I press my fingers into the bag strap.
I could tell Knox.
I should tell Knox.
But what happens after I tell him?
What if he looks at me and sees “problem” instead of “asset”?
What if he decides I’m too much trouble?
The thought is ridiculous. He’s literally hired to protect me.
And yet my chest still tightens like my worth is always up for debate.
Cole’s voice echoes in my head, smug and sharp.
No one is going to want all that.
I grit my teeth.
Is he expensive? The thought hits out of nowhere, stupid and practical. Dad probably left me something, but I haven’t even had the brain space to think about inheritance.
Knox clears his throat.
“We’re close,” he says.
I blink. “Close to what?”
His eyes stay on the road. “Valor Springs.”
My pulse jumps. “We’re almost there?”
“Yeah,” he says. “Ten minutes or so.”
My stomach flips, anxiety sliding in under everything else. “And then what?”
He glances at me, and for a second I see something in his expression that isn’t just professionalism.
Something like responsibility.
Something like a promise he’s already decided to keep.
“Then we get you fed,” he says. “And we get you somewhere secure.”
I swallow.
Secure sounds like another life.
Secure sounds like I might finally exhale.
My phone is gone. My apartment has been torn through. My father is dead. My world has narrowed to a flash drive I can’t open and a man I can’t stop thinking about.
A man who kissed me like he meant it, even if he didn’t.
I stare out at the road, the sun sinking low enough to turn the world gold at the edges, and I try to remind myself of what matters.
Survive.
