Page 93 of What Comes Around

Each time, Knox woke without complaint.

He whispered reassurances in the dark. Brushed my hair back when it stuck damply to my face. Held my face gently between his hands and pressed his forehead to mine until my breathing slowed to match his.

In. Out.

In. Out.

“You are safe,” he repeated. “Nothing is going to happen to you.”

After the last nightmare, sleep did not return.

I lay awake listening to his breathing, feeling the solid warmth of his body against mine. His arm rested heavy across my waist, protective without trapping me.

I knew how this ended if I wasn’t careful.

I had loved before.

Trusted before.

Given too much before.

Yet there I was, curled against a man whose presence quieted the fear in my bones, whose arms felt like safety. And the thought that scared me most was not the nightmares.

It was the realization that I might already be falling in love with him.

Chapter 30: Someone Wanted Me Gone

Five days later, Knox drove me to the police station to give my statement. The morning was cold, the sky pale, and the world outside the window blurred past in muted colors. I watched it without really seeing it, my thoughts drifting back over the week.

The morning after the attack, before I had even processed what had happened, Amy showed up at my door. Knox opened the door and it was the first time they met.

I stepped into the hallway just in time to see her looking Knox up and down, taking in all six foot six of him, and saying, completely deadpan, “You really are huge.”

Knox blinked, caught off guard. “I suppose.”

“I have heard a lot about you,” she added, then walked past him into the house without waiting for an invitation.

Classic Amy.

She took one look at me and said, “You look like shit.”

I almost laughed. “Thanks.”

“What the hell happened,” she asked. “Who was that guy?”

“I don’t know.”

Amy’s jaw tightened. “I will find out,” she said simply.

She did not elaborate. She did not need to. Amy had ways of finding information most people couldn’t.

“I told Liam,” she added. “He is finishing his shift and he will come by.”

Knox stayed quiet, watching, observing everything.

Amy stayed for an hour before leaving.

Right after she left, Nathan arrived with Titan, along with a dog bed and food. Titan practically tackled Knox with excitement, all muscle and joy, and Knox scratched behind his ears with a softness I had never seen from him at work.