Chapter 51 Knox
KNOX
“Surprise!”
The word hit me like a gunshot. Years of quiet cells and monitored conversations hadn’t prepared me for this. My hand twitched toward my side, an old reflex, before my brain caught up.
A surprise party. For me.
I blinked, taking in the room. Streamers. Balloons. A cake that said Welcome Home, Jailbird in blue frosting, which had Axel written all over it.
And my people. Ryker. Blake. Jace. Axel.
Their significant others, who I’d met or seen pictures of and heard about at length.
My parents in the corner, my mother’s wheelchair tucked close to my father’s side, both of them watching me with the kind of relief that only comes from years of holding your breath. My sister.
All here to spend time with me, with no time limit. No officer standing between us. Just a room full of everyone I loved.
“I had no idea,” I said, keeping my voice flat. Then I caught Harper’s gaze across the room and winked.
She smirked, those green eyes sparkling with mischief.
“Son.” My father’s voice cut through the noise before I even saw him move. He crossed to me and put both hands on my shoulders, the way he used to when I was a kid and he needed me to really hear something. His eyes were red-rimmed. “I am so proud of you.”
My throat locked. I couldn’t remember the last time those words had come out of his mouth, directed at me. Fourteen years of being the family’s great shame, and here he was, saying them like he meant every syllable.
“Thanks, Dad.”
I pulled him into a hug, brief and tight, the way men like us do it.
Then I bent down to my mother in her wheelchair.
She grabbed my face in both hands before I could say a word, the way she used to when I was small, and just looked at me.
No words. She didn’t need any. I could feel everything she was holding—the years of worry, the prayers, the relief—all of it pouring out of her hands and into me.
I pressed my forehead to hers for just a moment.
“Hi, Mom.”
She let out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob and squeezed my face harder.
After a minute, my parents drifted toward the corner of the living room, and I watched my mother reach over and take my father’s hand. Something about seeing that—the two of them, together, still standing after everything I’d put them through—hit me somewhere deep.
“Brother!” Dakota launched herself at me before I could take another step.
I caught her, wrapping my arms around her as she squeezed hard enough to re-crack a rib. I’d hugged my sister through so many prison visits, but always with guards watching. Always with the knowledge that it had to end.
Not anymore.
“Easy,” I said. “My ribs are still tender, and you’re going to squish me to death.”
She pulled back, eyes glassy, and as she stepped aside, I finally got a good look at her hand intertwined with Axel’s.
I leveled him with a look. “Of all the men in the world, you picked this man-child?”
Dakota laughed, light and airy. “He grew on me.”
“Like a fungus,” I said.
“Like a charming fungus,” Axel corrected, grinning. Then he stepped forward and pulled me into one of those bro hugs, the kind with the back slap that said more than words ever could. “From shackles to limos, brother. You’re moving up in the world.”
The weight of his hand on my shoulder felt different out here. Solid. Real. No one was going to tell us to separate. No one was going to pat us down after.
“I take it, your release went off without a hitch?” Ryker asked, stepping into my line of sight.
“Everything went great.” I found Harper again across the room. She was leaning against the kitchen counter, giving me space to reunite with my people. Patient. Understanding.
It was so fucking sweet and thoughtful.
Ryker rubbed the back of his neck, his tone growing serious. “Before I leave tonight, we need to talk.”
“About?”
Something in his tone made the hairs on my neck stand up.
But before Ryker could answer, Jace stepped forward. “Can’t tell you how excited we are.”
“Seriously.” Blake clapped my shoulder, then immediately turned to check on Tessa, who was lowering herself into a chair. Her hand rested on her slightly swollen belly, and Blake was at her side in two seconds flat, asking if she needed water, a pillow, a foot rub, the moon.
Some things had changed while I was gone. That was one of the good ones.
“You good, Tessa?” I asked.
She waved me off with a smile. “I’m great. This one just thinks I’m made of glass.” She shot Blake a look that was equal parts exasperation and adoration.
“You’re growing a human,” Blake said. “I’m allowed to be concerned.”
“You asked if I needed a blanket. It’s seventy-two degrees in here.”
“Temperature regulation is important for fetal development.”
Jace snorted. “He’s been reading pregnancy books.”
“All of them,” Scarlett added, tucking herself against Jace’s side. “He’s highlighted passages.”
I made a mental note to give him endless shit about it later.
A strange sound pulled my attention toward the corner of the room. A snuffling, waddling, vaguely concerning sound.
I squinted. “What is that?”
“That’s Rainbow, my little queen,” Faith cooed, scooping up the creature in question.
I stared.
It was a dog. Probably. The kind of dog that looked like it had been assembled from spare parts in a dimly lit workshop. One ear stood straight up. The other flopped sideways. Its eyes pointed in two different directions, and there was some kind of growth on its side that bobbled when it breathed.
“She’s …” I searched for words, reaching out to pet her wiry fur. “Got personality.”
Axel threw his head back and laughed. “She looks like abstract art. You can say it.”
“I was going to say resilient.”
“You were going to say haunted,” Axel shot back.
Rainbow’s head swiveled toward Axel. Both eyes, somehow, locked on to him. Her stubby tail started wagging so hard, her entire back half wiggled as Faith set her down.
“No,” Axel said, backing up. “No, no, no. Faith, control your gremlin.”
“She just loves you,” Faith said sweetly.
“She’s obsessed with me. It’s unhealthy. For both of us.”
Rainbow waddled toward him with a distinctive gait, three normal steps and then a little hop, like she was doing a cha-cha only she knew the rhythm to.
“She’s not that bad,” Ryker said, clearly enjoying this.
“Not that bad?” Axel’s voice pitched up. “Last week, she stared at me for forty-five minutes straight. Didn’t blink. I timed it.”
Rainbow reached him and sat directly on his foot. Then she looked up at him adoringly.
And farted.
The sound was impressive. The smell was biological warfare.
“Jesus Christ!” Axel yanked his foot back. “She sharted on my new shoes! That’s the second pair this week!”
He stormed toward the sink while Rainbow trotted after him, barking happily, tail wagging like she’d just performed a great service.
“I think she’s marking her territory,” Faith said.
“I think she’s a goddamn menace.”
I watched Axel scrub at his shoe while Rainbow sat at his feet, gazing up at him with what could only be described as pure devotion. Something loosened in my chest.
This. This was what I’d missed.
Not just the people, but the chaos. The noise. The freedom to stand here and laugh at my friend getting crop-dusted by a mutant dog without someone telling us to keep it down.
My eyes drifted to my parents in the corner. My father’s arm was around my mother’s shoulders, and they were both watching me laugh. Not saying anything. Just watching.
Fourteen years they’d waited for exactly this. Their son, standing in a room full of people who loved him, with nowhere else he had to be.
I looked away before I fell apart.
“For the record,” I said, pulling the room’s attention back, “I never properly thanked you all. For sticking by me.”
The words felt strange in my mouth. Heavy. I wasn’t good at this part.
Axel looked up from the sink, making a gagging sound. “Oh God. Don’t tell me prison made you soft.”
“I’m just thanking you.”
“You’re getting all mushy and weird.” He dried his hands and walked back over. “Please go back to being the tattooed asshole behind bars. At least he was entertaining.”
“Axel”—Blake shook his head—“you’re nothing if not a constant dick.”
Axel winked. “You love it. And we’re not the mushy-gushy type. So, put your heart back in your chest and act normal.”
A chuckle escaped me. He wasn’t wrong.
“For the record,” Jace said, “we never would have left your side. You know that.”
“Faith, stop staring at your old bungalow.” Ryker smirked. Faith was standing near the side window, looking at the house next door that, evidently, she used to call home.
“It’s nostalgic. That’s where I brought Rainbow home when I rescued her. And where I met Harper.” She smiled, eyes dropping to the ground below. “And kids still cut through the yards. Look at the footprints in the mud.” Her voice went soft. “I love that nothing’s changed.”
“Speaking of change,” Axel announced, “we got you a gift.”
He shoved a gift bag into my chest before I could respond. The bag had a cartoon character on it, wearing black-and-white prison stripes, running from two cops with exaggerated expressions.
I stared at it.
“I knew we shouldn’t have let Axel pick the bag,” Jace muttered.
“Excuse you. I went to ten different stores to find that masterpiece.”
Ryker scrubbed a hand over his face.
Inside, naturally, was black-and-white tissue paper to match the cartoon. Beneath it sat a heavy rectangular box.
“An iPhone?” I pulled it out, feeling the weight of it in my palm.
“Welcome to the land of the living,” Axel said.
“My assistant set the whole thing up for you,” Jace explained. “Your own phone number, Contacts already loaded.”
“And the best part,” Axel added, “you don’t have to hide this one up your ass at night.”
Ryker shoved him in the chest, but Axel just laughed. So did I.