“What exactly are you asking, Lenora?”
She pivoted away from him without answering, drifting over to a decorative table in the corner, the one that had a collection of photos documenting her nephew’s birthdays. Leni and a pair of older women were in several of the earlier pictures. Notably absent in the little boy’s annual celebrations was the pretty blonde holding him in a hospital snapshot taken on the day he’d been born.
Knox hadn’t been able to purge Leni’s description of what had been done to her sister. A beating so violent it left her unconscious.
It was all too easy for Knox to imagine the same thing could happen to Leni.
She absently touched the frame of the photo of her sister and the sleeping infant in her arms.
“I’m not worried about myself. Honestly, I’m not. But I’ll do anything to protect Riley.” She glanced over her shoulder at him. “I can’t let Shannon’s attacker ever get his hands on that child. I won’t, Knox. I don’t care what it takes.”
He stared at her. “Are you asking me to kill Travis Parrish for you?”
She winced. A short sigh gusted out of her as she immediately dropped her gaze. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know.” Christ, she couldn’t even force herself to say the words. How did she think she’d be able to live with the reality of calling for someone’s murder when she didn’t have the stomach to speak as much as the idea out loud?
Knox wasn’t about to agree to her request, no matter how much personal pleasure he might take in ridding the world of a man who apparently had no qualms about brutalizing an innocent woman. And Knox had no doubt that eliminating the threat of Travis Parrish would only invite more trouble on Leni and the boy.
“You think the rest of the Parrishes would just roll over if Travis was gone? You think they’d just stand down, let you and the boy go on living your lives in peace?” He moved closer to her, needing her to look him in the eye and understand—truly understand—what she was asking. “I’d have to kill them all, Leni. I’d probably have to kill anyone loyal to them too. That’s what it would take. Nothing less.”
“Oh, God.” She swallowed, already shaking her head as he spoke. “No, that’s not what I want. I may not have much reason to like any of the Parrishes, but I don’t want to be as bad as they are. Or worse.”
“I know you don’t.” Knox took another step toward her. “And I won’t be the one to put that sin on your conscience, even if you ask me to.”
He meant that. Yet even as he said it, there was a part of him that was ready to protect her. He was no hero by a longshot, but was he the kind of cold bastard who could walk away and leave an innocent woman and child to their own defenses? He wanted to tell himself he was. For his own peace of mind, if nothing else.
But there would be no peace of mind if he abandoned Leni and never looked back.
After feeling her goodness when he touched her hand in the diner, after seeing her with Riley, he didn’t know how he was going to turn a blind eye to the situation. Despite what he told her, the trained killer in him wouldn’t take much convincing to tear through the entire Parrish family and the rest of the town if any of them posed a threat to her.
Fuck.
Her battle wasn’t his to fight. Her troubles didn’t belong to him, no more than she did. The smartest, easiest thing he could do for himself right now was get back on the road, and soon.
Then again, he wasn’t the only one who should be thinking about leaving Parrish Falls.
“If making sure the Parrishes can’t get their hands on the boy is really what you want, then you can’t stay here. Find somewhere else to go, Lenora, somewhere you can start over. And I mean do it before Travis comes home.”
She frowned. He didn’t like seeing that stubborn glint sparking in her eyes. “I’m not leaving. I’ve lived in this town all my life. Five generations of my family have lived in this house. My grandparents built that diner out there.”
“They’re just buildings,” Knox said. “Parrish Falls is just a town, like any other.”
“No.” Her chin tilted upward, her mouth pressing flat. “I won’t leave. I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. You can do it right now. Pack a bag, put the boy in your truck, and go.”
“I’m not going to run.”
“Not even if staying means you might get hurt? Or worse?”
“I told you, I’m not concerned about something happening to me. I can handle whatever Travis or his family thinks they can do to me.”
Knox scoffed. “Come on, Leni. You’re smarter than this. You got lucky out there on the road tonight, but you have to know pride won’t protect you or Riley in the long run.”
“It’s not about my pride,” she fired back, desperation edging into her voice. “I can’t leave. I need to stay for my sister. Until Shannon comes home, Riley and I are staying put right here where she can find us.”
Her breathing had increased along with her pulse. Knox was close enough that he could hear the rapid pound of her heartbeat, the rush of blood racing through her veins. Yes, she was afraid. Maybe not for herself, as she’d insisted, but definitely for her little nephew.
