Page 31 of Knot A Chance

“About two and half years. I’ve been sober for almost three years now, just in time for my twenty-fifth birthday.”

Bennett smiled. “Mmm, looks like I snagged myself a younger man. I just turned twenty-eight.”

“What a salacious age gap indeed,” I said, pulling him against me and nuzzling into his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. “I won’t use again. I know a lot of people say that and the cravings end up being too much for them to resist, but I don’t have nearly as many cravings as a lot of addicts. I know my triggers. I don’t visit Clara in Crescent River much because when I see the places where Ryder and I used to get high, that activates the itch, but my day-to-day life is pretty low-risk in terms of triggers. I’ve figured out how to keep it that way and how to handle the cravings when they do pop up.”

Bennett kissed me softly. “I’m glad for you, and I want you to know that I want all of you. If we’re going to keep seeing each other, then you can be honest with me about anything, especially about your recovery. I won’t judge you, and I won’t leave you for struggling.”

“Thank you,” I said, sighing in relief as he scent marked me. “That means a lot.”

His knot started to deflate, and I whimpered as I realized our excuse to lie here in bed and forget the world was running out.

“Are we still on for our Friday date?” I asked.

Bennett laughed. “I’m annoyed I have to wait two more days. I’m going to have to stay at the garage late tonight to make up for all of this time away, but I’ll be at The White Fang before you close up.”

“You don’t have to—”

“I know you can take care of yourself. But maybe just let me take care of you too?”

“If it makes you happy,” I said.

“It makes me very happy.” He leaned forward and gave me the softest, most sensual kiss of my life.

If this isn’t happiness, then I don’t know the meaning of the word.

Interlude

Vargkung

June

“Do I have to fucking do everything around here myself?” I yelled, kicking a bag of money on the warehouse floor. “Do any of you motherfuckers want to earn your goddamn keep? Honestly, the idiocy I have witnessed over the last twenty-four hours is beyond words.”

Silver squeezed my shoulder. “I can have the problem removed.”

I smacked his hand off me. “I don’t want the problem removed. I want the problem to have to live with the consequences of his failure. I want him to sweat. I want him to be picturing a lifetime behind bars while we continue to clean up his fucking mess.”

“I thought you said we weren’t going to clean up his mess,” Luna said. “I stood right there when you said it three months ago. You told him he was on his own with this whole situation.”

“I know what I said!” I yelled. “Do I seem like someone who forgets what he says?”

“No, of course not,” she said quickly.

“Then why the fuck are you telling me what I said?” I kicked the bag again. “Get the fuck out and leave us alone,” I said to her and everyone else in the room.

I turned to Silver, the most loyal person in my organization who’d been with me from the beginning and ran one of the more lucrative sectors of our business. “I want you to talk to our girl at the hospital. Have her finish this before any of it comes back to us.”

“Sir?” he asked. “That’s risky. What if she’s exposed? Her access to goods is too great to risk. The attempted murder won’t tie back to us if we simply do nothing.”

His risk assessment was one of the reasons he sat in his position, but he was failing to recognize one key thing: This particular victim was too close to the sheriff’s department. Something that, had I known about sooner, would have caused me to suggest a different way of handling this problem.

“Just do it,” I said. “And send in the idiot.”

Silver walked out the door to my left. A moment later, the scent of tobacco hit my nostrils, and I turned to see Ryder approach with his tail between his legs.

“Do you know how to weigh your heroin?” I asked. “Because I’m pretty sure someone with as many fucking track marks as you have should know how to do that. So let me ask again. Do you. Know how. To weigh. Your drugs?”

“Yes, sir,” he said, bald head down and hands behind his back.