Chapter 7
SEVEN
FROST
After getting a good night’s rest, I headed back to the hospital.
Normally, I would’ve abided by someone’s wishes to not have me around.
After all, I understood why she wanted nothing to do with me.
I put her through hell because of my military career.
I dropped off the face of the planet due to the kind of covert job I had taken with a team, and it wasn’t until after I was able to resurface that I realized she had moved on. I blamed no one but myself for that.
But, that asshole at the hospital knew who I was.
Not only that, but he had Lexi at gunpoint. Motherfucking gunpoint. And I knew without a shadow of a doubt that one of them overheard our conversation. Maybe not the specifics, but enough to confirm the fact that we knew each other.
Which meant she was possibly in their crosshairs simply because she existed.
“How the hell do I keep her safe?” I murmured to myself.
I revved my engine and soared through a yellow light.
I had no idea when Lexi’s shift started, but after calling the hospital and figuring out that their ambulance shifts came around often due to underwhelming EMT funding, I had hope that if I staked the place out long enough, I’d eventually come across her.
After snatching up some dinner and coffee at the nearest diner, I planned to pull into the parking lot of the E.R. a few minutes after eight.
Because I certainly didn’t want Lexi seeing me if I could avoid it.
At 8:07 P.M. on the nose, I pulled into a parking space at the far end of the lot.
I had a great shot of the front doors of the place, and the only corner I couldn’t see around was the far-left corner that turned into the docking deck for delivery trucks.
It was a fantastic perch point, especially since the edge of the lot sat on the smallest hill.
It gave me enough of a precipice to look out over everything while still being cloaked in the darkness I knew all too well, so I kept my eyes peeled for any sign of Lexi.
Or those fuckers that had harassed her the other night.
While I sat there with my helmet tucked underneath my arm, I racked my brain as to what I’d do if those assholes showed back up.
I didn’t have much of a reason to go see her unless I knew she was in danger, but part of me tried to come up with a reason to go searching for her as well.
And while I wanted to keep my past in my past, which was why I never tried to track down Lexi in the first place, this was much different.
I couldn’t allow her to succumb to something she wasn’t even involved in.
The past collides with the present.
My brain started spinning out of control as I sat there and surveyed the sun as it started to set behind the hospital itself.
What if I hadn’t been there to protect her and get her out of that fucking situation the other night?
What would they have done to her simply because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Would they have killed her? Would someone else have stepped in to protect her?
Would she even be a target had I not gone outside to do anything about it?
“Fucking hell,” I groaned.
I sat there all night, waiting for signs of someone to pop up.
But no motorcycles revved, and no hydraulic cars peppered the parking lot.
I watched that paunchy, overweight security guard with rosy, red cheeks patrol around the outskirts of the lot every once in a while, however I didn’t see Lexi at all.
That was, until nine o’clock that evening rolled around.
The second she emerged from the ambulance doors, two things struck me as odd: she still wasn’t in her scrubs like I always remembered her being, and she seemed practically exhausted.
The Lexi I remembered fondly from time to time had so much energy that sometimes she’d stay up all night simply because she couldn’t wind down.
During my first few days out of basic, I’d get video calls from her at two, sometimes three in the morning, asking me how I was doing and wondering if I could settle the phone by my face so she could “hang out with me” while I slept.
Damn it, I missed those days.
I kept as still as possible as her eyes panned around the parking lot. If she saw me, she didn’t give me any indication that she had, and once she delivered whoever had been unlucky enough to need an ambulance that night, she climbed right back into the ambulance without a second thought.
And I got a wild hair up my ass to follow her.
I watched that damn vehicle like a hawk before I cranked up my engine.
I didn’t want to startle anyone, so I kept a good distance and tried my best to look nonchalant about things.
I stayed four car lengths behind them, watching as whoever was driving turned into a fast-food place that stayed open practically all night.
Until finally, all of the following led me back to the ambulance bay where they docked their things, and their personnel, when there were no emergencies to attend.
“One down, one to go,” I murmured.
With my helmet on I knew she’d never be able to discern who I was, even if she got curious and started looking around.
I still make sure to stay out of sight, nonetheless.
My heart leapt into my throat every single time that ambulance tore out of the bay, and I had to resist every single urge possible to follow just to make sure she stayed safe on the job.
She didn’t need me, that much had been made clear.
But, old habits were hard as fuck to break.
Still, she never once clocked me. Or, she didn’t act like she had.
I stayed perched outside in the shadows until damn near five in the morning when I finally watched her stumble out of the building, exhaustion flooding her face.
She made her way toward that old, beat-up Jeep Cherokee that I couldn’t believe she had kept running this entire time, and as she slid behind the wheel of her vehicle, I readied myself for one more journey.
I knew where she worked, but now I needed to know where the fuck she lived.
“Come on, make this easy on me, beautiful,” I whispered.
When she struck up her engine and pulled out of the parking lot, I waited for three seconds before I cranked my own engine.
I slipped behind her in traffic, doing my best to stay concealed as she weaved her way through lights.
She didn’t try to lose me, or ditch me at any lights, which told me that I was doing a damn fine job of staying out of her field of vision.
However, once she took a harsh left at a yellow light, I had to come to a quick halt so that I didn’t blow through a red light.
For the smallest of moments, I thought that she has spotted me. That she had worked out who in the hell was on the bike behind her.
But, when I saw her turn into an apartment complex directly after that sharp left-hand turn, I knew I had her.
“Bingo,” I murmured.
The light turned green, and I eased myself through the turn.
I prayed there wasn’t some sort of gate I had to get through, and while there was, the gate was completely open at five-fifteen in the morning.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. The least the complex could do was make sure the gate was closed before the front office opened.
That was neither here nor there, though.
I eased through the complex, keeping great care not to step on the gas unless absolutely necessary.
And when I found her Jeep perched in front of a complex at the end of a dead-end road, something caught my eye.
“Shit,” I hissed.
I watched as a low-rider vehicle eased by Lexi’s street and the guy behind the wheel of the car had his head on a swivel. I watched him intently, readying myself for action as he passed by without one look down the road. Holy fucking hell, that guy must’ve been waiting at the hospital for her.
Or, maybe they already knew where she lived.
I looked up at the front face of the apartment building her Jeep was parked in front of and memorized the number.
1810. I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I slid my bike helmet onto my head, then crept back out onto the main road that ran directly by the front office.
I watched as the low-rider slipped all the way down the road.
I pointed my bike directly at him, watching as he did a twenty-two-point turn to get his ridiculous car turned back around at the opposing dead end of where Lexi had parked.
And when he saw me, I revved my engine.
“Come get me, you stupid fuck,” I growled.
That was when I stepped on the gas. I charged the vehicle, revving my engine and watching as he turned on his lights, full-stop. I blazed a trail, playing chicken with the front end of his shitty-ass vehicle, and at the last second, I slipped to the left and balled up my fist.
And when I slammed it against the window of his car, I knew that got his attention.
“Motherfucker!” he roared.
I kicked up burnt rubber, whipping myself around and sped through the complex.
I found a back exit that was just barely chained closed, and I said my prayers before tanking through the damned thing on my bike.
The rusted chain snapped like cheap plastic and the gate flew open, allowing me access to the main road the complex sat on without dragging the man past Lexi’s parking space.
And as he careened onto the main road with me, the chase was on.
“Come get me, asshole!” I exclaimed.
I wound through traffic, making my way for the highway that stretched along the jagged, cliff-laden coastline.
The smell of salted water wafted up my nostrils, focusing me more than ever before.
I had to get this bastard as far away from that complex as possible.
Then, I had to tell the guys that they fucking knew where she lived.
How they knew that, I had no idea.
But I now had confirmation that Lexi was no longer safe.
The further away I drove from her complex, the more relaxed I became.
So, I started to have a bit of fun with the man dragging ass behind me.
I tore down alleyways and cackled at how his front end kept bumping every curb, sending his back end up into the sky.
I had half of a mind to pull out my gun and blow out his fucking tires, but I sure as hell didn’t want to start a shoot-out with all of these civilians out and about trying to get coffee into their systems. So, I did the next best thing.
I slipped down an alleyway that grew narrower with every inch forward.
And when I heard the sound of metal sliding against brick, a smirk crossed my face.
“You stupid fuck!” the man shrieked.
I whipped myself around, covering my body in burnt rubber smoke as I revved my engine.
The man tried to back up and jam himself through the alley, but the more he did it the more he got stuck.
He turned on his hydraulics, probably trying to bounce his ass free.
But, when the nose of his car got caught in a downward slope, a mischievous smile crossed my face.
“Sucks to suck, my man,” I murmured.
With one last rev of my engine, I spun out my tires. The man cursed wildly over all of the noise as police sirens sounded in the distance. I soared forward, using the front end of his car as a ramp, and I launched myself into the air and over his head.
Before touching back down at the far end of the alleyway.
“Have fun with the pigs!” I exclaimed.
The man roared as sirens grew closer. People shrieked and gasped, clutching their hearts and moving out of the way as I wobbled to get myself back onto the road. And a few minutes later, the blaring sirens of the police were nothing more than background noise as I made my way back to the warehouse.
With more news than ever to report back to Stone.