Chapter 30 Skylar
SKYLAR
Sandwiches. Water. Bandages. A change of clothes for both of us.
The duffel on Knox’s bed is brimming with them, but he keeps filling it. He moves around his home with a kind of fierce efficiency, his motions clipped and certain.
He’s so laser-focused on not missing a thing that he hardly talks, only walks back and forth, brow furrowed in concentration.
After the shower, Knox wrapped fresh bandages over both of our cuts.
He didn’t say a word the entire time, not even when he slid one of his T-shirts and sweatpants over me. When he pulled on jeans and a clean shirt himself, we were already lacing up our shoes.
He stayed quiet while he shoved the container with Bronwyn’s skin out of sight.
But that’s okay.
I have him. And we’re about to leave this hellhole.
“Here, let me.” I step up beside his dresser, holding my hands out to him. Hoping that this time, he’ll accept my offer to help.
“No.” Instead of handing me the new pile of his folded shirts, Knox puts them back in the drawer. He picks me up and deposits me on his bed. “Stay.”
My gaze drifts lower to his ass as he resumes packing. The denim strains when he bends, his shirt riding up to bare the smooth plane of his back while he double-checks nothing’s been left behind.
When he turns to look at me, his dark eyes are smoldering. Terrifying.
Despite the horrors I’ve endured, despite my sore body and the odors coming from our rotting siblings, I want Knox. Crave him so badly that I’m wet between my thighs.
“Bad girl, Trouble,” he grunts and goes back to sifting through the enormous duffel.
He’s right to ignore my needs. His family is monstrous, trained to hunt and kill without a shred of remorse. Once they wake up, it might be game over for us.
And since the sun is about to rise, we have to hurry.
Better to change the subject. “So, Knox.”
He stuffs more shirts into the bag, along with more of his boxers. “Hmm?”
“Have you thought about where you’d want to go first…once we’re out of here?”
“Plenty of places.” He rubs his chin, looking at the bag as if assessing what’s missing from it. “Starting with somewhere to eat once we leave here.”
“Ooh, have you ever had fast food before?”
His boots don’t make a sound as he rounds the bed and approaches me. Pushing my legs open, he stands between them. His somber expression is blank and bone-chilling in the sexiest way.
He drags his knuckles along my jawline, lighting up every nerve ending in my body.
I gulp, wishing he’d get so angry he’d curl his hand around my throat.
“No,” he says before turning away and stalking off to the other side of the room. “The nearby town only has one diner and one bar. Not that we’ve ever been to any.”
His arms flex as he grabs oil bottles, scissors, and a small knife. He isn’t dismissing me. I see it for what it is—survival.
“Do you like it, Skylar? Fast food?”
“I…”
The way he asks that brings up memories, makes me emotional for some reason.
The flashbacks blindside me, sharp enough to tighten my throat. Tears prick, but I force them back.
Knox steps in to stand between my legs but doesn’t push me to talk. He doesn’t move away either, letting me know he’s here. That he won’t leave until I speak, because I matter to him.
“I do.” The room begins to glow as dusk’s purple light slips in, and it’s then that I finally manage to breathe out the words. “Those times when we had it as a family were when I felt closest to my parents. Like those greasy little meals were some of the few moments we were truly together.”
Gently, he cups my jaw with both hands.
“Tell me more.” His curiosity is almost na?ve. Fathomless. He needs that information so badly that he shakes my head when I don’t answer fast enough. “Now.”
Guess we do have a few minutes to spare. If Knox allows it, it must be safe.
“Our parents spend endless hours in the hospital.” I slide my hands over his wrists, soaking in his warmth. “Some weeks, some months, they barely have an hour for us. Until I met you, those were the best hours of my life. Eating together and just spending time with them, it was everything.”
“That sounds fun.” His head tilts, lips quirking to the side. “I saw online that it can be greasy, but if you like it, if it makes you feel like home, I’ll have that all the time.”
His eagerness to learn about me, and to do what makes me happy, is intoxicating.
I can’t help it. I open my legs wider, encouraging him to step closer.
“What I’m trying to say is why I like the memories that come with it.” My heart swells when he leans into me. “Well, most of them. Bronwyn, she…”
I’ve made peace with her death. Put it behind me. Thoughts of my parents are what sting me.
Next time I talk to them, I’ll have to lie for Knox. For myself. I’ll have to tell them she disappeared and hope it won’t break their hearts irreparably.
The alternative—that she was slaughtered, and that Knox’s family did it—would haunt them every time they looked at him.
“Bronwyn, what? Did she ruin it for you?” he demands.
“I—Yes.” Unease makes me shift on the bed.
Knox holds me down, the power vibrating from him settling me.
“What’d she do?” He tips my face up higher, leaning in so he’s everything I see. “Your parents let her hurt you?”
“No. They had no idea,” I sigh. “She’d fake a smile, but the second they turned their backs or rushed off to work, she’d call me names.
Call them names too. She always said she hated celebrating with me because they played favorites.
In a way, they did. But I never really had them to myself.
Their hearts belong mostly to the hospital and their patients. ”
“So they didn’t hurt you.” Knox’s voice is rough, but the hatred on his face eases into something else, acceptance. “Only her.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I remind myself to breathe.
With my arms looped around his neck, I find solace with him.
“You’re smart like your sister, they’d say to her.
Why don’t you put your abilities to good use?
Why won’t you help people? I hated it. It wasn’t fair to her.
But they wouldn’t listen. And…I wasn’t about to give up my dream just so Bronwyn and I would be treated the same. ”
“Good.” Knox exhales, slow and heavy, like another weight slid off his chest. “That you didn’t give up. That you chose this path for yourself.”
“I did that. But now…” I swallow.
“Now what?”
The stench of what’s left of Jett and Bronwyn grows heavier in the air.
We need to get going. Still, I feel like I have to tell him, “Maybe I see another future for me. One you and I can build together.”
“We can do that.” His eyes glimmer, then he kisses me briefly. “Something with meat. Not people’s. Livestock like we used to have. And chickens. Maybe even…” His eyes widen, almost boyish, his growl full of awe. “Fish. I’ve never had fish. Even the butcher in town never stocks those.”
“We’ll get you fish,” I whisper, my heart aching with the promise. “We’ll get you anything you want.”
My parents wouldn’t be thrilled about me choosing a different career path, sure. So what? This is my life.
“I can’t wait.” I hug Knox hard, harder, then the hardest.
“Trouble’s Cuts,” he announces when he pulls back, a small smile playing on his lips.
Hope vibrates in our chests, echoing across his bedroom. I bask in it while Knox packs up the last of our stuff into his duffel.
“Come on.” He offers me his hand, and I take it.
“To new beginnings.”
“New beginnings.” His hopeful grin melts me. “Let’s go. And don’t make a sound, okay?”
“Promise.”
That pleases him. His hand squeezes mine as the duffel is hoisted over his shoulder, and we move toward the front door.
His house is eerily quiet as we cross it. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end. My stomach dips with dread.
When I tug on his hand, his gaze slices to mine instantly. Yeah, he feels it too, dipping his chin in acknowledgment.
After grabbing the keys from the dining table, we’re ready.
Knox cracks the door open with me behind him. Hot, humid air blasts into the house. He takes one step forward. Two and—
“Fuck,” he hisses. “Motherfucker.”
Before I can blink, we’re back inside. Door closed. Bag dropped.
“What?” I demand, my voice choked, panic lacing into it. “What?”
“The tires, they’re slashed.” His grip on my hands is iron-strong, nearly bone-crushing. “Jett…that son of a bitch. He must’ve done it earlier. Must’ve sensed we were close to a breaking point, to war, and he wanted us trapped in Colbert.”
“We could walk.” Instead of sinking into despair, my brain takes a hard turn, going into problem-solving mode. “We’d be quiet. I won’t complain either, I swear. Once we get to the nearest town and rent a car, we’ll be free.”
“No. And we can’t take the duffel on the bike either. Too big. The truck’s our only way out of here without killing them.” He pulls his lips in. The vein in his temple throbs. “Papa won’t catch the truck, but if we start on foot, once he realizes we’re gone, he’ll be on us in no time.”
“He won’t.” I yank on his shirt, urgency seeping into my movements. They’re jerky. Hysterical. “He won’t.”
He pries my hand off him, kissing my knuckles, then stalks off. “Wait here.”
“No,” I’m still whispering as I chase him. My gait is no match for his long one, but I try. “Talk to me.”
Before he opens the door, he spins on his heel, facing me.
His hand snaps around my arm, shocking me into silence. “There are spare tires in the farmhouse. For when the living-hides break free and slash ours.”
Images surge to the forefront of my mind. Innocent people thinking they made it out of here, only to die.
I push them out of my mind, fast.
That wasn’t Knox. He never wanted it. Any of it.
“So what do we do?” I ask him.
“Me.” He slams a hand over his chest. “I’m gonna go to the farmhouse and get the tires.”
“Alone?” My eyebrows shoot up. “Like hell.”
“Skylar…”
“You’d really leave me here by myself? To be at someone else’s mercy in case something happened to you?” That doesn’t bother me at all. My only concern is that he’ll be outnumbered. But if I told him I wanted to help, he’d shut me out. “Did you think about that? Did you?”
“Jesus, woman.” The primitive man within him is now on full display.
Hot, infuriating, and lethal. “Fine. I’ll arm you.
A small knife, easier to handle. And I’ll get the chainsaw for me.
I’d been practicing with it, chopping wood.
Never liked it, though. Never needed access to the chainsaw’s power until now.
If they figure out Jett’s dead, they’ll turn much more violent.
I might not be able to take them down with my bare hands. ”
“Fine.”
His eyebrow arches. “Anything else on your mind, Trouble?”
“Matter of fact, yes.” My curiosity couldn’t have come at a worse time, but I can’t shut up. “That chainsaw. Why did you get it if you didn’t like it to begin with?”
“I didn’t. It was a birthday gift. From Papa.” One boot hits the first stair toward the basement. “Said when the living-hides fought back, I could have my fun with them. Wasn’t for me. Snapping their necks was always the easiest, painless solution. I saved them from the others whenever possible.”
My stomach twists, righteous fire scorching through me. The things that bastard tried to instill in his child.
“Your dad’s sick.”
“He’s not my problem anymore.” Knox shrugs, his gaze flat. “Not yours either. We’re getting out of here.”