Worth It

“No.” I shook my head, unable to believe anything I was hearing. “That’s not even possible.”

“I know! Pick’s usually all gung ho to protect everyone. Now he just up and tosses a murderer into the cage with us. What kind of shit is that?”

I wasn’t listening to him anymore, though. I’d turned back to stare at the last place I’d seen the stranger.

Shaking my head more urgently now, I whispered, “That wasn’t him. That couldn’t have been him.”

No way in hell had the man I’d just encountered been the same eighteen-year-old boy I’d fallen head over heels in love with six years ago. He couldn’t possibly have changed that much, grown that huge. The color of his eyes, the sound of his voice. None of it matched.

I frowned hard at Ten. “Are you trying to tell me that was Knox Parker?”

Knox couldn’t even be out of prison yet. He should still have over twenty years left, though okay, I’d stopped keeping tabs on his sentence two years ago when he’d murdered Jeremy. I’d given him up completely then. Or at least, that’s what I insisted to myself.

“How’d you know his first name?” Asher wondered as Ten lifted his eyebrows. “You actually know Parker?”

A loud screaming buzz filled my ears as the guys confirmed it.

I’d just seen Knox again for the first time in six years.

“Oh my God.” I scrambled toward the bar’s exit without thinking.

The guys called after me, but I kept moving. My brain was still trying to process what I’d just learned while my feet continued to run. I burst into the heavy, cool October night, breathing hard.

Skidding to a halt, I searched the sidewalks leading from the club, but they looked completely abandoned as every couple of feet a nightlight sprayed down on the wet walkways.

Panic embraced me. Where had he gone? I couldn’t lose him now, not when he’d been so close. I didn’t even pause to think what I’d say or do if I did catch him; I just knew I had to. Except the place was empty. Not even a car drove by on the street.

I turned in a slow circle, the desperation in me clawing at my throat, stinging my eyes.

Where had he gone?

And then I felt it.

A stare. It started out tingling the back of my neck until it rocked through my entire nervous system. I could do nothing but feel him watching me. Spotting a dark, deeply shadowed overhang near the edge of the building, I stopped and squinted, but all I could see was black.

I knew he was there though, hiding from me, probably pressing his back to the wall and holding his breath, hoping I didn’t find him. Except I had no idea why he’d hide from me...why he hadn’t told me who he was.

I stepped forward and then hesitated. What was I doing, heading toward dark creepy shadows in the middle of the night on a quiet street? Any ominous person could be lurking in there, waiting for me to get close enough to snatch. But then I moved toward it again anyway, unable to stay away.

“Knox?” I said on an unsteady breath just as the door to the bar came open and Noel and Aspen stumbled out, followed by Ten and Asher.

“Felicity?” Noel led his wife my way. “What’re you doing out here? The guys said you had an unpleasant visitor. You okay?”

I glanced one last time to the black shadow before turning back to the group. “Yeah,” I managed to say. “I’m fine.” Though I wasn’t at all. I was shaken to the core.

“Are you sure?” Aspen asked.

With a roll of my eyes, I forced a smile. “Of course. What about you, sicko?”

“Ugh.” She leaned her head against Noel’s chest and muttered, “I’m better, but still queasy.”

“Come on,” Noel urged, tipping his chin up to get me to follow them. “Let’s get her home.”

“Yeah, okay.” But I couldn’t turn fully away from the shadow quite yet. As the other four wandered off, across the street, I turned back to it.

If he didn’t want to talk to me, fine, but I definitely had a message for him. “I don’t understand,” I said. Then I hurried after the others.

Asher looped an arm around my shoulder, tugging me against his side when I caught up to them.

“You look cold,” he said.

I was. I felt cold all the way to my bones. When I shivered, he hugged me closer with one arm. “Did you find Parker?” he asked into my ear.

I shook my head.

“Gonna tell me why you chased after him?”

Another fierce head shake.

He sighed, but said, “All right,” and let it drop. “As long as you’re okay.”