Clinging to his back as they raced into the darkness, Dawn felt a shiver rushing up her spine. What would it mean to meet Reese? What was the fate of his sister? And did she dare meet George’s eyes again when she was far away from her own turf? She held Cade tighter, remembering to twist her head at the turns in the road when he slowed to a stop and touched her face.
“Dawn…”
Cade nuzzled her nose and stroked her cheek, as he peered into her eyes.
“If…do you want me to take you back?”
“Why would you ask that?” she said. “I’ve come this far.”
“Then, why are you trembling?”
Dawn couldn’t deny the shaking of her hand, and she tried to fix her arms to her sides when he traced the line of her lips and whispered into her hair.
“I like this,” he said. “Like having you with me. Long time since I rode with a girl, let alone a lady. She felt her cheeks blush at the compliment under the light of the moon, and she wanted nothing more than to take him again when he captured her hands in his as he sighed. “But if it’s more than you bargained for,” he continued. “I get that. Bet the last thing you figured on was getting lost with me in the woods.”
“You don’t where you’re going?” she asked.
“Me? I know the way in my sleep, but you’re another matter.”
“I’m not lost, Cade. I just…”
For a moment, her mind tracked the way back to town. There she had her own bed waiting, lonely but still soft. She could hide away, and when it came to facing Michael again, maybe she could say that the assignment grew boring, or she could lie and say that she wasn’t up to the task. No way he would buy either line, but if Cade was giving her a way out…
“You’d let me leave?” she asked.
“Not like I took you by force or anything,” he reminded her. “Hardly my style.”
“No. I’ve…I’ve seen you’re style.”
“Guess that’s why you jumped at the invite.”
Cade claimed her mouth with a quick kiss, and she groaned at the heat wafting off his neck even as the night turned colder. Was this more than she was asking for? If she came out the other end with anything but a story, Michael would have her head.
If it still rested safely on her shoulders.
“If I said yes, would you could come with me,” she said.
Cade stretched away from his bike. “Might be nice,” he admitted. “You ever want to really run away?”
“I…with you?”
“I’m the only guy here,” he said,
Dawn wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his brow.
“Only one I want with me,” she said. “And you seem down.”
Cade laughed, as his eyes rolled towards the branches hanging overhead. “Would if I could,” he said. “But I swore an oath.”
“So where does that leave me?” she asked.
“I said I’d take you—”
“Don’t think I can ask you do that,” she said. “You’re already late, and your boys are waiting for you.”
The wind rattled the branches right on cue, and he flipped his collar towards his ears, as he nodded softly. “Maybe there’s something else I can do with you,” he said. “Until I know it’s safe to show you off.”
“Show me off?” she asked.
“Like I’m not itching to let the whole world see me with you.”
Dawn stroked his cheek, her fears nearly falling away. “I can do it,” she said. “We… let’s keep going. I’ll be fine. I promise.”
Cade turned her head, and she leaned forward to kiss him when he suddenly twisted his head away, his brow furrowing as he spoke. “Maybe,” he said. “But I think we should go with Plan B.” He guided her away from the dirt path and pointed towards a small structure buried among the dark trees. “Decent folk there,” he said. “Phone doesn’t work for shit, but she’ll put you up if you want to hunker down until morning.”
“She?” Dawn asked. “You’re not dumping me off with an old girlfriend or something, are you?”
“Hardly,” he said with a soft laugh. “Just a clean, safe place to put your feet up.”
“And you know from experience?” she asked.
“Got patched up there a few times,” he said.
“Maybe I should scratch your face or something,” she teased. “Give you an excuse to stick around all over again.”
He stopped in his tracks, his hand pulling away from hers as he just touched the tips of her nails.
“Wouldn’t work,” he said. “Not tonight.”
“So nothing I say is going to keep you close?”
Cade stayed silent, shrugging his shoulders even as his fingers rested against her wrist.
“Tell me I got a reason to bring you before the Boss Man,” he said. “Like maybe…maybe you are a smokescreen. Working with the Panthers or—”
Dawn wheeled back and peered hard into his eyes.
“Why would you… how can you even say that?” she demanded.
“A joke,” he swore. “Just playing around.”
“It’s not funny, Cade.”
Her neck burned under her collar, and Dawn kicked his shin, trying to pay no mind to the cry leaving his lips as she stomped towards the hidden structure. Was it a safe house or a trap? In that moment she didn’t care one way or the other, wanting nothing but to get away from him if he could even play at thinking that she—
“Hey! Hold up!”
He grabbed her arms and fought off her flailing limbs, as he eased her down the length of a large oak tree and held her fast.
“Let me go!”
“Dumb thing to say,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t—”
“I take it all back,” Cade said. “Add it to your story if you want. Paint me as a prick. I won’t hold it against you.”
“I’m…I’m not going to do that, Cade”
“Why?” he asked. “Because it won’t sell?”
“Because it’s not like the truth,” she countered. “Any more than me really wanting to stop now without seeing where this thing leads.”
She fell into arms, her ear light against his broad chest as he stroked her back and slowly lifted her eyes back to his face.
“Alright then,” he said. “We keep moving.”
The house came clearer into view, and even as the warm windows offered a kind of sanctuary, Dawn turned back around on her heel and clasped his face in her hands.
“You really think that I’m so scared?” she challenged.
“Always go by what I feel,” he said. “You were shaking.”
“Maybe you were just riding too fast.”
“You questioning my drive?” he asked. “I don’t—”
“Just a joke. Dumb thing to say.”
Cade’s smile grew brighter, as she stretched to the tips of her toes. Kissing him hard, she curled her arms around his back and felt the pounding of his heart pouring through her fingers.
“And you don’t want me to go,” she said, as she slipped away from him and stroked his cheek. Cade gave her a smirk and half-hearted nod.
“Maybe,” he said.
“Definitely,” she challenged. “You wouldn’t want to hide me away to keep for later if you didn’t care.”
She tried to kiss him again when he lengthened up the back of his neck and seized her arm.
“Come on,” he said. “We’re burning moonlight here.”
Dawn let him lead her through the dirt and the leaves. The house grew closer, but even the promise of a warm bed was nothing without him. Not that she had any desire to interfere with his crew. It was the mark of a poor excuse for a journalist if nothing else, and Michael had taught her better than that. Yet, she still wished for a way to keep him near. Even if it was just for a few moments more. Her mind spun with all manner of manipulations and pleas, her thoughts coming to a sudden halt as a screen door crashed open. Starting back, Dawn saw a woman with wide hips and a graying bun atop her head waddling towards them.
“Better not be any god damned trouble, or I’ll have your heads for—”
The woman stopped short as she fixed her eyes on Cade, and Dawn watched the corner of his lips curl into a smile as he stepped forward, always keeping Dawn close to his side as he made his approach.
“Mona,” he said.
“Cade Everett,” the woman said. “As I live and breathe.”
“Always said I’d come back one of these days,” he said.
“And how did I know tonight would be the night.”
He let Dawn go as he took the older woman into his arms. Mona folded him close like a little boy just looking to escape a bad dream, and Dawn couldn’t help but like the look of his softer side when he stepped back and pulled Dawn close again.
“Mona, this is Miss Sawyers,” he said. “Dawn. She’s my…she’s all mine.”
It had the ring of the Middle Ages or even darker times, but Dawn couldn’t help but bask in the light of his possession.
“Sure seems sweet,” Mona said, as she patted Dawn’s cheek. “Looks like a nice girl.”
“Oh yeah,” Cade concurred. “Real nice.”
Dawn started to smile when Mona shifted her gaze to Cade’s eyes and focused on nothing else.
“I knew because I heard your boys riding by,” she said.
“How long?” Cade asked.
“Hour,” she said. “Maybe a little longer. Why aren’t you keeping up, kid?”
They sounded like typical mother’s words, and Dawn thought of her own parents, laying into her for choosing to talk about other people’s lives instead of living one of her own. But in their mind, that meant that she should have married long ago, that she should definitely be married now. Running after the Alphas with their lone wolf at her side had to be the last thing on their agenda. But she wasn’t about to leave him…
“I will be,” Cade said. “But…but Dawn needs a place to stay.”
Moan sighed as she scrunched her nose. Dawn waited without moving, barely breathing as Mona inspected her far more carefully. Even if she seemed sweet, was the older woman sizing her up, her mind weighing the evidence before her along with things that Dawn still had yet to learn? Would she back pedal and say that she wasn’t good enough to hide, that she had to take her chances with the Alphas or the night?
“How’d he manage to land someone like you?” she asked. Dawn took a moment, scanning the comment for any hint of sarcasm when she determined it was clean and just grinned.
“It’s quite a story,” she said.
“Long one, too,” Cade chimed in
“And you want me to write it all down,” she reminded him.
Mona looked puzzled, her lips parting into what had to be a loaded question when she took a different tact.
“So just a place to hide?” Mona asked. “Nothing else?”
The question curling around her lips hit Dawn’s ear, and she saw Cade nod as he pulled her close to his chest and whispered hard.
“You…you just hang here,” he said. “Might even learn a few things while I’m gone.”
“What do you mean by that?” she asked.
Cade and Mona exchanged a quick glance, and even as her curiosity made her want to listen to whatever the older woman might have to say, the feel of Cade leaving her with a light kiss was suddenly the last thing she wanted, and Dawn gripped his arm and peered into his eyes.
“Dawn, what are you doing?” he asked. “It’s settled, and you’re staying.”
She started to speak when Mona stepped to Dawn’s side and folded her arms across her ample chest. “You sure about that, Cade?” Mona asked him. “Seems like she’s even strong enough to face the boys. Just saying.” Dawn beamed and as Cade gritted is teeth, she took his hand, shooting Mona a quick wink before bringing her lips to his ear.
“I…I was kind of freaked,” she confessed. “But I can surprise you. Haven’t I done as much already?”
“Sure,” he said. “But I don’t need the surprise of something happening to you.”
“Cade, it won’t if we just—”
“No,” he said. “Matter’s closed.”
“Why don’t you let the girl here be the judge of that?”
Mona’s voice pulled them apart, and she pushed a pipe between her lips, bringing a match to the bowl as the scent of sweet smoke floated through the air.
“But maybe work it out inside?” she suggested with a puff. “Night’s too cold for this shit.”
Mona turned away, as Dawn seized Cade’s hand and rolled his palm around her fingers.
“Don’t leave me behind,” she said. “Let me do this with you. Let me show you I really am strong. Just like she said.” She moved to kiss him again, but Cade drew back with a scoff.
“But not strong enough for this,” he said. “You want a story, you talk to Mona. Leave the real stuff to me.”
He turned away before she could speak, and as Dawn watched him leave, she swung between the sorrow of their parting and the want to take him down. He said she impressed him, and he had no compunctions when it came to taking her at the bar, on the bar. And when it came to the real stuff…
“I showed you that I can take care of myself!” she cried.
Dawn blocked his way back to his bike and clenched his shirt between her fingers as he tried to fight her off.
“Then keep doing that!” he said. “Stay put or get gone.”
He started to turn away again when she grabbed his arm.
“Maybe there’s another reason you want to hide me away,” she challenged.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You want me to put the story to bed now because there’s more to it,” she said. “Was that the plan? Bury me in the back woods and leave me with a cliffhanger? Do you really think that would be enough for me?”
“Obviously it’s not enough for you,” he said. “Kind of makes me wonder if this is all some long con.”
Even as part of her sensed that he was trying to get a rise out of her again to break the tension, she still resented the implication and smashed her hand into his face.
“Jesus Christ!” he cried, stumbling backward, as Mona reappeared to stop his impending descent with one soft press from her withered hand.
“I really wouldn’t worry so much about this one,” Mona suggested. “Makes like she has everyone’s number.”
“Not everyone’s,” Dawn said sadly. “But maybe I should just make like I came here for the story, right?”
Cade said nothing, rubbing his jaw as she looked back to Mona.
“You said his boys flew by?” Dawn asked.
“Heading out to Hayek’s old spread,” she said. “Where they always meet up so—”
“Mona don’t say another word,” Cade cautioned.
Hayek’s. She recognized the name from a story centered around a town founder that had a market reduced to a corner store on Maple and First. The man’s ancestors had long since left the spread and the store behind, no doubt just taking their cut as another family ran the business and counted the proceeds. She nearly laughed at the memory of the first so-called major story she landed. But the tale from the past had its uses. Even in the darkening night, Dawn felt sure that she could make her own way to the Alphas’ secret meeting, hide in the shadows, and gather the facts.
Maybe that was all she was meant to take away from this moment.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Cade demanded, trying and failing to take hold of her arm, as she whirled away from him and hardened her stare.
“I didn’t ask to come, and I didn’t ask to get dumped off,” she said. “I’ll do the rest of this on my own if I have to.”
“Like hell you will!” he bellowed.
She pushed back from him again, watching him stumble as she kept moving. Could she make her way on foot? Or maybe she could try her luck with his bike? How hard would it be now that she understood the basics?
“Like hell I won’t!” she screamed. “I’ll show you how scared I am.”
Breaking into a run, Dawn pushed through the dirt, the fallen leaves crunching against her feet as she finally saw Cade’s bike glistening in the moonlight. How had he done it? A turn of the key, a swift push to the pedal, and he was off. Better to keep her eyes straight, even if the road turned. She believed she could make this work as she mounted the bike.
“Dawn! Stop! You don’t know how to…”
His voice started to fade away as the motor revved to life, and Dawn felt the bike sputter for a second under her thighs. Gripping the brake lever, she nearly slowed to a stop when her feet slipped to the pedals again. As Cade’s bike lurched forward, she tottered where she sat and almost felt the inevitable crash.
“What do I do?” she screamed. “I don’t know how—”
“I can fucking see that!”
Before she could utter another word, Cade took hold of the tire and slipped to her back. As the ride along, he worked the gears, turning into the curves in the road, as he struggled to steady the path of the bike and bring them towards something resembling a safe landing.
“Cade, I—”
“Just hang on!” he ordered. “We’re fine!”
But the rubber hit a stray rock, and Dawn fell into the darkness, her head crashing into a fallen branch when she faintly heard his motor die.
“Dawn!”
She could just make out his lean form rushing toward her, and he gently cradled the back of her head, asking over and over again if she was alright, as she forced a question through her lips.
“What about Reese’s sister?” she demanded. “What happened to—?”
She could say nothing else, as everything inside her went black.