Page 61 of WITSEC

I let go of his hands to cup his face. “I’m telling you so you know—so that it may help you when you feel upset. That I love you so much and would do anything to have that future with you.”

He closed his eyes with a sigh and grabbed my wrists. “I’m going to be fine, Shi. I was in shock, but I know I had to do what I had to, or they would have killed my brothers.”

This is okay,I told myself.Hopefully, he would understand later.

I leaned forward and kissed him.

Please forgive me.

I pulled away and stood. “We should get ready to leave.”

Creed stood as well, and we both headed for the hall. As soon as we entered it, we saw Knox standing there, leaning againstthe wall. Creed passed him to go into the spare bedroom to collect his things. I avoided Knox’s stare as I also passed him and entered my room. I grabbed my go bag off of the trunk at the foot of my bed. I had taken it out of the safe before calling Logan and Ian. Since the sheriff had found us, I’d known I would need it again. As I unzipped it, I heard Knox close the bedroom door.

“That was quite a talk,” he said.

I grabbed a few days’ worth of clothes from the dresser and stuffed them in the bag. “He had to kill those men because of me.” It wasn’t a lie. I did feel terrible he’d had to do that, but I didn’t have the room in me to feel the guilt of it yet.

“Is that really why you said those things to him? As a way to make him feel better?”

No. I’d said all that because I knew he would take what I had to do the hardest. I had hoped to help him understand that so long as the threat of Mr. X existed, we would never be free to have that beautiful future. I hoped that by telling him my most vulnerable desires, he would understand that I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize them if I didn’t have to.

“Yes,” I lied, and if Knox could tell, he didn’t call me out on it.

Chapter Nineteen

We droveboth my 4Runner and Keelan’s Jeep into town. Knox checked us in to a hotel room. I told him we weren’t staying more than a night before Ian’s…colleagues came. I wore a hat and a pair of sunglasses that Colt had been nice enough to get me from a gas station on the way here. I didn’t want to cause a disturbance if someone recognized me from TV.

The four of us made our way to our room. I left my go bag and guns in my 4Runner and only brought in what I would need for the night.

As we rode the elevator up, in a very nice hotel, I said, “I wish we could go out to dinner.”

“That would be nice,” Colt said.

“It’s probably best you stay in the room,” Knox said.

“A few of us can go pick something up and bring it back,” Keelan suggested.

“Or we can order room service and enjoy cable TV,” Creed said. “Maybe they have the cooking channel, and we can watch that chef you fangirl over.”

I actually smiled. “If you understood who Bobby Flay was, you would fangirl, too. Even my mom would swoon when we’d watch him.”

“So not only do you admire him, but you find him attractive as well?” Creed asked.

“He’s old enough to be your father, babe,” Colt said.

I shrugged. “I have a thing for blonds.”

Keelan snorted and before the twins could say anything more, the elevator doors opened. We made our way down to the suite Knox had gotten us. After going inside and looking around, we saw that it was a two-bedroom suite with one room with a king-sized bed and another room with two queen beds. Between the two rooms was a small kitchen and living-room area with a couch that pulled out into another bed.

After we set down our things, we all met in the living room. I sat in the center of the couch. Creed sat on one side of me with the remote in his hand. Keelan sat on my other side. Colt took a seat in one of the two armchairs. The three of them all let out a sigh. They were tired both emotionally and physically. Running and hiding did that to you.

Knox joined us in the living room last. “I didn’t find a room service menu. Why don’t Colt and I go pick something up?”

“How will you know what we want?” Creed asked.

Knox looked to me. “Can I take the burner phone and I’ll call the room when I find a place?”

I nodded. “I put it on the kitchen counter.”