Page 19 of Knox's Mission

Amy moved next to him while Lorna and Donnie huddled together ten feet away. “Do you trust him?”

“No,” Knox replied, matter of fact, handing over a magic bottle of liquid that kept mosquitoes from eating her alive. “I wouldn’t leave him in here with my worst enemy.”

That was saying a lot.

Amy searched his eyes, and then her gaze dropped down to the base of his neck. She locked onto a scar the size of the end of a cigar. “What happened here? You’ve had this since we were young.”

He noted that she didn’t use the wordkidsthis time, and felt bad for snapping at her before.

“It’s nothing,” he said, dismissing her. He didn’t talk about his scars with anyone. Not even Garrett, who’d been present when several of them were made at the hands of Knox’s father.

Amy studied him for a moment before tuckingthe hammock bag away after he’d properly folded it. “What do you think about Lorna?”

“My initial thought was that she wasn’t much more than a blister,” he whispered.

“Blister?”

“You know, someone who shows up after the work is done,” he quipped.

Amy cracked a small smile at the analogy, and the wall erected around his heart opened up a little bit more.

“I’ve never heard that before,” she admitted before her expression turned serious again. “What do you think of her now?”

“Jury is still out, if I’m being honest.”

“I thought she was my friend,” Amy stated. There was a hint of melancholy in her tone. “I don’t have a whole lot of those these days.”

“You have me now,” he said a little too fast. “So, your friend count is still even.”

“You’d be my friend?” she asked, surprised.

“We’re adults now,” he reasoned. “You’re no longer an annoying kid.”

“Thanks?” The word was punctuated by her face crinkling up as she tried to decide if that was an underhanded compliment.

“I’m just saying, a four-year age gap at thirty-one and thirty-five is a far cry from fourteen and eighteen.”

“You did the math?” she asked with a small smirk that shouldn’t be sexy.

“Wasn’t hard.”

“Admit that you thought I was pretty cool back then,” she teased.

“Your brother and I are…were…the same age,” he pointed out. “Remember?”

“What does that have to do with you thinking I’m awesome?”

“It’s the reason I know the age gap off the top of my head,” he stated. Was he overexplaining? It was a telltale sign someone was lying. He’d become a little too good with interrogation while on missions during his service to make this mistake in his personal life.

Amy’s smirk didn’t make his mistake any easier to swallow. She knew him better than most. It had surprised him when they were kids and shocked the hell out of him now, especially when he factored in the point they hadn’t been in the same room in years.

Had he been in the background during a couple of Garrett’s calls home over the years, especially early on. Yes. But that wasn’t enough for her to be able to read him now.

“Cut it out,” he teased, appreciating the momentary lightness in mood. Because he was about to lead her into tarantula-infested waters and that was justthe visible threat. The ones lurking below the murky green-brown waters were just as deadly.

“Will we make it out of here alive?” Amy asked in an uncharacteristic small and vulnerable voice.

“That’s my job,” he confirmed. “And I’m damn good at what I do.”

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