Page 52 of Mountain Protector

Now that the initial shock of being taken down is waning, the crazy man shouts, “No! You need to be punished for what you did!”

Knox fastens the last of the zip ties and stands, glaring down at the man on the floor. “Ric. What the fuck were you thinking?”

Ric?

Oh. Crap.

“You ruined my life! My girlfriend left me because I lost my job! She kicked me out!”

Crossing the room, Knox takes my hand and guides me toward the doorway. I feel like a puppet with its strings cut, my limbs not my own.

“No,” Knox growls. “You lost your job because you were doing drugs. Missing work. I warned you. Over and over. You have no one to blame but yourself.” Hedeposits me in the dining room and kisses my cheek before saying, “I’ll be right back.”

Then he walks back over to Ric and crouches down next to him. In an icy tone that sounds more dangerous than any shout, he says, “You pointed a gun at my girlfriend. My girlfriend who was shot in her own house. You fucking knew that. I told you. What thefuckwere you thinking?”

There’s a long pause.

“Shit.” Ric’s face crumples. “Oh, shit. Shit. I’m sorry.” And in an abrupt one-eighty, he starts crying. “I’m sorry. Shit, Knox. I’m so sorry.”

Knox turns away from him, guilt and sorrow etched in his features. As he gathers me in his arms, he kisses my forehead, my cheeks, and my lips, murmuring between kisses, “I’m sorry, songbird. It’s okay now. He can’t hurt you. I’m so sorry.”

I burrow into his chest, surprised to feel him trembling, too. “It’s okay,” I whisper, forcing my voice to stay steady. “I knew you would stop him.”

CHAPTER 12

KNOX

I feel so fucking guilty.

After all my promises of keeping Lark safe, I’m the one who put her in danger.

Shit.

Why didn’t I think about Ric being a threat?

I’m supposed to be a security expert. I’m trained in assessing risk. After almost twenty years of facing off against people who wanted to kill me, how could I have missed this?

But I know how.

I was so focused on Lark’s case, on locating the man who shot her, I never considered danger could come from someplace else. Fromsomeoneelse.

From my own damn employee. A man who worked for me for almost a year.

Shit.

I didn’t want to fire him, but he forced my hand. After missing work, showing up hungover, and thenbreaking into a job site and passing out, he left me no choice. But when I gave him the news, he didn’t seem angry about it. He said he understood.

It was probably the drugs. That’s what Lark suggested on the ride back to her place; once the police came and we gave our statements and were cleared to leave. “Drugs can make people do crazy things,” she said. “There was no way to know he’d react like that.”

But I should have anticipated it.

I shouldn’t have left Lark alone in that house.

I should have kept better tabs on Ric after I fired him.

Could have. Should have. The end result is I fucked up, and Lark was traumatized all over again.

“Knox.” Lark comes up beside me and puts her hand on my arm. She gazes out the kitchen window at the stretch of snow before the trees, glimmering white and gold as the sun hits it. “Are you okay?”

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