She opened the bottom drawer of her nightstand and pulled out a hammer.
“It’s probably nothing.” She clearly hoped it was a tree branch or something.
But her eyes told a different story. Wide. Darting. The green that usually reminded me of sunlit grass had gone dark with fear.
And in that moment, something inside me broke.
Because I realized that all those nights I’d been lying in my concrete tomb, counting ceiling tiles and dreaming of freedom, she’d been lying here. Alone. Probably terrified to close her eyes. Arming herself with a hammer she kept within arm’s reach of where she slept.
There was only one asshole on this planet who could have introduced her to this particular brand of terror. One man who had trained her body to react before her brain could catch up.
She might be right. The sound outside might be nothing. Statistically, it probably was nothing.
But I curled my fists, knuckles going white because even if Silas wasn’t out there right now, he had traumatized her to the point where one sound had her heart racing so fast, her breathing so shallow, she looked like she might hyperventilate.
“Hey.” I kept my voice low. Steady. “We’ve got two armed guards sitting in that SUV at the end of the driveway. Remember? Anyone comes near this house, they’re on it.”
She swallowed. Nodded. But her fingers were still white-knuckled around the hammer.
“Let me just call them. Make sure they heard that too.” I reached for my phone on the nightstand. Swiped to unlock it.
No signal. The hair on the back of my neck stood up.
I stared at the screen. One bar had become zero. Not weak. Gone.
“Try yours,” I said.
Harper grabbed her phone. Her face went pale. “Nothing. I had full bars an hour ago.”
That wasn’t a coincidence. That was a jammer. And there was only one reason someone would block cell signals to a house with armed security outside.
Because they didn’t want anyone calling for help.
I opened the bedroom door, my mind already running calculations. If we heard that crack, the guards would have too.
“I need to get to the guards,” I said. “Their radios should still work. They can call for backup.”
“What? No.”
“Harper”—I turned to face her—“without phones, we’re blind in here. If something’s wrong, they need to know. And send for help or get us out.”
I could see it in her expression. The stubborn set of her jaw. The way her spine straightened, even as fear flickered in hereyes. Harper wasn’t the type of woman to sit back and wait for someone else to fight her battles. She didn’t consider herself a damsel in distress.
This woman had been protecting herself her entire life.
But all that changed the day she met me.
She was going to have to learn to let me protect her. Might as well start now.
“I need you to hide,” I said. “Bathroom. Lock the door. Don’t come out until you hear my voice.”
“Knox—”
“If I’m wrong and this is nothing, you can give me shit about it for the rest of our lives. But if I’m right …” I didn’t finish. I didn’t have to. We both knew what Silas was capable of.
“Take the hammer,” she said.
“Keep it.” I met her eyes. Held them. “I’m not leaving you in here unarmed.”
