Undone: The Untangled Series, Book Two

by Layne, Ivy

  I reached for another cookie. Knox's hand shot out and closed around my wrist, pulling me away. I stumbled toward him, and on impulse threw my arms around his wide chest, reaching up to press my lips to his jaw in thanks.

  I wasn't thinking, sugar and joy spinning in my head.

  It was a thank you hug. A kiss on his jaw. That's all.

  I swear, that's all.

  Knox's arms closed around me like steel bars. A deep groan rumbled in his chest. He tipped his head to the side, his jaw slipping from my lips, his mouth closing over mine.

  He kissed me.

  Not a chaste, polite thank you kiss. This was something entirely different. His arms locked me to his body, one around my hips, the other across my shoulders, plastering me to all of that hard muscle.

  His hold should have made me nervous. It didn't. His lips closed over mine, hungry and aggressive. Adrenaline spiked through me, and just when I might have felt a hint of nerves, his mouth softened, gentled, coaxing rather than claiming.

  I melted, my lips parting of their own volition. His tongue dipped inside.

  Another rumbling groan sent a thrill spiking through me. I tilted my chin, opening to him, my tongue meeting his, tasting coffee and something uniquely Knox.

  My arms still wrapped around his chest, I sank my fingers into his T-shirt, gripping tight, holding myself to him as the gentleness fell from the kiss. His mouth worked over mine, his tongue stroking, lips mastering my own.

  I'd dreamed of this. My dreams hadn't come close to reality.

  Knox's arms tightened even more. He turned us, lifted me, and I was on the counter, Knox's lean hips between my thighs, my legs locking around his waist, the hard bar of his erection grinding into me.

  Even through layers of fabric the pressure of him against my clit set sparks firing through every nerve. My head tipped back as my moan bled into our kiss. Knox's hand dropped to close around my hip, his fingers grazing my ass, tilting me into him, rocking his hips, teasing me, dragging out another moan, longer and more desperate.

  I pressed my mouth up into his, kissing him harder, wishing I could blink these clothes away, could feel his skin against mine, could feel that mouth everywhere.

  “What are you guys doing?”

  Adam's voice cut through the haze of lust in my brain. Stiff with shock, my mind raced for a response. Knox stepped back, effortlessly disengaging from our kiss, pulling me off the counter and setting me on my feet. Air rushed into the space between us, leaving me cold.

  “The cookies are done. Do you want one?” Knox asked, holding out a warm cookie. As a diversion, nothing could top cookies. The kitchen island hid any evidence of Knox's erection. Even if Adam noticed the flush in my cheeks, the glitter in my eyes, he wouldn't care when there was a cookie in front of him.

  I crossed my arms over my chest to hide my peaked nipples and picked up my mug of coffee, taking a sip to hide my face. I could have saved my time. Adam wasn't even looking at me.

  He snatched the cookie from Knox's hand and crammed it into his mouth the same way he had the cookie-dough spoon. His eyes rolled up in his head, bliss spreading across his face.

  He chewed and swallowed before he said, cookie still filling his mouth, “Mom, I can't believe you made these. They're actually good. Really, really good.”

  “I know,” I agreed, my voice strained. I snuck a glance at Knox. He was as cool and self-contained as ever. He didn't look at me. Didn't acknowledge me. It was as if nothing had happened.

  For a second, I wondered if I'd imagined it. The tenderness of beard-burn on my cheek and my swollen lips reminded me that I hadn't imagined anything. Knox had kissed me like I'd never been kissed in my life.

  I wanted more. I'd be crazy not to want more.

  The timer beeped on the oven. Knox took out the second tray of cookies and added them to the cooling rack, his eyes blank as they passed through me. Clearly, he didn't feel the same.

  That was for the best, wasn't it?

  Kissing Knox was a bad idea.

  I was his client. He was working for me. There was some connection between Trey and his father. My husband had been dead for less than a year.

  So many reasons I shouldn't be kissing Knox.

  I didn't care.

  I wanted to kiss him again, but if his total lack of interest was any indication, I was out of luck.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Knox

  Iwasn't sleeping well. To be accurate, I wasn't sleeping at all.

  In retrospect, probably a good thing. If I'd been asleep, I would have missed it. That slight, furtive sound along the back wall of the cottage. A scrape. A soft shuffle. So quiet it almost wasn't there.

  No, I wasn't sleeping. I was lying in bed with my hand on my cock thinking about Lily. About that kiss. I tried to tell myself it was a mistake. I wasn't buying it. Nothing that felt that good could be a mistake.

  She was small, but she fit in my arms perfectly, her curves molding to my body. I hadn't planned to kiss her.

  Hell no. I'd planned to keep my hands off Lily Spencer. Way off.

  Then she tasted that cookie, her eyes bright with joy and triumph, all her fear and frustration falling away in a moment of pure happiness. She'd been incandescent. So lovely.

  She'd thrown herself into my arms with that wide smile.

  Her lips grazed my jaw, and I was lost.

  Just fucking lost.

  If Adam hadn't interrupted us…

  I'd like to say I would have come to my senses. I'd be lying. I hadn't been thinking of anything but Lily.

  Lily in my arms. Lily pressed against me, her mouth hot and open, her tongue rubbing against mine. I'd wondered if I'd been imagining the pull between us.

  Not if that kiss was any measure. Lily had been right there with me, her fingers curled into the back of my T-shirt, holding me like she'd never let go.

  Fuck. I told myself to go to sleep. I could figure this shit out in the morning. Sleep wouldn't find me. I worked, pretended to doze, got up and checked the surveillance footage again.

  When dawn was closer than it should be and I still hadn't managed more than snatches of rest, I finally gave up and slid my hand under the sheet, fisting my cock, squeezing hard and thinking of Lily.

  Then it came. That soft, shuffling sound that wasn't a sound.

  The sound that was a great, big, fucking problem.

  In complete silence, I rolled from the bed and made my way to my laptop, shoving my feet into my boots as I moved. My screen came to life at a touch, divided into squares, each one showing the feed from a different camera.

  I froze as I took in the scenes before me. Fucking hell.

  This was not the intruder. That was a single person. Someone who wasn't a complete idiot, but sloppy and lacking in subtlety.

  What I saw on the camera feeds was something different. Three—no, five figures in black, the gleam of a weapon showing on the hip of two of them. I had no question the others were armed.

  The perimeter alarm would go off any minute. I had it calibrated to signal at movement close to the house, otherwise, the deer and fox would have it going off in the middle of the night.

  Whoever these people were, they were serious, but it didn't look like they knew about the upgraded security. I could use that.

  I grabbed my phone and called Lily. She answered after one ring. Had she been lying awake thinking about that kiss? A question for another time.

  “Action outside,” I said. “House is secure, but get into Adam's room. Lock the door the way I showed you. Don't open it unless I give you the signal. You remember the signal?”

  “Yes. Is everything okay?”

  “It will be. Just get into Adam's room.”

  Hoping I could keep my promise, I suited up. All black cargo pants, two Glocks at my back, a knife strapped
inside my right boot, a small handgun hidden in the other. Lightweight Kevlar because I'm brave, but I'm not stupid. A balaclava to cover my face. Any edge in the dark.

  One last check on my laptop. Two approaching the back door. Two headed to the front. One further back in the woods, keeping watch, maybe blocking avenues of escape.

  I started on the outside and worked my way in. I was almost on the one in the woods when the perimeter alarm sounded, blaring through the trees. They weren't expecting an alarm before they'd even touched the door.

  I used the first target's momentary distraction to take him from behind, wrapping my arm around his throat, cranking tight to cut off his oxygen.

  He flailed wildly before his knees went out, and I had him on the ground.

  “What do you want?” I demanded. “Why are you here?”

  Gray eyes flared up at me in panic.

  “Kto ty, chert voz'mi?” Who the hell are you?

  “Tsepov?” I bit out

  His head cut to the side in a sharp shake. No. The fear in his eyes betrayed his lie.

  He was here for Tsepov.

  Fuck.

  I secured him with a set of police-grade zip-ties and pulled out a soft, narrow roll of duct tape. Tearing off a strip, I pasted it over his mouth. Another strip covered the zip ties on his wrists.

  If he was any good, he'd get out of the zip ties eventually, but the duct tape would slow him down a little. My brothers made fun of me for carrying the stuff wherever I went, but it came in handy. There were very few problems duct tape couldn't solve.

  I heard the two at the back door through the trees, which meant they were still outside. The clock in my head ticked faster. I couldn't see or hear the team at the front of the house. The man on the dock was in full view.

  He'd be the hardest. Lily had the dock lights on a timer, and now, just before dawn, the lookout had a nice big pool of light to stand in. If I had my rifle and didn't care who heard the shot, he'd be a sitting duck.

  I couldn't take the chance. A rifle shot would draw attention. Maybe I could kill them all before they got to me. And maybe there were more I hadn't seen. Lily and Adam were depending on me. If I went down, they were fucked.

  The perimeter alarm sounded through the woods, but the house alarm was quiet. They hadn’t breached the doors. Not yet, but they would. Any second. With the alarm going off they were cautious, but if an alarm was enough to scare them off, they'd already be gone. Shortly after meeting Deputy Dave I’d disabled the house alarm from automatically calling the police in the event of a breech. I was here to keep Lily safe, and I didn’t trust him if shit went down. I hoped I wouldn’t regret that decision.

  I sprinted through the woods and across the driveway, coming at the dock from the side. Just as the lookout caught the sound of my feet I dove into the pool of light, tackling him and bringing him to the ground, rolling us into the shadows.

  I wanted to question him. I didn't have time. Lily and Adam were alone. I cold-cocked him on the back of the head, hoping I'd have the chance to ask questions later.

  He went limp. I made quick work of restraining him before sprinting straight for the pair at the front door. With two of them, one should have been on alert while the other worked on the lock, especially with the perimeter alarm still going off, leaving them deaf to anything but its wail.

  Instead, they'd both been working on getting in, one on the door and the other fucking with the keypad.

  I was almost on top of them before they spotted me. Sloppy. The last time we'd had a run in with Tsepov, it had been with Andrei's uncle, Sergey. His men were tight. Well-trained and cold as ice. I would have bet the guys here were new because so far, they were a little on the stupid side.

  I jumped the closest one from behind, taking him with an arm around the neck, catching him as he was raising his gun to shoot. I swung him around in the direction of his friend, using him as a shield.

  Panicked at the constriction on his throat, his hand jerked, and he fired, pumping the trigger over and over. He caught the door, the side of the house, and then his partner, right in the gut.

  The guy went down with a shocked groan, clapping a useless hand over the hole in his shirt, the blood gleaming black in the yellow porch light. I pulled my arm tighter around the first one's neck, flexing to cut off his air. He kicked violently, thrashing against me, getting just enough air to stay conscious.

  The screeching wail of the house alarm drowned out the perimeter alarm.

  I was out of time.

  So were Lily and Adam.

  I wrenched the gun from his hand, dropped my arm from his neck, and spun him by the shoulder. Two bullets in his chest and he went down.

  I was in the house a second later, headed straight for Lily and Adam.

  The last two were at the base of the stairs, jostling to see who would go first. Idiots. The one in back hooked my arm, pulling me off my feet, while the other raced up to the second floor.

  Lily. I had to get to Lily.

  I knew what was coming. I had no remorse. If these guys were here for a good reason, they would have shown up during the day and knocked on the door. Instead, they'd come with six men in the dark of night. Whatever they wanted, they wouldn't get it.

  I swung at the guy holding my arm and missed, my fist glancing off his shoulder. Every passing second was excruciating. One more second for the guy upstairs to get to Lily. Or Adam.

  I bent over, breaking the momentum of the guy holding my arm, and twisted, throwing an elbow behind me, hitting his nose with a satisfying crunch. The shock of pain stopped him for just long enough.

  Shoving my shoulder into his gut, I flipped him over my back. He went down hard, at the last minute catching me behind the knee and taking me with him, tearing at my shirt and ripping the balaclava from my head.

  Rolling to my back, I got my arm around his neck, ignoring the flash of heat along my arm. I braced my other hand on the side of his head and twisted. A crack of bone, and he went limp.

  I surged to my feet and flew up the stairs to the sound of Adam's terrified scream.

  “Mom! Mom!”

  His face flashed through my mind, his eyes bright with laughter as he'd jammed the cookie dough-covered spoon between his lips.

  Nothing was going to happen to him. Nothing.

  I reached the top and turned the corner to see Tsepov's man with his arm around Lily's neck, a gun to her head, Adam cowering behind them. His eyes widened when he saw me, his body tensing as if to run my way.

  My eyes glued to Lily's face, I shook my head. Adam stayed where he was. Smart kid.

  Lily's voice shook. “Adam, go back into your room. Now.”

  I nodded at him. He eased to his door, staying out of reach of the man holding his mother, and disappeared into his bedroom.

  Fuck, the trust in his eyes, the absolute assurance that I was going to fix this.

  I wouldn't let him down. I'd die first.

  Maybe Lily was tangled up in my dad's business. Maybe she wasn't.

  I didn't fucking care.

  A lot of things came clear at the sight of that gun pressed to her temple.

  I wanted her.

  I wanted Adam.

  They were mine.

  Trey Spencer fucked up. He put his family in danger, and then he got himself killed. His loss was my gain.

  I was keeping them.

  Lily's warm brown eyes now glazed with fear. Her soft cloud of curls pulled tight by the Russian's fist.

  Mine.

  I was keeping her with me, but first I had to keep her alive.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Knox

  Who the fuck are you?” Lily's captor asked in a thick Russian accent.

  “I think you know who I am. And I know who you are. The question is what do you want with Lily?”

>   “The boss wants to talk to her. I'm bringing her in.”

  I shook my head. “I can't let that happen. Three of your guys are dead. The other two aren't going anywhere. You're not getting out of here with Lily. Drop the gun and let her go.”

  “Fuck you.”

  My arm hung loosely at my side, my weapon tucked behind my leg. Tsepov's guy had his arm tight around Lily's neck, the muzzle of his handgun pressed to her temple. He was too on edge. I couldn't risk bringing up my own weapon and startling him into a shot.

  A seasoned professional would be deliberate about when he pulled the trigger and when he held his fire. Based on the other five guys, I doubted this one was that smart.

  I wouldn't fuck around with Lily's life. Keeping my hand motionless at my side and his attention off my weapon, I said, “Why don't you tell me what Andrei wants with Lily? We'll give it to you, and you can leave.”

  “Orders are to bring her in.”

  “And Adam?”

  The Russian raised his shoulder in a half shrug, the careless movement nudging the muzzle of the gun off Lily's temple. “No orders for the boy. He is—what's word? Collateral damage?”

  Lily's eyes went black with rage. I saw her make the decision, saw the shift in her eyes, like a lock clicking into place. My gut twisted in icy terror as possibilities raced through my mind.

  She could do anything. Launch herself at the Russian. Start struggling. Get herself fucking killed.

  Eyes locked to mine, hard with determination and the same absolute trust I'd seen in Adam, she did the last thing I expected.

  Lily's knees gave out beneath her. Her body dropped, limp as a rag doll. The Russian's grip around her neck fell loose at the unexpected weight, his gun hand swinging to the side.

  The second the muzzle of the gun was pointed anywhere but Lily, my arm swung up, and I squeezed the trigger.

  Once.

  Twice.

  The Russian's body jerked back into the wall, sliding to the side, smearing blood across the white paint until he crumpled face down on the carpet.

  Lily landed on her ass. At the sound of the gunshot, she jammed the heel of her palm into her mouth, not quite able to muffle her whimpers.