Knox’s dark eyebrows knitted hard, narrowing his blue eyes, and his broad mouth flattened. All three men tensed as he took a hard step forwards and then swiftly closed the distance between her and him, not seeming to care that Karl stepped up beside her, moving slightly in front of her in a blatant attempt to make Knox back off again and show him who was in charge.
Knox just casually brushed him aside and stepped up to her, halting close to her, and God, he smelled good, exactly the way she remembered as his heat curled around her and she tilted her head back to meet his intense gaze.
“You look tired.” His brow furrowed as he searched her eyes and she swore a war erupted in his, something savage battling the softer side of him, until he looked torn between touching her cheek and punching Karl. His voice dropped to a smooth, tingle-inducing whisper as he held her with his gaze. “Come inside. Get warmed up. Rest awhile. Let me take care of you.”
Those six words hit her hard and she wanted to crumple, wanted to let herself go and stop clinging to the tattered shreds of her courage. She wanted to sink into his arms and let him be strong for her as everything that had happened rolled up on her and hit her hard now that she felt safe.
She nodded.
Knox slid a look at Karl, one that was all malevolence. “You’re all welcome, of course. Maybe I can help you find who you’re looking for. I know the valley well.”
He didn’t wait for Karl to respond.
He slid his arm around Skye’s shoulders as he turned, the feel of his strong arm banded around her comforting her, increasing the urge to surrender to the pressing wave of everything that had happened and break down. She couldn’t. Not yet. When she was safely away from Karl and he was no longer a threat to her, she would let herself break down. She would bawl her damned eyes out for once and just let all the fear, all the hurt, everything she had bottled up flow out of her.
Knox rubbed her arm through her jacket. “You all right?”
She quietly pulled down a breath and nodded. “Coffee sounds good.”
He looked down at the mug and tilted it towards his broad chest as he muttered, “I’m not sure this qualifies as coffee.”
He released her before she could ask what he meant by that and stepped up onto the deck, passing her. Karl caught her arm and she glanced over her shoulder at him, didn’t need to be a mind reader to know what he was silently telling her as he glared at her. No sudden moves. She got the memo loud and clear. She wasn’t going to try anything because she wasn’t going to place Knox in danger. She couldn’t.
She followed Knox into the cabin, Karl hot on her heels. It was small, but neat, and it looked lived in. Did Knox really live here? She studied him as he placed an old metal kettle on top of the ancient log burner, one that looked as if it had been the first to roll off the production line. He looked so relaxed that she actually began to believe he did live here.
But the place didn’t smell very lived in.
It needed a good airing, was musty, and the more she looked around, the more she noticed odd things—like streaks of dust on the floorboards around the rickety wooden chairs, how worn the curtains were, and the fact that the springs on the small bed that stood in the far corner of the room were warped, pretty much completely gone.
She had the feeling she had been right and no one had been here since the old man had died, but Knox had come and tidied it in a hurry to give Karl and his men the impression someone did.
Wade lingered near the door. Cooper was polite enough to pick a chair to sit on. Karl stood sentinel near her, to her right, closer to the log burner.
Skye sat on the chair nearest Knox, diligently keeping her eyes off his backside as he leaned over the kettle. Her gaze roamed over him, up his arm to his face, and she passed the time by tracing his profile, something she had done more than once when they had been together. She had slipped into a sort of trance and spent a good fifteen minutes just staring at him like this once, back at her bar.
That had been the night one thing had led to another, and he had ended up breaking her damned heart.
His blue eyes slid to lock with hers, startling her out of her reverie.
“You’re as beautiful as I remember.” His whiskey-smooth voice warmed her, intoxicating her in that way it always had, and she drifted in the hazy feeling it induced in her for a moment.
And then snapped herself out of it and scowled at him.
“And you’re as arrogant as I remember.” She regretted that when the smile that had been curling his lips fell away and he averted his gaze.
He had never been arrogant. Not with her. He had been bold and brash, had been quick to get into fights and had spoken his mind to more than one man at the bar, acting just as arrogant as she had labelled him, but when it had come to her, he had been a different man.
Kind. Attentive. Sweet even.
Like she brought out another side of him.
One that, more than once, he had looked irritated about. She wasn’t the only one who wore armour, hiding the softer side of herself behind a shield that stopped anyone from getting too close.
She wasn’t the only one who was afraid of getting hurt.
But she was the one who had ended up hurt when he had walked out on her in the dead of night. She had learned her lesson when she had woken to find him gone, not even a note left for her.
Knox poured the coffee into several mugs and held the first one out to her, an apology in his eyes. She took it and busied herself in looking at it, trying to shut him and the guilt that squirmed in her stomach out. He had hurt her and he deserved to get the cold shoulder from her. Didn’t he? Part of her wasn’t sure. Part of her didn’t want to punish him.
That part of her was pleased to see he was alive, was just happy to be close to him again. She wasn’t sure what to make of that. She sipped her coffee as Knox handed mugs out to Karl and the others. Grimaced. Knox was right about it. It was hardly coffee. It tasted old and disgusting, and she didn’t want to think about how out of date it was.
Either he had really bad taste in coffee or he didn’t live here as she suspected.
Wind blew across the deck of the cabin, slamming the door shut, and Knox turned towards the window and stared out of it. Skye looked through the dirty panes too, watching the snow sweeping past.
“Weather is closing in. Might be another storm coming.” Knox looked at her. “Maybe you ought to think about heading back down the valley before it cuts you all off.”
“That’s not going to happen. I need to find my friends. It’s important.” Karl set his mug down on the bench that acted as the kitchen counter.
“They’re probably dead.” Knox stared him down. “You need to get Skye off this mountain before the snow hits.”
Darkness reigned in his eyes and she had the feeling that he was going to hit Karl if she didn’t act fast.
“There was a bear attack,” she blurted the first thing that came to her. “Karl is a bit upset because of it. The bear killed his friend.”
Knox was quick to look away from everyone and stomp to the window. “A bear, huh? This deep in winter? Something must’ve pissed it off.”
She didn’t miss the way he looked at Wade, or the fact that hunger for violence that blazed in his eyes hadn’t gone anywhere. Someone had definitely pissed Knox off, and she had the feeling it wasn’t Karl who was top of his list. He looked like he was sizing Wade up for a coffin.