Page 104 of My Unhinged Alphas
As I turn away, the man calls after us, “Checkout’s at eleven. Or noon, if you reconcile.”
Knox keeps walking. He glances at me as we reach the room. “You shot a man an hour ago and this is what’s upsetting you?”
“Yes,” I snap. “Because that at least made sense in context. I’m not going to fuck you.”
“I wasn’t dreaming about that either,” he says.
The motel room is worse inside.
One bed. A humming air conditioner. A lamp with a crooked shade throwing weak yellow light over everything. The blanket looks scratchy. The curtains don’t quite close all the way. Somewhere outside, a car door slams, then silence again.
Knox locks the door and checks the window without saying anything.
I stand there in the middle of the room, still buzzing. My whole body feels wrong. Too tight. Too awake. Every time I blink, I see the alley again. The men. The gun. The way my hands shook after the shot.
Knox, meanwhile, looks like he just finished a mildly annoying errand.
It’s infuriating.
“You’re seriously this calm?” I ask.
He glances at me once. “No.”
“That’s your not-calm face?”
“Yes.”
I laugh, but there’s no humor in it. “You are impossible.”
He takes off his jacket and sets it over the chair like we’re in a normal hotel on a normal night and not hiding in a motel that smells like old smoke after nearly getting killed.
“Sit down,” he says.
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
His eyes flick to me again. “Then stand there and shake. Your choice.”
I hate that he sees it.
“I’m not shaking.”
“You are.”
I step closer before I even fully decide to. “Stop doing that. You don’t know me.”
His face doesn’t change. “No.”
I should back off.
I don’t.
Maybe it’s the adrenaline. Maybe it’s the fact that he threw himself over me without hesitation. Maybe it’s because he’s been calm all night in a way that makes me want to crack that control open just to prove there’s something human underneath it.
Maybe I just need one thing tonight to feel like my choice.
So I go right up to him.
He still doesn’t move.
