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“Don’t know. I need to check it.” He swore and pressed his hand to his side. “I have first aid in the back seat. I just need a sec.”

She glanced over at him, her heart tightening. “Don’t you dare die on me.”

“No. Never. I’ll die beside you. I weigh too much to die on you. You’d be trapped and that’s no good.”

She couldn’t help the giggle that squeaked out. “You’re crazy.”

“Yep. A crazy monster. I didn’t recognize the guy.”

Oh, right. “Brody called. He said the guys who were in my house were connected to your quest.”

Falcon went silent, and the energy in the truck suddenly became so dense she couldn’t breathe. “Falcon?”

“I’m calling Brody. I need to know what he found out.”

“Falcon, this isn’t your fault.”

“It sure as fuck is. Imagine if I had kids? I’d put them all in danger. Every single person who I love.” Grief was thick in his voice. “Good thing I didn’t make the mistake of starting a family, right? I’d have to abandon them, and we all know how much that sucks as a kid to be abandoned.”

Tears filled Bella’s eyes. “Falcon?—”

“I’m fine. Moving on. I accept my path.”

“No. Don’t! We don’t need to accept anything!”

He ignored her, pulled out his phone, and hit send. “I’m calling Brody?—”

She whacked the phone out of his hand. “No, you’re not.”

He looked over at her, his gaze hooded, his face pinched with pain. “Bella?—”

“Shut up. I’m in charge now.” She looked over at him. “I’m finding a place to park, and then we’re going to deal with this. Right now.”

“With what?”

She gestured randomly in his direction. “This. All ofthis.Now.”

TWENTY-FOUR

Falcon wasin too much pain to argue with Bella.

He trusted her to make a good choice to lay low, so he used the time to twist around in his seat and get his medical bag. The movement was brutal, but he forced the pain aside.

It had been a while since he’d been stabbed, and he’d forgotten how much it hurt.

By the time he got himself cleaned, inspected, and bandaged, he was sweating from the pain. “I’m getting too old for this,” he muttered under his breath as he tossed the medical bag on the floor between his feet.

He closed his eyes and leaned back, then opened them when the truck bumped over something. He started laughing when he realized they were pulling into the local police station. “The local cops are no match for these guys.”

“I know, but they’ll have cameras in the parking lot, and our friends won’t like the cameras.” She pulled up right in front of the door, switched off the engine and turned to face him. “Do you need a doctor?”

He grinned. This woman thought she was small? She was a beast, and he loved it. “No. I don’t think he got anything important, and I cleaned it.”

“Antibiotics?”

“I already took one.”

She raised her brows. “You dispense your own prescription drugs?”