Page 24 of Blossoming Dahlia

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. “Hedidn’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.Mystupid 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.

Chapter fifteen

Asher

It was my fault, I should’ve realized what we were walking into as soon as I got the phone call. I’d let myself get too absorbed in protecting Dahlia, in making her feel safe, that I hadn’t paid enough attention to the other parts of the investigation. Why was Curing so hard to find? He was just a man, a software engineer with a fetish for living dolls, he shouldn’t have been able to go to ground so quickly. But that was where we’d fucked up—where I’d fucked up that was. I’d underestimated him, just assuming he was a regular guy giving into his baser urges, he was bound to get caught sooner or later. I hadn’t accounted for the level of intelligence he was displaying and the single-minded determination he would have to get back what he wanted. He was insecure, deeply flawed, and the taunt by the mayor had likely triggered an escalation in behavior. We hadn’t expected him to set traps, so he’d gotten the upper hand.

Adrenaline was coursing through my veins as I hurried Dahlia through the halls. No alarms were going off, but I could seesecurity and police officers on the move, trying not to spook Curing if he was already in the building, which I suspected he was. We dodged around medical staff and patients, hurrying toward the stairs for the parkade. I needed to get Dahlia somewhere safe, maybe even outside the city, and then regroup with the team now that Hunter was out of commission. My jaw clenched, his injuries weighing heavily on my conscience. He had argued against taking this job, and I should have listened to him. Now, he would probably never go out in the field again. Not with the injuries he’d sustained, even with intense physiotherapy. The best he could hope for was a desk job, maybe teaching, and that would kill him. His career was over, and it was all my fault.

I kicked open the door to the stairwell, checking inside quickly before ushering Dahlia through. “We need to go straight to the car,” I told her quietly, still holding her arm as we went down the stairs. “If anything happens, you run as fast as you can to somewhere public. Find an officer and tell them exactly what’s happening, and have them contact Unit Chief Parsons with the FBI. Repeat that,” I instructed.

“Run, find an officer, unit Chief Parsons,” Dahlia replied, out of breath from how quickly we were moving. Her eyes were wide, and I hated seeing fear in them again. I thought this was over, I really did, and now we were back to running. Once we reached the parkade door, I pushed her up against the wall, holding her there as I peeked out into the parkade. Rows of cars greeted us, along with an eerie silence. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so I nodded, and Dahlia stepped in beside me, staying quiet as we hurried to my car. I kept my eyes moving, scanning for any movement.

“Asher, look,” Dahlia hissed, pointing at my car. I grimaced, seeing the flattened back tires as well.

“Go, run back inside, now,” I snapped, drawing my gun and pushing her toward the door we’d just come out of. A noise at my right had me spinning around, and I saw someone duck behind a nearby car. “Show me your hands!” I shouted, raising my gun. A shot rang out, and I ducked down, but another shot followed quickly after, catching me right in the chest. I fell back, my head hitting the pavement as I gasped for air, my lungs seizing up from the shock of the bullet against the vest I was wearing. My vision tunneled for a horrifying moment, and I struggled to stay conscious, willing the air back into my body.

I heard screaming and the sounds of a scuffle nearby, and I recognized Dahlia’s voice. Forcing past the pain in my chest, I rolled onto my side and pushed myself up, leaning on a nearby car for support. I heard a car door slam and an engine rev, and my heartbeat pounded in my ears as I looked for Dahlia. Bright lights turned the corner as a car drove toward me, gathering speed as it approached. I raised my gun, firing a shot at the vehicle once I spotted the familiar face behind the wheel. The car didn’t slow down, so I did the dumbest thing I could think of and threw myself in front of it, firing another shot at the driver’s side. I heard glass splinter just as the car hit me, and I threw my shoulder forward to roll over the hood instead of under the tires.

My body screamed in pain as the vehicle screeched to a stop, and I slid off the hood, landing hard on the pavement. I gasped for air as my vision went dark and I braced myself for the inevitable as he would likely run over me now. Instead, I felt hands loop under my shoulders and, suddenly I was moving, someone was dragging me roughly across the ground. I struggled a bit, and abruptly the hands let go, dropping me to the ground. I blinked and saw Curing standing over me, my gun in his hand. He struck out like a viper and everything went dark.

My consciousness flitted in and out, like a camera tried to focus. I was dimly aware of being in a vehicle, I could feel the vibrations of the road under my cheek. Pain was radiating across my entire body, and I couldn’t get any of my limbs to respond, so I settled for lying still and listening, trying to pick up on any details I could. I wasn’t sure when I passed out again, but when I came too for the second time we were no longer moving. My head lolled on my chest, and I struggled to lift it, my temples pounding with every movement. It was oddly cold in here, and I blinked my eyes until they cleared. I looked down at my chest and realized I could see it, which meant someone had taken my shirt and my Kevlar vest off. There was a large bruise already forming on my sternum where the bullet hit, and without the vest I would’ve been dead for sure, judging from the location.

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