Chapter 19
NINETEEN
Dawson prowled the emergency room waiting area.
His stomach, already sour with worry and fear, turned at the stench of antiseptic and bleach.
After passing out in the alley, Peyton had come to in the ambulance, but she’d quickly been whisked away the moment they arrived at the emergency room.
Security hadn’t allowed him past the swinging doors, not even after he flashed his badge. Austin wasn’t his jurisdiction.
An hour had gone by. Still nothing.
Dawson couldn’t stay still. He marched to the nurse's station. “Peyton Hughes. How is she?”
“Sir, I’ve already told you, when there’s news, the doctor will come and update you.” The nurse’s glare was sharp enough to cut to the bone. “If you approach this desk one more time, I'll have security escort you to the parking lot. Are we clear?”
He wanted to scream. Instead, he gave her a sharp nod, not trusting himself to say anything that wouldn’t get him thrown out.
As he turned away from the nurses’ station, the main doors to the hospital slid open.
Jax strolled in. Some of the emotional turmoil rolling through Dawson settled at the sight of his childhood friend.
“How is she?” Jax asked, meeting Dawson near an empty group of chairs.
“I don’t know. They won’t tell me anything.
” His hands balled into fists. “Cade’s goons chased us, and as we were trying to get away, Peyton fell.
She must’ve stabbed herself somehow. She told me she was fine, but she wasn’t.
Then Cade ambushed us, and it turns out she was bleeding the entire time. ”
Those harrowing moments in the alley kept playing on a loop he couldn’t stop.
Cade, putting his hands on her. The gun at her throat.
The slap. Dawson had never felt such rage in his entire life.
He hadn’t known it was possible. And then…
when Peyton passed out…and he’d opened her jacket and saw the blood…
The fear had nearly undone him.
His knees buckled, and he collapsed into a plastic chair. Dawson hung his head in his hands. “Cade was going to kill us. You could feel it, you know? But Peyton talked to him, made some kind of deal, and he let us go.”
“What kind of deal?”
“I don’t know yet. When she came to in the ambulance, all she would say was not to arrest Cade.”
Tears pricked the back of his eyes. Whatever magic trick she’d pulled had saved both their lives.
He’d spent their entire marriage believing he was the one to safeguard her, but it was finally dawning on him that Peyton had never needed his protection.
She needed his support. His attention. His communication.
She needed them to be a team.
Dawson lifted his head and focused on his best friend. “Do you think I hold my feelings in? Like when I’m mad or upset?”
Jax arched his brows. “Yeah, dude.”
He hung his head again. Jax settled into the seat next to him. Long moments stretched in silence. Somewhere in the waiting room, a baby cried and was then shushed by its mother. Dawson knew he should pray, but he couldn’t find the words. He just…couldn’t.
“I’m in love with Peyton.” The words came out in a whisper. He’d tried to avoid it, tried to lie to himself about it, but the truth was, he’d always loved her. And maybe always would.
“Okay, Captain Obvious. Is there anything else you’d like to share? I hold my feelings in, I’m in love with my ex, the sky is blue—”
“Seriously?” Dawson glowered at his friend. “Are you actually cracking jokes now?”
Jax held up his hands in the classic sign of surrender.
“It’s been clear from the moment Peyton showed up in Knoxville that you weren’t over her.
” He paused. “Well, honestly, I knew that before she showed up. But you get the point. Why do you think I tried to talk you out of bringing her to your family’s ranch? ”
“Does everyone know I’m in love with her?”
“Everyone with eyes.”
Dawson groaned.
Jax clapped him on the back. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure she’s still in love with you too.”
His heart skipped a beat. But it was followed by a forbidding sense of fear. “What difference does it make? She left me once. What’s stopping her from doing it again?”
“Sounds like a good question for Peyton.”
“Do you think she knows the answer? Neither of us expected to lose Samuel, or to have our marriage fall apart.” Dawson stared at hands, at the empty left ring finger. “We made promises. Vows to each other in front of our family and in the eyes of God. If that didn’t hold us together, what will?”
Jax was quiet for a long moment. “You're right.
Vows didn't hold you together. But you were also kids when you made them. Barely out of college, no idea what life was about to throw at you.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
“The question isn't whether Peyton will leave again.
You can't control that. The question is whether the woman sitting in that emergency room is the same woman who walked out on you five years ago.”
“She’s not.” Dawson knew that. He’d seen it. Felt it.
“And you’re not either. You’ve both grown. Changed. Learned from your mistakes.”
They had. But was it enough? Dawson wasn’t sure. And he knew loving anyone required a leap of faith, but this…it felt…bigger somehow. More risky.
Probably because he knew just how painful it would be if it all fell apart again.
Dawson tilted his head, curiosity getting the better of him. “I thought you’d be completely against me getting back with Peyton.”
Jax extended his feet in front of him. “I was. At first. But I dunno, man. There’s something about the two of you that just works.
” He shrugged his shoulders. “And honestly, who am I to judge? I hated Megan for years before falling in love with her. She helped me understand that people can grow and change, become better. Everyone deserves a second chance.”
A second chance. He liked the sound of that.
Dawson sat back in his chair. Time ticked by slowly.
Patients came and went, ambulances screamed in and then let in a whirl of activity.
Jax fetched coffee for them both, but Dawson couldn’t drink his.
He left it sitting on the small, white table next to him.
None of it mattered. Not right now. His gaze stayed locked on the doors leading to the interior of the emergency room.
He didn’t know what to feel, or how to make sense of anything that was happening.
All he knew was that he loved Peyton and wanted her to be okay.
Finally, the door swung open, and a doctor emerged. “Detective Graham?”
“That’s me.” Dawson shot out of his seat and closed the distance in three strides.
“Special Agent Hughes is asking for you.”
A wave of relief washed over him. “How is she?”
The doctor led him down a hall, past a hectic nurses’ station and people waiting on beds in the hallway. “The gash on her side needed stitches, and she'll need a tetanus shot since we're not sure what caused the laceration. She'll make a full recovery.”
A nurse called out to the doctor, distracting him. He pointed to the last cubicle. “Right there. Bed 15.” Then he was gone in a flutter of a lab coat.
Dawson weaved his way through people, his chest tight and his heart pounding. The beds were sectioned off with nothing but a curtain. Peyton’s was at the end, and as he rounded the corner, she came into view. He pulled up short at the sight.
Her hair was a tangled mess, half-fallen from its ponytail.
Blood stained the front of her shirt in a dark, uneven bloom.
A bruise was already deepening across her cheekbone where Cade had struck her.
She was perched on the edge of the bed, struggling to feed her arm through the sleeve of her jacket, wincing with every movement.
Then she looked up. And smiled. Not a small, polite, I'm-fine smile. A full, radiant, light-up-the-room smile that hit him like a punch to the chest.
“There you are. I told them to go get you an hour ago, but they kept insisting on…”
He didn’t hear anything she said after that. Dawson closed the distance between them, cupped her face in his shaking hands, and kissed her.
His lips were warm, his touch gentle, and Peyton sank into the kiss.
Warmth spread through her. She reached up and curled her fingers into the front of his shirt.
Pulling him closer. Needing him closer. The sounds of the ER drifted away until there was nothing but them, cocooned in a world of their own making.
Dawson’s hands trembled against her cheeks, and she felt everything he couldn't say in the pressure of his fingers, the way he held her as if she might disappear.
They’d shared hundreds of kisses throughout their courtship.
Some had been tender, some passionate, some fun.
But few had held the depth of feeling this one did.
As if the near-death experiences over the last few days had burned through every wall, every excuse, every reason they'd told themselves this was over, and revealed what had been underneath the whole time.
Love.
She loved him. Always had. Probably always would. And Peyton believed deep down that Dawson still loved her. It was there, in his touch. In his kiss.
Where did that leave them? She didn’t know.
They couldn’t move forward until they left their old mistakes in the past.
Dawson brushed his lips against hers once more before lifting his head to look her in the eyes. “You are either the bravest woman I’ve ever met or the most reckless.” His mouth quirked up at the corner, making him seem both boyish and charming. “I’m thinking it’s a bit of both.”
She scowled, but there was no real heat behind it. “Look in a mirror, pal. You practically dared Cade to shoot you on the spot with that arrest talk.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t smart.” His thumb brushed across her bruised cheek. Soft. Gentle. “I don’t know what kind of deal you made with Cade, but it saved both our lives.”
“I promised to give whatever Lilia stole to him when I find it.”
Dawson stilled. “And he bought it?”
She shrugged, wincing as the movement pulled on her stitches.
“He’s desperate. There’s a mutiny happening within his own ranks, and I sense he knows about the federal investigation into the Iron Serpents.
He might be able to survive all of that, but only if he gets his hands on what Lilia stole.
” She played with a button on Dawson’s shirt.
“You didn’t put out an arrest warrant, did you? ”
“No.” Dawson eased himself down next to Peyton on the bed.
“Jax is outside in the waiting room. He’ll escort us back to Knoxville, make sure we don’t run into any more trouble.
Chief Garcia has been advised of the situation, but as you requested, I asked him to hold off on arresting Cade until I talked to you. ”
Peyton breathed out. “Thank you. If we arrest Cade now, his organization fragments.
Marvis or someone else takes over, and we lose any chance of finding Lilia.
Worse, we blow the ATF's undercover operation. Cade thinks I made a deal with him. Let him believe it. As long as he believes I'm going to deliver the evidence, he has a reason to keep us alive and stay visible. The moment we arrest him, we lose that leverage.” She paused. “I’m pretty sure Ricky is an undercover cop, by the way.”
“I came to the same conclusion. He pinged my internal sensors at Sidewinders, but I couldn’t place why.
After we met with SSA Fallon, I started wondering if he was the undercover agent.
Today’s search of your bag confirmed it.
Street criminals dump and sift. Ricky’s technique was textbook law enforcement—systematic, thorough, every compartment.
And then when Cade put a gun to your throat, Ricky reached for his own weapon.
His instinct was to protect you. But he couldn’t blow his cover, so he did the next best thing by trying to convince Cade to back off. ”
Dawson’s assessment matched her own. “Cade confirmed Marvis is challenging him for power. He may not be the only one though, so we should be careful.” She grimaced. “I assume Marvis hasn’t been found yet?”
“You assume correctly.”
She tried to put her jacket on, but the sleeve wouldn’t cooperate and a shooting pain creased her side. Only five stitches at her waist, but they hurt with every move. “Everyone is searching for what Lilia stole. We have to find it. And her.”
“I agree, but where could she be?”
“I have an idea about that, but I’ll need your help to pull it off.”
“Anything you need.”
She grinned, abandoning her jacket to hook a finger in his shirt and pull him down for a kiss. Her heart tumbled as desire darkened his eyes. “Anything I need?” Peyton loved the way his breath hitched in response.
Then his gaze narrowed. “It’s not gonna require me to tangle with any more criminal bikers, is it?”
She chuckled. “Well…maybe one.” Before he could ask anything more, she kissed him again and then said, “Help me put on my jacket, Dawson, and then I’ll tell you my plan.”