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Unfortunately, even though he’s built like a fucking truck, he’s fast enough to grab out for me as he falls, sending me crashing down on top of him.
He grins, clearly enjoying himself, and I glare back, putting a hand on his face and using it for leverage to try to pick myself back up.
Knox doesn’t let me get far. He keeps his hold on me and flips us with ease, pinning me to the hardwood floor.
My chest heaves from the fight, and he stares down at me, heat from the physical exertion—and from me being naked, probably—burning in his eyes. His body is hard and solid against mine, and my legs are splayed open wide, giving him room to settle between them.
“Goddammit,” I spit, fighting to get away, but he’s too heavy to move. When I buck my hips up, it rubs me right against him, and I have to suppress a shudder at how not bad that feels.
Knox dips his head and trails his nose from just under my ear to my shoulder, inhaling deeply. At least I don’t smell like blood and death anymore, but it’s still weird. Even weirder when he follows it up with his tongue, tracing the same path as before.
“What the fuck?” I snarl, giving in to the anger instead of the shivery feeling that makes my nipples pucker. “You assholesjustlet me go. Is this some kind of sick hunt for you now? You come to where I live and fuck me up here instead of doing it at your place?”
He just laughs, and the sound is low and husky. He’s pressed tight enough to me that I can feel it reverberate through his body and into mine.
“We agreed to let you go after Ivan, but we’re not letting you do it without supervision,” he says. “We’ve got more sense than that. We let you go home to get your shit and clean up, but now you’re coming back to our place. We’re gonna keep a fucking eye on you until we know you weren’t lying—until you do what you said you’re planning to do.”
Right. Should’ve known there’d be a damn catch.
Guys like these four don’t fuck around with trust, especially with someone they don’t know. They’re more interested in protecting their interests than anything else, and as much as it pisses me off to admit it, I can sort of understand that.
Fighting it is pointless, because they’ll probably just kill me if I try. At least if I agree to this shit, they’ll let me keep going after Ivan. I need to take the last name on my list down, and I don’t have time for people standing in my way. Easiest thing to do here is agree to their terms, and then once it’s done, I can go on my way.
“Fine,” I tell him, sounding as irritated as I feel. “Now get the fuck off me.”
He just flashes me another grin, and it makes him look even more unhinged. But he gets up, offering me a hand that I ignore. I can feel his gaze on me as I heave myself to my feet and cross over to the corner where my bed is hidden behind a curtain—an attempt to make the little studio apartment feel like it’s got more than one room.
My clothes and shit are stuffed into an old dresser, and I start yanking drawers open, finding something to wear first.
Knox makes a disappointed noise when I pull a shirt over my head, and I flip him off over my shoulder, not even bothering to turn around.
I pack a bag quickly, throwing anything and everything I think I’ll need into it. It’s hard to know how long I’ll be gone for. I’m starting at square one with the Ivan shit, considering my lead went dead, so I’ll have to dig up another one from somewhere before I can even make any progress at all.
“You ready to go yet?”
I look up to see Knox leaning against a wall, looking like he owns the damn place. He doesn’t seem bothered that we were just fighting on the floor, and his eyes wander over my bed and my body in a way that makes me have to wrench my thoughts back to getting everything I need in the bag.
“Yeah,” I tell him, shouldering the duffel and stepping away from the bed. “Let’s go if we’re going.”
He leads the way out of the apartment and into the hall, and I lock the door, even though that’s mostly symbolic. If someone wanted to break in, they could. Not that I have anything worth stealing.
He stomps down the stairs toward the front door, and I follow behind him, trying to shake off the irritating feeling that I didn’t even notice him following me home. Fucking asshole.
There’s a sleek, black car outside, and he leads me to it, opening the door to the passenger side for me.
“Dog!” I call, before getting in.
The mutt perks up and comes trotting over immediately, looking like he’s going to piss himself with excitement to have some attention. Usually I just toss him scraps and go on with my life, so the attention and affection seem to really have him going.
“Come on, boy,” I say. “Let’s go.”
Knox lifts an eyebrow. He’s wearing a dark t-shirt that stretches almost obscenely over his thickly muscled biceps and chest, and there’s barely an inch of his arms that isn’t covered in ink. With his dark brow still raised, he looks from the dog to me
“He’s mine, and he’s coming with me,” I tell him, putting one hand on my hip. “No one else is gonna feed him while I’m off fucking around with you idiots.”
The brawny man just laughs and shakes his head. “I bet you really love him, with a name like Dog,” he says. “I can tell you’d be so lonely without him.”
He probably knows the damn thing is just a stray, but he clearly doesn’t give a shit, seeming more amused than anything. That works well enough for me.
I slam the front passenger door closed and open the back seat door instead, whistling to Dog and gesturing to the car. He hops in, and I climb in after him. I slam that door too, just for good measure.
Knox doesn’t seem to give a shit about that either. Running a hand through his shaggy dark hair, he chuckles and gets in the driver’s seat. He cranks the key to start the car up, and we peel out.
