Page 129 of Things We Hide from the Light

Knox grunted, then spit. “If anyone should be kickin’ anyone’s ass, it’s me kickin’ your ass for messin’ with her head. She’s my friend.”

“And I’m your fuckin’ brother,” I reminded him.

“Then what are we doin’ fightin’?”

“How the fuck should I know?” The mad was still in me. The helplessness. The need to touch her when I knew I didn’t have the right anymore.

“Knoxy?” Naomi sang drunkenly from somewhere inside the house.

“He’s outside fightin’ with Uncle Nash in the yard. They broke the porch,” Waylay reported.

“Great. Now you’re gettin’ me in trouble,” he complained.

We both flopped over onto our backs on top of the crushed greenery. The stars were brilliant pinpoints in the inky black sky.

“You left her alone,” I said again.

“She can handle herself.”

“Doesn’t mean she has to.”

“Look, man, what do you want me to say? She needed me to take Daisy and Sloane, who were both three sheets to the damn wind. If I don’t ever hear another Spice Girls karaoke song in my life, it’ll be too soon.”

Lina needed Knox. I let that fact rattle around in my head.

When she’d gotten into trouble, she’d called Knox and not me. For good reason. I wasn’t stupid enough that I didn’t see that. Yet here I was, lying in the dirt, pissed off that I’d created a world where Lina went to someone else when she needed help.

“How did you fuck it up?” Knox asked.

“What makes you think I fucked anything up?”

“You’re here rolling around in the landscaping with me instead of giving her hell. What did you do?”

“What do you think I did? I pulled her ass over and gave her a speeding ticket and a ration of shit.”

He was silent for a long beat and then said, “You’re usually better with women than this.”

“Fuck you.”

“If you want my advice—”

“Why the hell would I? You couldn’t tell Naomi you loved her until she got abducted in sex handcuffs by her sister and that asshole.”

“I was working through some shit, okay?”

“Yeah, well, so am I.”

“My advice is work through it faster if you want a shot with her. She was packin’ a suitcase today. Naomi said she and Sloane had to practically twist her arm to agree to stay long enough for them to go out.”

“Packing?”

“Said she was gonna move back into the motel until someone else could replace her on the case. Then she was going home.”

Leaving?

Absolutely fucking not.

Lina wasn’t going anywhere. Not until we’d hashed this out. Not until I figured out why she was under my skin and in my blood. Not until I found a way to either get her out or keep her close.