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“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he says and I give him a smile.
I walk onto the dock and make my way to the end of it. I take a seat at the edge and put my foot in the water, swishing it back and forth like a kid. It’s cold but I don’t care. I’m loving all of this right now.
The rain, the cool mountain air and just being out here in general is pumping some life back into me. He comes next to me and sits as well, putting his feet in the water too. He lifts a hand up and brings it to my face before pushing a tendril of hair back behind my ear.
“You light up my world like nothing ever has before. It’s a light that takes away all the darkness that surrounds me, one I didn’t even realize I needed,” he says. A gasp escapes me as he moves his hand back down and onto his lap. My heart starts to race.
“What are your plans?” I ask curiously to distract myself from what I’m thinking. “For your life. Are you just going to spend the rest of it behind me for no reason? Don’t you have a life of your own that you have to get back to?”
“You’re my priority. I have to make sure you’re on the path to healing before I think about anything else,” he says.
“Why?” I question.
“It’s complicated.”
“Then uncomplicate it,” I tell him.
“I can’t. At least not yet. Especially not if I don’t want you to know who I am.” He sighs.
“And why’s that?”
“You might hate me, or I might be the recipient of a miracle and you’ll see that I did this all for you because I wanted to help you,” he says. I wrinkle my brows at him. I don’t know what to say to that. My mind races as I try to think of who he could be. I think I have an idea… but no way, right?
“Come on, let’s go back inside before you get sick,” he tells me after a few moments of silence. We both get up and start walking back down the dock and toward the cabin. I look at him as he walks. It doesn’t look like he’s paying attention to me.
His face is facing forward as he keeps going. As soon as we’re off the dock and my feet touch the ground, I make a mad dash to the left and begin to run down the path. It leads to the back of the house and toward the forest. I have no other choice but to follow it.
I hear him curse loudly before I hear his feet pounding on the ground behind me. I run as fast as I can, trying to outrun him, but man, I’m so out of shape. Thinking that maybe I’ll have a chance if I run in another direction, I veer off the path and run without any direction whatsoever.
The debris on the ground digs into my bare feet as I run and some of the low branches scrape along my legs. I pay it no mind and keep going even as I begin to feel my skin stinging from the cuts.
I have no idea where the hell I’m going but I keep moving. I come to the edge of the trees I was running through when I come to a complete stop. There’s a cliff in front of me and I hear him right behind me. Fuck!
I quickly move a little closer to the edge and spin around just as he comes out past the tree line. He stops dead in his tracks as we both stare at one another. Well, I can’t see behind his mask but you know what I mean.
“Let’s go back to the cabin,” he says, but I don’t move from my spot.
“Take off the mask. I want to see you,” I say, my voice quivering. I know what will happen when he takes it off.
“No. Not yet,” he growls. I inch a step back and he notices. He takes one forward too.
“Take it off or I will jump off this fucking cliff!” I snap at him. “You don’t want that, do you? Because isn’t the whole point of doing this, to save me?”
“Fuck!” he yells before whipping his stupid mask off. Even though I knew it, a groan still escapes me.
“I fucking knew it! Of course, it’s you. The bane of my fucking existence!” I curse at him.
“Come on, baby, I’m not that bad. I’ve been saving you for the past week. When did you know?” he questions, as I stare into those blue eyes that have always held me captive.Knox’s blue eyes…
“Just now when you were talking about me being your stupid light. You’ve said that to me before. Plus, there were other clues. Like the fact that no one would go out of their way to help a cokehead unless it was someone close to them. For the past little while it’s like you had an obsession with feeding me and every time you did it here, I was reminded of, well, you. Why would you do this? Why can’t you leave me alone?” I cry as tears spill down my cheeks.
“Because I fucking love you, baby. I was not about to let you fuck your life up further in the dump I found you in. You deserve the world and so much more. I’m going to fucking give it to you. I’m the one who messed up and made you lose all things you. So, I’m the one who needs to fix it all,” he says like it’s so easy.
“I want to leave,” I tell him through gut-wrenching sobs.
“We’re not leaving until you’re fully recovered,” he says with a hint of steel in his voice.
“I feel like I should want to hurt you for everything that you’ve done to me but then I’d be like you, wouldn’t I? I’ll turn into someone who hurts people because I’m hurt and I don’t want to be like that. But, man, even so, I want to hurt you bad!” I yell at him.
