“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“Why are you here?”
“Why areyou?”
“I had to.”
He growls. “I just drove 150 mph for hours to catch up with this fucking bus after William called me. You’ve got a choice, Paisley. Either you get off the bus, listen to what I have to say, and come with me, or you stay here, continue on to Minneapolis, and accept the fact that I’ll be there when you get off and will not leave. Either way. You’re not getting rid of me.”
“That won’t work.”
“You’d be amazed by what works when you let it.”
The old woman’s face slides past Knox’s lats. “Go on. Otherwise the guy’s going to die of longing.”
“Yeah, go with him,” the girl says from in back. “You’re that figure skater, right? From the news? You two aresocute together!”
Knox’s lips curl into a self-confident grin. “You see?”
The bus driver clucks. “Come on, girl, I want to get home.”
I’m not sure how this is supposed to work; how Knox imagines us though we don’t stand a chance. But now he’s standing in front of me with his birthmark, with those eyes of his, and I can’tnotgo. I managed to leave him once today, but I won’t be able to do it a second time.
Knox’s grin grows wider when he sees that he’s won. He pushes off the seats, takes a step backward, and pulls my bags down with an ease that’d make you think they were simply filled with cotton.
The old woman casts me a mischievous smile as I walk past. “And then there are always people whosavetheir harvest; it’s a good thing he’s one of them.”
I don’t think I’ll ever forget this woman.
Knox and I get into the Range Rover. He turns it on. The seats get warm in a second and everything smells like Aspen, like Knox, likemy life.
He steps on the gas and speeds off like it’s a race against time.
“Knox…”
“Listen,” he says, his eyes on the road. He seems keyed up. Completely out of his senses. “Ivan is gone.”
“What? Where?”
His hand finds my thigh. “No idea. But your contract is now null and void.”
“What?”
Knox passes a truck. “Dad did some research, Paisley. The guy is disgusting. He’s been that way for half his life. Mom and him were pair skaters back in the day. Did you know that?”
“How on earth could I have known that?!”
“No idea. I didn’t know it, either. Long time ago, back in her hometown. But she told Dad about him later on. We did some research. Dad’s got a few contacts at the criminal investigation department.”
“At thecriminal investigation department? Knox, you’re talking in riddles!”
“Yeah, yeah, let me explain. It’s actually illegal, but there was a guy there who owed my dad a favor, so Dad said, ‘Hey, get ahold of his record for me.’ Guess what was in there.”
“Tell me.”
“Multiple reports of sexual harassment. Stalking. Blackmail. To be honest, I don’t understand why the dude hasn’t been behind bars for years.”
