Page 78 of Knox

“Do you have any reason to think someone would want to harm you? A fan maybe? Or—”

“Yes,” Kelsey said quietly, drawing in her breath. “I think someone is trying to kill me.”

The entire room went quiet.

Then, succinctly, and without inflection or drama, Kelsey told her story. She left out the rape, the extent of her injuries, just hit the high points, the threats, the fact that Russell was free.

And apparently, keeping his promise.

When she was finished, Sam just swallowed, his expression pained. “I’m sorry, Kelsey.”

“It’s okay. I’ve lived with this a long time.” But retelling it had knotted her breath in her chest. “I guess I never thought…really…that he’d come back. I’m just tired, you know? Tired of figuring out how to get back up, keep going.”

“Your soul is thirsty.”

Her gaze went to the voice, and it landed on Sierra, who had added scrambled eggs and sausage links to the table and now approached the sofa, wrapping her hands along the back. “You’re parched and you’re weary and your soul needs a drink.”

Kelsey looked at her, frowned.

“There is only one source of that kind of water, Kelsey. Only one thing that will satisfy. And that’s God’s love.” She moved her hand to Kelsey’s shoulder. “He very much cares about you.”

She glanced at Glo, who had raised an eyebrow, then a shoulder.

But then again, Glo had been around Dixie’s family enough to hear Dixie’s father preach the same thing.Only God can satisfy.

Except where, exactly, had God been when she lay in the weeds? Or when she was crumpled in the debris of a Texas arena? Or watching her world go up in flames?

Where was God when she was trying to find her feet, scrape out her future?

And maybe it wasn’t fair to blame God. Maybe in fact, she simply wasn’t important enough to protect.

At least, it sort of felt that way.

But she nodded to Sierra anyway, because really, she meant well. And Kelsey was too tired to do anything else.

“I think what Kelsey—and we both—need is to go home, back to Wisconsin, and regroup.” Glo said. “We have insurance on the bus, on our equipment, and frankly, maybe this is a sign, right? Maybe God is showing us that we need to just…go home.”

Which, at that moment, sounded a lot like running to Kelsey but…

“I talked to Dixie this morning, and she agrees,” Glo added.

Yes. Run back to her uncle’s house and hide in the attic. Perfect. But Kelsey had nothing else—

“No.”

The voice rumbled through her, found her bones, and like a hot wave of fire, seared through them. She turned, and her mouth opened as—what? Knox stood in the grand entryway, flanked by Tate and Chet.

She’d never seen such a look on his face. Deeply lined with worry, a four-day haze of dark beard on his chin, his blue-green eyes so thick with emotion it stripped away every other thought but…

Knox. Was.Here.

She hadn’t a clue how he knew she needed him, how he had figured out where they were, even, he’d found Ben King’s house and made it through the front door.

But yes. In all his rumpled, large-sized, solid glory, cowboy Marshall was here.

Her mouth opened to form some sort of reply. But he simply walked into the room, his eyes in hers, not wavering, almost daring her to argue with him as he said, “She’s not going anywhere but home with me. Where she’s safe.”

Oh.