Shoving it open wide, I gesture for her to step in ahead of me. “Cat’s out of the bag now, sweetheart. Which means, the chips will fall as they must.”
She swipes beneath her eyes. “I don’t think that’s reassuring.”
I close the door behind me, then slam the deadbolt. “You’re safe, Maren.”
She flexes her fingers, then shivers. “I haven’t felt safe in years, Knox.”
Her words, quietly spoken, propel me to tug her back into my arms and kiss her like I wanted to in the lot. Not a kiss as a precursor to sex. But one of abject relief that she’s alive and I get to hold her again. One that reaffirms we’re both alive, and together, and…yeah, safe.
I reach for her waist and lift her up so she can wrap her legs around me. For a second, I think about stripping her, but I realize she’s wrapped her arms tightly around me and buried her head against my neck.
I hold her tight, my palms on her back.
She holds me so tightly, I wonder if she’s ever had anyone she felt she could be like this with.
Fragile. Human. Scared.
I want to be that person for her so violently, it reverberates through my bones.
If someone had hurt her, if they’d killed her, we’d have never gotten to do this again. They’d have stolen this from us, what we’re building. When someone you love is hurt, and…
Love.
Fuck.
Am I admitting I’m in love with Maren Caldwell?
I sit down on the edge of the bed before my knees give out at the shock of it. Maren’s knees hit the mattress, but she doesn’t let go.
“Maybe I should leave,” she says quietly.
“I can’t risk taking you back until those men are caught.”
She finally lets go and cups my cheeks. “I don’t mean for tonight. I mean, for good.”
“What?” The words hit me square in the chest, as if Rainbow landed a solid punch on my ribs.
She looks to the window that faces the water. But it’s too dark to make anything out right now. “Maybe my life would be more peaceful if I went to live in a small coastal town across the country. Rent a small property. Set up some smaller version of the marine and bait store. Sell what I have here.”
I place a knuckle on her chin and encourage her to look at me again. “Don’t do that.”
“Why not?” she asks. “My father and this club have caused so much turmoil in my life. I’m not even living my own life; I’ve carved one out around the obstacles. I’ve tried to hold on to what I wanted to, but it’s squeezed into the margins. And now, all this…” Tears fill her eyes again, and I would do just about anything to make it right.
“Do you realize how strong you are, Maren? I had no idea how hard your life has been. How much loss was in it. And maybe that’s the common thread between us. We know what loss looks like. What it feels like. And yet, we keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don’t go. At least, not yet. Let metry to give you reasons to stick around. Because you’ve crawled beneath my skin, and I want to keep you there. I know this makes no sense. I know you’re scared. But if you take everything else away—responsibilities and last names and club affiliations—if we’re just Knox and Maren and nothing else matters, we still have a chance to be happy together.”
There. I laid my feelings out to her.
The closest I’ve ever come to admitting to someone that I’m falling in love with them.
“Knox, I?—”
The hammering on the door cuts us off.
“Prez. We need you by the dock. Now!”
27
MAREN
