I blinked quickly and tried to calm my mind. The sooner I thought of a shirt, the sooner he’d let me up. “Um. Gray. Light gray.” My panic went into overdrive when I saw the slightest twitch at the corner of his lips, and knew he didn’t like my answer. “P-pale green! Gray vest!” I shouted around more water. “Collin, please!”

Collin dipped his head in a slight nod, as if he was happy with what I’d suggested, and then his dead eyes finally met mine again. “You claimed you didn’t feel well after visiting your sister, so I decided to let you stay home. How horrible will it be for your parents when they find out you are the reason their youngest daughter has gotten into the drug scene? That your guilt over her near-death experience drove you to . . .” He smirked and clicked his tongue. “Well.”

“Collin! Collin, no!” I screamed, and my thrashing increased.

He leaned over the tub to kiss my forehead. All of his weight on my chest caused me to sink deeper and the air to rush out of me. I tried to grab at him, but I couldn’t get a good hold on him, and my panic was making me clumsy in my movements.

“Collin! I’ll do whatever you want, be whatever you need,” I promised as water filled my mouth and slid down my throat. “Please don’t do this!”

He used my chest as support to stand up, and shook his head once. “I love you,” he said in a detached voice before he released my chest.

The last thing I remember was using what little energy I had left to push out of the water before he grabbed the side of my head and slammed it down onto the edge of the tub. I was sliding into the water when darkness pulled me into its arms.

Chapter 17

Knox

Present Day—Thatch

“STOP MURDERING THE damn carpet, Christ!” Graham yelled when he stepped inside the house a few hours after I’d snuck out Harlow’s back door.

I turned and halted when I saw Grey and Jagger standing there with confused looks. Of course she would be here today.

“Murdering the . . . what?” Grey finally asked before coming up to give me a hug. She must have noticed how tense I was, because she gave me a strange look when she backed away from me to go into her husband’s arms.

“He’s always pacing when we come home. Always,” Graham answered as he walked into the living room. The look he gave me as he shouldered past me to sit on the couch let me know he knew exactly why I was pacing, and he wasn’t happy about it. He began divvying up the food that he’d carried in. “I brought you food, too,” he said to me.

“Not hungry.”

“Guilt eating at you?” he mumbled, and his eyes flashed up to me.

My eyebrows pulled down low over my eyes, and I had to take a calming breath so I wouldn’t lash out at him in front of his sister and brother-in-law. “I’m not doing this today,” I said in a clipped tone, then turned and stalked to my room.

Unfortunately, my pacing in that space consisted of two steps before turning to go back the opposite way, and within just a couple of minutes I felt like I needed to get out of there. I needed to get to Harlow, but I didn’t know where she was. I just knew they left, and I knew they had that dinner tonight, so there was no chance of me being able to get in touch with her in any way. But knowing she was with him, after I had found out how bad it had been all this time and how much worse it was getting, I hated every minute that passed without her by my side.

It felt like each passing hour was taunting me, choking me. I had to find her. I had to save her. I had to get her away from that house and keep her from that bastard for the rest of her life. And I would do everything in my power to make sure that life was long.

“Oh, Knox,” Grey said in a musical lilt as she walked into my room. Her eyes studied me as she leaned against a wall and absentmindedly played with her large stomach. “I’m actually on my way to work. Graham wanted to spend time with Jagger, and I wanted to see you and Deacon before I had to go in. But why do I have a feeling that Graham wanted Jagger here for a reason?”

I lifted an eyebrow and tried to mask the fear and adrenaline pumping through my body. “What do you mean?”

“Usually Jagger just sees you guys if I’m here. But Graham was adamant that Jagger be here, and tonight you’re not working, and there was a lot of tension between you and my brother out there. So it’s not really hard for us to figure out that Graham wanted a buffer. I want to know why one was even needed.”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” I shrugged, and her eyes narrowed, but I didn’t offer any other explanation. With how Graham and Deacon had reacted, and how pissed-off Grey had been when she’d found out Harlow was married, I knew that telling her any portion of the truth right now would be pointless.

“Fine,” Grey eventually said. “I have to go.” She pushed from the wall and walked to the door, but before she left she looked at me and said, “If you ever decide you need to tell someone what’s happening, I will listen. I may not agree with you, but I’ll listen.”

I didn’t respond, just watched until she left, then I resumed my compact pacing. Graham could bring in a buffer all he wanted; I didn’t plan on going out there anyway.

Harlow

Present Day—Richland

I CHOKED ON water, and my heavy eyelids slowly blinked open. Each felt like it weighed fifty pounds, and lifting them like one of the hardest things I’d ever done. But I was still choking, and I knew I had to keep them open.

I was in the tub, mostly floating. My top half was twisted so only one of my eyes was out of the water, and I gasped when I remembered Collin—causing me to inhale the water that was tinted red with my blood, making me choke harder. I struggled to sit upright as I forced water out of my lungs, and looked around the guest bathroom for any signs of my monster, but he wasn’t in there with me. I heard the sound of running water, but it still took me a few moments to realize that it was coming from the tub faucet, and that water was covering the bathroom floor.

I hurried to shut it off then sat still as stone as I waited for sounds other than my wheezing breaths. He would have heard me, and he would come for me soon if he was still here.

I’m not sure how long I waited, but I had two coughing fits that I wasn’t able to stop in that time. I was worried with each one that Collin would come rushing in to finish what he’d started. I tried to stand but couldn’t force the lower half of my body to cooperate yet, and ended up pulling myself out of the tub instead.