Chapter 34 #2
I felt Knox’s eyes on me the entire time the doctor examined my face, my neck, my arm.
Once we were back in our seats, the doctor said, “Tara, the skin grafts have matured properly along your cheek. We can schedule a W-plasty to blend the graft better with your existing skin. This will give you a more natural look. But mind you, the scars will look more of a mess right after surgery. You won’t be allowed to step into the sunlight for a while.
The scars will need proper tending. The first three weeks will need the most care.
The first three to four months would be difficult.
The scarring will be itchy, and it might feel more prominent than before the surgery.
But within a year, the distinction between the new and the old skin will start to fade considerably. ”
Knox and I were silent while she talked.
I wondered if he would still stay with me when I looked like a horror show.
If he’d hightail it out of my life. I had stopped thinking of the mental effect it would have on me for the next few months, considering I’d gone through much worse for the first three years after the attack.
This was more of a beautifying phase than a critical one.
I wouldn’t have survived those days had it not been for my girls.
“Alright. Umm, can we do this in a few weeks? I’ll reach out to you.
I have some important work going on right now that I can’t get out of, and I really can’t take all the necessary precautions while working. ”
“Sounds good, Tara. We’re ready when you are.”
“Thank you, Doctor. I’ll talk to you soon.”
With that, we left the clinic. Knox was a silent yet comforting force beside me. “Did you bring a car?” I asked him, walking down the block to where I’d parked my car.
“Took an Uber. Knew you’d come in a car.”
“Sounds good.” It was late afternoon, and I hadn’t had any lunch. “Did you eat?” I asked him, getting into the car.
He closed the door behind him as he got into the passenger seat. “I could eat. You got a place in mind?”
I gave him a smile. “I have just the place.”
I was glad he didn’t ask me any more questions about the surgery and let me stew in silence while I drove.
In just ten minutes, I parked the car behind the Thunder Claw Bar and Restaurant.
As we walked to the front of the two-story establishment, Knox’s eyes took in the rose-stained glass window on the second floor, the brick masonry facade, and the large, black-painted windows. “What is this place?”
I walked in with a smirk and was immediately received by excited smiles from the reception and from behind the bar, which was operating as a cafeteria right now. Zara, from behind the bar, screamed, “Tara, girl. Get over here!”
She pulled me into a hug as soon as I neared her. “How are you, Zara? Long time, huh?”
“I’m good. Busy, as usual. It’s been what, a little over two months? You tell me, how are you?”
I felt Knox’s looming presence at my back, and Zara’s wide eyes and open mouth pretty much told me what she was thinking. With a smile, I stepped right in front of her eyes, garnering her attention. “I’m good, thanks. And meet Knox. He’s a…friend.”
Knox gave her a nod, and with a startling surety in his voice, he added, “She’s mine.”
My mouth hung open. So did Zara’s. Her wide eyes met mine, and I looked at her in a did-he-just-say-that-out-loud way. I shook my head in disbelief and pointed at the back of the restaurant. “I’ll be sitting in my usual spot.”
She nodded, stunned into silence as well.
I knew she would personally come take our order, just to spy on the little dynamic between Knox and me. I walked all the way to the back of the restaurant, bypassing plenty of empty tables, and took a seat on the curved booth around the circular table behind a large wooden screen.
Knox followed and sat right beside me. “I can’t see the exit if I’m sitting across from you.”
“Of course. That’s the reason.”
He smirked. “Of course. So tell me about this place. Why here?”
I smiled and raised my arms out to the side. “You’re sitting in the birthplace of Wildcats. Our original place of operations.”
This time, his jaw dropped. “No kidding. How?”
Right then, Zara came with two glasses of water and took our order, all the while looking at me with mischievous, teasing eyes.
Once she was gone, I took a sip of water and looked at Knox, only to find him staring at me. Heat churned low in my belly. “Well, Lena owns this restaurant. Before Dominic came along, we operated from the basement of this place.”
A surprised smile came over his face. “Basement, huh?”
“Three levels.”
“Three levels?” His voice rose in shock, and laughter burst from me.
“So have you closed everything out from here?”
“It’s still the same. We didn’t take much of anything from here except for my computer setup. Lena wanted to keep a hideout for us in case things went south.”
He nodded, taking a sip of water from my glass. With his eyes on mine, he drank from the same spot where I’d brushed my lips. Electricity charged in the tiny space separating us, leaving my arm in goose bumps.
Right then, Zara came back with burgers and fries.
I always needed some junk food after going to the doctor.
She left me alone right after, knowing I always ate in a little privacy.
A few months ago, I’d have eaten with the mask on.
I’d kept a little cut around the lips of the mask so I could eat properly.
But with Knox looking at me like he couldn’t look away from me, I took off my mask and put it to the side.
I realized it was easier for me to eat without a mask in a restaurant full of strangers than in front of the Wildcats recruits.
Maybe someday I’d gather up enough courage to get rid of the mask permanently, at least in front of all the Wildcats.
Knox’s sharp inhale had me looking at him. He brushed the back of his finger along my scarred cheek and pressed a kiss to the side of my head. “You’re a fucking masterpiece, you know that?”
I shook my head and pressed my burger down. “Only you think that.”
He leaned forward on the table and tipped my chin so our eyes met. “Why does anybody else’s opinion matter?”
And I realized, it really fucking didn’t.
When I had a man who looked at me the way Knox did, I truly didn’t care about anybody’s opinion. I guess that was why I felt so comfortable removing my mask right now. I brushed my fingers along his jaw, and his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “I guess, it doesn’t.”
“Don’t you forget it.”
I was about to nod when a hushed, disgusted tone reached our table. “Look at that freak.”
Guess the universe was pretty quick to test my statements. A few months ago, a comment like that would’ve rattled me to the point where I’d have put the mask back on again and run downstairs to eat in my dark room.
But now, I leaned over Knox’s face to find two men staring at me with disgust.
I sat back and turned to look at the man who looked at me with admiration. With passion.
But when my eyes met his, they were blazing with fury. He, once again, brushed my cheek with his fingers. “Where’d you say the door to the basement was?”
His intensity scared me. I gulped. “I didn’t.”
Right then, the idiot from behind us said, “Wonder what she did to get her face burned off.”
His friend chuckled.
What I did? Some men were truly monsters.
Knox’s eyes closed for a brief second, his knuckles turning white as his fists clenched on the table, before he jumped out of his seat. He rounded to where the two idiots sat.
Our area was closed off from the rest of the restaurant by a fancy wood partition. So none of the patrons could see Knox punch the two guys in the face and drag them to where we sat, pushing them onto the chairs right across from my curved booth.
He stood behind them and leaned down, his eyes looking at me, but his wrath targeted at the two men frothing with bruised egos. With a deadly calm, he said, “Apologize.”
The idiot who started it all scoffed. “For what? We were just talking among ourselves.”
“Apologize. I won’t ask again.” The air around Knox trembled, his threat, his anger for me, turning me the fuck on. I squeezed my legs under the table as Knox kept his gaze on me. Vengeance and lust swirled in them.
The other idiot who’d laughed at the shit stirrer harrumphed. “Why the fuck would we apologize for her looking like a disgusting freak? She must’ve done something to warrant what happened to her.”
With his gaze unmoving, Knox snapped the neck of the idiot. Before the other guy could even react, Knox snapped his neck too.
A shocked gasp tore through my chest as the two men sat slumped in the chairs across from me. Knox leaned over them and stared at the dead guys. “See what happens when you have no manners? When you’re rude to my girl?”
“Stop talking to the dead guys,” I muttered, draining down the glass of water.
“Their ugly fucking souls would be around. They’d learn to be born with manners in their next life.”
A smile cracked across my face. He was fucking crazy.
“You okay?” he asked. “Or do I need to kill them again?”
A chuckle burst out of me as I stared at the two dead guys slumped on the chair. This was not how I dealt with dead men. “Umm…how would you kill them again?”
He shrugged, but a teasing smile came over his face, as if he hadn’t just killed two men in broad daylight in the middle of a not-so-busy restaurant. “Snap their necks again in another direction.”
I snorted and looked at my untouched burger. “The fuckers ruined our lunch.”
“We can still eat. We’ll take care of them”—he pointed at the two men and shrugged—“afterward.”
“Eww, no.” With that, I got up. The girls here knew to keep quiet about the activities we carried out in the basement. Thankfully, I could access the door to the basement with my phone.
I quickly pulled out my app and unlocked the door, which was in the darkened hallway behind our table. I grabbed one guy and carried him over my shoulder. “Let’s go.”