Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
He didn’t respond, not even a lip twitch. He stared at me for two seconds then leaned forward to grab large scissors out of the pack, grunting as he awkwardly maneuvered his body to cut his shirt to expose his skin. Well, his skin was somewhere underneath the blood. And the bullet wound.
“You bleed red,” I observed. “Who would’ve thought? I was sure it would be black and inky like tar.”
I wasn’t joking then, not entirely. But I could’ve sworn the edge of Knox’s lip moved, just a fraction.
Ignoring the small gesture and the fiery response in the cauldron of my resentment, anger and desire toward him, I unpacked a disinfecting wipe from a package, wiping the blood away. Unsurprisingly, it only elicited a barely perceptible wince from Knox as the chemicals ate at his wound.
A dark part of me felt satisfied by the pain I was responsible for, revenge for the anguish he inflicted upon my sister.
I hadn’t previously been one to preach the whole ‘eye for an eye’ thing, but I couldn’t deny it felt a little good.
Pushing past that, I looked at the wound I’d revealed.
I’d assumed it was large, gory, gaping. But it was smaller than I expected. Neater. Leaking quite a bit of blood, though.
I rushed to press the gauze against the wound, forcing my breathing to steady.
“You’re really going to try to treat him?” Daisy scoffed from behind me. She’d been silent longer than I’d expected. If I was honest, I’d almost forgotten she was there, which was unthinkable yet true.
Guilt coated me like oil as I struggled to get myself out of the tangle I’d found myself in with Knox.
“We should leave. Now,” she urged.
I sighed, still pressing the gauze against the wound.
“We’re not leaving,” I told my sister, not looking at her. I wasn’t brave enough.
I could practically feel the pouty look she was directing in my vicinity as well as her desperation to argue. Which was logical. At first glance, the most sensible thing to do was leave the bleeding psychopath alone in a cabin while we made our escape.
Though I’d thought through escape continuously, understanding that it wasn’t that simple and it would likely mean both of our death warrants or a lifetime of looking over our shoulders.
I didn’t have the time or energy to explain the complexities of our situation to her right then.
I expected Daisy to force me to, so she surprised me by sighing before snapping, “Fine.” I heard her stomping around. “I’m going to eat, though. I’m starving.”
This time I did turn to look at her, finding her standing at the stove. I raised my brow at her as she heaped food onto a plate. “You’re going to eat across from the bleeding man you just shot while I try to extract the bullet from his flesh?” I clarified.
She shrugged. “I eat my dinner watching The Walking Dead.”
“That is not the same,” I muttered, but it was not the time to argue that.
My attention returned to Knox. He was lucidly watching me, eyes pinned to my body. I swallowed heavily at his gaze, realizing how close I was to him. The last time we were this close was minutes ago, when we were about to kiss. When he looked as if he was going to devour me whole. He still looked like that.
I forced myself to focus on the task at hand. Not to stare deeply into his eyes, not to examine complicated and thorny feelings, and definitely not to think about what might’ve happened had my sister not burst in and shot him.
“I’m going to dig the bullet out of your shoulder now,” I told him, forcing confidence into my tone.
“This your first time?” he asked, and I swore it sounded like he was teasing. He couldn’t possibly be. The range of emotions he’d displayed in such a short period of time was dizzying.
“This is a regular Saturday night for me,” I quipped. I had no idea if it was a Saturday night. I hadn’t been keeping track of the days, just the phases of the moon. “Your first time?”
He waited a long handful of seconds before replying. “In this particular scenario, yes.”
I pursed my lips at the admission. “Don’t worry, I’ll go slow.”
Silence passed between us. Somehow impossibly erotic to the point of making heat creep up my neck. In the presence of my sister. And with Knox bleeding to death.
What was happening to me?
Yet I couldn’t let go of Knox’s stare, couldn’t deny that the moment was electrified by something I couldn’t put my finger on. Once again, the foundation of what our dynamic was shifted underneath me, becoming more and more unstable. One wrong step and I could go tumbling into the darkness, never to be seen again.
I took a shaky breath, grasped the scalpel then readied myself to dig into Knox’s skin. As if he wasn’t living underneath mine already.