The cinnamon bear roared and charged her.
Knox threw himself between her and the bear, his arms outstretched, as if that would be enough to block the bear and save her.
“Get out of the way!” she screamed, the sight on the rifle jittering around all over the place as she aimed at the bear. She couldn’t get a clear shot with Knox in the way and she feared he was going to get himself killed if she didn’t act fast. The bear was going to maul him the way it had Cooper.
“Back the fuck down!” Knox growled and she wasn’t sure whether he was talking to her or to the bear as it advanced on him.
She locked up tight at the same time as the bear did.
The damned thing had to be at least five-hundred pounds, maybe more, and she had never seen a bear with so many scars. A particularly brutal one cut up the left side of its head, from just above its eye to over the crown of its head, close to its ear, and made it look as dangerous as she felt it was.
Why wasn’t it attacking Knox?
She couldn’t believe her eyes as it just stood there staring at him.
Not moving a muscle.
She really couldn’t believe her eyes when a black-haired man jogged into the room, a little breathless, and his clear grey eyes landed on her and turned to steel as they dropped to the gun she desperately clutched in front of her.
He was big, rivalling Knox’s size, packed with muscle that was clearly visible beneath his tight black woollen sweater and damp jeans. Another of Karl’s men? She wasn’t sure whether to swing the gun at him or keep it vaguely trained on the bear, wasn’t sure of anything as she sat on her backside reeling and trying to figure out what the hell was happening.
“She isn’t part of this.” Knox eased back a step, moving closer to her, and slowly lowered his hands to his sides, but she didn’t miss how he clenched his fists.
Neither did the black-haired man.
The sight of Knox preparing for a fight seemed to trigger something dark within him, had him flexing his fingers into fists too and angling his body, placing more of his weight on one foot. The grim planes of his face grew harder still, his eyes as cold as ice as he fixed them on Knox.
And then he suddenly relaxed, as if someone had flipped a switch in him, and did the craziest thing yet.
He walked right up to the moaning, restless bear and planted his hand between the beast’s ears and rubbed its reddish-brown fur.
Skye stared at the animal, and then at the man, her gaze flicking back and forth between them as she tried to process what she was seeing. She had to be dreaming. Maybe the fear had become too much for her and she had passed out. This was all just some weird, crazy dream.
Knox turned to her and held his hands out with his palms facing her, approached her slowly as if he feared she was going to hurt him. She laughed at that, the sharp barked sound drawing the gaze of the black-haired man and the bear. Knox wasn’t afraid of a bear or that man, but he was afraid of her. She laughed again. Couldn’t stop herself.
She was definitely dreaming.
Or she had finally snapped.
Knox gently took hold of the barrel of the gun and then her hand. He eased her fingers open and took the gun from her, set it down on the floorboards beside him as he lowered himself into a crouch beside her. He brushed his fingers lightly over her palm and she sucked in a breath as the cut on her palm stung. She dragged her eyes away from the bear and the man, stared at Knox instead, into blue eyes that held more worry than she had ever seen in them.
He was scared.
Of the bear and the man?
Or something else?
Something deep inside her screamed that it wasn’t the animal or the man he feared. It was her. He had that spooked look again, the one he’d had from time to time over the last few days they had been together in this cabin. The one that gave her the impression he was afraid he would never see her again.
Sometimes, she had caught him watching her, staring at her as if he was desperately trying to put her to memory, to capture every little thing about her. She had put it down to fear of losing her, that he was scared something would happen to her and she would be taken from him.
Now, she had the impression it wasn’t fear of her dying that had put that look in his eyes.
It was fear of her leaving him by choice.
She looked between him and the bear and the man, going around and around.
“Hey. Don’t worry about them.” Knox smoothed his hand along her jaw. “Look at me.”
Her gaze darted to him and away again, back to the bear. It huffed and she tensed, and the man gave it a chastising look.
“I know them. They’re not going to hurt you, Skye.” Knox applied gentle pressure to her cheek and she looked at him again, obeying his silent command.
She tried to keep her eyes on his, but it was impossible while there was a bear in the room. A huge bear with a bloodied face. A bear that was standing near Cooper’s corpse. She swallowed the bile that rose into her throat and diligently kept her eyes away from the body. She tried not to think about Karl where he bent backwards over the kitchen counter either. Or Wade, who was laying face down beyond the black-haired man, his brains splattered up the wall, a gory backdrop that seemed to suit the man.
She swallowed hard, her entire body shaking as adrenaline and fear did a number on her.
“Look at me, Skye.” Knox stroked his thumb over her cheek, his voice lowering, softening as he gazed at her. “Look at me.”
Her eyes leaped to him and locked with his, and this time she managed to keep them on him.
“There’s my girl. You’re fine now. You’re safe now. Maverick and Rune aren’t going to hurt you.” Knox smiled softly, his blue eyes brightening with it, but that edge of fear they held didn’t go anywhere. “It’s over, Skye. It’s over.”
He sank to his knees beside her, gathered her into his arms and held her, his cheek pressing to hers. She lifted her arms and wrapped them around him, needing to hold on to him, afraid too now as his words echoed in her mind and she heard a different meaning in them.
She didn’t want to leave him. She didn’t want him to leave her. And for some reason, she felt convinced that was going to happen, as if it was inevitable, already written in the cards for them.
They were going to be parted.
Again.
And it killed her.
Knox drew back and her gaze darted to the bear and the man again, her mind still struggling to process the fact he was petting the damned thing, calming it by degrees as he murmured things she couldn’t hear to it. Was it a tame bear? One trained to attack on command maybe?
Knox palmed her upper arms, regaining her attention, and she looked at him, felt a little dazed as she gazed into his eyes and saw all the hurt in them, the fear, and what looked a hell of a lot like regret.
He looked as if he was breaking up with her.
She had seen that look on men’s faces a few times, enough that she automatically braced herself for the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ speech she felt sure was coming. Or maybe it would be the ‘it was nice, but…’ one.
He drew down a deep breath that shifted his chest beneath his shirt, stretching it tight across his broad shoulders, and exhaled hard.
She braced herself, tried to deny the tears that were already welling to the surface.
His eyes darted between hers, his dark blond eyebrows furrowing a little. “Skye, there’s something I need to tell…”