He shook his head, opened the passenger door, and helped her inside. After sliding into the driver’s seat, he palmed the wheel and glanced over at her. He must have noticed her expression and knew how much the situation was getting to her.
“It’s going to be okay, Sarah,” Lawson told her, putting a hand on hers and giving it a tight squeeze.
And, as much as she wanted to believe him, she had no idea if she actually could. Not with one of those men on the loose, and not when he was likely running back to his boss to tell him all about them.
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 mentionedthe 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 thelodge 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.”
