Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 106090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“Any luck?” I ask Knox, nodding at the knife.
“The seal is some kind of industrial polymer. I’ve been at it for twenty minutes and haven’t made a dent.” He sets the knife down, frustration evident in the set of his shoulders. “The glass is shatter-resistant. I could work on it for a week and not get through.”
“So we’re stuck.”
“For now.”
Liam pushes off from the couch and walks toward the bathroom. Knox tracks his movement without turning his head. I can see the line of his jaw tighten when Liam passes behind him.
Ten days. We have ten days to survive this cabin without killing each other.
I take a long sip of coffee and wish it were whiskey.
The next hour passes in silence that gets progressively louder. Knox tries a different knife on a different window. Liam paces by the windows like a caged animal. I pretend to be interested in a book I grabbed from the shelf, but I haven’t absorbed a single word. The pages might as well be blank.
Knox is working on the window near the kitchen when Liam walks past him to refill his coffee.
Their shoulders collide.
Not hard. Not even particularly aggressive. But the contact is like a match dropped in gasoline.
Knox turns. “Watch it.”
“You’re in the way.” Liam doesn’t stop walking. “Some of us are trying to move around.”
“I’m trying to get us out of here. What are you doing? Oh, right. Nothing. Just like always.”
Liam freezes mid-stride. When he turns around, his expression has gone flat in a way I recognize from our years working together. That’s his dangerous face. The one he wears right before everything goes sideways.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re good at showing up when you need something and disappearing when things get hard.” Knox straightens to his full height, which is considerable. “Over a decade, Liam. Not even a message.”
My coffee mug hovers halfway to my mouth. I should intervene. I should say something, do something, diffuse whatever this is before it detonates.
I don’t move.
“I couldn’t,” Liam says. “You know why.”
“Enlighten me.”
“Afghanistan. The things we didn’t say. I thought distance would be easier.”
“Bullshit.”
Knox moves closer, and there’s something almost magnetic about it. Like he can’t help himself. Like Liam is pulling him in even as they’re pushing each other away.
“You just didn’t care enough to deal with it. Easier to run.”
Liam’s hands curl into fists at his sides. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know you brought Hailey into a trap. I know you’re pushing to hand over the diamond to a woman who’s clearly unhinged. And I know there’s something you’re not telling us.”
“Back off, Knox.”
“Make me.”
They’re chest to chest now. Close enough to feel each other’s breath. Close enough that whatever’s crackling between them has nothing to do with the fight.
I’ve seen men fight before. I’ve seen the way violence builds, the way it broadcasts itself in squared shoulders and clenched jaws. This isn’t that. This is something else.
Knox shoves Liam. Hard. Liam stumbles back a step, then comes forward and shoves back harder. Knox’s fist cocks back, ready to swing, and his whole body is a loaded weapon, and Liam’s not backing down, and they’re about to tear into each other like animals, and—
“ENOUGH.”
I’m between them before I’ve consciously decided to move. My hands hit their chests simultaneously, shoving them apart with all the force I can muster. They separate, barely, still vibrating with unspent violence.
“What the hell is wrong with you two?” I’m shouting now, and I don’t care. “We’re trapped in here for ten days and you’re going to beat the shit out of each other on day one?”
Knox is breathing hard, his gaze still locked on Liam over my shoulder. “He’s hiding something.”
“So ask him instead of starting a fight!”
I whirl on Liam, keeping one hand planted firmly on Knox’s chest. I can feel his heartbeat through the fabric. Rapid. Furious.
“And you.” I jab a finger at Liam. “Stop deflecting every time he questions you. If you have nothing to hide, then act like it.”
Something shutters behind Liam’s eyes. “There’s nothing to tell.”
“Then stop acting guilty!”
I look between them, my own anger building to match theirs. Two grown men who can’t be in the same room without combusting. Two soldiers who survived god knows what together and can’t seem to survive each other.
“We have one chance to get through this,” I say. “One. And it requires us working together. So whatever this is?” I gesture at the space between them. “Fix it.”
Neither of them moves.
Knox’s chest is still heaving under my palm. His eyes haven’t left Liam’s face. And Liam is staring right back, jaw set, his composure cracking open at the seams.
There’s a look on Liam’s face that snags my attention. I can’t name it exactly, but I’ve known Liam for years. I know his moods, his tells, the way he holds himself differently around people who get under his skin. I saw it in Barcelona, in that club where he spent three hours watching a bartender before disappearing into the back room. I saw it in Prague, the way he couldn’t stop glancing at the locksmith who helped us with that job. Liam’s attraction to men was never a secret between us.