Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Knox, having been still and silent during our exchange, proved he wasn’t near death as I feared. He proved that by surging forward. Toward my sister. Who was still holding a gun in his direction, who had proven she was far too trigger happy for my liking.
It was by the grace of God—or his rebellious son, was more likely when Knox was involved—that she didn’t fire again. Likely shocked by the rapid advance of the man she’d just shot.
He ripped the gun from her hand, discharging the clip so bullets clattered noisily onto the floor. He flung the empty gun across the room then grabbed my sister by the throat with a casual violence that socked me in the gut. The same hand that had been tenderly caressing me was now assaulting my sister.
“You fired a gun, without any knowledge of how to do it, and it could’ve gone through me and hit your fucking sister,” he snarled.
I’d never heard such rage leech from every fiber of a being before. Dangerous, murderous rage. Directed at my sister. The control he’d possessed during our time here was now absent, gone, permitting his true, violent nature to show.
I was across the room in seconds.
“Let her go, Knox.” My voice shook as I stared at my sister, her hands clawing at her neck, helpless and dwarfed by the large man holding her.
Knox didn’t comply. “She could’ve shot you.”
“She didn’t shoot me,” I replied, forcing my voice to be softer now that I understood I wasn’t dealing with the calm, calculated killer without a heart. I was dealing with someone else entirely. Someone who seemed to have been triggered into a blind rage at the prospect of me getting shot.
My mind didn’t have any kind of reaction to that because my sister being in danger trumped everything.
Knox, for whatever reason, didn’t hurt me, but clearly, that didn’t mean he’d do the same for the person I cared most about in this world.
“Let my sister go, Knox,” I ordered, my voice shaking.
For a horrible second, as she began to truly gasp for air, her eyes bulging, I thought he wasn’t going to let her go. That he was going to snap her neck in front of me.
Thankfully, he stepped back, and I rushed to catch my sister as she collapsed in my arms, coughing violently.
My eyes found Knox, wishing I could shoot tiny knives into every inch of his skin.
He had been shot, so that was a start.
He didn’t say anything, no apology in his face, no signs of guilt.
This is who he is, I reminded myself. A man who lives with violence every day. Breathes death without coincidence.
And I was about to kiss him?
The universe wasn’t subtle, Daisy bursting in serving as a reminder of just how far gone I was. But not too far gone to come back.
I stroked Daisy’s head until her breathing evened out, and she lifted her gaze to scowl at Knox.
“Are you okay?” she asked after looking at me. There was a slight scratch to her delicate tone that made me want to claw Knox’s face off.
“I’m fine,” I reassured her, still reeling over the fact that she was here. That she had shot Knox, and Knox had, in turn, almost strangled her. This was all after we almost kissed. Yeah, more than a lot to process.
“You’re not fine,” she scoffed, standing on her own feet but not letting go of me. “You’ve been in the presence of this maniac for weeks! He strangles me the second he sees me, so I hate to think what he’s done to you.” Her voice had a hysterical edge with a healthy dose of anger mixed in and directed at Knox.
I was relieved to hear that anger. It meant she was okay.
“You shot me before you even considered your sister being caught in the crossfire,” he said evenly. “Be thankful you’re still breathing.”
My own breath caught at his words.
I pushed them out of my mind. I had to. What good was it to have a maniac care for you if he was willing to injure the one you loved most in some sort of fucked-up vengeful or protective mode?
“You hurt my sister again and I’ll rip you to pieces,” I vowed to Knox, unable to discern the specifics of how I’d carry out such a thing but knowing I’d find a way if I needed to.
Cold and calculating once more, his eyes traveled slowly over my face, presumably measuring me and my words. Then something twitched in his cheek, as if he found me almost … amusing.
Amusing. When I’d just witnessed his brutal violence against Daisy and had very sincerely threatened his life. That made me all the more furious.
“Whatever you say, Petal.”
Petal? Where the heck did that pet name come from? Completely inappropriate, and it did not make me feel any type of way. It was insane to feel any type of way about a term of endearment muttered by a man who had been strangling my sister less than a minute ago.