by Molly E. Lee
“Damn it, Blake,” I said, my voice trembling as I brought my lips to hers. “You have to come back to me.” Tears pooled in my eyes, my heart breaking with every shallow breath she took in my arms. Every second she didn’t stir, didn’t flutter those gorgeous brown eyes open at me. “You have to come back to me.”
I rocked her, muttering these words over and over until Travis pulled into the emergency room in Dodge City, where a nurse took her from me, rushing her away on a gurney.
“Sir, you have to stay here.” Another nurse pushed against my chest, stopping me from following Blake.
“She’s mine. I have to,” I said, my brain barely able to put two sentences together as Blake was wheeled farther and farther away from me.
“Sir,” the nurse said, forcing me to look at her. “You’re her husband?”
I shook my head, blinking a tear out that rolled down my cheek. “No,” I said, raking my hands through my hair.
“You’ll have to wait out here, please. I’ll come get you the second we have news.” She pointed at a bank of chairs in the lobby where John and Paul stood.
“I can’t . . . just . . .” I was talking to air as she spun on her heels and left down the hallway where they’d rushed Blake.
John wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me toward the chairs and sinking me into one.
My head fell in my hands, and I became a statue, having to remind myself to breathe as my whole world had been ripped from my arms in a matter of heartbeats.
Blake
THE SMELL OF disinfectant and cold, sterile air filled my nose. My eyelids were heavier than steel as I tried to peel them open. A slight burning in the crook of my elbow had me wincing as I reached for it.
A warm hand stopped my movements. “Blake?” Dash’s voice was a broken whisper.
“Dash?” I asked, confused on why speaking made a thousand sharp knives stab my brain.
“Oh, woman, you scared me,” he said, once I’d managed to open my eyes. His were bloodshot red like he’d been crying.
I scrunched my face at him, hissing as I tried to sit up. I gave up, content to lay still. Movements caused the pain to shoot up and down every nerve ending I had. “Why do I feel like I’ve been hit by a . . .”
And that is when I remembered the massive black tire flying through the air, aimed directly for Daniel’s head as if the giant tornado had taken out a personal vendetta against him. I’d seen it before he had; as he hadn’t taken his eyes off the tornado for a second.
“By a tractor tire,” I finally finished.
Dash scoffed, rubbing his palms over his face. “Blake.” He said my name again, and I remembered the rest of it. The reasons I’d chased without him—Daniel’s irresistible offer to get away from Dash who had shredded my heart. Though it hurt like hell, I jerked my hand from his grasp. “Blake,” he said again.
“Stop,” I cried. “Please stop saying my name like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m still yours!”
“You are!”
“No!” I snapped, my head ringing. “No,” I said more calmly. “I’m not. I saw you. I can’t do this.” Tears stung my eyes, and I wished desperately that I was sitting up, that I was in my own clothes instead of a hospital gown.
“That was Annabelle.”
“I don’t want to know her name.”
“Annabelle, my oldest sister?” Dash asked, as if her name should jog my memory.
“What?” I closed my eyes, searching for the names of his three sisters. Amanda, Alexandra, and . . . Annabelle. Fuck. Fuck a fucking duck.
“Yeah,” he said, registering the look of recognition when I’d opened my eyes. “I didn’t know the band she tours with was stopping here.” He shrugged. “If you would’ve let me explain . . .”
“What was I supposed to think?” I said, tears spilling over my lashes. “Every stop we’ve made there has been a girl ready and willing to drop all and serve you.”
“You’re supposed to have more faith in me than that! In us.” He paced the length of the hospital bed. “How can you not see how crazy I am about you?”
“It’s easier to believe the worst,” I said, knowing that wasn’t a good enough excuse, but it was there regardless.
“After everything we’ve been through?” He shook his head. “Blake, I don’t know how else to make you realize the amazing woman you are. To realize all the reasons why I love you. Why not one of those girls could ever make me blink, let alone steal me away from you. I would never risk what we have.” He reached for my hand, and this time, I let him take it.
“I’m such an idiot,” I said, closing my eyes as my entire world shrunk until I felt like the breath was forcefully being squeezed from my lungs. How could I ever believe Dash would hurt me like that? How could I be so fucked up? “Dash,” I said his name like an apology but I didn’t know where to start with how badly I’d messed things up between us. “I don’t know how to deal with all this.”
We sat in silence for a few moments, my heart burning with shame, regret, and shock.
“This has never been about having faith in you, Dash,” I said, unable to take the silence one second longer. “This has been about me. This is the first real relationship I’ve ever been in. And I can’t help but question at every turn if I’m enough for you. I’ve spent so many years of my life thinking I wasn’t enough, that I’d never be enough, and that I was awful in all the ways you are incredible.”
He tilted his head before a light clicked on behind his eyes. “Blake, I would erase every single moment I ever had with every woman that came before you if I could. But in a way, I have. When I’m with you . . . when we’re together, there is no touching it. No memory from my past could ever compare to what you do to me with just a kiss. You are my . . . everything.” He sank to his knees by the bed, squeezing my hand as he looked me in the eye. “How many times do I have to bare my soul to you before you’ll believe the best about yourself?”
I rolled my eyes, fighting more tears. “Your soul is light, mine is tainted. Broken. You shouldn’t have to put it back together. You’ve already done that so many times.”
“Stop,” he said. “Mine is yours. Don’t you get it? We’re the same. I’m not putting you back together. I’m mending what is broken in both of us.” He kissed the back of my hand. “And when I thought I lost you yesterday . . . when you wouldn’t wake up . . . I don’t think I’d recover from that.”
“Saving Daniel seemed like a good idea at the time,” I tried to joke but it hurt like hell to laugh. “Wait,” I said. “Yesterday?”
“Yeah, you’ve been out all night. You have a broken rib, a wicked head wound, and probably a concussion.”
“Shit,” I said, the air going out of me. I gently lifted my free hand, lightly tracing the side that ached worse than the other.
“Tell me about it,” he said, gently pushing some hair away from my face. “You scared the hell out of me. Please don’t do that to me again.”
I licked my lips, realizing how dry my mouth was. Dash jumped up and brought over a small cup of water with a straw, placing it to my lips. I took a few precious sips. “Thank you,” I said, sighing. It even hurt to swallow.
“Promise me something,” he said, setting the cup down.
“What?” I asked, wondering how on earth I could ever make right all that I’d messed up in such a short time.
“Next time you decide to go off on your own, with a team we haven’t gotten used to enough to trust with every move . . . talk to me first.”
“Okay,” I said.
“I mean it. Whenever you’re doubting anything. Talk to me. I will set your mind at ease. I don’t care how many times it takes, how many years I have to spend reminding you of why I’m with you, why every day I wake up excited to see you even though I fell asleep next to you. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I said, breathless. “I’m so—”
“Not what I’m looking for.”
“I know. But it doesn’t change the fact.”
“I know.” He kissed my head, holding onto my hand like he was scared to let it go.
“Dash,” I said, dragging out his name for the eighth time. “You have to stay.”
“No.” He paced the length of my hospital room, rubbing the back of his neck.
My nurse and doctor had just left after I’d signed my discharge papers. I held the thick stack of instructions against my chest, my cracked rib tender as I shifted in the bed. “I have to go home.”
“I know that,” he said, his green eyes locking onto mine. “And I’m going with you.”
“No, you’re not.” I tried to stand but hissed from the sharp pain in my side and sat back down. I needed to get out of this hospital gown and into some real clothes before I lost my mind. The aches in my body were not helping, neither was Dash worrying. “You have to finish out the season. Even if we didn’t have the show as an excuse, I wouldn’t let you come back with me.”
“Like you have a choice.”
“I do!” I sucked in a deep breath to calm my nerves. “We have a contract, Dash. The network needs you. You’re their star. Not me. So you have to keep chasing. I’ll go home, get better, and try to make it back by the end of the season.”
“What if I need you, huh? What if I don’t like the idea of not having you by my side? What if I don’t give a fuck what the network wants?”
I tilted my head, my gaze softening. “We both know that isn’t true. Well, not all of it.” I reached out my hand to him. “Trust me. I’d rather be here with you. Chasing. You think I want to be hobbling around my apartment, being useless while you’re out there capturing our storms?”
He stroked the inside of my palm as something flashed behind his eyes—fear? Of what?
“I will agree to not come back with you against your wishes if you promise me one thing.”
I sighed, smiling. “Anything.”
“You stay at my house.”
I knitted my eyebrows. “Why?”
He shrugged. “I have a bigger, much more comfortable bed. More space, so you don’t get stir-crazy. And . . .” He dropped my hand and raked his fingers through his hair. “I’d feel like I was contributing to your healing.”
Though he was telling the truth, there was something I was missing. I could tell, but after the mistaken identity of his sister situation, I was done assuming things. He’d tell me if he wanted me to know.
“Can Hail stay with me?”
“Of course,” he said, his breath rushing out like he’d been holding it while waiting on my answer.
I grinned. “I do love your bed.”
“And I love you in my bed.”
I tilted my head back, pressing my lips against his. He was ultra gentle, as if merely kissing me would further crack my rib or reopen the gash on my head.
“So,” I said, my shoulders sinking. “You’re going to treat me like I’m breakable until I’m fully healed?”
He kissed my forehead, his silence answer enough.
“Well.” I sighed. “Will you at least help me get dressed?”
“That I can do.”
He laid out a set of clothes I’d had him grab from my bag at the hotel. Then he carefully slipped his shoulder underneath my arm, gently lifting while I stood. The pain was bearable with the sturdiness of his muscles to lean on.
He sank to his knees as I held onto his shoulders, and he slowly helped me slide one leg at a time into my jeans. His fingers lingered on my skin as he helped pull them up around my hips, warm chills erupting under his touch.
“Hold on to me,” he said, his mouth a breath from mine. I gripped his sides as he wrapped his arms around me, untying the dreadful hospital gown from the back. It fell around my ankles, my purple bra the only thing covering my top half.
Dash held my fresh T-shirt in one hand but didn’t move. His green eyes trailed the length of my body, my skin flushing under his hungry gaze. He licked his lips, and I trembled with want. Moving to kiss him, I winced before I made it to his lips.
“Easy,” he said, blinking a few times. “Here.” He slipped the shirt over my head, holding me steady as I carefully managed to get my arms through one at a time.
“Thanks,” I said, my voice cracking with the heat pooling between my thighs. Dash had barely touched me and yet I was ready to mount him, injuries and all. I swear I was addicted.
A knock on the door made me jump and then quickly flinch. Dash sighed as John and Paul walked in.
“You ready?” John asked, a solemn look on his face.
“What?”
He glanced at Dash. “I’m going to take you home.”
“No, John. You can’t.” I glared at Dash.
“What did you think I was going to do? Let you drive yourself home?” Dash shook his head like it was a ridiculous notion.
“The doctor said I could; he just didn’t recommend it.”
“Don’t worry about it, Blake,” John said, holding his hand out to stop the argument I had worked up. “I want to play in the lab anyway. And I’ll have it all to myself. This is a win for me.”
“It’s true,” Dash said. “No use in fighting it. Plus, John can be there for you if you . . . well, if you need anything.”
“I’ve got a cracked rib and a mild concussion. I didn’t break my legs.” He was being even more overprotective than usual.
“Still.” He kissed the top of my head again. “It’ll make me feel better knowing you have someone close by.”
“You know my mom probably won’t let me breathe on my own,” I said, suddenly realizing the truth in my words. “Did you call her?”
He nodded. “She’ll have Hail at my place waiting for you.”
“Wait,” I said, arching an eyebrow at him. “You set that up before I agreed to staying at your place?”
He shrugged, an innocent look on his face. “Knew you’d make the right choice.”
I grinned at John. “Looks like everything is worked out for me. I’m ready when you are, buddy.”
“Perfect,” John said, turning toward the door. “I’ll even let you pick the music.”
“Royal treatment. You know it’ll be Blue October.” I glanced at Dash. “I’ll miss you.”
He cupped my cheek in his hand, pressing his lips against mine so softly the touch was feather-light. “That won’t be necessary,” he said once a nurse had come into the room with a wheelchair. He gently scooped me up and cradled me against him.
“Now this is just ridiculous, Dash. I can walk.” I looked at the nurse who simply arched an eyebrow and moved to the side.
“You can limp. And there is no need. Not when I’m here.”
“Handy to have around.” I rested my head against his broad chest, my stomach sinking as the realization that I didn’t know when I’d see him next settled heavy in my gut. Knowing I wouldn’t be there as he chased tornadoes made my chest so tight I feared it would crack like my rib.
I would probably heal in less than the six weeks the doctors said it would take, but with the way things had gone on the alley this season, and with the network and Daniel pushing us in different directions, I honestly wasn’t sure if I wanted to come back. Not on their terms at least. And while I hated the idea of being away from Dash for even a minute, I knew this break would help me get my head on straight.
The notion didn’t make me feel any less wretched as I said goodbye to the love of my life and wished him luck—something I never thought I’d have to do . . . so sure I’d always be at his side—when it came to chasing down one of nature’s most dangerous disasters
Dash
“DAMN,” ANABELLE SAID, wrapping her arm around me. “That sucks, little bro. I would’ve liked to meet her, but I’m so glad she wasn’t hurt more than that.” She clinked her beer against mine as we leaned over the bar—the same bar where Blake had thought she’d caught me cheating on her.
Anger twisted in my gut and then mixed with a dose of guilt I coul
dn’t fathom. I was in shock from the entire situation—her thinking that was one thing, watching her get hurt and thinking I’d lost her? Fuck. That had been a whole new version of hell.
Sending her away with John today hadn’t been a picnic either. I’d given John careful—but vague—instructions to keep an eye on Blake. More so than he probably would have if I had not said anything. Luckily, he chalked it up as me being the over-protective boyfriend I was. I didn’t know if I bought everything Justin had said, but that didn’t make me any more comfortable with the fact that Blake was now back in Oklahoma, while I remained in Kansas.
“This is a drown your misery kind of night, isn’t it?” Annabelle asked, nudging me with her shoulder.
I blinked a few times and finished what was left in my glass, instantly motioning to the bartender for another. “Hell yeah, it is.”
“Well, I’m with you, but I wish you’d tell me what’s bothering you.”
“My girlfriend being put in the hospital because of a chase isn’t enough?”
“It totally is,” she said, flipping her long blond hair back. “But I’m the one who used to cover for your teen-punk butt every time you almost got caught sneaking out of the house. I know when you’re hiding something.”
I glared at her but didn’t blink.
“That’s what I thought.” She took another drink. “And I also know that it isn’t good to keep shit bottled in.”
I sighed and kept on drinking the fresh glass the bartender had brought over.
“You know you can trust me.”
I clenched my eyes shut. Annabelle had inherited our Grandmama’s stubbornness. While it was endearing when Grandmama was insisting we eat even though we weren’t hungry, it was downright annoying when Annabelle used it in times like these. She wouldn’t stop until I’d spilled my guts.
“Of course I do,” I finally answered her, then drained the rest of my glass.
“Good. Tell me what you’re trying to drink away.”
Where to start? I was holding back so many things; I honestly didn’t have a clue how to tell someone about them. I glanced around the bar, finding Paul talking with Daniel in a booth in the far back corner. For an instant, I wondered where John was, but then quickly remembered he was probably helping Blake get settled in my house. That was a little comfort, knowing she was there. If what Justin had said was true, anyone who went looking for her it would be at her place, not mine. According to Justin, they thought she was with him, which led me to believe they didn’t know a thing about me and would never find her there.