Authors: Lisa Ladew
Tags: #General Fiction
"Is everything alright?" the woman behind the counter asked anxiously.
Mica ignored her and ran for Knox. She heard the truck start up with a roar and a thunk as Knox shifted aggressively into gear and reversed out of the stall, wheels screeching.
"Knox," she yelled, her heart in her throat. What if he left her?
She saw him look up at her and the brake lights flared red. She ran to the passenger side, yanking the door open and hauling herself up. Knox stepped on the gas as soon as her door slammed shut. She hurried to put her seatbelt on, adrenaline coursing through her system. Where were they going?
Knox pulled out of the property, turning in the direction of his home, his hands rigid on the steering wheel, like he was about to snap it right off. Mica could hear his breathing. He sounded like a bull about to charge.
"What's going on?" she asked timidly, hating that she felt like that, but unable to reconcile this Knox with the sweet one she had reconnected with over the last week.
He didn't answer, only stared at the road, his jaw clenching tighter.
She tried again, wanting to help him if she could. "Who are you going to kill?"
"My fucking father," he said, fire in his eyes.
He turned to her then, like he was seeing her for the first time, looking away from the road for so long it scared her.
"I should take you home," he said in a scary voice.
"What? No! You can't take me home. What about Dick Bailey?"
Knox turned back to the road. "Yeah. I can't take you home. But you can't be there when I talk to him. It's going to be bad, Mica. I'm going to hurt him. He needs to finally be the one to be hurt."
Mica chewed on her lip, suddenly scared out of her mind for Knox. She didn't want him to go to jail. She didn't know what could have possibly been in the letter to make him this angry, but it must have been bad.
"Give me your phone," she told Knox. "I'll call Daxton, tell him to come get me."
Knox pulled his phone out of his pocket, handing it over silently, the planes of his face hard enough to cut glass.
Mica opened his contacts and texted Daxton quickly.
This is Mica. You have to go to your Dad's house. Knox says he's going to kill your dad and I think he means it. We just left Sunny Acres
.
Daxton's reply came immediately.
Stall him if you can. You'll beat me there.
Mica looked at the words, fear pounding behind her breastbone. How could she stall him?
"Knox, hey, maybe you should take me home. Daxton can meet us there."
"Have him meet us at my dad's house," Knox said immediately.
Mica swallowed hard. She didn't know exactly where Knox's dad's house was, but she knew the general area, and they were getting close. Medical buildings and restaurants were giving way to homes, huge homes with gates and actual yards. They were just south of the city, in a rich neighborhood right along the ocean.
She tried to place a hand on his arm, casting a glance in the back seat first to make sure the dogs were ok. Lulu was sleeping and Tiny had his head out the window, appearing unconcerned at Knox's high emotion.
Mica's fingers met Knox's skin tentatively. The muscles of his forearm bunched tight, feeling as hard as iron. "Can you tell me what's going on, what he did?"
Knox shook his head, his eyes on the road, his expression unforgiving. "It's too awful. I'll tell you after I kill him and don't have to think about him ever again."
"Knox, you can't kill him."
Knox didn't say a word and somehow, that dull silence scared Mica more than anything. She imagined Knox plotting out exactly how to do just that in his mind.
"Knox," she tried again, speaking in a soothing tone, trying to reason with him, spilling passionate words that didn't penetrate Knox's scary demeanor for an instant. He never replied to any of them, making her anxiety grow. Before she knew it, Knox had turned into a driveway. He rolled down his window and punched a key code into a metal box there, causing the huge, black gate to roll open. Knox stepped hard on the gas and spurted through as soon as the gap was big enough, then drove aggressively up the driveway.
Mica watched the house appear with dread coiling in her stomach. It was large, with a five-car garage, a stucco roof, and a monstrous front door.
Knox parked at an angle, barely turning the truck off before he was opening his door and jumping out.
"Knox, wait!" Mica cried, leaning across the cab to grab his arm. From out his door, she saw several large, white dogs streak across the grounds towards them, all Tiny and Lulu's twins.
Tiny and Lulu sat up in the back seat, whining and placing their paws on the windows as the other dogs crowded around Knox's legs and smelled him.
Knox ignored them, turning back to Mica. "Wait here. Don't come in the house. I'm serious, Mica. Listen to me."
He pulled his arm out of Mica's grasp and was gone, leaving his door standing open. The dogs crowded in his door, their noses in the air, their eyes on her.
"Oh God," Mica said, completely unsure how the dogs would react to her. Tiny put his legs on the back of her seat, whining with excitement. Mica grabbed his collar and pulled him. "Come, Tiny, you can do it."
He came over the seat and went out Knox's door, the other dogs crowding around him immediately.
"Lulu," she called, coercing Lulu to do the same thing, but as Lulu came forward, she grabbed her collar and pulled her towards her door. Quickly, Mica scrambled out to the ground, pulling Lulu with her. The four new white dogs, plus Tiny, ran around to her side of the car and Mica gritted her teeth, convinced she was about to become dog food.
But they only smelled Lulu, and nuzzled her, then turned benign attention on Mica. "Thank God," she muttered under her breath and pulled Lulu with her as she took off at a run for the large front porch. As she rounded the garage she saw Knox there, putting his key in the lock and pushing the door open. She let go of Lulu's collar and sprinted up the wooden steps, trying to reach him before he went inside.
He was quick though, and pushed in the door before she got there. He strode heavily through the blindingly white foyer, yelling for his father.
"Dad! Where in the fuck are you? It's time to pay the piper, old man. Get your ass out here you fucking monster! I know what you did. You better be hiding cuz I'm going to murder you!"
Knox's hand shot out as he strode powerfully through the room, knocking a vase full of flowers off a table. It fell to the ground and shattered. Knox pulled a painting off a wall and whipped it across the room at a chandelier, causing crystal gems to drop onto the table, making plinking sounds.
A woman appeared in a doorway, peeking around it, her dark eyes wide with fright, her hands wringing a white apron. Knox pointed at her. "This doesn't concern you Josefina. It's a family matter. You go out back. Clean something out there and don't come inside for two hours."
Josefina only stared and Mica had time to catch up to Knox. She tried to grab onto his shirt, tried to make him hear her, but she was drowned out as he screamed, "Move it!" at the petrified maid.
She did move then, and so did Knox, pulling away from Mica and heading to a wide staircase in the middle of the grand room.
Another woman came running out of a hallway from the far end of the room. Mica recognized her immediately as Darcia, dressed in a bikini with a sarong covering her hips. She stopped at the sight of Knox and screamed at him. "What in the hell are you doing? What's going on?"
Knox stopped, his foot on the first step. "Where's my father? In his office?"
"Why?" Darcia asked. "What are you yelling about?"
Knox snorted and turned away from her, heading up the stairs. Mica followed at a run, barely able to keep up with him. Darcia watched them with narrowed eyes, looking almost snakelike in her suspicion and consternation.
Mica tried again to grab ahold of Knox and speak to him, but it was like grabbing a heavy statue on a conveyor belt. He didn't yield, didn't even notice her. She could do nothing but follow helplessly as he climbed to the second floor, then headed down the hallway. He pushed open the first door on the right and rushed in.
Mica had time to see silver-haired Felix Rosesson look up from his large, oak desk, surprise in his eyes, a phone held to his ear, before Knox hooked an elbow around his neck and threw him and his entire office chair to the ground.
Rushing just inside the doorway, Mica's hands flew to her face and she yelped in surprise as Knox smashed a fist into his own father's face.
"The baby didn't die? You fucking asshole! How could you make Mom give her up for adoption? You lied to everyone about it! I'm going to fucking choke you and watch you die you, you reprehensible excuse for a man!"
Knox kept yelling, his fist pounding on his father's face again and again as blood flew and the older man tried to block the swings. Knox stopped hitting him, and his fingers flew to his father's throat, wrapping tight.
Mica began to run forward to try to pull at Knox's arms, something, anything to make him let go. Felix Rosesson's face was turning purple at an alarming rate, but before Mica could move, Darcia showed up at the doorway, her arms extended, a simple, silver gun in her hands.
"Stop!" Darcia screamed, the gun pointed at Knox. Without warning, she pulled the trigger several times as Mica stared at her, utter surprise blanking all thought.
Mica's first realization was Darcia obviously had no idea how to handle a gun. She had squeezed the trigger but nothing had happened, not even a dry click, meaning the safety was on. Darcia looked at the gun, her face drawn into a scary rictus, her eyes zeroing in on the safety. Mica saw her thumb move to it, and that broke Mica's paralysis.
Mica launched herself at Darcia, lowering herself to catch Darcia around the torso, and propelling her out the door. The two women fell to the ground and Mica tore at the gun in Darcia's fingers. Darcia screamed underneath her and bucked wildly, her index finger squeezing the trigger again, but the safety was still on. Mica was able to gain control of the gun and she shoved it behind her on the floor. Darcia clawed at her and screamed, "Get off me, bitch!"
Mica felt a trickle of blood run down her cheek as Darcia's fingernails connected with her forehead. Something in Mica snapped. She might not have a chance in the world against a large man like Dick Bailey, no matter how much karate she had taken, but she could stop this bitch cold.
Mica leaned forward, sweeping both of Darcia's arms to the right, all the way to the floor. She scissored her legs hard together, trapping Darcia's legs between them, then grabbed Darcia's hair and forced her face around to the right, pushing towards the ground. Darcia's screams became grunts of pain and terror.
"Stop, you're killing me!" Darcia panted.
"Turn on your stomach and I'll stop," Mica snarled, lifting her hips and decreasing the pressure with her legs so Darcia could. Once Darcia was there, Mica held her down easily with one hand in her hair and one hand on her upper arm. She looked into the office, but couldn't see Knox and his dad because they were behind the desk. Was Felix still alive? She prayed he was.
Mica heard feet pounding up the stairs. Relief flooded her as Daxton and Bronx rushed in. Daxton's eyes went wide as he saw her straddling Darcia but Mica waved him away.
"In there, hurry, Knox is killing him."
Daxton and Bronx rushed past her. Mica watched as they bent on the other side of the desk and heaved a snarling, raging Knox off of his father.
"What in the hell, Knox?" Daxton yelled, horror in his eyes as he looked down.
Daxton's voice seemed to finally break through to Knox. He looked around and collapsed against his brothers.
"You don't understand Dax, you're going to kill him yourself when I tell you what Mom said."
"What, Knox, what could she possibly have said?"
Mica pulled Darcia's hair as the woman tried to move beneath her. "Quit fucking moving," she muttered, her eyes on the three brothers. Her relief deepened as she saw Felix Rosesson put an arm on the desk and haul himself to his feet, one hand on his throat.
Knox eyed his father as he spoke. "Amelia Mae is still alive. Dad isn't her father and that's why he claimed she died. He forced Mom to give her up for adoption."
Bronx and Daxton's faces were both unreadable as they stared at their father, their arms still around their older brother, but Mica could imagine the horror they were feeling.
"But that's not the worst part," Knox spit out. "Mom didn't cheat on Dad. Dad bet mom in a poker game to a guy with ties to the mob, and he lost her to another man for a week. The man got to do whatever he wanted to her, and if she complained or left or called the cops, Dad would be beat up or killed. So he sent her to the man, telling her it was only a week. And when she came back pregnant, he fucking turned on her. Told her to get an abortion. When she wouldn't do it, he worked on her for the entire pregnancy, trying to convince her to give the baby up for adoption. Mom still hadn't decided when she went into labor. But when the baby was born, Dad paid the doctors to drug Mom as much as possible, enough to get her to sign the papers they put in her hand. They decreased her drugs after a week and when Mom woke up, the baby was gone."