18. Knox
KNOX
B ed becomes our sanctuary the next day.
The world shrinks to us, into skin and sheets, to sweat and breath and the sound of her laugh muffled against pillows.
We barely notice morning melting into afternoon as we revel in the light tilting through the blinds until it’s a burnished gold across her skin.
She’s everywhere, her scent in the blankets, her hair tangled in my fingers, her taste still on my tongue.
I haul trays in when I can tear myself away from her body long enough to feed her.
Gumbo and biscuits and cider, bread slathered with jam that sticks to her chin.
She feeds me with her fingers, giggling when I lick them clean, and I eat off her thighs like she’s a feast. We fuck until sweat soaks the mattress, until our lungs burn, until she claws at me and sobs when I make her come again and again.
Then we collapse, tangled and half-asleep, only to start all over.
A whole day, gone in a haze of her.
And yet… neither of us say it.
What we’re truly feeling.
The weight of the words lodges in my throat every time I look at her.
I love you, Lily Hartley. So fucking much. With everything inside of me and out.
Every time she pushes her hair back with that shy flick of her wrist. Every time she curls into my chest like it’s her safest haven. I know what she is. Everything I’ve ever wanted. Everything I didn’t believe I’d get.
But I don’t say it.
Because demons don’t stay dead.
They crouch in the corners, waiting. Reminding me that I’ve been here before—too many promises, too much hope. I’ve seen what happens when I let myself believe someone could be mine for real. They always leave. They always cut deep.
I’ve already had a bitter taste of it.
The way she froze when family slipped into the conversation at the fair. How she brushed it off, smile faltering for a fraction of a second.
Like the idea of tying herself to me, to this mountain, was a weight she couldn’t bear to hold for more than a heartbeat.
That flicker gutted me wide open.
I thought I knew what a crushed heart felt like. I’ve had lovers betray me, managers steal from me, brothers in arms turn their backs. But this truth? If she walks… if Lily can’t bring herself to stay, to love me—I won’t survive it.
So today I don’t plan and I don’t promise.
I bury myself inside today. Inside her.
The only thing I can be sure of is the heat of her skin under my palms, the way her breath hitches when I slide into her, the small sounds she makes against my mouth.
I press my face to her neck, inhaling her like oxygen, and I pray to every dark god listening that today never ends. That when morning comes, she’s still here, still reaching for me, still whispering my name.
Because if this is all I ever get—one perfect day—I’m fucking strangling every moment out of it.
Lily
Two days after the fair, we’re in the barn again.
But this time, it isn’t laughter or sweat or me squealing when he throws me across the mat.
It’s tarps and dust motes and silence as thick as molasses.
Bear hauls ropes down, coils them with the careful precision of muscle memory. I tug fabric over one corner of the ring, smoothing it flat, my chest aching like it’s already the end of something. Like I’m already saying goodbye to a new friend I barely know but deeply love.
“Do we need to put everything away?” I ask, my voice too small in the cavernous space.
His eyes move over me, slow and deliberate.
They linger on the bruises, the ones fading to dusky purples, the fresh ones blooming in shades of crimson. Forty-eight hours, and we’ve added new marks to old. Each one a bestselling story written on my skin.
“Getting too carried away. Need time to let you heal, petal,” he says finally, his voice gravel-low.
It feels like he’s saying more than those simple words.
But then… haven’t we both?
Haven’t we been saying everything with silence and sex, letting the sweat and the bruises carry the weight our mouths and hearts won’t?
I tug the tarp a little tighter, my throat burning. Because I know what I need to do. What I need to say.
I can’t stay locked here forever while a part of my past stays unresolved, no matter how much my body craves it, no matter how much my heart wants to. If I don’t face my past, it’ll hunt me down.
Brandon will hunt me down.
And worse—I can’t ask Bear to stop running, to stop letting those who hurt him win, if I’m too much of a coward to do the same.
The words swell in my chest, hot, heavy. “Knox,” I whisper, and he stills, lifting his head. “I need to tell you something. I need to go?—”
The out-of-place sound cuts me off and it takes several seconds to register what it is.
Engines. Several . Rumbling, snarling, echoing up the mountain where no one should be.
Knox’s head snaps toward the open barn doors, dark eyes flashing black.
Then another sound pierces the air.
A siren. Sharp, ugly, foreign in our woods.
My heart drops into my stomach.
Knox’s body goes rigid, then he springs like a coiled serpent.
He drops the rope in his hand, every inch of him shifting from man to beast, shoulders squared, jaw hard, the air vibrating with his growl.
“Who the fuck is stupid enough to bring that shit onto my mountain?” he snarls, already stalking toward the doors, steps like thunder. At the last moment he turns. “Stay here, petal.”
Again he’s saying more than his words. But I shake my head. “No, Bear. I won’t.”
A wave of panic drenches his face before his jaw tightens.
He nods.
I follow, pulse hammering. My legs feel made of lead, but my lungs burn, my gut screaming this is bad, this is worse than bad.
Outside, our usually peaceful clearing is chaos.
Red and blue lights pulse, washing the trees in violent colors. Three cop cars sit heavy on the gravel, sirens cutting out one by one. Uniforms spill out, hands hovering near holsters.
And then?—
The last man I expect steps out from behind one of them.
Expensive jacket, check. Slicked-back dark blond hair, check. Smug tilt of his jaw, god-check-dammit.
A face that used to whisper I love you into my ear while squeezing the life out of me with every hateful gesture.
My breath stops.
“Brandon?” His name rips out of me, sharp and cracked.
Knox hears it.
Knox sees him.
He whips around, stares at me for a stark, livid moment. Turns back to the man daring to approach with a cocky smile pinned to his face.
And my Bear goes wild.
It takes all six cops to restrain him, one holding a Taser to his bare skin.
A scream rips through the clearing, and it takes an insane, frantic second to realize it’s mine.
“Stop! Please,” I plead, even though Bear barely falters. My voice cracks, but it’s the sound—my sound—that freezes him, stops him from hurling one of the cops clear across the compound.
He’s breathing hard, chest like a war drum, but his eyes never leave me as he lets go and allows the cops to shackle him.
And then I turn to the instigator of all this carnage.
“What the hell are you doing here, Brandon?” My voice is shaking but loud. “And how the hell did you find me?”
He straightens his expensive jacket, looking like a man stepping out of an office and not into a trap that’s about to eat him alive. “Lily, you’ve been gone for weeks. I’ve been searching for you. Waiting for you to come to your senses and come home.”
“The note I left you in the car,” I hiss. “The dozen texts I sent before I dumped my phone? They should’ve been clear enough.”
Brandon waves a hand, his smile a thin slice of condescension. “You’ve always been impulsive. I knew you’d cool down once you’d thought things through. When you didn’t come home, I was worried.” He glances around with clear disgust. “With just cause, it seems.”
“Worried?” My laugh is a brittle blade. “That’s new. And you still haven’t told me how you found me. Were you… were you tracking me?” Ice sheets drench me even before he answers.
He doesn’t deny it. Just flicks his eyes to his phone, thumbs a screen, and then lifts his chin toward the trees where the clearing starts. “Hmm. Curious. The necklace’s signal seems to be… over there.”
Knox’s head whips toward the direction Brandon points. His lips peel back. “That’s where I tossed it,” he snarls, voice a rumble that vibrates through the clearing. “Should’ve fucking ground it to dust.”
Brandon finally looks at Knox properly. His nose wrinkles in disdain. “So this is what you ran off to, Lily? Shacking up with Bigfoot?”
“Don’t you dare talk about him—” The words rip out of me before I can think. My hands shake. “And what do you mean about the necklace?”
“Just what I said, dear,” Brandon replies smoothly, though his eyes are glittering. “All this foul mountain air turning you loopy?”
“You tagged me like some kind of animal?” My voice breaks. “Who does that?”
“Concerned fiancés whose lesser halves don’t have the sense of?—”
He doesn’t finish.
Because Knox lunges.
It’s a blur of muscle and fury. The cops strain, boots digging into the dirt. Cuffs rattle, arms lock. “Call her that again,” Knox growls, voice guttural, monstrous. “Please.”
The Taser never goes off. Thank God.
Brandon actually steps back, his color draining, but then his mask slides back into place, icy eyes flicking to me. “My parents warned me you’re too low-class and crass to fit into my life. I should’ve listened.”
“Here’s your chance then,” I snap. “Listen on your way back down the mountain.”
His mouth twists. “You think I invested in you just to see you walk away?”
“Invested in me?” My voice is rising, trembling. “How? By telling me every day how useless I am?”
Knox growls, deep and dangerous, the sound of an animal about to break free. His muscles strain against the cuffs, his eyes fixed on Brandon with murder in them. One wrong move and he’ll tear free. And then what? My big, beautiful Bear will be Tasered again or shot. Or worse.
I can’t let that happen.