Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
Knox
The cold air bites at my cheeks, but the fire in my gut burns hotter than any winter chill. I stand on the steps of the Fox Hollow Police Department, my hands fisted deep in the pockets of my coat.
Inside, the fluorescent lights hum, a sterile, clinical sound that grates against the memory of Maisie’s triumphant laughter echoing in the gymnasium just an hour ago.
Life pivots on a dime. One minute, we’re celebrating a debate victory; the next, we’re staring at the brick face of law enforcement because a ghost from Amber’s past decided to resurface.
But it’s the not knowing that claws at me the most. Why is he here? Why now? The uncertainty is a poison, far worse than a direct threat.
If he wanted money, he would have asked. If he wanted to hurt her, he had his chance in the parking lot. But he ran.
He’s plotting something, and the shadow of that unknown intent is terrifying.
Jude and Ryker stand near the entrance, talking in low, urgent tones to Mayor Brighton. The mayor looks grave.
Wren is there too, clutching Simon’s arm. Simon holds their baby girl, who is sleeping despite the tension, her head tucked against his chest.
I look at Eli. He has Amber wrapped in his arms, her face buried in his chest. Her shoulders shake, a fine tremor that vibrates through his own frame.
He strokes her back, his eyes meeting mine over the top of her head. He looks wrecked. Destroyed.
Fallon stands a few feet away. He holds Maisie. The kid is oblivious to the darkness lingering at the edges of the night, swinging her legs, humming a song from the debate, still clutching her ribbon.
Fallon’s jaw is set tight, his eyes scanning the parking lot. He looks like a bouncer, like a weapon waiting for a target to walk into view.
Dorian walks over to me, breaking my focus on the street.
“Did she tell you?” he asks.
I shake my head once.
Dorian exhales, a cloud of white vapor in the freezing air.
“That bastard was an abusive piece of shit, Knox. And I don’t mean just the physical kind.
He abused her in every way a person can be abused.
Mentally, financially... I knew he was bad news, but I didn’t know the extent until she came to live with us. ”
My stomach turns over. The image of Amber flinching when I raise my voice in the kitchen takes on a new, horrifying context.
I thought she was just skittish. I didn’t know she was conditioned to expect pain.
“Where is he?” I ask, my voice sounding like ground glass.
“Inside,” Dorian says, nodding toward the glass doors. “Giving a statement. But we can’t hold him. Not without a formal complaint, and she... well, you know her history with reporting. She’s terrified of the system.”
A uniformed officer pushes open the heavy door. “Ms. Carter? That’s it for today. We’ll call you if we need any more information.”
Amber pulls away from Eli. Her face is pale, her eyes rimmed in red, but she stands straight.
She doesn’t look weak. She looks like someone who has survived a hundred storms and knows another one is coming.
“I need to go home,” she says, her voice carrying over the wind. “I need to be with Maisie. With my family.”
“Yes,” I agree immediately. “We take you there.”
“I’ll drive her home,” Jude says, stepping away from the mayor. “Ryker, you follow us?”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Ryker grunts, though there is no humor in it. He looks like he wants to punch something.
We move as a unit toward the cars. Maisie runs to Amber, hugging her legs. Amber picks her up, burying her face in her daughter’s hair for a second.
The sight breaks something in my chest.
“I’ll follow in my truck,” I tell Jude.
“Knox, go home,” Amber says, looking at me from over Jude’s shoulder. “Please. Take the guys. Rest. I... I can’t do this right now. I need to just be Maisie’s mom tonight.”
I want to argue. Every protective instinct I have screams to stay within ten feet of her. But I see the plea in her eyes.
She needs to be the protector right now. She needs to hold her daughter without an audience.
“Okay,” I say. “We’ll be there. In the morning.”
“Promise?”
“Oui. I promise.”
I watch them drive away, Jude’s taillights disappearing into the snowy dark. I stand there for a long moment, the cold seeping into my bones.
The birthday plans we made—the dinner, the cake, the surprise—feel foolish now. Trivial. Until we’re back in the safety of our own space, until we know she’s truly safe, celebrating anything feels wrong.
“Let’s go,” I say to Eli and Fallon.
We drive back to the warehouse in silence. No music. No jokes. Just the hum of the tires on the slush.
My mind races, spinning in circles. What is Luke’s endgame? Is he trying to reclaim her? Is he trying to destroy her new life?
The ambiguity hangs over us like a storm cloud.
When we walk inside, the space feels different. It feels like a house under siege. The lock on the door doesn’t feel like a barrier but like a challenge.
“I need a drink,” Fallon says, tossing his keys on the counter.
“We need to talk,” I correct. I walk to the living area and strip off my suit jacket. The tie feels like a noose. I unbutton the collar, tossing it aside.
Eli and Fallon sit on the sofa. I pace in front of the fireplace.
“We’re in love with her,” I say. The words hang in the air, heavy and absolute. “It’s not just attraction anymore. It’s not just the pack dynamic. I love her. And I know you two do as well.”
Eli nods, his elbows on his knees. “Yeah. I do.”
“Totally,” Fallon agrees, staring at the floor. “It’s not even a question.”
“Then we act like it,” I say. “No more hesitation. No more waiting for the right moment. She’s in danger. She’s scared. And we’re her defense. Not just physically. Emotionally.”
“But what happened?” Eli asks, finally voicing the question we’ve all been chewing on since she rushed out of the gymnasium. “Why did he come back? Why now?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, frustration tightening my chest. “But I intend to find out.”
An hour passes. Then two. The clock ticks loudly on the wall. Every time a car passes on the street outside, my head snaps up.
I check my phone compulsively, but there are no messages from her. The silence is maddening.
I’m climbing the walls.
“She said she’d be here in the morning,” Eli says around midnight.
“I know.”
“I’m going to bed,” Fallon says, standing up. He looks defeated. “I can’t just sit here.”
“Go,” I tell him. “I’ll be up.”
I sit in the armchair, staring at the dark window. I don’t sleep. I wait.
A soft knock on the steel door drags me out of the light doze I fell into around 4 a.m. I’m on my feet instantly, moving across the concrete floor.
I open the door.
Amber stands there. She looks exhausted, dark circles bruising the skin under her eyes, but she’s dressed in fresh clothes—jeans and one of my oversized sweaters.
She holds her phone in one hand, a stack of index cards in the other.
“Hi,” she says softly.
I step back, letting her in. “Are you okay?”
“I will be.” She walks to the living area, not sitting on the sofa, but sinking onto the rug in front of the fireplace. Eli and Fallon appear from their rooms, pulled from sleep by the sound of the door.
They sit down around her, forming a triangle. I take a spot on the hearth, close enough to touch her knee.
“I have... it’s hard to say,” she starts, her voice trembling. “I don’t want you to look at me differently. But you need to know. All of it. Because if he comes back... you need to know what you’re dealing with.”
“We don’t care about the past, Amber,” Eli says gently.
“You might,” she says, “when I tell you about my struggle with drugs.”
My head snaps up. “Drugs?”
She nods, staring at her hands. “It was a long time ago. Before I had Maisie, I used whippets to numb everything. When I met Luke, I had been out of a terrible relationship and a single parent for so long. I was weak. I wanted to numb everything.
“And Luke helped me with that. He had quite a vibrant social life; going out every weekend, drinking with friends. I liked that he invited me. I just wanted to be chosen, Eli. And Luke was choosing me. It started simple. Beers, shots, cocaine. Then it got worse, especially after things started going wrong with Luke. I used pills and whippets and tequila. Whatever I could get.”
My heart breaks for the woman standing in front of me. I can see the shame radiating off her, but all I feel is a blinding, protective rage.
She was hurting, and instead of helping her, he weaponized her pain.
“Sweetheart…” I reach out, covering her hand with mine.
She looks up at me, and the fear in her eyes is crushing. “I’m clean. I have been for years. Since I found out I was pregnant. But... I was an addict. And he used that. He held it over my head. If I didn’t do what he wanted, he’d cut me off. Make me sick.”
“Son of a bitch,” Fallon growls, the sound vibrating in his chest. “He starved you to control you.”
“It gets worse,” she says. She picks up the first index card. “I didn’t want to play these. But I wanted you to hear his voice. So you understand.”
She presses play on her phone.
A man’s voice fills the room. “You ungrateful little bitch. You think you can just leave? You think you can take our daughter and hide?”
It’s Luke. The tone is lazy, condescending, but the threat underneath is distinct.
“You’re nothing without me. You’re a junkie whore. Nobody else will ever want you.”
I feel my fists clench so hard my nails dig into my palms. Eli leans forward, his jaw set so hard I can hear his teeth grinding.
She stops the recording. The silence in the warehouse is deafening.
“He sent those,” she whispers, “for weeks. Random numbers at first, then this one today.”
“Where is he?” I ask, my voice sounding like I’ve been swallowing glass.
“The police have him,” she says. “Or they had him. He skipped bail. They were tracking him down for a violation, but he vanished. They’re building a case.”
“Why come back now?” Eli asks, voicing the frustration that has been eating at me all night. “Why today?”
“Luke isn’t Maisie’s father,” she says. “And he hates me for it.”
We all freeze.
“What?” Fallon asks.
“Tabarnak,” I swear under my breath, the French curse exploding from me before I can stop it. “He hates you because of that?”
“He hates that I had a baby and couldn’t have a baby for him,” she says, her voice hollow. “Before I came to Fox Hollow, I was pregnant. I thought we were finally having the life we had both been dreaming about. But I guess I was wrong.”
I have a feeling I will despise the answer, but I ask anyway. “What happened to the baby?”
“Luke got drunk one day and beat me,” she says, the words flat, devoid of emotion to protect herself from the pain. “He beat me until I lost the baby.”
A tear tracks down her cheek. She doesn’t wipe it away. “I was in the hospital for days. A broken wrist. Broken ribs. Concussion. And he sat there, and held my hand, and told me he was sorry. That the baby was better off. That we could try again.”
“I want to kill him,” Eli says, his voice low and trembling with rage.
“No,” she says quickly. “Listen. There’s more. The day I met Eli? That very first time I met him in the grocery store?”
“Yeah,” Eli says.
“Luke called me,” she says. “He told me he was happy. He told me he was moving on. That he had gotten someone else pregnant. A son. He said... he said I was the problem. That I was broken. That he was finally going to be a father.”
“Scum,” Fallon spits.
“I didn’t know who she was,” Amber continues. “I never met her. I didn’t care. I just wanted him gone. But the police... they showed me a picture today.”
She slides a printed photo across the rug. We all lean in to look.
It’s a woman. Dark hair. Pale skin. The resemblance to Amber is unsettling. Same jawline. Same eyes.
“She looks like you,” Eli says, his brow furrowed.
“I know,” Amber says. “The police said she was spotted in town a few weeks ago, walking near the apothecary. But she vanished. They don’t know where.”
My memory clicks into place. The gym. The cold, the fear, the resemblance. A cold chill washes over me that has nothing to do with the winter air.
“I saw her,” I say, standing up abruptly. “Weeks ago. At the gym. I thought it was you. I gave her money for a cab.”
Amber stares at me. “You saw her?”
“Oui,” I say, the memory playing back in high definition. “She was terrified. Looking for a bus stop. She looked just like you.”
“Why would she come here?” Amber asks, her voice rising. “Why would Luke send her?”
“To spy,” I say, the pieces connecting with a sickening click. “To see who you’re with. Luke is a narcissist. He wouldn’t just send threats. He wants eyes on you.”
The horror of it settles over the room. If he sent a woman who looks like Amber to spy... what else is he capable of?
“Or worse,” Eli says quietly. “Maybe he was planning to take Maisie. If he thinks you’re unfit... if he thinks he can prove you’re an addict again...”
“No.” Amber sounds terrified. “No. He can’t have her.”
“He won’t,” I vow, moving to her. I drop to my knees in front of her, taking her cold hands in mine. “He won’t touch you. He won’t touch your daughter.”
Eli and Fallon move closer, boxing her in.
“You should’ve talked to us about this, sweetheart,” Eli says, his voice thick with emotion. “We should have been protecting you better.”
“You’re here now,” she says, crying freely now. She releases the cards, bringing her hands up to her face and sobbing. “I was so scared to tell you. About the drugs. About the baby. I thought you’d look at me like trash.”
“Never,” I say fiercely. I pull her hands away, forcing her to look at me. “Look at me, Amber.”
She blinks her eyes open.
“You’re the strongest person I know,” I tell her. “You survived hell. You built a life. You’re not trash. You’re everything.”
Eli reaches out, rubbing her back. “We aren’t going anywhere.”
“We’re your pack,” Fallon adds, his hand resting on her knee. “We’re your wall. Nobody gets through us.”
She cries harder, a release of weeks of pressure. She leans forward, resting her forehead against mine. I hold her there, on the floor of our warehouse, while the snow falls outside.
“We’re going to kill him,” Fallon mutters to Eli.
“No,” I say, though the urge to rip Luke apart pulses through my veins. “We’re going to put him in prison. And then we’re going to make sure he never sees the light of day again. For Amber. For Maisie.”
I press my lips to her forehead, tasting her tears, feeling the vibration of her sobs against my chest. The fear is real, and the danger is real.
But looking at Eli and Fallon, seeing the ferocity in their eyes, I know one thing with absolute certainty.
Luke has no idea what he just walked into.