Cade fought her for all of a second when Dawn managed to stand tall, one foot sneakered and the other bare. No words passed between them as she painfully struggled into her shirt. Seeing no sign of her jeans, she asked him for some cover against the cold crawling up her injured thighs.
“Dawn,” he finally said. “Just let them handle—”
“I ask questions for a living Cade,” she reminded him. “And he… something told me that he didn’t want to be there. Doing…doing that to me.”
She started to swoon at the memory of the assault, but Cade was quick to brace her body from falling, and she planted her palms to his firm chest.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “So what if he’s the last man standing? He won’t be that for much—”
“Then your boys are making a mistake,” she said. “You need to know what he knows and who he might have said something to and…what?”
His face was awash in an expression that she could not read, and Dawn wondered if he had really meant it when he swore that she was on their side. Or was it just lip service? Something to keep her in bed under any terms?
“This is not the way that it works,” he said as he reached under the bed and retrieved a pair of baggy sweatpants. Dawn made no other move as he eased her legs into the wrinkled fabric, and he finished by collecting her other sneaker and easing it to her foot. Not quite the Cinderella experience, but it became something more when he touched his fingers to her face and smiled.
“But then again, everything is different with you,” he said. “And maybe you’ve earned the right to play a little hardball.”
Dawn bit down on her lips, and she strained to the tips of her toes to kiss his lips.
“Thank you for that,” she said. “For trusting me.”
“I do, Dawn. Always.”
He folded his arm around her shoulders and stayed close to her side as the exited the room. Walking was easier than she imagined with the Alpha so near, but Nicole and Gloria still startled from their seats when they saw Dawn’s approach.
“What the hell, Cade?” Gloria asked. “She needs to rest after all that!”
“Her call,” Cade said. “And if she says she can take it, I believe her.”
“You believe her?” Gloria challenged, as she folded her arms across her chest. “Cade, I’m the expert here. And you need to listen to me when I say—”
“What about what I have to say?”
The healer did a double take at the sound of Dawn’s voice, surprisingly strong in spite of all that she had endured. But out of the corner of her eye, Dawn saw Nicole smiling, as she kept her eyes fixed on the floor.
“You got through it,” Dawn spoke aloud. “See any reason why I shouldn’t make it work?”
Lifting her head, Dawn trembled some as Nicole narrowed her eyes, and she steeled herself for a dressing down when Nicole finally shook her head.
“Think you might even do me one better,” Nicole confessed. “I say go give him hell, girl. Do what you got to.”
Bowing her head in silent thanks, Dawn held Cade’s arm tighter as they left the clubhouse. The sun was just starting to peek from over the hills, and she felt wide awake at the sounds of hands hitting flesh from one of the outer buildings. They kept moving forward when Dawn began to quake against his side.
“We can turn back right now,” he said. “I won’t blame you if—”
“No. We need to know the extent of that damage. Right now.”
He kissed her temple, and as soon as they hit a rickety door hanging on rusty hinges, Cade pounded twice, brining every other sound to a halt in his wake.
“Open up,” he said. “Someone else wants a turn with the motherfucker.”
In a flash, Reese was there, his lips fixed in a straight line, his glare only for Cade.
“We got this,” Reese started. “Think what you need to do is…whoa.”
He seemed stunned by the sight of Dawn up and about, and he shifted into the thawing air, closing the door behind him as he lowered his voice.
“What the hell is she doing here?” Reese asked.
“Reese, I—”
“We’re taking care of this. He’ll be down before the day turns back into night.” And just like that, the Panthers would be no more. Like the locals wouldn’t jump all over that. There was no way that they could linger on the outskirts of Plainfield or even think about getting a foothold back on the territory lost. Somehow she would make Cade understand that.
But they couldn’t afford to leave any loose ends behind.
“Give me five minutes,” Dawn said. “He’ll answer questions that you wouldn’t even think to ask?”
“He’ll what?” Reese asked, his eyes basically bulging from his head as he spoke. “Look, I’m sorry about what happened to you. But if you really are his old lady or whatever, then learn that—”
“Reese?”
Lenny’s smaller stature allowed him to slip through the crack in the door, and he smiled with a snort as he took Dawn by the hand.
“If she went in Nicole’s place, then she’s got every right,” he said. “Old order’s coming to an end. Along with all of this.”
“No way,” Reese said. “Wasn’t what my dad wanted.”
“And what do you want, Reese?”
Looking into Dawn’s eyes at the sound of her question, Reese seemed to morph back into a little boy, and petulantly kicked the toe of his boot into the dirt as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.
“Just want something that’s mine already,” he said. “Don’t want this happening again to my sister or… or to anyone.”
Seizing onto his words like a lifeline bobbing just above choppy waters, Dawn touched his arm.
“Then let me ask him if there’s anything else to worry about,” she said.
“Besides the fuzz?” Reese asked. “Maybe…maybe we can bring them back around if—”
“But you better be sure that’s all that there is.”
Reese tried to pull Cade off to the side, but Cade stayed closed as he waved his fingers under the kid’s wide eyes.
“She says that’s she can do this,” Cade said. “So we’re flipping the script. Just let her talk to him so we can be sure.”
Reese rolled his eyes and pushed the door open with the force of his hip.
“Better be onto something here, Cade,” he said.
“Think we can trust him,” Lenny said. “And her.”
Entering the room, a few rays of sunlight just starting to poke through a series of small windows, Dawn tried and failed to suppress a gasp at the sight suddenly under her stare. Atticus was stripped above the waist, his chest zigzagged with marks from matches and knifepoints. There was no way to discern the color of his eyes, too much blue and purple swelling already lining the green. Part of Dawn wanted to add to the injuries; the kid could have let her run or stopped short of cornering her in the first place. At the very least, he could have fired his gun and stopped the madness before her body was shredded, and Dawn felt the pain wash over her in a fresh wave as she turned her head to Cade’s shoulder.
“I… I don’t know if—”
“What the hell? Why is she here?”
George slapped the back of Atticus’ bleeding head, and he tried to wrestle Dawn away from Cade’s side when the Alpha lunged and drove George’s flailing body into the far wall.
“Just think about touching her again, and it’ll be you in that chair,” Cade threatened. “I will do more than bleed you out when I’m done with you.”
George’s lips curled into a solid sneer, and he looked to Lenny for something in the way of backup when Reese curled his tongue over his teeth.
“We’re giving them this,” Reese said. “And you will fall in line, or I’ll let Cade make good on his word.”
For the first time, he almost sounded like a leader, and Cade kept George at bay as Reese led Dawn to Atticus’ shattered eyes.
“You got company, prick!” Reese bellowed. He kicked his boot into Atticus’ shin, and the Panther trembled, tied to the chair as he looked up and started to moan through his bloodied lip. He seemed to see Dawn, and he nearly knocked the chair over under the weight of his fear when Dawn steadied his shoulder with her hand and forced a smile.
“Relax,” she said. “I’m just here to talk.”
Atticus kept quaking around her touch, and Dawn fell to her knees and softened her stare.
“I saw you,” Dawn started. “I know you didn’t want to hurt me.”
“No,” he said as his head lolled one way and then the other. “Norm said the Alphas would be out for blood. We were just trying to get back on the right foot.”
“So why not just do us all when you first came around,” Dawn asked. “Easy pickings. Or maybe stop Cade from coming back to the dance at all.”
Atticus’ mashed lips quivered, and Dawn saw tears trying to push their way through his bruises when her rage leapt past her heart and poured out of her throat in a furious scream.
“Why prolong the inevitable?” Dawn demanded. “What were you getting out of—?”
“Like I have to tell you!”
Atticus’ voice sounded strangely strong, and Dawn started to fall back to her heels when Cade was right there, his hands on her shoulders as he glared at the wounded Panther.
“Think you do, kid,” Cade hissed. “Dawn is only here because—”
“Because her boss or whatever wants to make a name for himself in this fucking one horse town.”
The room went completely still, and Dawn just felt Cade’s slipping away when she lunged forward. Paying no mind to the Panther’s injuries, she dug her nails into his cheeks, wanting him to hurt as she struggled to keep her voice clear and steady.
“You better not be bringing Michael into this,” Dawn said. “He’s a newsman. Not a thug. Why would he—?”
“Because…because he could like smell the trouble in the water,” Atticus said. “Knew it would make for…for good copy. Norm was happy to set the scene. Cops don’t care about the Alphas. And you… as for you…”
Dawn’s head reeled with too many thoughts at once, and she could hardly believe that Michael would work behind the scenes to set all this in motion, let alone place her on the front lines without the full facts when a hard hand pulled her to her feet.
“So you in on it, too?” George bellowed. “That why you’re here? Don’t want your fucking cover blown?”
No chance of helping that now, and his fist moved perilously close to her injured face when Cade swung into action and folded her body behind his back.
“I said don’t touch her!” Cade screamed.
“Even now?” George shot back as he started to draw his gun. “Dude, she played you? Unless… unless you’re in on it, too?”
Wanting anything but his demise, Dawn frantically waved her hands in the air, ready to spill what she knew of the story when Atticus’ body, wracked with fresh sobs, shook violently in the chair.
“Girl didn’t know!” he screamed. “Norm asked what would happen if she got caught in the crossfire. Guy said it would make for a better story. Talked posthumous honors or some shit.”
Dawn’s heart softened as she turned her eyes back to the Panther’s bruised face. He hadn’t stepped up to the plate for her before, but he was making the move now. And she almost smiled when Cade abandoned her side.
“Set up and we didn’t even see it coming,” he said as he stood toe to toe with Reese. “You want your own thing? We move now. Finish this one off before we start riding.”
Reese nodded as he reached for his gun, and Dawn charged forward, placing her body between the impending bullet and Atticus.
“Don’t burn a source,” he said. “He might still come in handy. And… and God knows I want to know what else I was set up for.”
Curling his finger around the trigger, Reese still looked ready to fire when he looked to Cade for instruction.
“What do we do here?” Reese asked. “Are you buying this?”
No reason that he should, and if Dawn wanted to see Michael now. She felt as if she could strangle him with her bare hands for putting her in harm’s way. And for giving Cade cause to doubt her when she had him so close. Dawn felt more pain than the metal digging into her body until Cade gathered her into his arms. A shocked sob passed through her lips when his arms melted around her, in front of his boys, and Cade gently lifted her chin so she met his eyes.
“I believe her,” he said. “No way she would have set herself up for what went down. Just another pawn. And I’m tired of all of us being played for fools.”
Wanting to fall into his chest and revel at the sound of his beating heart, Dawn squared her shoulders back and tried looked to Atticus.
“He’s the only one that can keep talking,” she said. “Makes sense to let him live. And—”
Her hand suddenly flew to her mouth, and Dawn backed away on trembling legs as Cade tried to bring her back.
“Dawn?” he asked. “What is it? What are you—?”
“Oh God, Cade. My notes. My notes are back at my place. If Michael doesn’t have them by now. I have… I have to…”
“Dawn, just—”
“No! I wrote it all down by hand,” she continued. “He’ll…he won’t hand them over to the cops.”
“Why not?” George asked. “If he’s out for blood, then—”
“Then he’ll use them in some other way!” Dawn wailed. “Set another crew on your tail over and over again until he finally gets the story that he wants most.”
Dawn pictured the Alphas continuing to flee, danger lurking behind every corner until Michael got the cover that he wanted most. A bloodied mass of Alpha bodies with open, unseeing eyes gazing skyward with no hope of ever blinking again. Thoughts of Cade and Nicole and the others looking like that made her sick. And the idea that she was expendable enough to go down with others coiled her hands into tight fists against her shaking sides.
“I have to go back,” Dawn said. “Get the notes or none of you will ever be free.”
Turing on her heel, she heard Cade order the Alphas to clean Atticus up, and she pictured all of them riding off into the distance, hoping for enough time to get the deed done when Cade was on her again.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “You need to get going with—”
“Right. Like I’m just going to hang back and let you face this all alone?”
“Cade, it’s…it’s partly my fault,” she said. “I wanted the story. It sounded exciting. And when I…but once I was with you…”
She fell into him and kissed his lips hard, thinking that it would be the last time. Their bodies began to move as one to the earth, and she nuzzled her head against his chest, soaking in his scent before starting to pull back again.
“I don’t regret any of it,” she said. “But you have to let me make it right.”
“Sure enough,” he said, as he helped her back to her feet. “But you do it with me.”
“Cade, you can’t. If you show your face in town…if Michael knows that you’re onto him he—”
“Probably the same thing he would do to you,” Cade countered. “And I don’t even know the guy. Dawn?”
She was limp, as he walked her back to his bike, the sound of the clubhouse in chaos moving swiftly behind their backs. As soon as they reached his chopper, Cade kissed her brow and breathed into her eyes.
“I’m doing this with you,” he said. “And somehow we’re getting out to the other side.”