Chapter 6
Chapter Six
KNOX
Callie’s back.
The words hammer through my skull. Thinking her name sends a jolt through my chest, pain that cuts through flesh and bone, slicing straight into my marrow.
I toss my phone onto the bed. Freshly showered with a towel wrapped around my hips, I stare at my reflection.
Bloodshot eyes, dark circles beneath them, and a five o’clock shadow that’s more like midnight.
I can’t be bothered to shave lately. Maybe it’s not exactly a good look, but like with everything else, it’s hard to care about anything.
The heart I’ve been trying to ignore thumps heavy in my chest.
Shoulders tense, I drag open my dresser drawer with more force than necessary, reaching for a clean pair of boxers when my fingers brush against something soft. Something that doesn’t belong to me, but I’ve kept it all the same. I tug out Callie’s hoodie.
The Big Ridge High School emblem is cracked and peeling from too many washes. The sleeve has a tear near the cuff that she refused to let her mom fix because she said it was good luck.
I lift it to my face before I can stop myself, inhaling deeply. It stopped smelling like her years ago, but my mind still conjures the scent of that amber and vanilla lotion she used to steal from Body and Bath, the local knock-off version of Bath & Body Works.
My pulse thunders in my ears as I sink onto the edge of the bed. I reach for the tie-dye scrunchie sitting on my nightstand, stretched from use. Callie always had one on her wrist, and when I found this one, some twisted part of me demanded I keep it.
The photo I keep beside my bed snags my attention.
The four of us as teenagers, grinning with sunburned faces and the lake shimmering behind us.
My arm is draped around Callie’s shoulder while Brax and Jax flank us, and the way she’s smiling.
Fuck. Her smile could make me feel like the king of the world.
But all I can seem to remember is the way she looked at me before she left. Like I’d gutted her.
“Fuck.” The word scrapes from my throat.
I should’ve never looked twice at Penelope.
I should’ve noticed how she watched Callie with venom.
That jealousy should have warned me to keep her out of our group.
But I was young and dumb. I didn’t see it.
And what happened? A lump forms in my throat, and I slam the memory down before it fully takes shape, but my stomach still churns with acid.
When I found out what Penelope had done, I lost my shit and ended things on the spot. She was ugly. Toxic. But worst of all, she hurt the one person I never wanted to lose. By then though, it was already too late. Callie was gone, wouldn’t answer my calls, blocked my number.
Jax and Brax’s too. She cut us out of her life. My brothers tried to see her, but she was done with all of us. I tried to go after her a few times, but NYC is a big city and finding her was impossible.
I put the hoodie away, but keep the scrunchie, sliding it onto my wrist. Contemplating. Thinking. Resisting. But she’s working tonight. So close after all this time. Ten years of wondering, a decade of regret. Years of her ghost haunting every corner of this town.
Fuck it.
I’m dressed before I can talk myself out of it.
Jeans, black T-shirt, boots. My hair is still damp, but I couldn’t care less.
I shove my phone and wallet into my pockets, snatch my keys, and slip out of my room.
Jax and Brax are too wrapped up in whatever game they’re playing to notice me leaving.
Thank fuck. I head to my truck with desperation nipping at my heels.
There’s something sick inside me. A hunger.
Something primal that has me contemplating how pissed she’d be if I barged in, tossed her over my shoulder, and brought her home. My muscles vibrate with tension.
She’s home.
No. She’s here.
Her home is with us, and I think deep down she knows that. She’s been running from that long enough, and it’s time I remind her.