Page 100 of Knox

She hadn’t actually prayed in years, although Dixie’s family were friends of Jesus.Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so.She’d learned the song, along with a dozen other hymns Dixie’s family members were always singing around the house.

It simply hadn’t been enough to heal the wounds inside.

Now, Sierra’s words rushed at her.He very much cares about you.

A crack against the dry grass sounded nearby, and she stayed perfectly still next to Glo.

It moved away, but she lay like the dead.

Okay.Right now, God. If You’re there, if You care, please show up.

She tried to sort out where she’d seen the man in the yard before. A deep, buried memory she couldn’t nudge forth.

But he moved away, so she finally peered up, watching the light dimming in the distance.

It looked like the bull barn on fire.

I’m sorry, Knox.Because she couldn’t get past the idea that maybe this had to do with her. That maybe Vince Russell wasn’t dead after all, or maybe he’d simply come back from the grave to haunt her. Keep her running, bleeding, pretending that she was okay.

Because if she were honest, she would always be a little broken from her past. Maybe that’s why sometimes, when she tried to take a full breath, the shards crashed against each other, like broken ribs, stirring up the ache.

Although maybe that was okay, too, because like Gerri said, if it made her more compassionate, more willing to give grace…

More steps and she ducked her head again.

Glo was shivering beneath her.

“Kelsey!”

That voice. Like a flame, burning through her, finding her bones, igniting them.

Knox!

She lifted her head just as he knelt beside her.

“Are you okay?”

His face was black, sooty from the fire, and sweaty, his eyes so full of worry it whisked the breath from her. She could only nod—

And then Knox simply lifted her up into his arms, pulling her off Glo, a strange sound in his chest. His entire body shook, and oh, he was wet, maybe from sweat, but under his cool shirt his body heat swept through her.

She hung on.

“Glo’s been shot!” Tate’s horrified voice erupted as he crouched beside Glo.

“Are you kidding me?” Knox roared. He put Kelsey down and bracketed her face with his hands, searching her body for injury. “What happened?” Sweat ran from his hair in grimy streaks. “Tell me you’re okay.”

Kelsey looked over just in time to see Tate pulling off his shirt. He wrapped it around Glo’s arm, securing it to her body. “It’s going to be okay, honey.”

Honey?

Then Tate scooped Glo up into his arms. The man looked shattered.

Oh,honey.

Kelsey turned back to Knox. “I’m okay—”

And then he kissed her. Not a tender, you’re-in-control-because-you’ve-been-damaged kiss, but a desperate, heart-outside-his-body clench that she could only surrender to, like a tsunami.