Knox rattled the whole damn piece-of-shit headboard as he tried to get loose. At least the news of the impending raid had helped deflate the rest of his hard-on. He couldn’t believe he’d finally been inside the woman of his fantasies. Even if he hadn’t come, he’d sure as hell enjoyed making sure she did.
“Kennedy, come on.” He tried appealing to her rational side. “This is stupid. Let me loose so I can help. You don’t even have a weapon, do you?”
She shook her head and refused to meet his gaze as she peeked out the window. “Didn’t want to blow my cover. Not that it mattered.”
“Come away from there at least.” Knox winced. “I hope your friends are as good as the rumblings I’ve heard about them.”
As if on cue, the skid of tires on gravel was punctuated by the shattering of auto glass. Knox hadn’t heard any gunshots, which could only mean one thing. “You have snipers?”
She hesitated, as if unwilling to confirm even the most basic info. He didn’t blame her for not trusting him, but it still stung considering they were officially in the midst of a life-or-death situation.
“I’m not an idiot, you know. And I’ve spent my whole life around this bullshit.” Knox wasn’t proud of it, but he at least did her the courtesy of being honest. Especially about things she already knew in her gut even if they hadn’t stayed pen pals for him to fill her in on the details of his daily activities.
“Just one.” She crouched beside the bed, where she’d be as obscured as possible if anyone entered. It wasn’t much but it was something. “One really good one, though. He can’t get them all because of the trees. It’s going to get ugly. I hope Sola has my kit close.”
“Is that the brunette?”
Kennedy nodded.
Her calm statement of the facts both freaked him out and sort of turned him on. This shouldn’t be normal. Not even for a street rat like him. Certainly not for a highly educated doctor like her. But the fact that she could handle the pressure, and work to undo the terrible things that came from situations like this, only increased his admiration for her.
It was about then that the shots began to ring out along with shouts that Knox recognized as commands from the Vipers. The Shields were dead silent as they picked off his former associates. He didn’t bother to lie to himself and call them friends since they were a snarled mess of users, power-hungry psychos, and derelicts, who stuck together because there wasn’t a better option.
Kennedy tipped her head, her eyes half-shut as she listened to her team on the comm he hadn’t been able to make out, even though he figured she was wearing one. “Almost clear. Three left. Marcus is engaging one in hand-to-hand.”
Her knuckles turned white as she clutched her abdomen. The tension he’d felt between those two had nothing to do with work shit. There was something there, something that made Knox envious despite having sacrificed any claim he had on Kennedy years ago and having been fused with her so recently. “You like that asshole? I always said you had terrible taste in men.”
Kennedy glared at him.
Knox wasn’t smart enough to keep his big mouth shut. “I mean, he’s fine and all, built too, but don’t you think it’s a bad idea to fuck your coworkers, especially in a job like this?”
“Yes. That’s exactly why we don’t do that.” She looked away, but not before he saw the profound sadness in her beautiful blue eyes. He wondered if it was more than only that keeping them apart, but he didn’t expect for her to revert to best friend status with him, given how he’d fucked over their bond.
Before Knox could make things even worse, she bolted to her feet.
“What?” Knox tried to follow until his hands yanked him back.
There wasn’t time for her to answer before a lone Viper smashed through the door and into their hidey-hole. Son of a bitch!
“Convenient.” Larry paused long enough for a slow grin to spread across his scarred face. “I’ll thank your lady here for making it easy for me to get rid of our little problem. Did you really think you were going to get away with turning on us, you asshole?”
It happened so fast, Knox couldn’t think. He could only react. Larry raised his gun and aimed it at Knox. Kennedy unleashed an inhuman scream and slammed into the guy from the side. Her slender weight didn’t do as much as she might have hoped and she bounced off. She clearly had some training as she swiped at his knees and then his weapon arm, but no one was a match in those close quarters for someone with a gun. Especially when they had no weapon of their own.
Knox arched then yanked, a feral roar accompanying his lurch. The leather stayed knotted around his wrists, but the shitty headboard didn’t stand a chance against his combined terror and rage. He ripped the post loose from the frame and freed himself, carrying his momentum forward.
He barreled into the bastard somewhere around knee level, knocking him to the ground. Knox swung his bound wrists, bashing Larry across the face, before smothering him as best he could. He used his elbows, knees, and even his teeth to inflict as much pain and distraction on the guy as he could. It wasn’t enough though, or maybe when Knox’s knee connected somewhere in the region of Larry’s balls, his hand jerked reflexively.
Because his gun went off.
Knox bellowed, “No!”
He frantically tried to see if Kennedy was okay, but the world was a flurry of chaos and confusion.
At the same time, Marcus appeared in the doorway, took aim, and blew Larry’s fucking head off with no regard to Knox’s safety given his proximity to the bastard.
Covered in blood and gore, his ears ringing so loud he didn’t know if he’d ever hear again, Knox rolled to the side.
“Knox!” Kennedy was there, kicking aside the corpse to get to him.
To Knox’s surprise, Marcus helped her uncover him even as he barked into his comm, “Got the last one. Fuck. That was close.”
Knox went limp. It had been far too fucking close. He’d thought he’d hit rock bottom before, but now he realized that if he’d caused Kennedy harm, he would have been worse than dead.
“Oh God. Marcus. Someone bring me my kit. Now! Knox is hit. Who else is hurt and how bad? Give me a rundown so I can prioritize.” Kennedy went into some sort of medic mode that Knox had never witnessed before. She was calm, efficient, and oh so capable. She was so glorious it took him a minute to register what she’d said.
Him? He stared down at his torso, and sure enough, there was a long streak of black and blood stretching from his ribs to his nipple on the opposite side. Oh, fuck. And there went the pain to go with it. Huh.
“It’s just a graze. I’m fine.” But damn, did it burn. “See if anyone else needs you first.”
Kennedy bit her lip as she scanned him from head to toe, then gave a curt nod. But before she turned away entirely he lifted his bound hands and snagged one of hers. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”
“I’m not the one that tried to stop a bullet with my fucking body.” She glared at him, which was enough to reassure him she was perfectly fine.
He chuckled. “Don’t lie, baby. I saw you charge that guy. You would have done the same for me. I love you too.”
He’d meant it as a joke, but they both knew it wasn’t. He’d always adored her and she him. Could there be even a tiny sliver of that devotion left alive after all the time and damage he’d done to them both?
Kennedy jerked as if another round had gone off mere feet from them. Kind of telling since she didn’t so much as flinch when surrounded by a dead man and parts that used to be inside his skull strewn about.
She shook her head, then snapped, “Ace is hurt worse. He needs me. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
With that, she dashed out the door and into the yard, dotted with unmoving bodies, dressed in black. Her teammates were already picking up the garbage, loading bodies into the back of a pickup truck and covering them with a tarp for disposal who knew where.
Knox swiped gore from his face. He levered himself first to his knees and then to his feet. If he swayed a little, he was glad Marcus didn’t mention it. The other man stood frozen, his boots planted as he stared at the spot Kennedy had been standing. “She really did what you said? She charged that guy with no weapon?”
“Yup.” Knox shook his head, knowing he’d never get the image out of his mind as long as he lived. “Took ten years off my life.”
Marcus swung his gaze to Knox then, and the impact of it nearly sent him sprawling on his ass again. He sank onto the edge of the bed, unwilling to embarrass himself in front of the man who obviously deserved Kennedy even if Knox had fucked her up too much to see it for herself.
“I owe you.” Marcus came forward then and knelt, surprising the fuck out of Knox when he began to pick at the knot on the leather cord. He unwound it gently and looked up, his eyes a curious mixture of brown and gold that fascinated Knox. “I couldn’t stop that asshole. I tried. He slipped by as I was taking care of his buddy. She could have died if it wasn’t for you.”
“She wouldn’t have even been here if it wasn’t for me.” Knox was no hero. No one knew it better than him. He certainly hadn’t earned the profound gratitude radiating from Marcus.
“If something had happened to her, I never would have survived it,” Marcus murmured, his hand on his comm, probably muting it. “So you saved me too today. I won’t forget this.”
“I, uh...” Knox swallowed, moved by the kindness and grace of a near stranger.
But the moment was fleeting. The brunette who’d shot daggers at him earlier, Sola he thought Kennedy had called her, joined them in the cabin. She wasn’t nearly as quick to forgive how he’d taken advantage of the situation, and Kennedy, earlier. It made him feel oddly comforted to know Kennedy had so many tight friends. “Looks like I’m your ride, asshole. It was obvious from your friend here that they’d made you, so we’re your only option. Jordan says you can have a place with us so long as you’re willing to cooperate.”
Marcus looked to Knox then, his face slack but his eyes urging Knox not to make the wrong decision. For once in his life, he wanted to do the right thing. He wanted to belong among people like this, who fought for goodness and light, even if they had to do some very dark things.
“Like you said, it’s not like I have a choice.” Knox shrugged, the motion making it feel like he ripped his chest in half. He sucked in a ragged breath.
Then Kennedy was back, her platinum-blond hair streaming behind her if now with a few crimson streaks. Her bubblegum-pink tank top and short skirt, both splashed with blood, making them seem tie-dyed, clashed with the neat, professional black case she carried as she marched to the bed. She flipped it open and withdrew sterile sealed instruments and a shit-ton of bandages before putting on a fresh pair of gloves.
“Lie back,” she commanded.
“I’d like to finish what we started too.” Knox couldn’t help his protective instincts, which insisted he make light of the situation when the air was so heavy he could hardly breathe.
Marcus shook his head and Sola looked like she might make good on her promise to deck him next. But the corner of Kennedy’s lips quirked up and he figured she still appreciated his sick sense of humor like she always had. She’d been the only woman who ever got him.
Only with Riggs had he found a companionship that came close. And look how that had ended. He’d gotten the guy killed.
Knox did flop onto the bed then, exhausted. Pain began to radiate from his wound despite the care Kennedy took to be gentle as she wiped away the blood oozing from it.
“I think you could use a few stiches here, and here.” She pressed the edges of the graze together in a couple of spots, as if picturing how best to close it. “Just to keep your chest looking pretty.”
“You like it, huh?” Knox distracted himself by teasing her, while making her friends glower.
Kennedy ignored him for the most part and focused on her craft. Confidence was sexy. And in this she didn’t hesitate. She cleaned his injury, sewed him up, and bandaged him before he could really register all that had happened that evening.
His life had taken a major turn, and for once, he desperately wanted to not fuck it up.
Knox must have lost more blood than he’d realized, or maybe pure exhaustion caught up with him after the death of his lover, quitting drugs and alcohol cold turkey, and being turned on by the organization he’d been a part of for a decade. When Kennedy finished, he struggled to sit up again.
To his surprise, Marcus reached out, banding one of his impressive arms around Knox and levering him to his feet. He kept it there as he ushered Knox to a waiting vehicle.
Sola slid into the driver’s side and a man with dark, wavy hair took the passenger seat beside her. When he spoke, it was with an accent that sounded Indian to Knox. “Liam says Ace is stable. Thanks to you, Kennedy.”
“Let’s go. I’ll need to take him into the clinic for X-rays. I’m worried the bullet might have shattered the bone, and if so, I’ll need to find an orthopedic specialist who doesn’t ask too many questions to put a few plates and screws in there for us. If not, I can set it myself at headquarters. Either way, it’s going to be a shitty ride home for him.”
Marcus boosted Knox into the second row of the SUV, then walked Kennedy around to the opposite side. She slid into the middle, and Marcus book ended her. He squeezed her hand for a little longer than was simply polite or reassuring for a teammate.
Knox tried to do the same to her hand on his side, but she withdrew and leaned closer to Marcus instead.
“Kennedy, I’m sorry,” Knox said.
“For fucking me even though you knew it was a setup? Why? I did the same to you. Or for abandoning me to do drugs and the bullshit that got you here in the first place? It’s yourself you have to apologize to for that.” Her head dropped forward and she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Things could have been so different.”
“Nah, they couldn’t.” Knox refused to believe he’d fucked up that badly or it would rip him the rest of the way open like the bullet he’d been willing to take for her hadn’t managed to do. “I’m fucked up. It would have ruined us eventually. No matter what. I only regret that I got you involved. I am sorry, and I’ll do my best to make it right now.”
Sola exchanged a glance with the guy sitting beside her, and Knox noticed she didn’t bust his balls anymore despite having left himself vulnerable to any number of jabs that he rightfully deserved.
“How about you be quiet for the rest of the trip?” Kennedy said softly as the adrenaline that had kept her going obviously began to leach from her bloodstream. She closed her eyes and leaned to her right, resting against Marcus, who curled his arm around her shoulder and glared at Knox.
Without raising her head, she murmured, “After today, everyone knows exactly how messed up I am too. So please, can we let it go? Work on yourself and let me do the same so I can stop hurting the people I actually care about.”
Ouch. He’d rather have been shot again than hear the obvious truth fall from her lips.
Even in the depths of his misery, he didn’t miss the apologetic look Sola sent her navigator. Was there more going on between them? Were each of them a little—or a lot—screwed up?
“After today, I get it,” Marcus whispered to her, though in the quiet of the car, everyone could hear his kindness shining through. “I’m sorry I didn’t understand before. I won’t pressure you for something you’re not able to give.”
Kennedy nodded against his shoulder and closed her eyes, whether dozing off or blocking out the rest of the world so she could focus on Ace when they arrived. No one bothered her again for the rest of the journey.
It was the look Marcus shot Knox, full of compassion and understanding, that stuck in his mind. Despite their differences, they had an awful lot in common, including caring deeply for a woman they didn’t stand a chance with.