Page 17 of Beneath the Midnight Sky
Oliver just shook his head at first and then finally spoke. “I’ve decided I’m not going to touch this one with a ten-foot pole. This is all you. But I will say, if you really want info on someone before you get in too deep, we have another brother for that.” He gave me a strange look and then took a drink of his beer before walking away to continue cleaning up from the day.
“Oh, Oliver. You are a goddamn genius!” I hollered back to him.
Pulling out my phone, I sent Wyatt a quick text.
Me: I need a favor.
Wyatt: You need a favor from me? Oh, this should be good.
I could hear the sarcasm in his tone and see the smirk on his face in my mind, clear as a summer morning on the ranch.
Me: Remember the girl from the other night? I need everything you can find on her. ASAP.
Wyatt: Everything everything??
Me: …
Me: Uhm…yes? Whatever you can find.
Wyatt: Ok. I’ll have it all brought over in about an hour.
I sent him a thumbs up and went to put my phone away, but then it beeped again. Looking down, I realized it was a text from my girl.
Aspen: Hey! I just wanted to say thanks for last night. I had a lot of fun, and I appreciate you not pressing the whole ‘serious’ vibes on me. I needed the casual fun more than I realized.
I smiled as I read the message a third time. Oh, there was that casual thing again, but that was fine. She’d find out soon—I’d show her.
We were just getting started, my little angel and I.
Oliverand I had dropped a few bulls off for the rodeo in town, handing the reins, so to speak, over to a few of our ranch hands for the evening. We’d sent them to deal with the animals tonight, so we were free from the normal rodeo work obligations. My body was tired, but I walked up the steps into myhome, eager to see Wyatt and find out what he’d learned about my little angel.
My family had split up our land on the ranch, giving each of us a handful of acres to build on when we were old enough. Everyone had built a house on their portion of land except Payton, who stayed in town to be closer to her work at the hospital. The rest of us were all close, but not so close that we were on top of each other. Everyone’s house varied from a few minutes’ walk to a few minutes’ drive from the main house where Oliver and Hudson lived.
My house was a two-story craftsman-style log cabin tucked back into the trees. It had stone accents on the pillars around the front porch and the fireplace, and plenty of windows around the entire place to let in tons of natural light. I loved being outdoors, but in the Colorado mountains, it eventually was too damn cold to be out there longer than necessary. So, natural light, most of the year, was the next best thing I could do.
The first level was the living room, an open kitchen, a bathroom, and one bedroom I used more as a gym. While the second level had the master bedroom and bath, a third bedroom, and another bathroom. When I had it built, having this many bedrooms seemed like a good plan, but now it just seemed big since I stayed alone and didn’t bring anyone but family here.
Wyatt was already inside, lounging on my brown leather sofa with a manila folder sitting on my coffee table and a beer in his hand. He glanced over at me as I walked in and kicked my boots off.
“Welcome home, big bro.” He was wearing his signature smirk. We always teased each other because I was older by three minutes—the typical brotherly joke, putting me a bit more at ease. As he leaned down to pick up the folder, though, I noticed he grew more serious. “Well, I brought your folder with thedirt, but I’m going to be honest with you…this girl? She’s beenthrough a lot of shit. So maybe just keep that in mind with whatever your plans are, Rowan.”
I stopped in front of him to grab the folder. Sitting down in the armchair next to him, I looked over towards my twin. A sudden surge of anxiety rocketed through my chest. “What do you mean?”
He waved his hand at the folder. “It’s all in there. Even found some photos with the police reports for you. But it’s a lot, like I said. Her life definitely isn’t sunshine and rainbows. I’ve also never known you to care about…well, anyone outside of the family. So just be gentle with her.”
“Police reports?” I didn’t see that coming. What type of police reports? She didn’t exactly strike me as the law-breaking type of woman. She was nervous just climbing on the back of my bike for fuck’s sake.
I looked down at the folder in my hands before setting it on the table in front of me and opening it. The first photo was of a little girl, her long, dark hair in two braids. I instinctively knew it was Aspen. She looked to be around ten years old, standing with a few other kids. Her clothes were way too big, and she looked terrified. Flipping to the next page, I see it’s foster home information for a home in Nevada. I realized this wasn’t information I should know. It’s information that should come from her when she’s ready to share, but I continued reading anyway, unable to help myself or put the information back.
“She was in foster care?” I asked.
“From what I’ve gathered, her mom bailed, she’s up in the PNW now. Married with two more kids, seems to be doing well. Then her dad was an alcoholic. He wasn’t abusive as far as the case files said, but he didn’t take care of her. The school called it in a few times, telling the case workers at Child Protective Services that she was in dirty clothes or clearly not eating enough. They sent her to a few foster homes over theyears when things would get really bad. But she always ended up back with her father. He died of a heart attack right after she turned eighteen and graduated from high school.” Wyatt’s voice was tinged with sadness, and I knew he was thinking about our parents. Even when Dad died and Mom was devastatingly heartbroken, she never checked out on us. She was always there—sadder on some days than others—but she never left us. But we also had Oliver to help out when her days were really bad…Aspen didn’t seem to grow up with any other siblings. She was completely alone.
I shook my head and focused on the next few pages. She graduated from high school on time despite it all and had a pretty good GPA, definitely higher than mine was. There was nothing in here about her art, which was sort of odd because I knew she’d been pursuing it for years. I absentmindedly flipped to the next page, and I wasn’t even close to prepared for what came next in my little angel’s file of horrors.
After the foster homes, the neglect, the high school transcripts. It felt like I knew Aspen already. She’s the smart but shy girl who felt like she was easily forgotten. She thought she blended into the background. How wrong that was.
But what I wasn’t prepared for were the hospital photos included with the police reports.
