“I’ve lived on my own for a lot longer than that over the past eight years.”
“But Florida was the only home you knew after you escaped the lab where you were raised. That’s what you said. So, how is it so easy for you to stay away? Don’t you have any family?”
“Half-brothers,” he said, then ran a hand over his tense jaw. “No one knows how many of us in total survived the program, but four of my brothers and I built a Darkhaven together in the Everglades.”
“Do they have any idea where you are?”
He shook his head.
“Why did you leave?”
A curse gusted between his lips. “Long story. And an old one, besides. Doesn’t matter.”
“Now, who’s trying to run away?”
He felt heat flare in his irises at her challenge. He wasn’t accustomed to anyone standing up to him, not even with words. Yet Leni was willing to clash horns with him, especially when he was attempting to flex his authority or impose his will on a situation like the battle-hardened soldier he’d been brought up to be.
“We aren’t talking about me, Leni. This conversation was about you, about your unwillingness to accept the facts.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes. Like the fact that you are not equipped to take on men like the Parrishes on your own. Or the fact that no matter how long you plan to keep your stake planted in the ground here in this godforsaken corner of the North Maine Woods, it’s not going to bring Shannon back.”
“Maybe it won’t.” She narrowed a hard stare on him. If she’d been Breed like him, he had no doubt her eyes would be filled with amber fire. He knew she wanted to scream at him, but she kept her voice low and quiet, well out of earshot of Riley upstairs. “So, you think I should pack up and scramble away like a coward? How’s that working out for you, Knox?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Abbie.”
The name cleaved into him as sharp as a blade. He couldn’t mask his confusion. His mouth went dry at the sound of Abbie’s name on Leni’s lips. It was disorienting, a feeling he didn’t like one damn bit. “What do you know about her?”
“Only that you called her name when you came to help me in the ravine.” Leni’s brows knit. “You didn’t know?”
Fuck. No, he didn’t know that. He’d been jolted by the sight of Leni’s disabled vehicle. He’d dreaded he might find her injured at the bottom of the steep incline—or worse.
But to call out Abbie’s name?
Christ, he wanted the floor to open up and take him down. Anything but to see the soft understanding in Leni’s eyes now.
“What happened to her, Knox?”
“She died.” He said the words without emotion. Told himself he didn’t feel the anguish gnawing inside his chest. Nor the guilt of how he’d failed Abbie. “There was a bad storm in the Everglades. She was driving in it. Her car broke down on the side of the road. A tractor-trailer collided with her. She was gone before I was able to reach her.”
Bare facts, delivered in a staccato monotone. There was more he wasn’t saying. Layers he wasn’t willing to peel away from his heart just so Leni could prove her point.
Had he run away from the pain of losing Abbie? Hell, yes.
Did that make him a coward? Probably. In Leni’s courageous, too-knowing eyes, certainly.
Knox started to turn away from her but she stopped him, reaching out to press her warm palm against his cheek.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Knox.”
He allowed himself to feel her tenderness only for a moment before he drew away from her gentle touch. “I don’t need pity.”
“Do you think that’s what I’m feeling for you?”
God, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know that answer. If it was anything close to pity, he wouldn’t be able to look her in the eyes ever again. If it was something else, something like the unflinching affection he saw gleaming in those melting hazel depths, it would be the flame that would ignite the tinderbox of desire he’d been refusing to let detonate from the moment he first laid eyes on her.
