25. Knox
Knox
Idon’t remember the drive from my parents’ house. There was only the tracker, her dot miles away from Miriam’s property on my screen and ten different disaster scenarios in my head while I followed it.
My mother’s voice kept playing on loop as I drove.
Where else am I supposed to go? Her resigned words tangled up with the knowledge that Sawyer could be in trouble, hammered the same point home.
My father destroys people, sometimes so slowly they don’t even realize it’s happening.
I’m done letting him hurt anyone else I love.
By the time I spot the car on the road ahead, I don’t think, I just react, cutting the wheel hard and sliding in front of it before my brain fully registers what I’m doing.
I’m out of my Jeep before the driver lets up on the horn, pulling the back door open to find her sitting there, paper scattered in her lap, blinking up at me like I’ve lost my mind.
And maybe I have.
But seeing her, whole and unharmed has every ounce of tension draining from my body. “You’re okay. Thank God.”
“Knox, what the hell! You can’t just cut people off like that!” She glances at the Uber driver, apologizing profusely while climbing out. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I panicked.” There’s no denying it. I was out of my mind with worry the second I saw her dot moving on the road.
I slip the driver a generous tip and wave him on, and by the time his taillights disappear around the bend, it’s just the two of us standing on the shoulder of a quiet road about half a mile from Miriam’s fence line.
“You could’ve just called me,” she says, arms crossed.
“I did call. You didn’t answer.” I reach for her hand, needing to feel her skin on mine. “I thought something happened to you. I wasn’t going to wait to find out.”
“I’m sorry.” Her voice softens, some of the irritation leaving her face. “I needed to see my mom and I was going crazy being stuck in there.”
“I get it. I just wish you’d have told me first.”
She closes the distance between us, wrapping her arms around my waist. “You were really scared, weren’t you?”
“Fucking terrified.” I tilt her chin up and kiss her, feeling the last bit of tension leave my shoulders. When we break apart, she’s smiling. “Let me park, and when we get back to the house, I’ll show you just how happy I am to see you.”
I press one more kiss to her forehead before pulling back, reluctant to let go of her even for the thirty seconds it’ll take to move the Jeep.
I jog back to where I left it swerved half in the road, shaking my head at the dick move I pulled, park on the shoulder and lock it up before jogging back to her.
She’s waiting with her arms crossed, and a brow raised.
“You do realize how insane that was, right?” she deadpans, but there’s amusement underneath. “Like full on movie stalker energy. I was half expecting you to backflip out of the Jeep in slow motion.”
“You keep calling me a stalker like it’s a bad thing.” I take her hand and lace my fingers through hers, starting for the shade of the woods. “And yeah, I know now it was a bit much, but it worked.” I shrug, cutting through branches and leading us deeper.
“A bit much? That Uber driver probably needs therapy now.” She laughs, ducking under a branch I hold back for her.
“Eh, he’ll be fine.” I glance back, and the rest of my thought gets stuck in my throat. The sight of her illuminated by golden light cutting through the branches, that stubborn teasing look on her face, undoes me completely.
I pull her against the nearest tree before she can get another word out, my mouth finding hers hard and hungry. I don’t have any more patience left in me. Not after the terror of the unknown, not with her looking so fucking perfect.
“Knox.” It’s a half laugh, half gasp against my mouth.
“Need you.” I drag my lips down her throat, undoing the button on her shorts. “Right now. I can’t wait.”
“We’re literally in the woods.” But her hands are already fisting my shirt, pulling me closer instead of pushing me away.
“Nobody’s out here.” I get her shorts open, and shove them down just enough for me to slip my hand between her thighs. She’s already soaked and ready. “Fuck, Sawyer. You love this.”
I push two fingers inside her, swallowing her whimpers. I’m painfully hard already, her needy little moans going straight to my cock.
“Turn around. Hands on the tree, let me look at you.”
She doesn’t hesitate, just pulls off her shirt and turns, doing exactly what I ask for probably the first time in our lives. Fuck, she looks good like this, spine arched, thick ass on display, waiting for me where anyone could come stumbling by. I fumble to get my belt open with shaky hands.
“Knox, come on,” she says over her shoulder, voice breathless.
“So eager, Thorne.” I free myself, kick her legs open with my knee, and drag my tip through her slick heat watching her shudder. “Tell me who you belong to before I fuck you senseless against this tree.”
“I’m yours.” There’s no hesitation this time. No teasing. Nothing but raw honesty. “Only yours…please—”
“That’s right.”
I stuff her full of my cock in one long, brutal thrust, both of us groaning.
She pushes her ass back into me, and any restraint I had left falls apart.
I fuck her hard and fast, one hand fisted in her hair, the other gripping her hip hard enough to bruise, chasing away every ounce of fear from the last hour with every snap of my hips.
“Fuck, Knox.” Her voice is muffled against her arm, trying to keep quiet.
“That’s it.” My grip tightens on her hip and I drag her back into every thrust. “Say my name like that again. Louder.”
“Knox—”
I’m feral, this possessive hunger clawing its way out of my chest. “You feel how deep I am? This cunt is mine. You’re mine. Every part of you.” I drive in harder, thrusting with every word. “Nobody else.”
“Yours.” She’s barely coherent now, hips pushing back to meet every thrust. “Only yours—”
“Damn right.” I tug her hair, tilting her head back just enough to press my mouth to her ear.
“I almost lost my mind today, thinking something happened to you. You don’t get to disappear on me like that again.
You’re mine to worry about. Mine to protect.
Mine to fuck exactly like this whenever I want. ”
“Oh, God, I’m close.”
“Rub your clit. Come for me.” I push her back down, gripping her ass with both hands. “Let the whole goddamn forest hear who owns you.”
She comes apart, a scream leaving her lips as I pound into her, fucking her through every last shudder, her cunt clenching so hard around me I’m barely holding on.
“Jesus, fuck.” My grip tightens as I chase my own release, every ounce of restraint gone completely. “Milk my cock, baby. Take every drop.”
A few more brutal thrusts and I come harder than ever before. My cock’s buried deep, emptying everything I have left into her with a groan that tears out of my chest like it’s been building for years, not hours. My forehead drops between her shoulder blades as both of us tremble.
“Incredible,” I murmur against her spine. “Fucking perfect.”
We stay like that for a while, her palms braced against the tree, my chest pressed flush to her back, like we have all the time in the world. She finally laughs, sounding exhausted and elated at the same time.
I twist her around and kiss her, gentler now that I’ve gotten out some of my frantic energy. “Come on, let’s get you back inside so we can do that again.”
“What? Again?”
I brush a strand of hair off her flushed cheek, pressing one more kiss to her forehead. “You think I’m anywhere close to being done with you tonight?”
“Knox, I can barely feel my legs.”
“Guess I’ll just have to carry you, then.” I scoop her up before she can protest, ignoring the ache still radiating through my ribs. She laughs, looping her arms around my neck.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“You love it.” I press a kiss to her temple, starting the walk through the last stretch of trees toward the guesthouse. “Now hold on. I’ve got plans for the rest of the day and none of them involve you getting concussed by a tree branch.”
“A romantic stalker. I’m one lucky girl.”
I hold Sawyer in my arms the rest of the way to the guesthouse, talking and laughing about random shit. If I could stay like this forever, with all the heavy tucked away for another time, I would, but I know it’ll be there the moment we step back inside.
I peel off my shirt as soon as we’re through the door, wincing at the ache still radiating through my ribs. Sawyer drops her bag on the table and starts digging into it.
“I have something to show you.” She pulls out a folded envelope and her expression sobers.
I sit in the chair next to her and watch as she takes out a wrinkled piece of paper, smoothing it on the table’s edge before handing it to me. I scan the typed letter, my stomach turning to lead.
Whatever you think you’re doing with him ends now, or I promise you’ll regret it.
That fucking prick.
“This was the letter your mom had?” I ask.
She nods and drops a few torn scraps of paper onto the table. “And here’s the check he sent along with it. You can see what I felt about him buying my complacency.”
I barely hear her over my pulse pounding in my ears. He has the fucking audacity to threaten her directly. And paying her off…with what money? As far as I know, the company is skating by.
“How much?” I ask, trying to keep my voice level so I don’t scare Sawyer.
“The check?” Her eyes go wide and I nod. “It’s not important.”
“How much is your safety, our happiness…my whole fucking life worth to him?”
She rolls her lip between her teeth, looking down at the scattered paper. “Half a million dollars.”
Her words land like a punch to the gut. I repeat them. “Half a million. Where the fuck? Sawyer, we don’t have that kind of money sitting in the company accounts.”
“I figured.” She reaches for my hand, tracing slow circles over my knuckles. “It was from some company called A.M. Holdings. I shouldn’t have ripped it up, I’m sorry. I was so fucking angry and I wasn’t thinking.”
“Stop,” I say, my mind racing. “It’s new information for the case. You did the right thing. And don’t worry about him, I won’t let him near you. Him or Moretti.”
She leans her head on my shoulder, her closeness grounding me. The longer I think on all this the more I realize we don’t have time to wait for lawyers and judges. I know how long the system takes, especially with a case this size. I need to take matters into my own hands…but how?
“What did you do today? Before your whole action hero stunt.” I feel her cheeks lift in a grin.
“I saw my mom.” I exhale long and hard and she lifts up to look at me. “It was pretty much exactly what you’d expect.”
“How is she?”
“Physically, fine. The accident was just a fender bender, thankfully.” I picture her again, her large sunhat making her look even smaller in the patio chair.
Smaller still, the second my father walked outside, almost like she folded in on herself.
“I asked her why she stays. Why she’s put up with him this long. ”
“What’d she say?”
“‘Where else am I supposed to go?’” Repeating her response is a punch to the gut. “It’s like she’s convinced there’s not another option anywhere else in the world.”
“I talked to my mom today too. She told me some things, some pretty fucked up things.”
I don’t have to ask her to elaborate. From her tone, I already know. “The affair.”
“You knew?”
“You don’t sound shocked,” I say.
The chair squeaks as she comes to sit in my lap, pushing back a loose piece of hair on my head. “I always thought there was more to your,” she searches for the right word, “broodiness.”
“Yeah, well…I guess I needed to let it out somehow.”
“I’m sorry.” Her blue eyes are lined in moisture. “You shouldn’t have had to carry that alone.”
I shrug. “No reason for you to apologize. It’s over and done.”
“They’re not that different, are they? Our moms.” She’s quiet for a minute, playing with the buttons on my Henley.
“Two completely different women who both managed to shrink themselves down for the same horrible man. Richard’s gotten what he wanted for years.
Two women who’d rather disappear than challenge him, my mom into shame and yours making herself so small that she’s barely recognizable. ”
It hurts to admit that she’s spot-on. “Yeah. I never thought about it that way.”
“And now he’s trying to do the same to me.”
“He’s not going to get the chance.” I tighten my arms around her, letting years of fury cut through my exhaustion. “I mean it, Sawyer. Whatever he thinks he’s buying with that check, it’s not happening. Not to you.”
“I know.” She presses into my shoulder and a stray tear slides down my chest. “I was so close to being exactly that with Owen. Small and quiet and grateful, taking whatever pieces of him he decided to give me, never asking for more because I was scared I didn’t deserve it.
It’s funny, my mom warned me that I should be careful not to shrink myself around you.
Not to lose pieces of myself in this thing we have.
But what she doesn’t realize is I already spent two years doing that. I just didn’t see it until now.”
“You’re nothing like either of them,” I say. “You’ve always been my Thorne.”
She laughs. “You bring out that side of me, I guess.”
“Nah, it’s always there.”
Her arms tighten around me, and I rub her back until I feel some of the tension leave her body. “We’re ending this. Not just for us, but for your mom, my mom, every single person my family’s ever made feel like nothing.”
“I believe you.” Her lips meet mine, soft and featherlight, and I kiss her back, savoring the moment.
We stay like that for a while, holding each other, kissing slowly and leisurely while the sun sinks low outside, filling the guest house with soft amber light. It feels so fucking nice. So ordinary.
Then my phone buzzes on the table and I know before looking that whoever’s on the other line is going to ruin my day.
I reach for it like it’s a live wire.
Ella: Can we talk tonight? In person. It’s important.
My stomach drops. Sawyer must feel me tense beneath her because she pulls back to search my face.
“What is it?”
I turn the phone toward her and watch her read it, seeing the same dread I’m feeling settle over her features too.
“What are you going to do?” she asks.
“I don’t know.” As the words leave my lips, I’m already planning what I want to say to Ella tonight. There’s no more hiding, no more lies. “But I want to be as honest as I can.”
I text her back and tell her I’ll meet her at her place.