Fight for Me (14 page)

With her eyes still closed, Natalie sleepily reached over for Knox’s hand. Instead, she found an empty sleeping bag. She sat up and peered into the darkness, but her eyes couldn’t make him out in the darkness.

He must have gotten up to go to the bathroom.

She ran her hand over his empty place again.

Except if that’s true, then why are his blankets cold?

Natalie’s heart jumped into her throat, and she scrambled to her feet. Now that she was fully awake, she knew instinctively that he wasn’t there. She knew he wouldn’t have left her there by herself without a damn good reason.

What she couldn’t believe was that he’d left without telling her.

She clicked on a small flashlight and shone it over their things, and then she went into the bathroom to look in there. No note. No indication of where he’d gone.

Nothing.

Shit, shit, shit.

The back door swung open, and Natalie stilled. Relief and apprehension flooded her. It was probably Knox, but she knew better than to assume.

He’d left a gun lying between their sleeping bags, but the thought of firing a bullet into another human being made bile rise in her throat. She couldn’t do that again.

With shaking hands, she silently picked up a spare piece of lumber from the pile in the corner of the room and positioned herself behind the door where she’d be able to swing at an intruder before she was seen.

She raised the wood and her body screamed, protesting the motion after the abuse she had taken in the fight in the alley.

A shadowy figure entered the room, and she dropped the board, the breath she’d been holding leaving her lungs in a whoosh. She’d know Knox anywhere.

She leaped at him, curling her arms around his neck. He lifted her by her ass, and she wrapped her legs around him. Her bruised hip throbbed, but she didn’t care.

“Knox,” she got out before she crushed her mouth to his, reveling in the taste of him. She ran her fingers through his hair and along his cheeks, reassuring herself that he was here and safe.

When she’d woken to find him gone, her logic had taken over. But now that he was back and safe in her arms, her emotions shifted into overdrive.

If X had gotten to him while he’d been out, she’d never even know what happened to him. He would just be gone.

And Natalie would be destroyed.

She pulled back and shimmied out of his hold and onto her feet. She gave him a hard stare. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”

He reached out for her hand and she let him have it, but she didn’t close the distance between them.

“I woke up and you were gone,” she whispered, raw fear in her voice. “I didn’t know where you were.”

He pulled her roughly against his chest, then tenderly brushed her hair away from her face as his eyes found hers. “I’ll always come back to you.”

His mouth dragged across hers hungrily, giving and taking as his tongue caressed hers. Natalie met his passion with a need of her own.

They were safe and they had each other, but who knew how long that would last? The thought of losing him tore at her heart as she entwined her body with his.

Knox laid her down on his sleeping bag, then reached under the oversized T-shirt she wore to bed to hook a finger on the edge of her panties, pulling them down. He brought his mouth to her core, suckling and applying just the right amount of pressure to make her clench her hands in his hair and moan his name.

So good.

His mouth traveled up her body, covering every inch of her skin with kisses, taking extra care with her bruises. He pulled her nipple into his mouth, and it tightened into a hard bud.

She never felt more alive than when his mouth was on her.

She raked her fingers down his abdomen and then back up to his chest, bringing his shirt up and over his head. He quickly shed his pants, pressing his erection against her opening.

She shifted her body toward him, wanting to pull him inside her, wanting to feel all of him and revel in the closeness of their joined bodies.

“Hold on, baby,” he murmured against her ear, then turned away to handle the condom.

When he settled back between her thighs, she drew her knees up. As he began to enter her, she wrapped her legs around his waist.

He groaned, filling her completely.

His eyes locked on hers, and she knew he really saw her. With him, she was stripped bare—physically and emotionally.

He slid his arm under her neck to hold her while they moved together, the pleasure coiling and building inside her. She dug her fingernails into his shoulder blades, wanting to delay the inevitable and prolong the experience.

Soon, she couldn’t hold back anymore, and her world exploded. Knox followed shortly after her, his body giving a final shudder.

Knox trailed a fingertip along Natalie’s shoulder, his eyes straying to the bandage on her temple. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing deeply, but she wasn’t asleep. Her body was tucked in close to his.

Even beaten up and covered in bruises, she was still the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.

But it wasn’t just her physical beauty. She was good. Everything about her was just so damn good and pure. He hated that their fucked-up situation put her in a position to act against that goodness.

He didn’t deserve her.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Her eyes opened, but she didn’t respond.

“I’m . . .” he stopped and took a deep breath. “I’m not used to having someone care.”

She turned to face him and ran her hand along his cheek, saying nothing. But she didn’t have to.

“Where did you go?” she asked.

“To the gym.”

Her eyes widened, then narrowed at him. “That wasn’t safe.”

“It was a calculated risk. I wanted to find something on X.”

“Did you find anything?”

“No.”

In fact, going into his office had done nothing but dredge up memories. And he hated to admit it, but not all of them were bad.

For a while, X had done right by him. And that’s what pissed him off the most—he didn’t know if X had actually cared at one point or if X had been manipulating him the whole time.

They’d been frequent visitors at Grandma Fran’s house in the first few years that he was with X, back before her dementia got bad. At Thanksgiving, she’d set a plate for him right between X’s and hers. No being relegated to a too-small, rickety card table in the living room that served as the kids’ table for all the foster kids. No, he was a valued member of their little group. X even taught him to carve the turkey, and the next year, he had that responsibility all to himself.

At Christmas, Grandma Fran bought him loads of presents, labeling them all “from Santa.” He didn’t have the heart to tell her he hadn’t believed since he was five and that he was too old for most of the crap she’d given him. Despite that, it was the best Christmas he’d ever had. No worrying that his father would get drunk and beat his mom. No fighting with other foster kids over cheap toys that were usually broken by the end of the day.

If X had one redeeming quality, it was his devotion to his mother. X kept her in the dark about and away from his business dealings. In fact, it had taken nearly half a year for X to trust Knox enough to introduce him even though by that time he was already referring to Knox as his son.

Grandma Fran was a good woman. Knox regretted that cutting himself off from X also included her. But she didn’t seem to have a clue what a cocksucker her only son had turned into, and Knox couldn’t pretend anymore. He hadn’t seen her in five years.

“Hey,” Natalie said. “Where are you?”

His eyes focused on her. “Sorry. Just lost in thought.”

“I want to go to the library tomorrow.”

He frowned. “Why?”

“I need to do more research. Find more info on Eleanor. Dig into my family’s files again. I just know I’m missing something.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. And it’s driving me crazy.”

He knew the feeling since his trip to X’s office turned up nothing.

He could tell she was discouraged by the lack of information they’d gotten on their trip to the greenhouse. They were zero-for-two when it came to getting information from people who might know her elusive godmother’s whereabouts. Hell, with the way things had been going, they’d be safer in the library than trying to talk to someone else directly. And of all the places X would think to look for him, the library didn’t even make it on the list. He had to imagine it’d be the same with Kent.

“Okay,” he said.

Her eyebrows shot up. “Okay? That’s it? No argument?”

The edges of his lips tilted up and he pressed his lips to her forehead. “Nope.”

If Natalie thought this was the best course of action, then he’d support it. And if it came down to it, he’d be there to protect her.

On the way to the library the next morning, Knox popped into a convenience store for a new burner phone and more food. He didn’t waste any time getting what he needed and rejoining Natalie, who waited outside. Until X and Kent were out of the equation, he didn’t like leaving her unattended for any longer than necessary.

He handed her a banana, and she took it gratefully with a look of pure longing on her face.

“Oh, thank God,” she said, tearing into it. “Fresh fruit.”

He bit into an apple, and as the juices flooded his mouth, he had to admit that he was getting tired of all the junk they’d been forced to eat. Before he’d kept a strict diet of lean proteins to keep his body in top fighting shape, and he was definitely feeling the effects of this new temporary lifestyle.

As Natalie had predicted, the library was nearly empty. They secluded themselves at a pair of computers deep in the reference section. Knox didn’t think he’d ever even stepped foot in this library, much less been this deep into it. From the looks of the dust that had settled on the thick volumes on the shelves, it didn’t seem like many others had, either.

Natalie cracked her knuckles and rolled her neck before attacking the keyboard. Knox smiled, but turned his face away, lest she think he was laughing at her. He supposed there was more than one way to fight. He used his fists, while she used her brain. They made a pretty good team.

Knox scrolled through various news sites, looking for any new articles that mentioned them. Other than a small blurb that stated the investigation into Natalie’s disappearance was ongoing, there was nothing. Right there on the front of the local newspaper’s site, though, was an article about the growing drug problem in the city and the police’s efforts to crack down. Knox almost snorted. Everyone on the south side knew where the drugs came from. Hell, the cops probably knew it, too. But he’d always managed to slip through the police’s fingers. X had laughed about it, calling himself untouchable.

But maybe not anymore. If Amelia was right, then Detective Carmichael was finally making X nervous.

Knox would love to meet with the man and figure out what he had on X.

“I’m almost done,” Natalie whispered in a library-appropriate voice. “I just want to print out a copy of the trust and some other documents.”

A few minutes later, she logged off of the computer and Knox did the same. Then they set off for home.

Home.
It was a strange thought, but Knox had come to think of that little abandoned house as their home. He wondered about the state of his apartment. Though he’d lived there for the last seven years, he had no attachment to the place or any of the belongings in it. No doubt it had been ransacked by X, and since he no longer had his phone, there was no way for his landlord to get in touch with him. Of course, given recent events, his landlord might be happy he was gone.

Even when they got this whole mess sorted out, people wouldn’t forget. The “innocent until proven guilty” rule did not apply to reputations or public opinion. All anyone would know about him was that he’d been suspected of abducting an heiress and accused of attacking that rich cocksucker, Harding.

Which technically, he had. But not before the bastard pulled a gun on them. He—and his driver—had deserved what they’d gotten.

But getting his life back wasn’t enough anymore, because things had been taken from him that he could never reclaim. And X would have to pay for that. He just needed to figure out how. It was there, right under his nose. He could feel it, but he just wasn’t seeing it.

“Did you find anything useful?” he asked Natalie once they were out of earshot of other pedestrians.

Her eyes brightened. “Yes, actually. So I figured out that Eleanor stopped attending events roughly ten years ago, shortly after her husband died. And you’ll never guess which date is coming up later this week.”

He looked at her blankly.

“The anniversary of her husband’s death!” The smile faded from her face and was replaced by a pained expression. “Ugh. It sounds terrible that I’m excited about that. But anyway, I’m ninety percent sure she’ll visit his grave that day.”

“And we’ll find her there.”

Natalie grimaced. “Yes. I feel awful disturbing her there, but I’ve got no other ideas. That woman is a ghost.”

Once back in the house, Natalie sat cross-legged on her sleeping bag with her printed papers in front of her, and Knox lay on his back on his, but he was too restless. He’d never gone this long without working out. He missed the monotony of his morning runs, where the only thing he had to worry about was not getting run down by cyclists. And he craved the calmness that overtook him when he lifted weights. So he flipped to his stomach and started a series of push-ups.

His mind immediately felt more peaceful as his muscles easily handled the exertion. He closed his eyes, welcoming the feeling. If only the house were bigger, he’d run laps inside.

He was halfway through his second set when he felt Natalie staring at him. He cut his eyes over to find her chewing on the end of her pen, her eyes tracking his every movement.

The heat in her eyes sent his blood rushing south. He lost count of his reps, not able to hold any thought in his mind other than the memory of how her body felt under his. How she tasted and how her body seized when she came.