Page 84 of Snake

We stand there, breathing hard, staring at each other for a long moment before he holds up his hands. “Don’t move or you’ll cut your feet.”

I grate my teeth together, but he’s right. There are shards of glass all around me, and I don’t have a wide enough stance to step over them. Knox retreats carefully, and then disappears down the hall.

Fuck him. I look down, lift a foot, put it down again.

Knox returns a moment later with a scoop and brush, crouching to sweep up the glass. I go past him when the path is clear, but he grabs me under the arms and swings around, plopping me down on the granite countertop like I don’t weigh a thing.

“You’re not going anywhere until I’ve made sure there’s no more glass,” he says.

I want to point out that he could have just carried me into the living room, but you know what? I kinda like watching him on his hands and knees in front of me. I hum a little, swinging my feet as I watch him work. After a second or two, he throws me a suspicious glance.

“What are you doing?”

I tsk him with a finger. “You missed a spot.”

He growls quietly under his breath, but goes to sweep where I pointed, anyway.

When he straightens, his knee pops. “Okay, now you can—”

“Since you seem to know your way around so well, how about you fix me a hot chocolate?”

I almost think I’ve gone too far when his eyes narrow again, but then he sets aside the brush and scoop and walks over to the fridge. Light blooms into the dimly lit kitchen, and I glimpse fresh fruit and vegetables, soda cans, wine bottles, and sweet things before he closes the fridge door again.

This house was obviously vacant before we arrived. And it has the slightly musty air of anticipation about it...like a holiday home does. So where did all that food come from? The fresh linen on the beds?

Knox turns his back as he rummages in a cupboard.

“This was your plan all along. To bring me here. Was this supposed to be some kind of apology?”

He pauses, and then slowly turns with a pot in his hands. “Maybe. But after tonight, I’m not sure what we could possibly do to make this right.”

I study him as he turns on the burner and puts the milk on to heat. “I’m sure you’ll come up with something.”

Ah, there she is. The idealistic chump who still wants to believe that the Serpents aren’t cold-hearted savages. I thought I killed her out and dumped her body in the river. Guess she wasn’t dead after all.

Knox stirs the milk, his back still turned.

“I think you should come up with something.” He glances at me over his bare shoulder, the muscles on his back rippling. “Everything we’ve tried has either failed or backfired.”

“Backfired?”

Knox takes a visible breath. “Eliza would never even have known you’d existed if it weren’t for us.”

I hear Mason before I see him. He doesn’t move like a cat—he moves like a beast. His enormous feet slap against the kitchen tiles, and he pauses a few feet away from us to scratch at his ribs. He’s just in boxers too, so I still don’t know whose shirt I’m wearing. I keep telling myself it doesn’t matter, but it does. These animals undressed me while I was unconscious...but one of them covered me again. I’m still wearing panties, but the point remains.

“Hot chocolate?” Mason says, leaning forward on his fists as his arms bulge. “I’ll have one.”

Knox’s jaw tics as he pours more milk into the pot. “Of course you will.”

“Now why are you two out here talking about that pussy-pimple, Eliza?” Mason glances at me. “Planning revenge, I hope?”

We both frown at Mason. Probably because we both expected this kind of vehemence from Silas, not from him. But even in the car on the way over here, he was silent and moody. I guess this thing with Eliza affects him more than I’d have imagined. I can’t imagine what it must be like, having an obsessed ex around all the time. Especially someone as unhinged as her.

Knox looks at me. “Maybe. But I doubt it’ll do any good.”

“Try telling Silas that,” Mason says through a snort.

“Try telling Silas what?”

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