Page 10 of Knight
I took one last glance at Mouse, his brows were raised in surprise, then scurried down the hall to the office in the back. I had a feeling that what I was about to find out would probably make me as happy as Knight had just been.
“You’re gonna live with Knight,” Dad said gruffly as soon as I shut the door behind me.
My mouth fell open.
What? Why the hell would he do that to me?
“He’s got a place of his own and an extra room.” That was all the explanation he had to give me. This wasn’t happening.
“Dad,” I whispered but had nothing to follow up with.
I knew part of the reason was that he wanted someone he knew and trusted to keep watch over me. Why that had to be Knight, I didn’t know. And I wasn’t happy about it in the least. This was going to be a very long year.
Sure, I hadn’t really thought about my living situation. I thought that maybe Dad would help me get my own apartment, but that seemed to be far from what he had planned. And then I got to thinking. He knew Knight was down here. Heknew—and he didn’t tell me. This had to have been what he had in mind all along.
Knight may not have been happy, but there was no way he would have told my dad no. After all, my dad was his former president and on top of that, he was like a second father to him.
My head was spinning. I couldn’t live with him. I just couldn’t see that working out well at all. But one look at my old man’s face told me two things.
One, I didn’t have a say so in this. Not even a little bit.
And two, he was desperate for me not to throw a fit about this. Not because I was a spoiled brat and that was what I did to get my way, because that wasn’t me, and I wasn’t about to start that now. This look was more desperate. He wanted me to accept this because he needed to know that I was safe.
My cheeks puffed as I blew out a slow stream of air.
“Yeah, okay,” I practically whispered and I saw my dad’s shoulders relax as much as he would allow them.
Then he took me out shopping for all the things I would need. A bed, of course. Then everything to fill my room. The room that I still hadn’t seen yet. The very one that was in the apartment that I was sure that I wasn’t all that welcomed in.
But whatever.
There was nothing to be done about it.
I simply figured I would go along with it for a year. Once I was finished with school I could put my foot down to my dad and move on.
Because I had absolutely nothing other than clothes and a few boxes of junk that I probably didn’t even really need, shopping ended up being exhausting. Finally, after Dad asked me if there was anything else I needed for like the millionth time, I turned to him, smiled sweetly, and gave him a firm no. Then I reassured him that if I didn’t have it I was perfectly capable of going out and getting it myself later on. I tried not to hold it against him. I was his baby girl and I was pretty much all he had left in his life. I mean, other than the club, ya know?
We’d already been here, three friggin’ years ago.
Granted the dorms back in Cali had all the furniture I needed so there wasn’t that extra thing for him to worry about, but still. I was over it. I was tired and hungry.
The next day we woke and got to moving around pretty early. After a breakfast of bagels and coffee, we headed off for the place I would call home for a bit. My stomach was in knots and I was surprised I was able to eat my bagel and keep it down. I may have been trying to put on a brave face for my dad but I wondered how well I was pulling it off.
When we got there, I noticed the building was old brick and very well maintained. It was beautiful. I was pretty surprised that the inside seemed like it had been redone and recently at that. I was glad there was an elevator, especially because I would now be living on the fifth floor. The elevator wasn’t all that big but at least it didn’t feel like it was going to crash on the way up.
This was the moment. The polished silver numbers seemed like they were taunting me as my dad’s big hand fell heavy against the wood door that held them up. My figure looked distorted and blurry staring back at me. I couldn’t seem to focus on anything but those numbers. My fingers wanted to reach out and trace the lines of each one. Five. Zero. Three.
The door pulled open with a jerk and snapped me out of my daze. I shook my head thinking that maybe I needed more coffee.
“Brass,” Knight supplied in a half-awake grunt.
I didn’t want to look at him. Ireallydidn’t. But my traitorous eyes did a slow rake over his entire body.
“Mornin’, Knight. Did we wake you?” My dad spoke for the both of us. Which was good, because my mouth suddenly felt dry.
His feet were bare, his loose, frayed sweatpants covering half of them. The strings of those very pants hung undone down the front and the waistband was just a tad crooked like he had thrown them on in a hurry. The top of his red and black boxers hung out over the edge a fraction of an inch, taunting me. Yes, taunting me, because right above that was a whole lot of bare Knight. My eyes roamed up the grooves of his tight abs. Holy Shit! Eight. I counted each one of them, he had a friggin’ eight-pack.
The room suddenly felt too warm and the air felt too thick for my lungs to take in. I may have even felt a bit dizzy. This was not good. There was no way I could live with him, especially looking like that. Then there was his grumpy attitude towards me and it was just a nightmare of a disaster waiting to happen. But it looked like I had no choice.
