by Layne, Ivy
“Do what you have to do, Lily. I'm yours.”
That was all I needed to hear. I unleashed all of my confusion, my hurt, my love, my pain, my need, and gave it all to Knox.
Tasting him, licking and sucking, kneading his muscles with my fingertips, guiding him inside me and riding until he arced beneath me. Taking my own pleasure and giving him his.
When we were done, Knox rolled out of bed to take care of the condom, coming back with a warm, wet washcloth. I tried to take it from him, but he evaded my grasping hands with a firm, “Lay still. Let me do this.”
Drained from my orgasm and the frenzy of emotion, I lay there, body soft, the upheaval in my heart finally quiet. When he was finished, Knox slid under the sheets to curl his body around mine. His arm wrapped around my chest, and I held on with everything I had, Knox the only anchor I trusted in a world turned upside-down.
Chapter Thirty-One
Knox
Iwas on the phone with my lawyer when the driveway alarm beeped. Opening my laptop, I flipped to the camera that covered the drive.
A fucking Black Rock cruiser. When would this guy give up?
“Got a visitor, I'm going to have to call you back.”
“Don't worry about it, Knox. I'll call you when I've got something together.”
I disconnected and stood, beating Lily and Adam to the door. It was early, almost time to leave to take Adam into preschool. I knew normalcy was important, but I didn't like the idea of taking him to preschool.
My instincts told me to hold Adam and Lily close, to guard them against any threat.
So many balls in the air, most of them a threat to Lily and Adam in one way or another. I couldn't let my feelings cloud my logic. That would only put them in more danger.
I was still tempted to bar the door and keep everyone out, including Deputy Dave. Unfortunately, Lily was more civilized than me.
“It's Dave,” she said unnecessarily, reaching for the handle. I shut down my need to stop her, instead standing behind her with my hand on her shoulder, marking my territory. If I couldn't do it in a more primitive way, I'd settle for this.
Lily swung open the door to reveal Dave holding a bag from the town's doughnut shop, the white paper stained with splotches of grease, the scent of fresh donuts drifting in the door. Out of nowhere, Adam raced to join us, skidding to a stop and yelping with delight at the sight of the doughnut bag.
“Are those for us?” Before Deputy Dave could answer, Adam screeched again and snatched the bag from his hands, darting for the kitchen.
Lily exclaimed in a familiar, exasperated tone, “Adam! I'm so sorry, Dave. Do you want to come in, have some coffee?”
I almost felt sorry for the guy, watching the way his face fell as whatever plan he'd concocted was torn to shreds by Adam's donut theft and my proprietary hand on Lily's shoulder.
My pity dissolved as Dave's forlorn expression melted into something darker. Eyes hard, he stared at my fingers where they touched Lily. I pulled her into the shelter of my body, resisting the urge to shove her behind me.
She wouldn't appreciate that level of protection, and Dave wasn't enough of a danger to justify it. That didn't mean I wasn't ready to act if I needed to.
Lily stepped back a little, holding the door open. “Dave? Did you want to come in for coffee?”
“I don't think so,” he spat out, trying to glare at me and ending up looking squinty. “Didn't take you long, did it? Do you know how many months I've been working on her? Close to a fucking year. She's got her legs crossed so tight nobody gets in there. I'm not surprised they had to adopt Adam. She's so fucking frigid she's ice cold.”
I was in motion before the last of his words registered. Swinging Lily behind me, I lunged, my fingers sinking into the collar of Deputy Dave's uniform shirt as I tossed him out the door, catching him with a roundhouse punch on his way. He landed in a heap, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
So much for not letting feelings cloud my logic.
“Get the fuck out,” I said. “Unless you have a legal reason to be here you aren't welcome on Lily's property. Got me?”
Dave's eyes overflowed with bitter venom. He said nothing, wobbling to his feet, backing up before he turned and headed for his cruiser. Behind me, Lily breathed, “Knox, what have you done?”
Without turning around, my eyes on the cruiser backing out of the drive, I said, “Nobody talks about you like that. Ever.”
“But he's a deputy. You could get in trouble—”
“I'd like to see him try.”
She wasn't wrong, and I knew it.
I'd hit a cop without justifiable provocation. Any man—hell, any woman—would understand why I'd thrown a punch and tossed him out of the house. That didn't mean I wouldn't have a problem if he pressed charges.
Deputy Dave was exactly the kind of douche who would press charges over a punch he knew he fucking had coming.
I ushered Lily back into the house, closing and locking the door behind me. We had Adam's birth certificate. My lawyer was working on getting a copy of the certificate on file with the state, as well as putting together whatever legal papers we'd need to get the surrogate to relinquish any claim to Adam, once we paid LeAnne Gates to tell us who she was.
It was time to get out of Black Rock. I dug my phone out of my pocket to call Cooper. He answered with a rushed, “Good timing. I was about to call.”
“What happened?”
“Tsepov walked. Twenty minutes ago. His lawyer convinced the judge he isn't a flight risk, got the judge to grant bail, and he's out. We had men on him, but he lost them. You three need to move.”
“Perfect timing because I just punched out the local cop.”
“Fuck, Knox. What did he do, talk shit about your girlfriend? Griffen said he wanted a piece of her.”
“No comment.”
I expected a scathing retort, but Cooper laughed. “I'll send the plane.”
Thinking quickly, I said, “Find a strip near Hanover, New Hampshire. Worst case we can go out of Logan in Boston, but if you can find someplace near Hanover, that would be better.”
“Hanover? Got it.”
“Tomorrow. We'll want to spend the night.”
Hanover was the best option for so many reasons. We couldn't leave New England without seeing Lily's parents now that we'd found those letters, and Lily's parents' house was the last place Deputy Dave would look for us. As far as he knew, Lily hadn't spoken to them in years.
“Keep me posted,” Cooper said and hung up.
Lily's eyes were wide with panic. “Hanover?” she asked, her voice wobbling, thin and uncertain.
“Hanover,” I said. “Hanover, and then Atlanta. You want to see them before we leave, don't you?”
If she didn't, I’d call Cooper back, and we’d change our plans. Lily had been through enough. If she wasn’t ready, we’d wait.
She sagged against me. “I do. I do, so much. I’m just— I’m scared. What if—”
I slid my arms around her. The hits kept coming. Everything she’d learned about Trey, her fears for Adam, the letters from her mother, Deputy Dave’s harsh words after she’d considered him a friend. So much I couldn’t shield her from.
“The longer you put it off, the harder it will be. If it doesn’t go well, we're out of there, okay? I promise.”
She nodded, her forehead brushing my chest. “Tsepov got out of jail?”
“We knew that might happen.”
“I know. We're mostly packed. Any idea how long we'll be gone?”
How to answer that question? I could take the easy way out—shrug and say a week or two. Or, I could lay it out, tell her how I felt and let the chips fall.
I put my hands on her shoulders. “Do you want to come back?”
Lily's mouth opened to answer, but nothing ca
me out. I pushed my advantage.
“I want you and Adam to come to Atlanta. I want you and Adam with me, in my house, but if that's too much, I can find you a place. Between Jacob's building and Charlie, I'll find you a place.”
“You want us with you?” Her question was barely more than a whisper.
“If it's up to me I'd say bring everything you can pack, hire someone to do the rest, put the house on the market, and don't come back.”
Light bloomed in Lily's eyes. “How can you be so sure?”
I brushed her cloud of curls back from her face, cupping her chin in my hand and dropping a soft kiss on her mouth. “I just am. I've waited my entire life to feel the way I feel about you, Lily. If you want to slow things down, I can wait. We need to get out of town for now, but if you're not ready to leave Black Rock yet—”
“I am. I am. I just—I didn't want to assume—I didn't know if you—”
“I do. More than anything.” Straightening, I focused on what had to get done. “We can leave the Land Rover here. I'll have someone drive it down to Atlanta later. I have to return my rental anyway, so pack as much as you think will fit in the back. We'll take that with us, load it on the plane, and whatever's left we'll have packed up and moved down later when the rest of this is settled.”
Lily stepped back and nodded. “I can do that. How fast do we have to move? I already put some things aside, organized what we might want now versus later, but if we have the whole SUV…”
I knew what she meant. The SUV I'd rented was massive. We could fit a soccer team in that thing. Lily had set aside bags suitable for a commercial flight, but she could take a lot more than that between the SUV and our plane.
“It's about five hours to Hanover. I think we should try to leave by lunch. Does that work?”
“That works. I'm on it.”
“Lily,” I called out. She stopped and turned, already distracted with everything she had to do in the next few hours. “I don't think Dave is going to press charges. If he comes back, tell him you don't know where I went.”
“Where are you going?”
“Nowhere without you, but he won't know that.”
Shadows moved through Lily's eyes. I waited for her to object, to ask for an explanation. Anything. Instead, she said, “Okay.”
She turned on her heel, then stopped abruptly and threw herself into my arms, planting a kiss on my mouth. As soon as the warmth of her lips left mine, she was gone, flying up the stairs.
I didn't know what I'd done to earn such trust, but I'd do everything I could to deserve it.
I was moving too fast. Cooper would go ape shit if I moved Lily into my house. I didn't fucking care. I'd told her the truth. I'd waited my entire life to feel this way. Maybe things would change, maybe they wouldn't, but I wasn't going into this assuming it would fall apart.
I wanted Lily.
I wanted Adam.
I'd give her space if that's what she needed. As long as she was mine.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Knox
It didn't take me long to get the rest of my things together. So far, we hadn't been interrupted by an invasion of Black Rock cruisers with their lights flashing. I wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.
I met Lily on the stairs, taking a massive duffel from her hands before it pulled her off balance and she tumbled to the bottom.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Bringing the bags down.”
“I'll get the bags. Is everything together upstairs?”
“In a big pile in the middle of my bedroom. My stuff, Adam's stuff, a few boxes of things I don't need right away, but I don't want to leave in the house. I need to pack a bag from the mudroom—shoes, jackets, stuff like that, but otherwise, we're ready to load up.”
“Got it.” I found everything neatly organized in Lily's bedroom. A few trips, and I had the back of the SUV loaded. Adam dogged my heels, asking question after question, most of which I couldn't answer. Fortunately, he was easy to divert with little tasks, happy to help me carry odds and ends.
Lily left another over-stuffed duffel by the back door, this one filled with whatever she wanted from the mudroom. I found her in the kitchen cobbling together lunch from leftovers and food that would spoil before the end of the week. Adam complained about the odd mix of food on his plate until Lily gave him what I thought of as 'Mom Eye', and he shut up.
The shrill of the perimeter alarm cut through the house as Lily was clearing the table. She jumped, a plate sliding from her fingers to shatter on the floor. I circled the table to lift her clear of the sharp slivers of ceramic surrounding her bare feet.
A shadow passed by the window at the front door. Behind me, Adam raced for the front door, calling out, “Deputy Dave.”
“Adam, don't!” I yelled.
The driveway alert hadn't sounded. If he was here on official business, he would have come in his cruiser. I set Lily on her feet, away from the remains of the broken plate, and sprinted for the front door.
Adam was already swinging it open.
He froze for a split second, stumbling back as he saw Dave's normally affable face contorted with rage and desperation. The deputy lunged for Adam, his fingers closing over the shoulder of Adam's t-shirt.
His gut overriding his brain, Adam was already scuttling back, away from the door. Dave's desperate grasp came up short. Adam bolted for Lily, barreling into her arms. She stopped only a few feet away, her eyes wide and fixed on the man she'd thought was her friend.
Dave held a Taser in my direction, waving it threateningly. I would have laughed if I hadn't known that would push him over the edge. A Taser? He’d have to fill out paperwork if he discharged his service weapon, but seriously. A Taser?
Then again, his weapon was on his hip. He was an asshole, but he wasn't completely incompetent. As long as he had that gun on his hip, he was a danger.
Ignoring me when he saw I wasn't going to approach, he focused on Lily, all pretense at friendship wiped away. “Give me the box, Lily. I'm tired of this bullshit. Trey owes me. He said it was mine. Give it to me, and I'll go.”
“Were you working with Trey?” Lily took a step out from behind me, confusion and betrayal nudging her guard down. I shot out an arm to block her approach.
Dave sneered. “Yeah, I was working with Trey. You're such a fucking idiot. So much shit he did right under your nose, and you never thought to ask about any of it, did you? Just make your pot roast, read books to your dumbass kid and never wonder where all that money was coming from. Did you ever ask Trey what he was doing on those business trips? Who he was fucking when he stopped fucking you?”
Dave's wild eyes flicked to Adam and back to Lily. “I know you don't have proof that he's yours. Give me the box or I'll call social services and you'll lose the only thing you care about.”
Adam was oblivious to the threat, but Lily turned to stone, her eyes blank with panic. I was going to fucking kill this guy. I stepped in front of her, blocking him from her view. “What box, Morris?”
“The fucking Russian box, you asshole. I know it's worth millions. Trey said it was mine. Hand it over and I'll walk away.”
“It's not here,” I said. “I've torn this house apart. I found the receipt but no box. You're out of luck.”
“It can't be gone,” Dave cried, desperation drawing his voice into a whine. “It was in his office. What the fuck did you do with it, you bitch? I've been looking for months.”
I didn't give Lily a chance to respond. “She didn't do anything with it. It's gone.”
“Then give me cash. I know he left you flush. He owes me.”
“Lily doesn't have any cash in the house.” Technically I wasn't lying. The strongbox with the twenty grand was safely packed in the SUV. I wouldn't risk Lily and Adam over twenty grand, but that wasn't the kind of mon
ey Dave Morris was looking for.
“Then let's go the to the bank,” Dave shot back, his greed short-circuiting his brain.
“How do you expect to pull that off?” I asked conversationally. “You going to hold the gun on her in front of the teller?”
“She can write me a check.” He was grasping at straws. Whatever he'd done for Trey, he hadn't been using his brains.
“That's going to leave a hell of a paper trail. You're out of options, Morris. Turn around and leave.”
Dave lurched forward, lunging at me but not getting close enough to strike. His control was disintegrating, falling to dust as his frustration grew.
This was his endgame. He wasn't going to walk away without getting what he wanted.
I could feel Adam behind me, squirming against Lily. I turned to close my hand around his upper arm, holding him still. Lily pushed him further behind me, edging to the side, out of my protection. I couldn't shield them from Dave if they wouldn't stay fucking still.
“Dave,” she said, “I don't know what Trey did with the box, but there's stuff in the house. Artwork. I have a little jewelry. It's not worth what the box was, but you can have it. I don't care. Whatever Trey owed you, it doesn't have anything to do with me.”
“It has everything to do with you, you fucking bitch. He was supposed to leave it all to me. I've been his friend his entire life. You're just some cunt he picked up at college to piss off his parents.”
A wounded sound from Lily at the harsh epithet. Adam pulled from my grip, going for his mother. I shoved him further behind me, moving both of us a step too far from Dave and Lily.
In slow motion, I watched as Dave shot out an arm to grab her. She was still too far away, his fingers skating over her shoulder, closing around a chunk of her hair. He yanked, dragging Lily off her feet.
Everything went red at her scream of pain.