Chapter Eighteen
Lawson gently pressed the cloth against Sarah’s arm as she perched on the edge of his bed. She was staring off into space like she had no idea at all where she was.
The lodge was quiet except for the raised voices Lawson could hear drifting up from downstairs. He knew the guys were arguing about what had happened in town and what the best course of action would be now that Adams had escaped.
As soon as Lawson and Sarah had arrived back at the lodge, he’d asked her to wait for him in his room while he talked to the guys.
After she went upstairs, he had filled Cade, Xavier and Aaron in on everything that had happened since the previous night.
The rest stop bust, Adams’s and Donner’s interrogations, their escape, and Adams’s death by Lawson’s hand.
The guys were just as concerned about Donner’s words as Lawson was.
Even though the man only had Lawson’s first name, if someone had the right resources it wouldn’t take them long to find out his last name, as well as information about Warrior Peak and the others there.
Victor Granger could easily be that someone.
Lawson left the guys discussing plans while he went to check on Sarah. His mind kept turning to her while they were talking and he needed to reassure himself that she was truly okay.
“You should be down there with them,” she mumbled.
He lifted his gaze to meet hers. There was a long, thin cut on the side of her arm from where she had dived into the truck to take cover. Neither of them had noticed until she mentioned the sting on the drive back, and he was cleaning it up before he walked her back to her cabin to get some rest.
“They can deal with it for now,” he replied, though he knew she was right. These guys relied on him to lead their team, and he needed to be involved in whatever plans they were making next, so he did need to get downstairs and meet with them soon.
But Sarah had been trembling like a leaf when they had arrived back at the lodge, and he knew he needed to take care of her first. He couldn’t even imagine how terrified she had been when she had heard those gunshots going off in town.
He was used to this, to some extent, between the military and his stint in the CIA, even if Blue Ridge town square had been the very last place he had imagined having to fight off attackers.
But her? She wasn’t used to this. She needed help. The adrenaline would still be coursing through her system right now, and he couldn’t leave her alone.
He smoothed the cloth over her arm, and she twisted it around to look at the angry red mark on the back of her forearm.
“It’s not that bad,” she told him.
“I hate that you got hurt at all,” he muttered. At least she hadn’t been shot. His side had been grazed, but he could barely feel it. He would likely start to feel that all-too-familiar sting soon, but he didn’t care about that at all when she was so scared and needed him to comfort her.
“What about you?” she asked, nodding to his wound.
He glanced down at the stain of blood on his shirt and shrugged. “It’s fine,” he replied. “I doubt it even needs stitches.”
“Let me have a look, at least,” she insisted, peeling up his shirt and wincing when she saw his side.
“That looks bad,” she murmured, and he grabbed a bandage from the first aid kit and slapped it on to appease her.
He didn’t want her worrying about him. She needed to focus on herself and her own mental health.
He could tell on the drive back to the lodge that she was starting to withdraw into herself from stress and fear.
He wanted to help her calm down and he hoped that reassuring her that he was alright would help with that.
“It’ll heal in no time,” he assured her. “I’ve had plenty worse, trust me.”
She managed a small smile. “That doesn’t make me feel better,” she said, and he kneeled before her, hands on her legs.
“What would make you feel better?” he asked her.
She took a deep breath. “I want you to be honest with me,” she replied. “What happens now that one of them has gotten away?”
He sighed. He knew he owed her the truth, after what she had just been through, but he wasn’t sure she would be able to handle it.
She looked down at him, kneeling in front of her, her eyes full of certainty.
She deserved to know what came next, and he believed she was strong enough to take it in stride.
“It means that Donner will be heading back to Granger,” he explained.
“And that we don’t have the element of surprise on our side anymore.
Or time. He’ll do his research on us, find out who we are and where we are.
Then he’s going to make a move. It’ll be fast. Now that he knows what went down and that we’re trying to disrupt his operations. ”
She nodded, letting out a shaky breath.
“That’s pretty much what I thought,” she said. “What—what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know yet,” he admitted. “I need to talk with the guys, and fill Lainey in on what happened earlier.”
In the chaos of everything that had been going on, he had almost forgotten about Lainey, which he felt guilty about now.
What if they knew where she was and went after her?
He didn’t think that was possible, since no one knew she had been there.
But if Granger really had the connections all over the place like Lainey claimed he did, she could be in more trouble than she realized.
“Why don’t you give her a call to tell her what’s happening?” Sarah suggested.
“Good idea,” he agreed, and he pulled out his phone and dialed Lainey’s number, resting his arm on the bed next to Sarah as he did so. She rubbed his shoulders gently, as though she could sense how tense he was.
No answer. He ended the call and tried again…and again, and again. But nothing. His jaw tensed. He didn’t like this, not one bit. Especially not after the events of the day.
He put his phone away, and Sarah slipped her arms around him, searching his eyes. For what, he wasn’t sure, but decided not to ask. He knew she was concerned for him, just as he was for her.
“She’s probably fine,” she assured him. “Maybe she’s in the shower or stepped out for a minute or something. I bet she’ll call you as soon as she sees she missed your call.”
“I hope so,” he said, though he wasn’t sure he entirely believed it.
She leaned her head against his for a moment, and he closed his eyes.
He just wanted this to be over. Maybe he never should have gotten involved with this in the first place, but he knew there was no way he could let Lainey face this on her own.
She was his friend, after all, and he stood by his friends, no matter how hard it might be, or what dangerous situations they needed help with.
“I’ve got this…feeling,” she murmured, her voice tinged with worry. “Like something bad’s going to happen.”
He opened his eyes and pulled back, gathering her in his arms.
“It’s going to be fine,” he promised her with as much certainty as he could muster. “Try not to worry, I’ll do everything in my power to protect you.”
“I know. I trust you.”
He planted a kiss on her lips, sealing his promise. He didn’t care what happened next, he didn’t care what kind of danger he had to face to keep her safe—he would do it.
“Come on, let’s get you back to your cabin. I’ll tell the guys we’ll meet in the morning. I think we could all use a good night’s rest.” He held on to her hand as they walked down the stairs and out of the lodge.
When they got to her door, he gave her one more kiss and waited until she was inside before heading back to the lodge to tell the guys they’d meet tomorrow.
He wasn’t sure what would come next, but he did know they all needed to be alert and ready.
“SO LET ME GET this straight. You were almost shot dead in the town square?” Hannah asked Lawson, raising her eyebrows at him in horror.
“He was never going to get me from that angle,” he protested. “And besides, I had a gun. I could protect myself.”
The air was tense this morning while all eight of them gathered in the main greeting area of the lodge and went over everything again from the last couple of days.
Lawson and Sarah had both been exhausted and the guys had been too wound up to deal with the day’s events last night. Everyone needed a clearer head and a good night’s rest to process what had happened and come up with their next course of action.
Facing Granger and his men sleep-deprived would do none of them any good in the end.
“In Lawson’s defense,” Sarah rushed to add, “there was no way to know something like that would happen. We were leaving one minute, then the next, shots were being fired. Lawson did what he had to do to protect us both.”
“I thought we could trust Sheriff Willis and his men,” Xavier muttered, clearly disappointed. “But if they couldn’t even keep those two under lock and key—”
“Hey, now that’s not fair,” Bailey chimed in. “That is the first time since I started working at the station that something like this has happened. Those two creeps were making all kinds of noise and had everyone uneasy. Everyone—”
“Xavier. They’re not used to dealing with people like that,” Lawson protested, interrupting Bailey. He didn’t want their discussion getting off-track. “They didn’t stand a chance. It’s a miracle none of them got hurt.”
“No, they came right after you,” Cade pointed out. “They could have killed you. In the middle of the town square. In front of everyone.”
Lawson felt the wound in his side throbbing at him again. It wasn’t bad, but it was a reminder of how close he had come to taking a bullet in the gut.
“But they didn’t,” Lawson replied urgently. “And we don’t have time to talk about what might have happened. We’ve got to focus on what we’re going to do now that one of them has gotten away.”
“Yeah, and where do we start with that?” Xavier asked. “We don’t even know how long it’s going to take Paul Donner to get to Granger—”
“Or where he even is,” Cade added.