14. Dahlia
Chapter fourteen
Dahlia
A ringing startled me back into the present, and I felt Asher’s body stiffen beside me as he answered, pausing the movie for the first time.
I saw his face twist into a frown, and his voice was hard as he snapped a running string of questions into the phone.
I sat up, following him with my eyes as he began to pace around the room, my heart starting to pound with an uneasy rhythm.
“Okay, I’ll be right there,” Asher replied sharply, hanging up and shoving his phone into his pocket.
“We need to go, right now.” He pulled off the t-shirt he was wearing, tossing it to the side as he headed over to his dresser.
Grabbing a black tank top and pulling it on, he followed that up with a rigid-looking vest that hugged his body tightly.
I guessed it was some kind of bullet-proof vest. He shrugged a dress shirt over top, and I couldn’t even tell he was wearing the vest once it was done up.
“What happened?” I asked nervously, grabbing my coat off the hook by the door and sliding on my shoes.
“They said Hunter got hurt following the lead, but it doesn’t make sense.” He frowned, raking a hand through his mess of dark hair. “He’s at the hospital, we need to meet him there and find out what happened.”
I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat, following close behind him as he headed out the door.
He was practically glued to my side as we hurried down to the car, and I could feel the anxiety pouring off him as we walked through the parkade and began driving.
His knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel, and I wondered just how badly Hunter had been injured.
We made the drive in near silence, and I felt the tension growing the closer we got to the hospital.
Asher nearly leapt out of the car, and he actually put his arm around me as we walked inside.
I didn’t think it was anything romantic at this point, it felt protective, almost possessive the way he held me close to his side, his hand resting lightly on his gun until we got inside the building.
Hunter was in the ICU, and his room had two officers posted outside, similar to my hospital stay.
They let us through without a word, and I almost gasped when I saw Hunter laying in the bed.
It was hard to reconcile the man I knew with the broken and bruised shell of a person unconscious in front of us.
His handsome face was covered in bruises, his nose broken and one of his eyes swollen completely shut.
Stitches ran down the other side of his face, from his forehead all the way to his chin, like someone had tried to slice his face right in two.
One of his arms was in a cast, and his free hand wasn’t much better, with all of his fingers in splints.
All except one, I realized with sickening horror.
His pinky was missing, bandages covering the space where it should’ve been.
I heard Asher swear under his breath, finally breaking away from my side to go to his partner. “He was tortured,” I rasped, dropping into a chair behind me as my legs gave out. Asher nodded dully, his lips pressed into a thin line as he studied his friend.
Asher put his hand on his partner’s shoulder, his face twisted in pain.
“I should have been there, I’m so sorry,” he told Hunter hoarsely, and guilt washed over me, making my stomach roll.
We’d been cozy and happy in our little bubble while he’d been suffering alone for god knew how long.
I could tell that the guilt was eating away at Asher too, he couldn’t even look at me, and my eyes stung with shame.
Eventually a doctor stopped by, and Asher took him out into the hall to talk.
He didn’t give me any instructions, so I stayed put in my chair, watching Hunter’s chest rise and fall as the machines beeped in the background.
The man had put his life on the line to help me, and I realized now that I knew nothing about him.
Did he have any family? A girlfriend maybe?
I hadn’t seen a ring on his finger, so I knew he wasn’t married.
What would it be like to be married to someone and not know if they’d be coming home to you at the end of the day?
I scooted my chair closer to the bed and put my hand on the small patch of uninjured skin of his arm.
After everything he’d done for me, Hunter shouldn’t have to wake up feeling alone.
I studied the trail of stitches marring his once handsome face.
It made my back twinge, and I wondered what had made Curing deviate from his normal cruelty to do this.
My hand tightened on Hunter’s arm in a gentle squeeze, tears running down my cheeks.
The door opened, and Asher slipped inside the room, walking up to stand next to me. I looked up at him, using the back of my hand to wipe away the tears. “What did the doctor say?” I asked softly.
“He’s lucky, all things considered.” Asher grimaced, apparently not sharing the same opinion as the doctor.
“He didn’t lose the eye at least, but both of his hands were badly damaged, and he busted his knee pretty badly, too,” Asher told me, his hands clenched at his sides.
He was nearly shaking with barely contained rage.
I considered his words carefully, and then the realization hit me like a punch to the gut.
“Will he be able to go back to work?” I asked, my voice trembling.
My heart sank as Asher shook his head, shifting away from me to pace the front of the room.
A fresh wave of guilt rolled over me, and I studied the unconscious man in front of me.
Because of me, he wouldn’t be an agent anymore, and Asher would be losing his partner.
I saw the way they interacted, the familiarity, and the kindness Hunter showed Asher.
This was a devastating blow that they’d been dealt, and it was all because of this stupid case. My stupid case.
Asher paced back and forth, and I could see his mind working, smoke nearly pooling out of his ears with the force of his thought process.
I stayed quiet, holding my silent vigil beside the bed.
I kept my hand glued to Hunter’s arm, as if somehow the physical contact could heal him.
I wished it could, I wished I could take the injuries back from him, leave his face whole and unblemished, his body healed and able to go back to protecting people as he was meant to.
More tears pushed their way out, falling like raindrops and staining my leggings.
“-Was hoping it’d be Ash crying over me,” Hunter mumbled, and I gasped, looking up at his face. His one eye was open just a slit, and I could see the white was actually red, making his face look even more haunted.
“Ash!” I yelped, gripping Hunter’s forearm tightly, trying not to sob. Asher joined us in an instant, tucking himself in beside me to lean over his friend.
“Hey old man.” He smiled, his voice thick with emotion. He reached over to grip Hunter’s shoulder, and Hunter gave a small smile, the uninjured half of his lips quirking up at the corner.
“Wish I could say you should see the other guy,” he muttered, wincing as he tried to shift in the bed. “I was stupid, Ash. We underestimated him and he got the jump on me.” Asher grimaced, his body tense as he surveyed his friend.
“What happened?” he asked, his voice tight as he struggled to remain calm.
“Was following a lead, went alone like a jackass.” Hunter chuckled hoarsely.
“He was waiting for me and knocked me out. I thought he was gonna kill me, but he wanted information.” His eye shifted to me, and I felt the blood drain from my face.
“I didn’t give ’im shit. He was pretty mad about that.
” He smirked, but a small bead of blood formed in the corner of his eye, streaking his face red as it ran down his cheek.
“I’m so sorry, Hunter,” Asher told him softly, and the weight of his words settled over the room. Hunter took a deep, shuttered breath and nodded slowly, as if Asher’s words had a meaning only they understood.
“Don’t know why I’m alive,” Hunter muttered.
“Guess he isn’t as good as he thinks he is.
” He sighed, his eye closing briefly, and I watched Asher consider his words.
I felt hopelessly lost, like they were communicating on another level.
The silence was thick with tension and, at the same time, Hunter’s eye cracked back open and Asher inhaled sharply.
“We need to go,” Asher announced, and Hunter shifted, wincing in pain as he tried to sit up taller in the bed.
“Pass me my gun, would you?” he muttered, pointing the jacket on the nearby table.
Asher moved around the bed and ripped the jacket off the table, revealing Hunter’s badge and gun underneath.
Hunter waved his hand at him, and Asher handed him the gun, although it wasn’t easy with his fingers splinted.
“I’ll get the hospital locked down, you get Dahlia the fuck out of here.” Hunter grimaced, and I stood up as Asher grabbed my arm tightly.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking between the two of them as Asher pulled me to the door.
“It’s a trap, Curing did this to lure us here,” Asher explained, and my chest seized with fear.