Page 14 of Sicilian Savior

“I think you should go,” I whispered, though the lump in my throat made it difficult to speak.

Knox’s eyes darted into the room again, and his face fell to match mine. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“You need to go. Now,” I spit out, desperate to hold myself together until he’d gone.

He rubbed a hand through his hair, then nodded and walked down my hall. “I’m sorry, Lucia. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

I just shook my head, crossing my arms while I struggled to stay on my feet.

“I was going to have you give me a lift home in the truck, so you have it here for the morning. Do you still want that, or do you just want me to drive it home alone and get it back to you later?”

“Just go. Please,” I whispered, the threads of my sanity fraying by the second.

“Okay. Okay. I’m sorry,” he said softly, then disappeared through the door.

The minute I heard the truck start up, I walked down the hallway and looked into the last room. The oversized teddy bear sat on the Transformers comforter we’d picked out together when he’d been ready to move into his big boy bed. His soccer ball and favorite RC car were sitting up against the corner of the wall, and right on the little bedside table was a photo of the two of us at the zoo.

My favorite photo of my son and me.

Sliding my back down the wall, I collapsed to the floor, wrapping my arms around my knees while I sobbed.

CHAPTER FIVE

Knox

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Foot meet mouth. And damn, I had big feet, so I really had to work at it to shove that son of a bitch in there last night.

Do you have a kid?

I slapped my forehead while I kept reliving my epic blunder from last night over and over again. Normally nightmares from my six months of being tortured after I’d been taken captive kept me up at night. Every time I closed my eyes, I somehow got transported back to that dark, musty cell that smelled like copper from the blood pouring out of me. For months, I’d struggled to stay alive, waiting for my team to find me, waiting for them to come and put an end to my torture. And they had, but somehow, the nightmare never stopped, and each night when I lay down and closed my eyes, it started all over again.

But last night, it was remembering the horror in her eyes that had me staring at my ceiling, unable to get a wink of sleep. Horror I’d put there. The look on her face at my innocent comment let me know in an instant I’d fucked up. Something must have happened to her kid, and I’d just gone and ripped the wound right open again.

Do you have a kid?

I slapped my forehead again. It wasn’t like she hadn’t had ample time during dinner to slip that information in if she’d wanted me to know it. It had just startled me to see a kid’s bedroom when I got to the end of the hall, and I didn’t stop to think maybe this wasn’t something I was meant to see. Something I was meant to know. I’d just blurted it out.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

And we’d been having such a good time. The walls she’d constructed around herself had started to come down. Little by little. Brick by brick. She’d even laughed and smiled, and damn if it wasn’t the best sight and sound in the world.

I shifted Harvey’s gears and drove him down the road that led to her driveway. This time, I had Axel in the bed of the truck so I could just drop it off and get out of her way. Hopefully, she would still let me fix her car and maybe let me fix some of the important stuff around her house. Maybe not, though. She’d thrown me out last night, and I wasn’t sure if she wanted to see me again. But I had to try. To apologize.

I pulled into her driveway, slowing the truck down to a crawl so as not to wake her. It was only seven in the morning, and I wasn’t sure what time she got up. I just wanted to make sure the truck was there early, so she had it if she wanted to get to the store. I put it in park and killed the engine, leaving the keys dangling from the ignition. It felt weird to do it, but no one in B.F.E. ever took their keys out of the ignition, so I knew it wouldn’t get stolen or anything.

Trying not to make too much noise, I closed the door and walked around to the back to get Axel out of the bed. I opened the tailgate, the rusty hinges screaming their age, causing me to cringe.

“Shit,” I muttered as I slowed down the movement, but that only seemed to make it worse. Maybe I’d just drop it quickly and get it over with like ripping off a band-aid.

“Knox?” I heard her voice from the house.

I glanced around the truck to see her standing on her porch in a pair of soft grey pajamas. The fuzzy kind. And she looked unbelievably cute.

“Hey. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I forgot how loud this thing can be.” I let the tailgate drop the rest of the way.

“I was up. It’s okay.” She stepped carefully down the bowing steps. “I didn’t know you’d still be bringing me the truck.”