Page 84 of Knox

The rustic furniture looks super comfortable, layered with blankets and mats that warm up the room in the best possible way.

The wooden walls are covered in shelves full of books and stacks of paint boxes.

I don’t know how to explain it, but this place feels different from anything else he owns.

It feels like the glimpses of warmth I’ve seen in Cillian when he’s not being a brat.

And sure, you can still tell this place costs a lot of money, but there’s nothing ostentatious or over-the-top about it.

It’s just... homey.

I love it.

I carry Cillian down the hallway until I find the master bedroom.

I ease him onto the mattress, slide his shoes off, and pull the duvet over his chest.

And as he settles into the pillows, I fight back the sickening realization of how close this man came to dying today.

It got too fucking close.

What happened today changes everything… and not just in how we’ll handle the situation from here on. This poisoning made two things crystal clear:

First, whoever the stalker is, they’re much closer to Cillian than we thought.

And second, and most alarmingly, this person is a complete sociopath with violent tendencies. If they knew Cillian only drank that specific wine, they also knew he always shared it.

So they were willing to kill two or three other people just to get rid of Cillian.

Fuck…

I leave the room and go back out to the front porch, where I find Björn leaning against the railing with his arms crossed, staring out at the pine trees.

“How far?” he asks as soon as he senses me, and I don’t need him to elaborate to know what he means.

“Kissing.”

“Just kissing? Knox, I’ve seen you react less when getting shot at.”

“I swear, we’ve only kissed.”

Björn looks at me like I’m crazy for thinking he’ll believe me.

“I swear on my mom,” I correct, and he gasps, surprised.

“Okay…” he nods. “Wow… Just kissing, and you’re like this?”

“He feels that good.”

“You know Logan is going to kill you, right?”

“I’m more worried about Law,” I reply, looking back into the cabin. “I feel like he’ll have a PowerPoint presentation ready with all the bylaws of how I fucked up.”

“Well, it is a problem, Knox,” he says with a huge fucking smile.

“I know… but why are you smiling?”

“Because it’s hilarious you were the first one to break the ‘no fraternization’ rule. Honestly, I thought that would be me.”