by Evelyn Glass
“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.
CHAPTER NINE
“Dawn?”
She could hear Cade’s voice in the distance. Her head still pounded even as she turned to find a soft pillow at her cheek, her body resting below a downy quilt. Lost in a faint dream, Dawn felt her body falling again. But right before the point of impact, the air became Cade’s arms, and he kept her from slipping, bringing her close to his chest, as he kissed her lips on the back of a smile.
“Dawn?”
And the night turned to day, as he led her back to his bike and pushed her to the seat. Before she could even blink, he was revving up the motor, and they raced back to Plainfield, passing the town as soon as they drew close, and suddenly, she felt soft snow pressing into her hair as he looked back at her and laughed.
“Dawn? Come on now. Wake up.”
“Easy, boy.”
The sound of a woman�
�s voice mingled with the wind, and she held him tighter as the bike drew close to a hill. All they had to do was hit the peak, and they would roll down the other side with the wind whipping through their hair. Dawn waited for the descent when the ground came out from under, and she started to fall away from the bike, reaching for Cade as he fell farther away from…
“No!”
Shooting up and out of her dream, Dawn clutched Cade’s arm, turning her head wildly, as she slowly focused on the feel and the sight of him so real and so close.
“It’s okay,” he promised her.
“I… what happened?” Dawn asked.
Mona examined the back of her head, sighing slowly as she turned her eyes to Cade.
“Just a bump,” Mona said. “Pretty sure she’ll be fine.”
Cade started to lay her back to the bed. Dawn’s eyes absorbed the rustic surroundings. Wooden beams crisscrossed over her head, and nothing but firelight illuminated the small space, as she curled into the crook of Cade’s arm and looked up into his eyes.
“You should have stayed put ,” he said. “I told you that you were safe here.”
One look into Mona’s eyes nearly put the point on his words, and the cabin with the candles comforted her, even as the wind whistled outside. Too soon for real snow, but she still pushed deeper under the blankets and focused on Cade’s eyes and the feel of his fingers just brushing into her hair. She wanted to rest her head to his heart and forget the pain, all her fears.
But then there was the memory of George trailing close behind the other Alphas and threatening to call Cade out for casting her one too many longing looks.
“No!” she cried as she shot up again. “You said… you have to tell this Reese that you’re on his side, and…”
A dizzy spell consumed her brain, and Dawn fell back to the bed with Cade’s hand on her face.
“I’ll take care of it,” he said. “You wait here. Rest.”
He laid a light kiss on her brow, and she felt him push away from the bed, as he pulled Mona to a dark corner and spoked softly. Dawn strained away from the pillows, trying to make out his words when she fell back again with a heavy sigh. There had to be more to the story? What wasn’t he telling her? Why bring her here unless there was something he never wanted her to see…?
Or maybe it was the other way around.
The faint fall of footsteps coming from the next room lifted the clouds from her mind, and Dawn shifted her stare to see a skinny redhead emerging from the shadows wearing baggy jeans and a bulky sweater. As soon as she fixed her stare on Cade, Dawn held her breath as he took the girl in his arms. Despite her daze, Dawn couldn’t fight the jealousy starting to circle her heart, and she was almost back at full strength, her body perched at the edge of the mattress, as Cade eased the girl closer to Dawn.
“This is Nicole,” he started. “An old friend of the crew.”
“Of the family,” Nicole said, correcting him, as she rubbed her fingers down his arms. The way she touched him, the faint glint in her eyes when she cast him a smile set Dawn’s teeth on edge, and she rose to her feet, just leaning against Mona when the blood rushed to her brain. Cade moved fast to take her by the hand, but suddenly the thought of his touch flooded her with confusion. Dawn stood her ground as she backed away from Cade, her gaze never leaving Nicole’s eyes.
“What the hell is going on?” she asked. “You…you want me to come. Then, you’re dumping off here, and—”
“And I hear you took a nasty spill,” Nicole said.
“I didn’t push her or anything,” Cade insisted.
“Never said that you did. And you know that Reese expects you at the dance.”
“Why does that sound like you’re looking for an invite?” he challenged.
“Like it’s not my birthright, too,” she said. “Time was when you went to the mat for me.”
Narrowing her eyes, Dawn ticked off the evening’s facts. Harold Whitaker dead. Something about the man’s daughter lost to all who loved her.
And Cade said she might learn a few things if she hung back…
“You’re…you’re Reese’s sister,” she said. Nicole neither denied nor identified with the label, but Dawn she saw the girl’s eyes start to fill with tears. Cade moved to place a gentle arm around her shoulders when she shrugged him off, pacing past Mona as she wrung her hands behind her neck and smiled without joy.
“Did you figure that out all on your own?” she asked. “Or did our friend give you some hints.”
“The latter,” Dawn confessed, her eyes suddenly focusing on the girl’s quivering limbs, as Cade tried to touch her again.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But it’s not like it was secret. Whole crew kind of knows, and—?”
“And that was where it should have started and stopped!” Nicole cried out. “Even Reese just has the bare bones. And now you…you let this intruder in on the whole show?” Two perfect tears passed through her big brown eyes, and Nicole settled in the window seat, hugging her knees close to her chest, as she shot Dawn a careful glance before speaking to Cade. “Who is she?” Nicole asked. “Looks like more than some piece of tail.”
Was she supposed to take that as a kind of compliment or square her shoulders since Nicole had called it right? Or was she just a side piece with fancy words and an agenda?
“Nicole, listen to—”
“No! You listen!” she screeched, as she pushed him back and pressed her palms to the window. Dawn thought that she would shatter the glass where she stood, but Nicole suddenly surprised her, drawing back into herself, as she turned to meet the members of the room, her eyes darting between the trio when she focused her stare on Mona and asked for a drink.
“You really think that’s a good idea?” the old woman asked.
“You gonna make me get it myself?”
Mona obliged and ducked out of the room. Looking to Cade, Dawn started to speak when Nicole waved her hand between them, biting down on her nails as Mona returned with a beer that the girl chugged in record time.
“Better,” she said. “I…shit.”
Nicole looked as if she was ready to swoon when Cade gathered her in his arms. He gently returned her back to the window, his hands seemingly soft against her legs as he shook his head.
“Maybe someone else should know,” she said, her voice cracking around the words, as he sat at her side and took her by the hand. “You still haven’t told Reese?”
“Not…not the whole story,” he said. “You know what he might do with it. Always thought it was a good thing that he sent me ahead to get the lay of the land.”
“And you…you came back with this,” Nicole said.
Dawn watched the girl’s lip quiver, and she suddenly wanted more than her side of the story; she wanted to know if there was anything that she could to do help, and she said as much as she stumbled forward, her hands on Nicole’s face, as Cade’s fingers dotted Dawn’s hair. She didn’t cringe, but nearly sank into the entirety of his touch as Nicole sucked in a deep breath.
“Do you…can I trust her?” Nicole asked.
“I do,” Cade said. “Even though she tried to make off with my bike.”
His soft smile warmed her soul, as Mona relit her pipe. All eyes were on Nicole, as her face went blank and she fell into a dark memory.
“Daddy always…he said I was too much out front,” she started. “Said even an old lady didn’t make those kinds of moves. But he was the boss. So I was…that was supposed to mean something.”
Dawn was about to tell her that she didn’t have to keep pressing forward if the telling was too much to bear when Nicole’s eyes drifted towards the glass and the night.
“I thought I…I could beat them at their own game,” she continued. “Like twirl them around my little finger and make them give in to all of Daddy’s demands.”
In theory, it made a kind of sense. Men like Norm and Atticus and George, too, for that matter were little better than walking hard-ons. And if the right
girl turned their heads, there shouldn’t be anything to fear.
“But it didn’t go down like that,” she said in a small voice. “Right, Cade?”
He nodded sadly, and for the first time Dawn understood the feelings passing between them. For these people, the word family extended beyond blood, and Nicole was his sister, too.
“We…we got you out before…”
“No, you did that, Cade,” she said. “Came for me when no one else would. Or could.”
