’d been sucker punched every time they met his?
When they passed the spot where Macy’s body had been found, the blood in his veins moved faster. Theo and Hendrix had been the ones to find her, and the scene had been fucking gruesome, even for Kayden, who’d seen a lot in his thirty-six years.
For the rest of the run, Kayden didn’t speak to his team. He dipped his head and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Of wiping his mind of everything but his job.
He loved these mountains and he loved to move his body. Usually, when he put the two together, his mind would go blank and he could just feel at peace.
Today, that wasn’t the case. There was too much going on with Macy’s murder and Tilly’s return.
The run usually took a couple hours. Today, Kayden finished it in one and a half, way ahead of the other guys. He went straight to the equipment shed and dropped off his pack before heading back to the center.
Pixie smiled at him from behind the desk as he stepped inside. “Hey, Kayden. Good run?”
“Yeah, it was good.” A damn lie. He’d been racing as if he could somehow outrun everything that plagued him.
He moved into the office and straight to the cabinet. He’d just pulled off his shirt when a gasp sounded behind him. He turned to see Tilly standing there, mouth open, green eyes on his chest.
“I…you’re…” She shook her head, her gaze finally lifting to meet his. “I’m sorry, I was just getting some water. I’ll leave you to change.”
Fuck, how had he forgotten this wasn’t Linda’s office anymore?
He pulled a clean shirt from the shelf. “It’s fine. I just need to throw this on.” He tugged it over his head. “Linda let me keep clean shirts in here, but I’ll move them.”
He should have already done it, but with everything going on, he just hadn’t.
“No. That’s okay. If that’s the easiest place for you to keep them, you can continue.” She opened her mouth, looking like she wanted to say more, only to snap her lips shut.
“You sure?” he asked.
She nodded, a lock of light brown, almost blond, hair falling into her eyes, and damn if his hand didn’t twitch to shift it behind her ear.
Jesus, what was going on with him?
