Chapter 29
Knox
Why does Liam look like he’s about to jump me?
The thought is a sharp, unwelcome intrusion as I stand here, the wallet in my hand feeling like a foreign object. His fists are clenched at his sides, his knuckles white, his whole body coiled with a tension that’s practically vibrating in the small space.
He’s not looking at Millie. He’s not looking at Maddox. He’s looking at me. The target of his misplaced fury. This is a powder keg, and I’m the fool holding the match.
Maddox seems to be the only one with a clear head. He walks past us and into the kitchen. I hear the clink of glasses. He returns a moment later with a bottle of vodka and four glasses. The clear liquid sloshes as he walks.
He sets them down on the coffee table, a makeshift altar for our impending sacrifices. He pours four shots, the liquid a clear, sharp rectangle in each glass. He hands one to me.
I shake my head. “I’m driving.” The words are a flimsy shield, a last grasp at professionalism in a situation that is anything but.
He shrugs and offers the next glass to Liam. Liam just stares at it, his jaw tight, a silent refusal.
Maddox doesn’t push.
He hands the next one to Millie. She takes it, her fingers trembling, but just holds it between her hands.
Then Maddox picks up his own glass, throws his head back, and downs it in one smooth motion.
He pours himself another immediately. His hands are steady, but I can see the tic in his jaw, the only sign of the pressure he’s under.
“What the fuck is going on?” Liam finally asks, his voice a low, dangerous growl that’s aimed squarely at me.
My gaze shifts to Millie. She’s looking at me, her eyes wide and filled with apology, before they dart away, landing on the blanket pooled around her feet. She smells like sex and herself and what I now recognize as Maddox, a warm, woodsy scent that clings to her skin.
I should feel jealous. A primal, possessive rage should be coursing through me. The sheriff, the Alpha, should be staking his claim.
But all I can think about is how good she smells. The combination is intoxicating, a potent cocktail of her desire and theirs. It’s a scent that speaks of a complex, messy, beautiful truth, and all it does is make me want. What the hell is wrong with me?
This is when she starts to talk. Her voice is trembling, fragile. “A few weeks ago,” she begins, her gaze fixed on the floor, “I had a one-night stand.”
Liam nods, his expression hardening. “I remember.” Then he turns to me, his eyes narrowing. “Was that you?”
I nod. There’s no point in denying it.
Millie nods too, a small, jerky motion. “It was just that one time,” she says, her voice rushing out in a torrent. “Before I knew he was the sheriff. Before any of this.”
Liam turns on her, his face a mask of betrayal. “So you lied.”
“I omitted,” she corrects, her chin lifting in a show of defiance that’s undercut by the tremor in her lip.
“Let her speak,” Maddox says, his tone low but firm. He places a hand on Millie’s shoulder, a protective gesture.
She takes a shaky breath. “I was scared, Liam. I didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t know what it was. You know how you get about law enforcement. I was scared you were going to hate me.”
“It wasn’t just a mistake, Millie,” Liam shoots back, his hands gesturing wildly. “This almost destroyed our friendship. I knew you were keeping something huge from me, and you said nothing. You made me believe that we were okay.”
“We are okay,” she says.
“No, we aren’t. If we were, you wouldn’t have run the first time I told you I had feelings for you. Or the second. Or the third. All you did was run. I told you that I loved you, and you turned around and slept with someone else,” he spits out.
I catch Maddox flinch.
“I wasn’t thinking!” she cries, a tear tracing a path down her cheek.
“I was just... feeling. And then it was over, and I was going to put it behind me. But I couldn’t.
I tried to let it be nothing. I tried to stay away from all of you because I wanted to keep our friendship, but where the fuck did that lead us? Same fucking place.”
Her eyes find mine again, and this time she holds my gaze. “And then you and I... Today. I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
The air crackles with unspoken questions. Liam’s head whips between us, his confusion morphing into a new, more painful kind of understanding.
“You and him?” he asks, his voice barely a whisper. “Today? You fucked him today? While I was rotting in prison, you were out here building your own little harem?”
Millie shakes her head. “It’s not what you think.”
“Careful,” Maddox warns.
“Then what is it?” Liam demands, his voice cracking. “Because it looks like you’ve slept with the sheriff and my best friend. Am I missing something?”
Maddox steps forward, his body partially blocking Millie from Liam’s wrath. “Back off, Liam. This isn’t just on her.”
“Isn’t it?” Liam scoffs, a harsh, broken sound. “You’re a fine one to talk, smelling like you just rolled all over her.”
“Because I love her,” Maddox says.
His words silence the room.
“I have for years. And I’m done hiding it,” he adds.
The confession hangs in the air. I watch Liam’s face, see the way the words land. He looks like he’s been physically struck.
“And you,” he says, his eyes finding mine again. “You just... what? You’re okay with this? You’re part of this... this... whatever this is?”
I open my mouth to speak, to deny, to explain, but what can I say? I’m not okay with it. I’m furious and jealous and confused. But I’m also... intrigued. Drawn in. I’m a part of it whether I want to be or not.
Millie seems to read my mind. “I like Knox too,” she says, her voice small but clear. “It’s not just you and me, Liam. I have feelings for all three of you, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it.”
Liam just shakes his head, a look of utter disbelief on his face. He’s a man drowning in a sea of information he can’t process, a truth too big to comprehend.
“I need a moment,” he says, his voice hollow. He turns and walks toward the door, his movements stiff and robotic. He doesn’t look back. He just opens the door and walks out, leaving the three of us in the wreckage of his world.
I feel like an intruder, a voyeur who has witnessed something deeply private and painful. I have no reason to be here. My presence is only making things worse.
“I should go,” I say, my voice rough.
Maddox nods, his expression grim. Millie just stands there, wrapped in her blanket.
I place Liam’s wallet on the table, turn, and walk to the door.
I step out into the cold, the snow a welcome shock against my heated skin. This has been the weirdest day ever. Millie just admitted that she wants me. And two other guys. What the fuck did I just walk into?
I walk to my car, the snow crunching under my boots. I stop beside the driver’s side door and look back at Millie’s apartment. A single window is illuminated, a beacon in the swirling snow. I sigh, a plume of white fog in the frigid air. What a fucking mess.
I get in the car, the engine turning over with a low grumble. I don’t drive away. I just sit there, the heater blasting tepid air, my hands gripping the steering wheel. I need a minute. I need to clear my head before I get back on the road.
I reach into the glove compartment, my fingers closing around the new pack of cigarettes.
I get out, leaning against the cold metal of the car door, and light one. The first drag is a harsh, familiar burn, a rush of nicotine that does little to calm the frantic buzzing in my skull. My mind is racing, replaying the conversation I had with Jake just before I left the station.
“We’re in a bind, Knox,” he said, his face grim, the lines around his eyes etched deeper than usual. “The pharmacy is out. The clinic is out. Dr. Evans is rationing what she has left, but it’s not enough. If we get a wave of heats, or another injury... we’re screwed.”
“We need to get creative,” I told him, my mind already working, already trying to find a solution. “We can’t wait for the official supply channels. They’re backed up for weeks.”
“What are you thinking?”
“Volunteers,” I said. “We recruit some of the townspeople. People with reliable vehicles. We send them out. To the next county over. To Port Blossom, even. They buy what we need. Cash. No insurance, no paperwork. Just a straight-up buy.”
Jake nodded, a flicker of hope in his eyes. “It could work. It’s a risk, but it could work.”
The call with Dr. Evans was more specific, more clinical, and more terrifying.
“Knox, it’s not just the suppressants,” she said, her tone clipped.
“I’m running low on everything. IV bags, saline solution, broad-spectrum antibiotics, sterile dressings for the burn victims..
. I’m down to my last box of epinephrine pens.
If we have anaphylactic reactions, or a severe allergic response to something without them.
..” She didn’t need to finish the sentence.
I made a list. A long, detailed list of everything we need.
It’s a temporary fix, a bandage on a gaping wound, but it’s something.
It’ll tide us over, buy us some time until I can figure out a way to talk to Sheriff Miller of Port Blossom.
The man’s a stubborn old coot, but he’ll respond well to money, right?
We need those supplies, and we need them fast.
I finish my cigarette, the cherry glowing a fierce red in the darkness. I crush it under my boot. I get back in the car, the smell of smoke clinging to my clothes.
The snow is coming down harder now. I drive slowly, carefully, my eyes scanning the road. And then I see him. A lone figure walking down the side of the road, his shoulders hunched against the cold, his head bowed.
Liam.
I pull up beside him, the car crawling to a stop. I roll down the window. “Get in the car, Bennett.”
He doesn’t look at me, just keeps walking. “Leave me alone.”