Page 146 of Hard Bargain

Knox dropped his head back against the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. His eyes were stinging and he was furious about that too. “I’m not something you blow up your life over,” he muttered. “I’m not worth that.”

Dominic moved faster than Knox expected. His hand closed around Knox’s jaw, firm enough to stop him from looking away, but careful enough not to hurt his injuries. “Don’t,” he said.

Knox’s breath hitched.

“Don’t decide your worth for me.”

Knox looked at him. Dominic’s eyes were steady and close, carrying the sort of certainty he had never expected to be on the receiving end of. “You still shouldn’t have risked it,” Knox said, but the bite was gone.

Dominic didn’t let go of his jaw. “I would do it again.”

The sheets bunched in Knox’s grip. Neither of them moved. And for the first time in three days, the anger didn’t feel like the only thing holding him together.

* * *

The movie had been playing for at least twenty minutes. Knox hadn’t followed a single second of it. Something exploded on the screen—loud, dramatic, probably important—but he didn’t even blink. His eyes were pointed in the right direction, but nothing was sticking. It all slid past like background noise.

Which was funny, considering how badly he’d wanted noise all week. It had been seven days of nothing but hospital rooms, machines beeping, and nights that stretched too long with nothing but his own mind and the ceiling. He’d wanted out so badly it had started to itch under his skin.

Now he was out. Two hours free, and somehow it wasn’t better.

Dominic was beside him on the couch. Close enough that their legs brushed when Knox shifted. Cassian sat across the room, ankle crossed over his knee, watching the movie like he actually gave a shit about it. Dominic had been at the hospital almost constantly. Sitting beside the bed, working from his laptop like it was just another office. When he couldn’t be there, Cassian had taken his place without question.

The nurses hadn’t even tried to push them out after the first day. No one spoke about visiting hours, as if they’d collectively decided it wasn’t worth the effort. So Knox hadn’t been alone unless it was the middle of the night. That’s when the room went dead quiet and his body remembered things his brain was trying very hard to forget.

Knox’s leg started bouncing.

He didn’t notice at first, just his heel hitting the floor in a restless, uneven rhythm. He tried to stop. It lasted exactly one second before it started again, faster now. The tension was climbing—crawling up through his chest and into his throat.

A hand brushed his arm, fingers moving up and down in an easy rhythm. Dominic didn’t look at him. Didn’t acknowledge it. But his hand continued its slow path along Knox’s forearm. “Relax,” he whispered.

Knox’s leg stuttered. The restless bounce didn’t stop completely, but it lost its edge. The frantic energy drained down to something more manageable.

It wasn’t enough to fix it. But it was enough for now.

He stared at the screen for another thirty seconds, pretending. Then he picked up the remote and killed the movie mid-frame.

Cassian turned. “Finally gave up faking it?”

Knox ignored that. His knuckles were white around the remote as he stared at the frozen image on the screen. “I know I haven’t wanted to talk about Mercer. But I’m ready.”

The room changed.

Dominic’s hand stilled on his arm. Cassian’s easy posture changed into something alert. “What do you want to talk about?” Dominic asked.

Knox swallowed. “What happened to him?”

“He’s still alive,” Dominic said. “In the cell.”

Knox turned the word over. “Alive.”

It didn’t fit right. Didn’t sit where he tried to put it.

“Barely,” Cassian added, leaning forward, elbows on his knees. “He’s not doing great.”

“What does that mean?”

Cassian’s eyes moved to Dominic. “Means Dom’s been visiting him. Every day.”