Page 11 of Wrecker

I did and winced halfway through.

“Still sore?”

I nodded.

“Not surprised. You took quite a hit, but nothing’s broken. No signs of concussion or internal injury either, which is pretty damn miraculous.” He checked the IV. “You’re good on fluids now, but you need to drink water and eat hydrating foods. I’m sure Wrecker will make sure that happens.”

Reid squeezed my hand. “Yup.”

Blade cleared his throat. “Other than that, just rest. Don’t push yourself. I’m prescribing some pain medication, but if your shoulder starts to hurt more, your headache gets worse, or anything else seems off, let Wrecker know so I can look you over again.”

After pulling the needle from my arm and wrapping it with a bandage and gauze, he murmured, “I’ll go grab the meds for you.” Then he walked away and closed the door behind him, leaving me alone with Reid again. And so many questions.

Reid didn’t move when the door clicked shut behind Blade. He stayed in the chair beside me, his hand still resting over mine like he wasn’t ready to let go. Which was lucky for me since I didn’t want him to. Not yet.

“Thank you,” I whispered. “For pulling me out. Bringing me here. Staying with me. For…all of it.”

His jaw ticked. “Don’t need your thanks.”

“But maybe I need to give it.”

His voice was calm, but edged with a gruffness. “Then I’ll take it, baby.”

I didn’t know what to make of him calling me baby like that—or my reaction to hearing it. So I shifted again and blurted, “Can I ask you something?”

He nodded. “Anything.”

“How did you get to me so quickly?”

Reid cupped my hand between his palms. “Saw your car where you left it, so I knew you were there. Then a witness said they saw where you entered the structure, so we had a good starting point.”

“Crap, my car,” I groaned.

“Don’t worry, baby,” he reassured me. “One of our prospects already went down to Chattanooga to grab it. He’ll be back soon.”

“But how?” I asked, my eyes widening.

“Think we’re looking into the same problem, just not sure what put you on the trail.”

I hesitated, mostly out of habit. For months, I’d been playing things close to the vest. Even with my faculty adviser. But after everything Reid had done for me, he’d earned an explanation.

“I want to do my senior capstone project on structural negligence in commercial real estate. To honor my dad since he’s the reason I got interested in civil engineering in the first place.” My lips curved into a soft smile as I remembered how I’d hoped my dad was watching over me before Reid came to my rescue. “Most of the time, defects get chalked up to lazy contractors or overworked inspectors. I wasn’t expecting to find anything different when I started my research, but I found a pattern. A string of building collapses and near misses have occurred over the past five years. There were different names on the deeds, different contractors, and different inspectors. But when I dug deeper, the properties were all connected to the same real estate group, which made me think some kind of corporate fraud was going on.”

“Fuck,” he bit out, lifting his hand to rake his fingers through his hair.

“Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction too.” I heaved a deep sigh. “The parking garage is connected to them. It was only thirty minutes away, so I thought I’d go take a look and seeif I could spot anything suspicious. I’m not sure if my infrared camera made it out of the building without any damage, but I also got some good photos on my phone. It’s broken, but everything backs up to the cloud, so at least I still have those.”

A muscle jumped in his jaw. “Fucking hell, Peyton. You can’t put yourself in danger like that. Never again.”

“I wasn’t expecting the thing to collapse on top of me.” This time, I was the one who squeezed his hand. “If the structural issues I found after inspecting the exterior of the garage had been bad enough for that kind of destruction, I never would’ve gone inside.”

Something flared in his dark eyes that made me wonder if he knew more about this morning’s catastrophe than I did, but before I could ask, he growled, “It’s a damn good thing that I’m gonna keep an eye on you from now on so nothing else can happen to you.”

“Only until my car’s here and I can go.” I wasn’t looking forward to leaving anytime soon, but it wasn’t as though I could stay here with Reid forever.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

5

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