“My guy is digging into it right now.” Dylan is the best at what he does. I’m sure he’s already tracked the twin and knows exactly where he’s at.
“Fine. I’ll have my guy do the same. I’m in Belize for a few more days. I’ll be in Tennessee to pick her up as soon as I get back into the States.”
I want to argue with him. I want to tell him that a few days is not enough time for me to get to know her better, but of course I’m not going to say it. “Fine.”
Hollywood starts going over the safety detail I have at my house, and I don’t blame him. He wants to know his sister-in-law is safe. When we get into the discussion, Karina walks off toward her bedroom, and I try not to watch her hips sway back and forth as she goes.
“Knox, you still there?”
I clear my throat. “Yeah, I’m still here.”
Karina
I take way longer in the shower than I should. I kept replaying the day in my head, over and over. I should probably be more worried about the man that’s after me, but what I can’t stop thinking about is Knox. He’s unlike any man I’ve ever known. Well, that’s not quite true. He’s protective like Hollywood and Fish and the rest of Delta Force, but there’s never been a man make me feel the way he does.
When I’m finally dried off, I pull Knox’s shirt over my head. He had a pair of shorts that are big in the waist, but it seems my hips are going to at least keep them up.
I stand in the doorway of the room I’m staying in and watch Knox in the kitchen. He’s cooking now, moving around like he does this all the time. I wouldn’t have taken him for a man that cooked.
As if feeling my gaze on him, he lifts his head, and his eyes round as he looks at me. “Hey, I hope you’re hungry.”
I nod and walk into the kitchen. “What can I do to help?”
He shakes his head. “Have a seat. It’s ready. I hope you like spaghetti. I had some frozen sauce, so it was the easiest and quickest.”
I nod my head, still trying to wrap my head around this alpha, no doubt lethal man cooking dinner. I sit down at the table as he brings the last items to the table. I inhale deeply. “It smells good.”
He smiles and serves me up a big platter of food. I laugh. “That’s way too much.”
He shrugs. “Humor me. I bet you haven’t eaten in a while.”
I try to remember when I ate last, and I think it was on the bus to Tennessee that I ate a pack of crackers I’d found in the bottom of my tote bag.
I twirl the spaghetti on my fork and take a bite. I moan instantly as the taste hits my tongue. “Yum, that’s good.”
Knox’s eyebrows raise, and his eyes darken as he stares back at me. He nods and takes a bite. For a while, neither of us says a thing.
I’m in the middle of eating when I realize he’s not moving, he’s only staring at me. But he’s not staring at me; he’s staring at my shoulder. I look down, and the oversized shirt is hanging off it.
“He did that to you?” he asks. He doesn’t even sound like himself. He’s staring intently at me. He saw the bruising earlier, but in this bright light it looks even worse.
I pull the shirt up to cover it. “He did.”
He drops the fork, and it clatters on his almost empty plate. He pushes himself back from the table. “I’ll be right back.”
He strides from the dining room, and I watch as he walks through the front of the house and out the door. My appetite is lost now, and I start to clean up. I’m almost done when I can feel a change in the room, and I know he’s behind me.
I turn to look at him. “I’m sorry for....”
He walks over to me and stops when he can reach out and put his finger over my lips. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
I nod my head and pull my head back so I can talk. “Yes, I do. I shouldn’t have come here. It’s not fair that I didn’t want to endanger my family, and now, here I am doing the exact same thing to you. If I can just get some sleep, I’ll leave in the morning.”
He shakes his head. “You’re not leaving, Karina.” He flinches when he says it, so before I can argue with him, he explains himself. “I mean, I’m not holding you captive. That didn’t sound right, but Karina, I can’t let you go. I need to know you’re safe.”