Dawn moved with efficient brutality. She used a pair of shears from the sewing kit to cut the expensive Italian wool of his suit. Jacket, shirt, trousers. She stripped him down to his boxers.

His body was a map of violence. Old scars mixed with the fresh bruising from the crash. He was built like a fighter, not a CEO.

"O'Malley, call Dr. Evans," Dawn said without looking up. "Tell him it's a private matter. Double his fee. And tell him to bring a surgical kit, not just a stethoscope."

While they waited, Dawn cleaned the wounds. She poured alcohol over the gash on his leg. Jennings arched his back, a guttural sound tearing from his throat, but he didn't pull away.

"Breathe," she said.

"I am... breathing," he gritted out.

Dr. Evans arrived twenty minutes later. He was a man who knew which side of his bread was buttered. He took one look at Jennings, then at Dawn, and opened his bag.

"Gunshot?" Evans asked, eyeing a puncture wound on Jennings's side.

"Shrapnel," Dawn said. "From the crash."

"It looks like-"

"It's shrapnel," Dawn interrupted. She pulled a piece of paper from the desk. It was a pre-written non-disclosure agreement she'd had in her clutch for months. "Sign this before you start."

Evans squinted at it. "An NDA? Dawn, I've been your family doctor for-"

"Sign it," she said. "And I'll have Mr. Stafford's family office authorize a transfer of fifty thousand dollars to your practice tomorrow morning."

Evans blinked. Then he signed.

The surgery was makeshift but effective. Dawn assisted. She handed him instruments before he even asked for them. She tied sutures with one hand. She anticipated the bleeders.

Evans paused, holding a hemostat. He looked at her over his glasses. "I heard they revoked your license. I never believed you were capable of what they accused you of, but I didn't think you'd ever touch a scalpel again. Where did you learn to do a vertical mattress suture like that?"

"I read a lot," Dawn said flatly. "Focus, Doctor."

They worked for two hours. They set the leg. They closed the wounds. They stabilized him.

When Evans finally packed up, he looked shaken. "He needs a hospital, Dawn. If infection sets in..."

"He has me," Dawn said. "Goodbye, Doctor."

O'Malley escorted the doctor out.

The room was quiet again. The storm outside had settled into a steady drone.

Jennings was awake. He shouldn't be. He had refused general anesthesia, opting only for a local block. He wanted to be conscious. He didn't trust them.

"Water," he croaked.

Dawn held a glass to his lips. He drank greedily.

"You paid him fifty grand," Jennings said. His voice was stronger now. "You don't have fifty grand. Your father cut off your trust fund six months ago."

He knew her finances. Of course he did.

"I'll put it on your tab," she said, setting the glass down.

He looked at her. The suspicion in his eyes was warring with something else. Curiosity.

"What do you want?" he asked. "You saved me. You hid me. You bribed a doctor. You're not doing this out of the goodness of your heart. No one does."

Dawn sat in the velvet armchair by the bed. She was exhausted. Her adrenaline was crashing.

"I want you alive," she said.

"Why?"

"Because," she leaned forward, her eyes locking onto his. "Dead men can't sign checks. And they certainly can't destroy my enemies."

Jennings stared at her. For the first time, he didn't look at her like a socialite. He looked at her like a peer.

"Go to sleep, Jennings," she said. "The wolves will still be there in the morning."

Dawn woke up in the armchair. Her neck was stiff. Sunlight was streaming through the heavy curtains she had failed to close completely.

She looked at the bed.

It was empty.

Panic, cold and sharp, spiked in her chest. She jumped up.

"Jennings?"

A noise from the bathroom. The sound of retching.

She ran to the door. Jennings was on the floor, leaning over the toilet. He had dragged himself there on one good leg and sheer willpower. He was heaving, his back muscles bunching with the effort.

"You idiot," she scolded, dropping to her knees beside him. "You'll rip your stitches."

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He was pale, sweating profusely. "I hate... bedpans."

"You're stubborn," she said. She put her arm around his waist. "Up. On three."

She helped him back to the bed. He collapsed onto the pillows, breathing hard.

"Check the table," she said, pointing to the nightstand.

There was a glass of water and two white pills.

"Painkillers," she said. "Take them."

He looked at the pills. He didn't move.

"I didn't poison them," she said, rolling her eyes. "If I wanted to kill you, I would have just left you in the car."

"Paranoia keeps me alive," he muttered.

Dawn sighed. She picked up one of the pills, sniffed it, then broke it in half, examining the powder inside.

"It's Oxycodone, standard issue. If you're worried, we can wait for the excruciating pain to set in fully. Your call."

He watched her, a flicker of grudging respect in his eyes. He took the other one.

"Your phone," she said, pulling a cheap burner phone from the false bottom of her clutch. "I always carry a spare. Untraceable. Pre-paid."

He took the phone. He looked at it like it was an alien artifact. "A burner."

"Your phone has a tracker," she said. "Whoever ran you off the road is tracking it. I threw it in a dumpster behind a truck stop on the way here."

Jennings looked at her. "Who are you?"

"I told you. Dawn Hoffman."

"No," he shook his head. "Dawn Hoffman is a failed med student who organizes charity dinners and has panic attacks in elevators. You... you are something else."

"Maybe I just grew up," she said.

He turned the phone on. He dialed a number from memory. He spoke in rapid-fire, coded phrases, a clipped jargon of numbers and call signs. Dawn didn't understand the code, but she recognized the tone. Command. Anger.

He hung up.

"My security team is compromised," he said. "I can't go back to the city yet."

"I know," she said. "That's why you're staying here."

"For how long?"

"Until you can walk. Or until you can kill whoever tried to kill you."

He looked at the contact list on the burner phone. There was only one number saved.

Creditor.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"Me," Dawn said. "Just so you don't forget who you owe."

The day passed in a blur of tension. Dawn changed his dressings. She fed him soup. She fielded text messages from Catrina, who was demanding to know when "the hobo" was leaving.

Jennings spent the time on the burner phone, orchestrating a silent war from the guest bedroom. He was ruthless. Even in a hospital gown, with his leg elevated, he radiated power.

By evening, the fever had spiked. Infection.

Dawn was prepared. She had stolen antibiotics from the stable's vet supply. It wasn't human grade, but it was Amoxicillin. It would work.

She injected it into his IV line.

"You're enjoying this," he murmured, his eyes hazy with fever.

"Stabbing you with needles? A little," she admitted.

He reached out and grabbed her wrist. His skin was burning hot.

"Why me?" he asked. "Why did you save me?"

"I told you-"

"No bullshit," he cut her off. "The truth."

Dawn looked down at him. She could tell him the truth. That she'd spent two years mapping his vulnerabilities, his enemies, his assets. That he was the only one with the power to counter Dozier Buckley.

"Because you're the only one who can stop Dozier Buckley," she said.

His grip tightened. "Buckley? What does he have to do with this?"

"He's shorting your stock," she said. "He knows you're missing. He's spreading rumors that you're dead. By Monday morning, Stafford Capital will be in freefall. And he's going to buy it for pennies on the dollar."

Jennings stared at her. The fever seemed to recede for a moment, pushed back by pure rage.

"How do you know that?"

"I listen," she said. "People think I'm invisible. They say things around me."

He let go of her wrist. He lay back, staring at the ceiling.

"If he buys the company," Jennings said quietly, "he gets the patents. The new drug."

"The Alzheimer's drug," Dawn said. "Yes."

He looked at her sharply. "That's confidential. No one knows about that."

"I know," she said. "And I know it works. And I know Dozier will bury it because it's more profitable to treat the symptoms than cure the disease."

Jennings was silent for a long time.

"You're dangerous," he said finally.

"I'm necessary," she corrected.

She stood up to leave.

"Dawn," he called out.

She stopped at the door.

"Thank you."

It sounded like it hurt him to say it.

"Don't thank me yet," she said. "The bill is coming."