Page 31 of Knox
Then, “Okay, Kevin Costner, give me your number. We’ll see if you’re as good as you say.”
He let her go, but smiled, something dangerous entering his expression. “That’ll do. For now.”
Kelseywasn’tokay, and no amount of texts from Tate was going to convince Knox otherwise.
Knox lay on a gurney at Methodist Hospital, bare chested, his right arm up over his head while some third-year female intern stitched up the slice that had cut into his artery. The flash of dark, bone-deep pain had rendered him a little light-headed for a bit as Kelsey hung from his grip between floors.
But he wasn’t going to let go, no matter how many shadows crossed his vision.
I’m going to get you out of this.Knox had made that promise, and now it practically thundered in his head, a drumbeat keeping time with his pulse.
He checked his phone again. He’d texted Tate back, a voice-to-text that came out awkwardly spelled and said something likeTell her I’m gonna finer.
Close enough. Because the second he got off this table, he was headed back to the arena to track down her tour bus.
Then he was going to pull her into his arms and tell her that she was safe. That he would make sure of it. Because he’d seen the look on her face—the one after the world had erupted. Knew in that moment what he was asking of her when he’d begged for her help.
Knox remembered how it felt to have something sit inside you, a darkness waiting to tug you down, pull you from your foundations. The panic when it had its way with you.
He also knew what it took to climb out of that darkness, find yourself, and care about the people around you.
Kelsey had no doubt reached way past herself to help him get little Tori to safety.
Or maybe she’d simply put on a mask, like the one she wore while performing.
And because Knox couldn’t go anywhere, because he was trapped under the ministrations of the dark-haired intern trying to sew him back together, Knox closed his eyes and allowed himself a minute to remember Kelsey onstage.
Let himself sink into the way she’d reached into his heart and sparked to life something he thought he’d long buried. Intrigue, admiration, maybe even desire.
He might not have recognized the woman he’d met the night before except for her sweet ballad. She possessed a Karen Carpenter kind of alto, something deep and honest that wheedled inside him, made a home. Especially when she’d wrapped her hands around the mic, stared out into the audience as if finding just one, and poured out her heart.
He’d wanted to believe she might be singing just to him.
I’m too young to fall in love again, but he said try…
Under the lights, her long sable hair had shone, exotic with the twin feathers, and in her cutoff shorts, her long shapely legs clad in black hosiery, the brown v-necked NBR-X T-shirt, she looked like a hometown girl who might say yes to a ride in his truck. Or maybe on Duncan, his old quarter horse.
Yeah, Knox fooled himself into that fantasy as he watched her sing, almost gave in to a crazy urge to tear up as her song ended.
So wait…for one true heart…one true heart…
Yes, the Kelsey he’d seen onstage had rocked his world.
And coupled with the Kelsey he rode with on the Ferris wheel last night at the carnival… Knox had walked backstage with the intent of sticking around, seeing if he could earn more than aThank you for being safe.
Safe and…well, notold.
“Just a couple more, Mr. Marshall,” the intern said. She wore the name S. Garcia on her badge.
They were in a cubicle with hanging cloth walls, other survivors of the explosion who needed attention in the stalls beside him. Just a handful.
They’d been remarkably lucky. Knox was still trying to puzzle it all together—how Tate had found him, how no one else had been seriously hurt.Thank You, God.
In his gut Knox knew—like he knew how to spot a good bucker, knew when the weather would shift, when a cow would birth, and when his brothers got in over their heads—that Kelsey wasn’t okay.
No matter what Tate said.
Garcia, the intern, took out a gauze pad and affixed it to the wound. Was cutting off tape when the curtain slid back.