Chapter 20
Twenty
Knox
I didn’t have friends. It wasn’t smart in my business. Beyond that, I just wasn’t capable of forming those kinds of connections. I had begrudging acquaintances who were terrified I’d kill them if they didn’t act accordingly and then targets whom I quickly killed.
No one I trusted with my life, let alone Piper’s.
Except for my brother.
My married brother with a baby daughter.
No fucking way would I involve him in this, put them in danger. Driving to Maine had been a stupid fucking mistake, so I had surveillance installed all over his house to make certain I wasn’t inadvertently tracked there.
I’d gone to great pains to ensure that Stone didn’t know of my connection to Kane, but I knew if he looked hard enough, he’d find it. There was no way I’d point a needle in that direction.
I only had one choice.
And it wasn’t a comfortable one. But Piper needed to be somewhere safe while I ended this. There was only one place, two people I considered capable of keeping her that way. If I wasn’t killed on sight, that was.
“This is a nice house.” Piper craned her neck to get a better view of the architecture. I had my eyes on the very discreet security cameras I knew had followed our every move since we’d approached the gates.
My entire body was on alert, tense. All of my instincts were shrieking at me. I was ready for an attack at any moment, and it was taking all of my effort to park the car.
Piper was unaware we had just pulled up to the house of the most dangerous and notorious hitman in the country. Doubtful anyone would’ve expected a hitman to live in an affluent suburb in fucking Connecticut.
Piper was talking about the wisteria and the charm of the house.
Only she would call a hitman’s house charming .
Despite my unease, I was almost overcome by my love for her. This person who had been kidnapped, beaten and threatened with rape, yet only twenty-four hours later could smile when talking about fucking flowers .
Her hand rose to the door handle as I pulled the car to a stop. I caught her before she could exit.
She immediately looked at me, her cheeks flushed from my touch. Despite the overall situation, my cock swelled. A simple touch from her did that to me. The way Piper’s eyes lit up, her body leaned toward me, opened for me. My gaze stuttered on the angry swollen bruise on her eye, the split lip, recalling the purple-black spots I knew lay underneath her white, cotton blouse.
Fire crawled up my throat as I reminded myself why I was risking this. To get my revenge.
“The people who own this house are not friends.” It took immense effort to keep my voice flat. I wasn’t going to scare her by telling her who they really were, but I needed her to be mindful. “People in my business don’t have friends.” I glanced up to see the door already opening. Hopefully, he wouldn’t shoot first and ask questions later. “But you will be safe with them.”
This was an unannounced visit. Surprising people like this wasn’t wise, but I was desperate. And I was more than happy to risk my life for Piper’s safety. Though this man had few morals and killed without hesitation, I knew he wouldn’t kill Piper without reason. Though he had plenty of reasons to kill me.
She licked her lips, and I followed the entire journey of her perfect, pink tongue. “I am safe with you .” Her statement was firm, argumentative. She thought we were going there for help; she didn’t know I planned on leaving her behind.
I caught hold of her hand, bringing it to my mouth, relaxing somewhat with her skin at my lips.
“Yes, you are.” The lie singed my tongue.
“Stay in the car,” I ordered, then I got out, Lukyan’s eyes watchful as I rounded it, going to Piper in the passenger seat, who smiled and waved at him.
I caught the slight twitch to his eyebrow, surprised that she was smiling and waving at him. That she seemed happy, normal, utterly stunning… And she was with me.
His posture was tense as I approached, and I knew he was armed, ready to fire if he so much as didn’t like the way my lips moved.
My expression was, as always, carefully blank.
“Lukyan,” I greeted.
His eyes were chips of ice, his dark brows raised. “You must be entirely fucked if you’re coming here, uninvited and unannounced. With a civilian.” His eyes slid to the passenger seat again.
I hated his eyes being on her. It went against everything inside of me to have a man like Lukyan—a man like me—touching her with his gaze.
“I came to ask a favor,” I replied, voice tight. I was unaccustomed to asking for help, and it was physically painful. Admitting weakness in front of a threat such as this went against all of my instincts. But for Piper, I would’ve done anything. For Piper, I would’ve begged at his fucking feet.
His left eyebrow shot up. Then his gaze returned to the car, where I heard the telltale sound of a door slam.
“Hi,” Piper greeted cheerfully, her hand slipping into mine with ease while the other stretched out to Lukyan to shake his hand.
Of course. Of fucking course, she didn’t listen to me. She was far too stubborn for that. Not afraid of me. And I’d liked that. Fucking loved it. Only then, I wished she was at least a little bit goddamn afraid of me.
“I told you to stay in the car.” My grip on her hand tightened to the point of pain, but she barely winced.
She gave me a megawatt smile. “I don’t do what I’m told.” Her hand was still outstretched. “I love your house,” she spoke to Lukyan then. “You have to tell me about how you maintain such a lovely garden.”
Lukyan looked at Piper, examining her black eye, the marks on her wrists where the handcuffs had rubbed them raw. The blemishes on perfect skin that still haunted me even though the ones who’d put them there were rotting in a cheap motel room.
Because the man who ordered her suffering was still breathing air.
Lukyan took it all in, Piper, her state, my presence. I saw him putting the pieces together.
I watched him on the precipice. Of killing me despite the audience, despite Piper’s warm smile. That’s what his true nature hungered for. And he was a man who rarely deprived himself of that.
My body was nothing but a taut fucking wire in those handful of moments, Piper’s hand in mine while my fingers twitched for the gun in the holster at my shoulder.
It would be the smallest tell, enough for Lukyan to decide to kill me, scant seconds for me to decide to kill him first. In front of his home. And then we would’ve been shit out of luck.
I squeezed Piper’s hand even tighter as I waited for Lukyan to make a decision.
When he put his hand out to shake hers, I had to tamp down the beast inside of me roaring at his touch on hers. I ached to rip his fucking arm off.
“You’ll have to speak to my wife about that,” he replied smoothly. “She’s the green thumb. I just kill everything.” His eyes gravitated to me for a split second, and for ab insane moment, I wanted to laugh. “I’m Lukyan.” Surprisingly, he offered her his real name.
The moment he let go of her hand, my lungs began working properly again. “Won’t you come in? Elizabeth is inside, and I’m sure she’ll be delighted to talk to you about the wisteria while Knox and I discuss … other matters.”
His threat was clear, even if I was the only one who could deduce it. We were not out of the woods. Or at least I wasn’t.
Entering the house wasn’t a surefire guarantee that I would exit it alive. But it was a risk I’d take for Piper.
I’d die for her in a heartbeat.
Though I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that.
I had an ache for something unfamiliar.
A life.
With Piper.
It was fucking ironic that I was walking into the home of the deadliest man in the country—myself excluded—in order to attempt to make that happen.
Piper
I hadn’t known where Knox was taking us. We’d spoken little since his declaration last night. We’d left the motel—sensible, considering we’d lingered too long next door to two dead bodies Knox was responsible for—driving for an hour or two before Knox checked us into a moderately nicer hotel off the highway.
He’d taken me roughly and urgently once more until my exhausted body had lapsed into a deep and dreamless sleep.
It surprised me that I didn’t have nightmares about what happened. Maybe my brain knew that the nightmares were not over. Save all the falling apart for when we were safe. If that was ever going to happen.
I sensed it. The tension in the air, a knowing deep in my marrow. Knox had come to ‘save’ me, but the battle was far from won, the story far from over. I was a sucker for a happily ever after. In fact, I refused to consume any art that didn’t promise that. But I had a terrifying premonition that this story, our story, wouldn’t have one.
I tried to keep that panic at bay, choked down food that Knox had ordered for me at a diner, had let us sit in complete silence, eating.
He had watched me intently, waiting. He knew it was unusual for me to go so far inward. I could sense his concern, almost as palpable as his ownership, the ferocity simmering underneath his skin.
It had taken the drive to Connecticut for me to find my trademark optimism. We’d stopped at a gas station for me to pee, and I’d bought two matching keychains.
When I handed him one, he stared at them as if I were presenting him with a severed body part instead of a kitschy keychain.
“They’re souvenirs,” I explained. “Every good road trip needs one.”
The slight narrowing of his eyes communicated that he was worried I might’ve gone completely insane. Which was fair enough since I didn’t think any of our trips should’ve been immortalized with tacky keychains since the first one was a kidnapping, and this one was a journey toward some sort of battle to the death.
Nevertheless, I ignored him, taking the keys from the ignition so I could thread the keychain into them.
I put mine around the handle of my bag.
I needed something tangible, something unthreatening and real to ground me. To provide evidence that this trip existed, that Knox and I existed, even if it was a gaudy keychain.
I mourned the loss of the painting that they had taken along with me, never to be seen again.
It was so precious, so pure. A piece of Knox’s untainted soul immortalized in art, now soiled by the grubby hands of Stone’s men, lying wherever they’d deigned to discard it. Like it was trash. Not the single most priceless item on this earth.
Luckily, I was distracted by the charming house we pulled up at, the incredibly handsome man who had emerged from it and the intense energy radiating from Knox.
I understood that the man, Lukyan, was dangerous. You could see it. Feel it. He was older than Knox, silver threading through his close-cropped, midnight hair. A small gathering of dark stubble covered his square jaw. He was dressed impeccably in a suit that was quite obviously tailored to his large, imposing frame. This imposing energy was quickly counteracted by his wife joining him outside.
She was small in stature, delicate, striking with soft features. Her hair tumbled down her shoulders, and she was wearing an exquisite sundress covered in lemons—quite obviously designer. Her heels were as well.
I suddenly felt shabby in my jeans and hot-pink sweater with the glaring shiner that I’d poorly covered with makeup.
She didn’t look at me as if I was beneath her, though. Instead, she’d taken a glimpse at my eye, smiled warmly then invited me in for tea.
“I’m Elizabeth,” she said as we entered a grand foyer with fresh flowers and a whole wall of … birds. Birds in frames.
Dead birds. With colorful, exquisite feathers and interesting shapes. An odd décor choice for an otherwise traditionally decorated home. The sight and the presentation of such glorious creatures trapped in a frame in their death, never decaying, was eerie, sending an unpleasant chill down my spine.
I was instantly curious to hear the story behind those birds, to hear the story behind Lukyan and Elizabeth. I knew it must’ve been interesting. Though Knox and I were embroiled in our own story at the moment.
I’d never seen Knox tenser than he was while in that house. Which was saying something. He was not pleased to be there, that much was clear. I wondered why he’d brought us there. I kicked myself for not asking more questions and for once again being on the back foot, scrambling to make assumptions on a scant amount of details.
This man, Lukyan, was obviously an acquaintance of Knox’s. Presumably another member of the underworld yet pledging no allegiance to Stone since he didn’t kill Knox on sight. They weren’t friends. Cordial enemies was the vibe I got. My molars ground together in irritation at Knox not preparing me better.
I hid that well, though, since sulking would do no good.
Plus, it felt nice to be in what passed for a normal situation for once. Engaging in pleasant, friendly conversation and being offered tea. Even if it was a thin veneer of normalcy covering whatever was happening there. It was a sojourn from what awaited us, so I needed to enjoy every second of it.
“Knox,” Lukyan’s voice punctured the conversation Elizabeth and I were having, and if possible, Knox grew even more tense at my side.
“Let’s let the ladies have their tea while we have a cigar,” Lukyan suggested without warmth. “For old times’ sake.”
Though I didn’t know the dynamics between the two of them, I could discern that it would not be a friendly cigar. There was an underlying animosity between the two men that went beyond the fact that they were both apex predators. History, not good history, lingered between them.
Yet there we were.
Knox’s hand, which had been resting at the small of my back, moved to grasp my hip. Tightly.
He paused for a second, the tension in the room reaching a crescendo, my heartbeat roaring in warning that something was on the edge of happening.
Would they get out guns and just start shooting? Surely not. Yet I noted the way Knox’s body angled slightly in front of mine, as if he was waiting for that exact thing.
But then Knox let me go.
“Yes, let’s.” He nodded.
Then he dropped his hand and walked away from me, not looking at me.
Knox
Lukyan closed the door, but not before I heard Piper’s laughter carry through the house. Only she would be laughing with a stranger married to one of the most dangerous men in the world. A woman who I knew had become dangerous in her own right. I might not have had friends to drink and share idle gossip with, but word of Elizabeth and Lukyan had reached even my ears. The piranha brought down by his prey.
“Drink?” Lukyan offered once we entered the office, decorated in dark browns, a wall of books behind the large mahogany desk.
I hesitated. I didn’t want Piper to taste it on me afterward, but fuck, I needed something to take the edge off.
“I’m not going to poison you,” Lukyan said over his shoulder, misinterpreting my silence. “If I planned on killing you, you’d already be dead.”
“Consider yourself that talented, do you?” I asked, not moving, not blinking.
“You’re on my property,” he reminded me. “Where my wife sleeps.”
That said everything. His wife was his greatest treasure. And when it came to her, he was indomitable.
I understood that.
I took the drink he offered, sitting at the other side of his desk in the chair he nodded at. I was being deferential through gritted teeth. Lukyan saw that, and I knew it surprised and delighted him.
We weren’t exactly adversaries, but we both waded in the underworld with reputations for our vacant souls, our kill counts. We had always operated under the assumption that one day we might be ordered to take out the other.
It had been a foregone conclusion. Until Lukyan went rogue and decimated everyone who had previously employed him, unraveling the entire Russian mob.
For his wife.
Which was why I was there. He’d managed to do the unthinkable with no allies.
He didn’t speak when he sat. He waited, watching me, the low murmur from his wife and the slightly higher pitch from Piper the only sounds in the room.
“A woman has made the ogre human, I see.” When he finally spoke, amusement danced in his tone.
“Not quite,” I answered, sipping my drink. I reveled in the rich fire traveling down my throat.
His fingers thrummed on his tumbler. “Enough to have you sitting here. Asking for help, I assume.”
“No.” The insinuation that I needed help keeping my woman safe damaged an ego I wasn’t sure I possessed until that moment.
Weakness.
That’s what I was showing.
Something deadly in my life.
Yet I didn’t hesitate when it would keep Piper safe. I had no ego when it came to her.
“I don’t need help with my task,” I stated evenly. “But I cannot take Piper with me.”
The thought of being without Piper after everything that had happened to her sent my blood boiling, but I had no other choice. I would not risk another mark on her skin, any more harm coming to her. She needed to be as far away from this, from me, as possible.
Lukyan was not a man prone to surprise, but I knew I’d shocked him with my unspoken request.
Though he’d only met her a few minutes ago, I knew that Lukyan was smart enough to deduce that Piper was my greatest treasure.
“You trust me to keep her here? Unharmed?” Intrigued, his eyes narrowed on me as if I were a fucking insect under a microscope.
My fingers curled into fists as I nodded once, violently.
“You are going to punish those who marked her, I assume?” he asked instead of offering any inkling of whether he would keep her there or not. He was going to torture me with that. It was his way. He could not provide kindness without cruelty. Though it infuriated me, I understood it. If he had come to me with the same situation, I never would’ve let him through the door.
Before Piper, at least. She wouldn’t have allowed me to keep someone on the doorstep with a bruised woman, even if that someone was the most dangerous hitman in the country.
“I’m going to take down Stone and everyone who is loyal to him.” It was folly, telling him my plan. Lukyan held no loyalties, but I knew he collected favors. It would be a big one he’d collect indeed if he were to inform Stone of my plan and whereabouts.
“No small feat.” He sipped his drink.
I didn’t respond to that.
“And you expect to come out of it alive?” Again, the mirth in his tone was clear.
“I expect to accomplish my task,” I told him, gripping the tumbler so tight I feared I’d shatter it.
I’d accomplish my task. Whether or not I lived afterward remained to be seen. But I knew that there was no way I’d take my last breath until the threat against Piper was bleeding out at my feet.
Lukyan nodded as if he understood the sentiment behind my meager words. “What would you like me to do with her, if you don’t come back?”
I was surprised. He was agreeing to keep her there. It was my last-ditch attempt, and I’d expected it to be much more difficult, thornier than this-
“I will make arrangements for her and her sister.” I didn’t let my relief show. “To go back to their old life.”
“You think she’ll just go back to her life before this?” He studied me, leaning back in his chair.
“She’ll have to.” Poison ran through my body instead of blood. I leaned forward, elbows on my knees. “You’ll take her?”
I didn’t beg. Wouldn’t beg. But that was pretty fucking close.
Lukyan let me stew in the unpleasant feeling, likely entertained by my discomfort. “Yes, I’ll take her,” he eventually replied.
I didn’t show my relief, just sipped my drink.
Piper would live , I told myself.
That’s all that mattered.
Piper
Knox didn’t come out of the cigar meeting looking at all relaxed. In fact, he walked toward me like a man walking toward an executioner.
The sight of him sent ice through my limbs. I understood that things were happening. Big things. He was planning on taking down the head of an international crime organization in order to keep me safe. I had already tried to argue against this, but he wouldn’t be swayed. And logic dictated that this was the only way that we’d ever actually be able to be together. It was the only way I could go back to my life. If that was even an option after everything I’d been through.
It didn’t mean I had to like it. It didn’t mean that I didn’t have a cold pit at the bottom of my belly that made my skin itch.
The home was expensively appointed with rich colors—purples, deep burgundies—with oil paintings, candles, dim lighting. I felt like I was in an English castle.
We were drinking tea from intricate teacups, eating fucking Madeline’s.
The woman in front of me was interesting. She was slight, pale, fragile. But fragile like a stick of dynamite might’ve been. Vulnerable yet dangerous. I already knew the man, Lukyan, was. He walked and talked menace. It might’ve set my teeth on edge had I not already cut them on Knox. Regardless, it didn’t prevent me from feeling a prickle of fear in his presence, despite his polite greeting.
He was a man in the ‘business.’ The business of killing, I guessed. I couldn’t be sure. Some kind of criminal. One who’d amassed considerable wealth.
They emerged from the hall not smelling of cigars but of whisky. That surprised me but didn’t anger me. I even liked the smell of whisky on Knox’s breath when he laid his lips on my neck.
He’d pulled me away from the kitchen where Elizabeth and I had been preparing dinner. It felt foreign to be doing something so … normal in the midst of such chaos. But it was nice. I needed something to busy my hands. Elizabeth spoke little, of benign topics, studiously avoiding our abrupt arrival, acting as if we didn’t just turn up on her doorstep. She didn’t ask about the bruises either.
“I’m going to ensure that Daisy gets word to you as soon as it’s safe,” Knox said once he’d dragged me off, his voice low.
I blinked at what he was saying. Definitely not what I expected, even though my worry for Daisy had been pacing at the back of my mind at all times, like a caged tiger.
“Once it’s appropriate, you’ll meet up with her and Joey,” he continued, voice strange and tight. Distant.
A lump of dread formed in my throat even though he was telling me things that should’ve made me happy.
“You’re leaving me. Here,” I deduced though it didn’t take a rocket scientist to understand.
“Yes.” He tucked my hair behind my ear. He had his mask in place, as it had been the entire visit. He was edgy, stilted, on guard.
The intensity of it was comforting yet also pinching too tight, bordering on painful. But that was how I liked it. I liked it immensely, seeing that outside of the cabin, he still had that feeling for me. It wasn’t born of the surroundings, the situation in the cabin, the dark magic of the woods.
But my soul grieved through the impossible to ignore energy as he was saying goodbye.
“You’re going to be safe here,” he continued, never taking his eyes from mine.
My own eyes shifted behind him, to where Elizabeth was moving around in the kitchen, engrossed in her task. To where Lukyan was making no effort in hiding that he was watching us with a stare that could not be described as friendly .
Prior to this entire situation, that stare would’ve almost made me pee my pants, avert my eyes and run away. But now, I met the gaze levelly, without fear, communicating that I had tamed my own predator and wasn’t scared of other housebroken ones. His wife was baking cookies for fucks’ sake.
After a beat, Lukyan seemed to sense I wouldn’t scare like the general public did. The side of his mouth lifted, he nodded subtly to me, then he turned to his wife, pulling her into an embrace.
My attention went back to Knox, who had been watching me the entire time.
“There’s only one place I’m safe,” I told him. “And that’s with you.”
His gaze didn’t waver, didn’t so much as twitch, but his grip on my neck tightened.
“That’s the one place you’ll never be safe, Piper,” he rasped, all intense and foreboding.
I huffed in his face, rolling my eyes. “We’re going to agree to disagree on that. I’ve made my choice. It’s you.” I was determined to show him how serious I was.
He was still entrenched in the worry that he was going to taint me, ruin me. Not enough to let me go, thank God. He wasn’t that honorable.
I saw his jaw flex at my response. “In order for you to be safe, I need to take care of this.”
He didn’t elaborate as to what ‘this’ was. He didn’t need to.
“Stone… You’re going to kill him.” Why I repeated something I already knew, I wasn’t sure. I ached for him to explain to me what that entailed. Why I was being left there. How he could do it all alone.
“I’m going to take care of it,” he replied. I didn’t know if he wasn’t saying it outright because of Lukyan’s proximity or if he was trying to spare me from something.
“You can’t go alone,” I told him, worry suddenly clutching my neck harder than he ever could.
In my head, Knox was impenetrable. There was no way anything or anyone could hurt him.
But that was in my head. He was human, he’d shown me that much. He bled. Now that scared me. Knowing that he could be taken from me.
That simply wasn’t an option. I couldn’t be without him.
“You worried about me?” he asked, a very slight teasing in his tone. No one would’ve caught it but me.
“Obviously, I’m worried about you,” I snapped, mindful of Elizabeth and Lukyan within earshot. “I love you.”
Knox jerked as if I’d hit him.
I hadn’t previously said that out loud, I realized. I’d figured Knox was attuned to me, to every one of my small tells. I’d said it in not so many words a thousand times.
But maybe he truly didn’t believe it. Truly didn’t believe himself worthy of love.
Regardless of the audience, I moved my hands up to cup his face, clutching it as hard as I could, wishing I could fuse myself to him. Wishing I could will my need for him to live into his skin.
“I love you,” I repeated, going up on my tiptoes to brush my mouth against his. “And I am telling you that you will hurt me more than you could ever imagine, you would ruin me, by dying. Or getting maimed. But I’ll deal with a maiming if your heart is beating.” I moved one of my hands to his chest, letting the thump lull me into some sense of peace.
I’d expected Knox to stiffen at this display of affection, especially in front of this man who I knew he considered an enemy.
But he didn’t. He completely melted into my touch.
He didn’t return the words.
He hugged me instead. A hug from Knox, in front of witnesses, no less, felt like the most precious gift in the world.
For only a handful of seconds. Then he let me go.
He turned to give Lukyan what looked to be both a threatening and thankful nod, then he walked out the door.
Without looking back.
Again, his walk had the gait of someone walking to the noose.