by Evelyn Glass
Dawn nodded into his neck, and she sighed when he folded her close to her chest. His kiss moved like crazy around his hair, into her eyes, and when he pulled back and started to lower his eyes, Dawn touched his chin and smiled.
“I feel safe with you,” she said.
“Truly?”
“I…”
It wasn’t the easiest thing for her to give life to the words. She could see could see him feeling her pain. And she started to turn to her other side when he caught her chin in his hands and smiled.
“Do I have you back, Dawn?” he asked. He started to lose her shirt, and she knew what was coming next, wanting it on some level when she pressed her fingers to his bare chest and shook her head.
“Can I…can I just feel safe?” she pleaded.
For a second, Cade appeared disheartened, and Dawn felt sure that he would leave her when his arms tightened. He held her close for a split second before bringing her back to the bed and smoothing the sheets around her sides.
“Safer?” he asked. “Better?”
“Please come closer.”
Cade started to fall to her side when he drew back. Dawn kept reaching for him, and she just caught hold of his hand.
“I…I can’t do all of it,” she confessed. “Except for…”
No way she could let her touch her there. And she feared that it would turn him off to the point to the place where he would force her to follow after the Panthers’ scraps. Ready to rise and make her way on her own, she was stunned by the feel of Cade’s fingers surrounding her wrist.
“Can I still lay with you?” he asked. “Just let me do that?”
Dawn nodded, and he gathered her chin in his hands. His supple lips alleviated most of her fears, and she kissed him softly.
“More that I had hoped for,” he said. “Makes me think that—”
“Don’t push it, Cade,” she gently warned. “I’m still a mess after what he…after what he did to…”
She found it hard, next to impossible to finish the story. But Cade bowed his head and rested his head closer to her side with a heavy sigh.
“Tell me you’ll stay now.”
Their lips nearly met in a kiss, and she was on the verge of savoring her lips when she drew back and remembered her wound.
“It…it still hurts,” she said.
“Can I help you there?” he asked.
Dawn nodded, and Cade kept the gauze in place as he nuzzled her neck.
“I’ll tend to your wounds for as long as you’ll let me,” he said. “And this is enough for me.”
She met his lips and kissed him softly. It was so much better than any frenzied pursuit. And Dawn felt safe with him as he smoothed her hair about her wounded cheek. Their eyes locked, and she smiled.
“Think you need to sleep now,” he said. Dawn nodded her assent, but Cade kept her close. She let him lower his arms around her body, and she only shifted her position to gaze deeper into his eyes.
“Cade, I—”
“Rest,” he whispered. “I swear that’s all I want.”
Believing in his words, Dawn dared to kiss his cheek. And he folded her closer. She took comfort in his arms and wanted nothing else as he rocked her.
“Like a baby, honey.”
“What was that?”
They started to break apart, and Cade’s face was wracked with worry. She should make the move now to soothe his soul.
“Don’t call me that,” she whispered. “Please.”
He gave her a few inches, as he kept his hands in her hair. Dawn saw his eyes filling with concern, and she touched her fingers to his unblemished cheek and sighed softly. She had no words as he pulled her closer to his chest, and the pain became more and more memory. He was here and real, and Dawn nodded at the sound of his name leaving her lips.
“Fits,” he said. “Sun is almost up in the sky.”
Cade kissed her hair and carried her to the window. Sunlight passed through the glass, and she paused to soak in the heat of the rising sun. It was warm, but the curve of Cade’s arms widened her smile.
“I didn’t run away from you,” she said. “I only wanted to help you.”
“Don’t take those kinds of chances,” he said.
Dawn started to nod into his neck when her thighs burned.
“It still hurts,” she confessed. “I can’t…I can’t even say that…”
“And you don’t have to,” he said. “Let’s just go back to bed.”
Cade followed the words with the deed, and as soon as he had her settled under the sheets, he kissed her cheek before moving his lips to the gauze.
“Wait.”
The Alpha followed her order, and he rested his chin to her shoulder as he touched her lightly.
“Do you still want me with you?” he asked.
“I...”
“Say yes, Dawn. Say that I can just hold you.”
Looking into his eyes, she nodded quickly and wasted no time falling into his arms. The tears fell freely as he held her closer and tried to kiss her hair. Dawn backed away without wanting to, and she moaned when Cade stopped short of claiming her lips. He just rested her mouth to her neck, and cuddled her closer. The pain grew fainter as she rested against his chest, and she thought of slipping into sleep when the lure of his eyes was too calming to resist. Better to stay in his gaze and linger in the space of the waking dream as he smoothed his strong hands down her sides, his lips caressing her hair as his brow fell to hers.
“You know I’d sooner die than have anything like that ever happen to you again,” he said. “You know that, right?”
“I do,” she said. “And I didn’t want it to be Nicole again.”
“We’re all grateful for that,” he assured her. “Kind of makes you one of us now.”
Pushing back from him ever so slightly, she cupped his chin in her hands and lightly kissed his lips. Strange as it seemed, this felt right; she wanted to be one of them with everything that it might mean. Dawn gave no thought to the story, to exposing them where they stood. But could they…?
“What happens now?” she asked. “You guys can’t stay here.”
“Don’t see why not,” Cade said. “We’re the only game in town now.”
“But the cops,” she continued. “They’ll point a finger at you. Cade, I… I don’t want to even think of losing you.”
She gritted her teeth as she threw her arms around his neck, and Cade held her tighter, whispering into her hair that she had nothing and no one to fear. But Dawn stretched to her elbows, and Cade kept her hand in his.
“You won’t lose me, Dawn,” he promised. “You—”
“Where is the kid?” she asked.
“Who?”
“They boy. The one with green eyes.”
“My boys are working him over,” he told her.
“But are they asking the right questions?”
Cade seemed confused as she forgot her pain and moved away from his side in search of her sneakers. He started to pull her back, and Dawn nearly sank back into his chest.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” he said. “Right now you need to rest.”
He kissed her cheek, but she reluctantly backed away as she shook her head.
“No, Cade,” she said. “I think it’s something that we all have to worry about. Right now.”
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
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 rig
ht 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.
