Hollow

by Teresa Mummert

  Riley

  I awoke as the sun was peeking out over the tops of the trees. I winced as my eyes caught my own reflection in the mirror. My cheek was a little swollen and purple, but it wasn’t bad enough that I couldn’t hide it with a little concealer.

  The real pain I felt was internal, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hide it as well. I pushed the button to start my car, backing out of my spot and scanning the cars that still remained from the night before. Knox’s motorcycle was gone, and I wondered when he had left.

  I hit the Guide Me Home prompt on my navigation and headed back to my house, but it would never be home. I hoped my father hadn’t returned from his trip yet.

  ***

  When I pulled up to my gate, I stopped short of the motorcycle that blocked my path. Knox sat on the curb, his head hung and a bottle in his hand.

  I put my car in park and reluctantly got out, walking cautiously toward him. He never looked up at me as he took a long pull from the bottle before his eyes roamed over the label.

  “I was wrong. This fancy shit you got isn’t so bad,” he said with a sardonic laugh.

  I wrapped my arms around myself as I stepped closer. His head finally tilted up, and he examined my face.

  “I can’t believe I did that to you.”

  “It's no big deal,” I shrugged, waiting for him to yell at me but he just shook his head.

  “I can’t go back to Greta’s right now.” He took another drink. “I can’t look Tatum in the eye.” His eyes met mine again, causing another chasm of pain to rip through my chest. “It’s all gone.”

  “What’s gone?” I asked, sinking down on the curb next to him. He held out the bottle, and I took it, drinking a small sip.

  “All of the good I did.” He took the bottle back and drank again. “Saving Tatum was the only thing I ever did that made me worthwhile.”

  “How can you say that?”

  He turned toward me, his eyebrows pulled together as if it was painful for him to even think of the memory.

  “You were right about me. The moment you knocked on our door. I could see it in your eyes. I hated you for it.” He took another drink before shaking his head. “And you had that same look last night.”

  “I was wrong about you.”

  Running his fingers roughly through his hair, he shook his head. “I just wanted to keep her from getting hurt again, ya’ know?”

  “She’s not your responsibility.”

  “I’m all she has,” he shot back, and I didn’t argue. She was lucky to have someone like him to look out for her. His palm rubbed roughly along his jaw. “When I met Tatum, my dad was long gone, my mom was in and out of consciousness.” He hung his head as if the memory was too painful to speak aloud. “I ran away from home. I thought having no place to go was better than where I was at.” He looked up to me, and I could only nod, not sure what words would be adequate enough to comfort him. “Of course you don’t,” he scoffed, taking another long pull from the bottle. “Tatum saw me one day on her way to school, begging for money so I could get something to eat. She gave me her lunch.” He laughed, shaking his head.

  “When did you move in with her?”

  “That winter we had a nasty blizzard. The entire county shut down. Tatum snuck me into her basement at night, so I wouldn’t freeze to death. Every night I would wrap myself in a blanket in that tiny concrete room and listen to her stepdad's footsteps above me as he stomped through the house, screaming and breaking shit. I knew he was hitting her. She never admitted it, but it was obvious. God only knows what else he did when her mom was working nights. There was nothing I could do about it. I was just a kid struggling to keep myself alive. What was I supposed to do?”

  “Jesus,” I mumbled, struggling to imagine what it must have been like for her having to go through that, or for him to have to sit back and listen. He was taking the blame for something he’d had no control over.

  Knox looked to me as if physically in pain after all of these years. I knew he was unsure of what he could say to me, but he needed to confide in someone.

  “How did you both end up with Greta?”

  “That’s another long, fucked up story. She’s the mother of Tatum’s biological father. She felt guilty, I guess. Tatum didn’t even know her. She was scared, and she told her that she would only stay there if I could come with her. We looked out for each other. That’s what we do.”

  “Why don’t you trust Bryce?”

  “I’ve already answered three questions. It’s my turn.” His eyes cut to me, searching my face.

  “What is it you want to know?”

  “Why are you hanging around a guy like Ezra?”

  “He made me feel special.” She shrugged. “But that was a long time ago.”

  “Are you sure? He called you his girl.”

  I rolled my eyes before tucking my hair behind my ear. “I told you before, I don’t belong to anyone and after last night, he’s never going to talk to me again. Come on,” I stood up and held out my hand for him to help him up. He eyed me for a moment before taking it. He pulled to his feet, yanking me closer to him. His eyes searched mine, and I couldn’t breathe.

  His eyebrows pulled together before his fingers slid from mine and he ran the pad of his thumb over my bruised cheek. I let my eyes fall closed as I leaned into his touch, even if it made it hurt more.

  “Come on,” I replied before taking a step back from him. “Let’s get inside before one of the neighbors sees us.”

  I slipped back inside of my car and opened the gate. Knox followed behind me, walking his bike up the cobblestone path.

  I parked in front of the house, where Ezra’s car had been parked the night before. He was gone, and I hoped he’d finally left for his own place. He was the last person I wanted to see. I didn’t blame him for anything that had happened but looking at him only reminded me of how horrible of a person I really was.

  I trudged into the large, empty house with Knox behind me. The guilt we both felt hung heavy in the air.

  My phone chimed, and I dug it out of my bag before tossing my purse on my counter.

  My social media had blown up overnight with images from California and from my own party. Pictures of a bloodied Ezra where on all of the gossip sites. His publicist had already released a statement saying that he’d been in an accident while filming and would be written out of several episodes of his upcoming show. He was probably already on a plane heading West.

  I jumped as my phone rang and my father’s number scrolled across the screen.

  “Hello?”

  “What in the hell happened?” My dad barked.

  “It’s not as bad as it seems,” I struggled to explain but my father wasn’t even listening.

  “Script rewrites are going to set us back weeks.”

  I groaned as I sank down on the edge of my bed. Of course, he was only concerned about his job.

  “Ezra is already on his way back to LA. Dave is going to hold open auditions Wednesday to see if we can’t just tweak the role for a new character. I’ll be back Tuesday night.”

  “I thought you were coming home today.”

  “Piper wanted to catch a show on Broadway while we were here.”

  “Whatever.”

  “I’ll see you in a few days. Riley, keep a low profile. This project is now hanging on my reputation.”

  He hung up without saying goodbye or even asking how I was.

  “News travels fast,” Knox observed as I shoved my phone into my purse.

  “I have a place for you to stay for a few days if you don’t mind being around me.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he confessed as he shook his head. But he was in no state to drive anywhere at the moment.

  “Come on. You need a shower.” I stood up, looping my arm in his as I pulled him down the hall to the room I’d had him stay in before. We stopped in the bathroom and when I let go of him. He leaned against the sink and my eyes danced over the broken
and bruised skin of his knuckles.

  “We should clean that,” I nodded to his hand. He flexed, tightening it into a fist and causing fresh blood to seep from the wound.

  “It’s fine. It’ll heal,” he called out as I made my way to the main bathroom in the hall to grab some peroxide and ointment.

  “Stop being a baby and let me help you,” I groaned as I slipped back into the bathroom.

  Knox pulled his shirt over his head, dropping it on the floor at his feet and I tried to keep my eyes from dancing over the flexing muscles of his stomach.

  “I let you help me before. That’s what got us into this mess.”

  I opened the bottle, taking his hand over the sink as I poured the peroxide over his injuries. He winced, pulling back slightly as it began to bubble.

  “As I recall you were just as much a part of that plan as I was,” I raised my eyebrow, waiting for him to acknowledge guilt but he scowled, pulling his hand from mine.

  “I don’t remember asking you to fuck Bryce. That was a little cold-hearted, even for you, Princess.”

  He unbuttoned his pants, shoving them down his legs and stumbling as he tried to step out of them. Having Knox Reid standing in front of me in only a pair of boxer-briefs was distracting, to say the least.

  “You really think I slept with that degenerate in a tent with my best friend only a few feet away?”

  His eyes narrowed as he struggled to focus on me. “Wasn’t that hard when you had her distracted by that drugged out asshole.”

  “I wasn’t talking about Tatum,” I yelled, exasperated.

  I watched as the column of his throat jumped as he swallowed hard.

  “I was talking about you.” Every nerve ending in my body was buzzing, and I felt like my knees were going to give out from under me. My gaze dipped from his eyes to his mouth, and as my tongue ran out over my own lips, I pushed forward, pressing my mouth against his. His back had stiffened before his hand snaked around my lower back, pulling me against him as he inhaled.

  Suddenly, my back was against the wall, and his body was pressed hard against mine as his tongue ran over the seam of my lips, coaxing them apart so he could deepen our kiss. I gasped, my hands gripping onto his shoulders wanting to be even closer to him. I’d never been kissed with so much urgency and need that my head began to swim.

  His lips pulled back from mine, and as quickly as our kiss began, it was over, and I was left gasping and struggling for breath. My eyes slowly opened to see a pained expression on Knox’s face.

  “Fuck,” He mumbled, running his hand through his hair. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “Why?” I took a step forward, not bothering to hide my disappointment.

  “We were never friends, Riley,” his voice was barely a whisper, but it cut through me just as if he’d screamed it. I didn't know when I began to care what Knox thought about me. In fact, we enjoyed having a mutual disdain for the other, it kept us honest. But somewhere along the way the waters got muddled and now the emptiness that had consumed me before was filled with an ache.

  I nodded, swallowing back my anger and sadness yet again as I turned and hurried from the room to cry without anyone watching. He didn’t follow me.

  ***

  I rushed through my own shower, letting my tears mix with the water as I washed off the smell of campfire smoke and beer. I didn’t bother putting on makeup because it would just look ridiculous if I tried to cover up my bruised cheek.

  Instead, I put my damp hair in a loose braid and made my way to the kitchen to cook up some eggs to help get rid of our hangovers.

  Knox still hadn’t emerged from his room, and I was worried he may have slipped out of the house while I was in the shower, but I couldn’t bring myself to look to see if his bike was still here.

  I sat both of our plates on the island and pushed my runny eggs around my plate, wishing I was on the next flight back to my mom.

  “If you keep making that face, it’ll freeze that way.”

  I looked up to see Knox standing a few feet away looking much soberer but not any less regretful.

  “Riley, about the things I told you out front,” He shook his head, and I knew he regretted confiding in me.

  “Consider it forgotten.” I nodded. “I cooked you breakfast… sort of.”

  “I had no idea you were so… domesticated.” He sank down into the chair across from me as he picked up his fork. “Thanks.” He shoveled a bite into his mouth as I stabbed at a few pieces of the egg with my fork, but I’d lost my appetite. “Riley, When I said we were never friends-”

  “Save it. We used each other to get what we wanted. A deal’s a deal.” I picked up my plate and dumped it in the sink before walking back to the stairs to hide out in my room. I paused, so many thoughts running through my head and I wasn’t sure which I should vocalize. Instead, I hurried up the steps and crawled into bed, hoping I could sleep all of my frustration and sadness away.

  Knox

  I paced the floor as my phone continued to go off in my pocket but I ignored it. My mind was elsewhere. Deciding if I would finally commit to the club was weighing heavily on me. Tatum could have a decent shot at a future without someone like me around. This outlaw shit wasn’t something she needed to be dragged into.

  When I saw Riley slip out of that tent, I’d fucking lost it. I don’t think I could have forgiven her if she’d let someone like Bryce touch her. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t because I wanted to be the one with her in my arms.

  The world was unraveling around us as our plan was finally coming to a head. Soon she’d be back in the city, where she belonged, and I would either get out from under the club once and for all, or I would have to step in fulltime.

  My phone buzzed again and I dug it from my pocket. “What?” I barked. Ivory chuckled before clearing his throat.

  “Just reminding you that tomorrow is payday.”

  I ran my palm over my face as I began to pace the floor. “I’ll meet you at The Hollow Spot with what I owe you. I have to collect on my last job first.”

  “Clocks ticking. Knox,” he said before falling silent for a moment. “Joining us won’t make you like your father, running from your problems will.”

  I hung up the phone. “Fuck.” I stepped back in the doorway of Riley’s room, watching her sleep peacefully.

  TWENTY-ONE

  Riley

  My eyes cracked open at the smell of coffee. I blinked several times as I looked up to Knox, who was standing beside my bed, a cup in each hand.

  “Peace offering?” He asked with the corner of his mouth twisted up in a small grin. I couldn’t keep my cheeks from flushing as I remembered what it felt like to have his mouth pressed against mine.

  “It’s a little late for caffeine. I thought you didn’t drink coffee.”

  “I’ve been doing a lot of things I wouldn’t normally do lately.” He shrugged, holding out my cup. “Apologizing being one of them.”

  “Is that what this is? An apology?” I groaned as I pushed myself up and took a drink from his hand. He sank down on the edge of my bed, brushing a stray wisp of hair from my face before his finger trailed over the mark he’d left on my face.

  “Eye for an eye? I can let you hit me if it makes you feel better. We could go a few rounds in the ring?”

  I tried to fight against a grin. I wanted to be mad at him because it helped mask the hurt I was feeling. But it was impossible to not smile when he was looking at me that way.

  “You’d let me hit you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. He stood, taking both of our drinks and sitting them on the stand beside my bed.

  “Take your best shot.”

  I put my feet on the floor, my toes sinking into the fuzzy carpet next to my bed. I stood, stretching my arm across my chest like I’d watched him do in the ring with Topher.

  “Right here,” He pointed to the side of his face, and I could tell he wasn’t certain if I’d swing or not. “He took my hand in his and folded my fi
ngers down into a fist before sliding my thumb down. “Tuck your thumb so you don’t hurt yourself.” His eyes closed and I stood, looking at him for a long moment. Even if he wouldn’t admit it, he trusted me and for once I wasn’t going to prove him wrong.

  I placed my palm against his cheek, and I felt him stiffen for a moment before his eyebrows pulled together, eyes still closed.

  “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  His eyes opened slowly as his fingers wrapped around my hand, lowering it from his face and placing it flat on the center of his chest. “You already have, Princess.”

  “Likewise.”

  He took a step closer, closing the gap between us. “Do you trust me?”

  My heart began to race. Did I trust him? Trust him enough to let my guard down? To share my secrets? To have my heart?

  “It’s a simple question, Riley. Do you trust me?”

  “It doesn’t have a simple answer, Knox.”

  His eyes pleaded with mine for a brief moment before his lips crashed into mine. His free arm looped around my back, and his grip on me was the only thing keeping me standing as our mouths moved hungrily against each others.

  He released my hand as he gripped my hips, walking me backward until the backs of my legs pressed against the edge of my bed.

  He broke free from our kiss, his eyes searching mine before he slowly lowered me on my back with his forehead against mine, his body coming down heavily on top of me, pressing me into the mattress. My fingers trailed over his neck, his pulse racing beneath my fingertips.

  His hands tangled in my hair as he pulled my hair tie free. “We could never just be friends,” His eyes closed again, and I slid my hands to his cheeks, pulling his mouth back against mine, desperate to touch him again.

  My body felt like it was on fire as his fingers burned a trail up my bare thigh, slipping under the edge of my shorts. His fingers wrapped around my panties and I pushed my hips upward, desperate for more contact.

  When his mouth moved from mine, his lips trailed along my neck, and I was so afraid he’d stop I called out, “Please, Knox.”