But, that asshole at the hospital knew who I was.
Not only that, but he had Lexi by the throat. The fucking throat. 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 night staff usually came in around eight, I made plans. 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 and ambulances. 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, and 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 a 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 seven o’clock in the morning rolled around.
The second she emerged from the E.R. doors, two things struck me as odd: she wasn’t in her scrubs, like usual, 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, sometimes.
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 climbed into the Jeep Cherokee she still had after all these years, I watched her headlights come on as she cranked up the car.
And I got a wild hair up my ass to follow her.
I watched her like a hawk before I cranked up my engine. I didn’t want to startle her, so I kept a good distance and tried my best to look nonchalant about things. I stayed four car lengths behind her, watching as she turned into a fast-food place that was already open for breakfast.
I pulled into one on the opposite end of the road and got myself turned around as I waited for her to come through the drive-through. Then, after she pulled back onto the road, I took a back alley down behind a few abandoned brick buildings before I spilled back out onto the main road.
And slid a couple of car lengths behind her at a stoplight.
With my helmet on I knew she’d never be able to discern who it was. But I hoped she didn’t recognize me, nonetheless. My heart leapt into my throat as she sped away from the green light, and for the smallest of moments I thought she had clocked me.
However, she didn’t try to lose me. She stayed on the main road until taking a harsh left at a yellow light, which caused me to get caught up at the red one.
The second I saw her turn into an apartment complex, though, I knew I had her.
“Bingo,” I murmured.
The light turned green, and I eased myself through the left-hand 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 six-thirty in the morning. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. The least the complex could do was make sure the gate was down 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.
