Page 171 of Shots & Echoes

I leaned against the kitchen counter, arms crossed, trying to look composed while everything inside me was breaking apart. She stepped toward me, closing the space between us, her gaze searching mine.

Don’t do this. Don’t pull her deeper.

“Hey,” she murmured.

“Hey.” My voice came out rougher than I intended. “You okay?”

She nodded, but her eyes told a different story. She could sense it—the shift, the unease curling at the edges of my carefully built walls.

And that was the moment I felt it hit me all over again.

We weren’t invincible. We never had been. And no matter how much we wanted this, the world was waiting to tear us apart.

I shut it all off. Buried it. The warmth of her, the pull of her presence, the way she made me feel like there was something worth fighting for. Gone.

I had to be the man I was before her—the one who didn’t feel, who didn’t get attached. The one who kept everything and everyone at arm’s length because it was safer that way.

But my hands fucking shook as I faced her. I curled them into fists, forcing the tremor away.Do it. Cut her out before she can make this harder.

“This… whatever this is—it’s over.”

The words landed like a slap, and her face fell, eyes flashing from confusion to something raw.

“Knox… what?” Her voice cracked slightly, and fuck, I almost caved right then. Almost reached for her. Almost took it all back.

But I didn’t.

I went harder. Meaner.

“I never wanted you. Not really.” The words burned like acid in my throat, but I forced them out. “You were convenient.”

She blinked, like she was waiting for me to take it back. To tell her this was some sick joke. But I didn’t. I couldn’t.

“Fucking you was just… easy.”

Her breath hitched. I felt it in my ribs, the way the air shifted around us, charged and suffocating.

I took another step, closing the space between us, letting the darkness crawl into my voice. “You were my dad’s golden girl.” A twisted smirk pulled at my lips, one that didn’t reach my eyes.Make her believe it. Make her hate you.“Fucking you was like spitting in his face.”

The moment the words left my mouth, I felt the shift. Like gravity had reversed, pulling me into a free fall I wouldn’t recover from.

Hurt flashed in her eyes, fast and sharp, slicing into me before she could hide it. I watched it spread—shock, disbelief, then something worse.

Betrayal.

It hollowed her out right in front of me, and I had to force myself to breathe through the ache in my chest. Good. Let her walk away. Let her move on before this destroyed us both.

“I mean, do you really think I’d risk everything for a piece of ass?”

The words hit the air like a gunshot—sharp, brutal, irreversible. I watched them land, felt them sink into her like a blade. Her breath hitched, but she didn’t look away.

Fuck.

I had gone for the kill, and she still wasn’t backing down. Her eyes, glassy with unshed tears, locked onto mine, cutting through every shield I had left.

“You’re lying.”

It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t even an accusation. It was fact, and she said it with the kind of conviction that made my stomach fucking twist.