by King, Ann
WITH YOU (The Knights Brothers Trilogy, Book 2)
Ann King
Copyright 2014 by Ann King
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you, Father for everything. To my family and friends, and wonderful readers for your endless support.
WITH YOU (The Knights Brothers Trilogy, Book 2)
This is all so crazy. My life has been turned upside down. First, I discover a dark secret about my ex-boyfriend and now, I’m seeing the guy who I held responsible for his death. Could life be more complicated?
Should I trust my heart with Cory?
Coming soon… Book 3
CHAPTER TEN
Cory Knights
“Are you sure you want to hear the whole truth?” I offered Kate one last time to escape the horror of the truth from that night. About Peter, the guy she thought she knew. The guy she thought she was in love with. Yeah, I’d wanted to tell her for so long. But looking at her now. Seeing her like this…I really didn’t want anything to ruin her happiness. It was amazing how a guy like me could change his tune so fast. Getting this close to Kate now—hurting her was the last thing I wanted to do.
“Yes,” she said, pulling herself up and putting the rest of her clothes on. My own body was burning up still from Kate’s sweet lovemaking. I wasn’t ready to put all my clothes back on just yet. I just had my silk boxers on.
I sucked in a deep breath. My jaw clenched. She wanted the truth. She deserved the truth.
Even if it would hurt her and probably tarnish her memory of Peter forever.
But, heck, we could very well die here today. Might as well get it all out in the open and move forward. Kate was carrying an overwhelming amount of guilt over that night. She blamed herself and I knew it. I didn’t want her to keep this up and ruin what chance of happiness she could have. This wasn’t even about me. Heck, even if she didn’t want me. She still deserved to know the truth so she could move on and stop blaming herself for something she had no control over.
“Peter really liked you, Kate. I believe he did.”
“But…?”
“But there’s a lot you didn’t know about him,” I said, trying to control my emotions.
“Wait a minute. You said he liked me. Didn’t he love me?”
I turned my head, trying not to look deep into her eyes. I just couldn’t bare the pain of what was to come. Shit! I had no idea how difficult this would be. “What do you know about that night, Kate?”
She appeared to hesitate, her facial expression was contorted in pain. “I…” She squared her shoulders and looked in my eyes. “I know that part of it was my fault.”
“No. It wasn’t.”
“How could you be sure?”
“Because…”
“Look, Cory. Just spill it out, okay? I know something went down that night when I told Peter I wasn’t ready to marry him yet. I know he ran off and probably went to some guy hangout night and probably fooled around with another girl. I drove him to this…”
“No you didn’t, Kate!” My voice was louder and more forceful than I had intended. Kate seemed to curl up into a ball.
Kate bit down on her lip, her face appeared to twitch. “What. Happened?” she said emphatically, her voice cool and even.
“He was pissed that night but it wasn’t because of anything you said.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Kate…”
“Cory, this is killing me. Just tell me what went down that night. What are you hiding?”
“The truth, Kate. Peter…”
“Yes?”
“Peter had a fight with his old man that night.”
Kate’s face grew more concerned. “What happened? Why didn’t he tell me this?”
“Because, it was about his personal issues he was having.”
“Like what?”
“His dad, you know the big shot Assistant DA and all that. Well, he had this image of his son that he wanted to uphold. He was all mightier than thou complex. Piece of shit in a suit.”
“Cory,” Kate gasped.
“Peter wasn’t what he had expected in a son. Peter knew he just couldn’t live up to his expectations.”
“And?”
“Well, Peter had enough. He told him that he was going to be with the one he loved and that was it. He wasn’t going to be leading a double life like his old man or his uncle.”
“Wait a minute. His dad was nice to me. Are you saying that he really hated me?”
“Oh, no. His dad liked you alright,” I said, biting my lip and avoiding her eyes. My gaze drifted to the window and the heavy gusts of snow blowing every direction. Much like my thoughts right now. “You would be a perfect cover for his son.” God Kate, I didn’t want to have to spell it out. Please just understand and move on. Don’t let me torture you like this.
“What are you saying, Cory?” Kate’s breath was shallow now. I could practically hear her heart pounding hard and fast in her chest. Christ! Why did I have the be the one to break this to her.
“Peter was in love with Bruce from the team.” There, I said it.
And the words felt like acid on my tongue because I was hurting Kate with the truth. Not because Peter was really gay and in the closet but because Kate really thought that he’d wanted to be with her and only her.
“Fuck! That’s one of the reason’s I was pissed that he took your virginity, Kate!”
Kate was livid, she looked as if she was frozen in shock. She opened her mouth to say something but no words would come out.
“Kate! Kate, speak to me. Say something.”
Kate hugged herself, rocking back and forth nervously, a dazed expression on her face. She seemed paralysed with shock or something.
She’d turned her head to look at me and her darkened eyes pierced mine. The dagger in her look stabbed me straight through the heart.
It killed me to see Kate like this. But I had to let her know it wasn’t her fault.
Peter was going to break off with her long before she’d thought of putting off their getting engaged. She hadn’t driven him to anything. He’d had a fight with his dad about being his own person. Being with the person he really wanted to spend his life with.
The truth was, Peter was with us at the Frat house. We’d had a few drinks and Bruce came by. We all knew Peter was gay. It was pretty much cool with us. It was his life. His secret. Anyway, Peter and Bruce had a wild make out session. We all sort of laughed it off, drinking our beers, watching the game on the Flat Screen. Him and his guy were really going at it. Sucking on each other’s necks, french kissing. I finally told them to go get a room so the rest of us could get on with watching the game. Peter felt free around his guys. We’d all come from different backgrounds. We’d all known what it was like to be an outcast and to not have the acceptance of those close to us—our families.
But it all ended when his dad was tipped off about what was going on at the Frat house. He came in with a friend and started harassing Peter. Threatening him. We’d all stepped in and tried to defend Peter but his dad threatened us, too. The dude had tons of connections in high places and low places. We all knew he could set us up any day with a kilo of coke and we’d be done with for the rest of our life. We backed off. Wel
l most of us. “Peter, you need me?” I asked him.
“No. I can handle my own.” Those were the last words Peter had spoken to me.
He’d went reluctantly with his dad and, well…the next thing we knew, police were at our door during the middle of the night on some investigation.
Peter had been killed in a car crash. Alcohol was suspected. They’d wanted to know who’d provided him with booze.
We all knew his dad must have had something to do with it. Of course, we couldn’t prove it, could we? And we were forewarned about keeping his little secret or that old man would screw us all over. That was about the time I’d left town to find myself. Figure out what I was going to do with my life. Being caged wasn’t an option for me. But every day I’d thought about ways to get even with that bastard father of his. I knew he would get what was coming to him. Karma was a bitch with a badass memory. When he least expected it—when time provided him a false sense of security, he would get what was coming to him.
But it hurt me when Kate turned against me. She wouldn’t even look at me during the funeral. I knew that creep father of Peter was behind it all, saying it was all somehow our fault.
Yeah, like hell it was!
“Kate, Peter was going through torture not being able to come out. It wasn’t easy when you lived around bigots who owned the keys to your life. Peter was gay, Kate. He liked you because …well you weren’t like other girls. That’s why for a long while he wasn’t intimate with you. He’d told me…”
“What?... What?....No.” Kate got hysterical, she bit her lips and kept shaking her head as if the truth would change. Tears welled up in her beautiful brown eyes. “No. No. No. No.”
“My God, Kate. Calm down. You’re hyperventilating.”
I reached over to touch her but she flinched and backed away. “Don’t touch me.” Her voice was course and acidic.
“Kate!”
“Stay away from me! You creep! You and those idiot jocks made this shit up, didn’t you? How could you talk ill of the dead like that! Peter loved me. Only me!” Tears gushed down her face like a heavy rainfall.
“Kate!”
“Don’t touch me,” she screamed, pulling herself away from me. I didn’t know why I hadn’t realize before but she had grabbed her jacket to make an exit. She fumbled with the sliding door, breathing shallow and fast.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Kate?”
“Get. Away. From. Me!” she pulled herself from my grasp almost stumbling backwards. She eventually fell on her ass but she got up fast and headed away. To where? I had no idea! Maybe she thought she could run from the truth.
“Kate! No!” Kate opened up the door to the SUV and ran outside, gusts of blowing snow blew into the car. “Shit! Fuck! It’s cold! Kate!”
I hadn’t realized that I was still half-naked. I quickly pulled on my hoodie and grabbed my jeans and pulled them on as fast as I could. “Kate!” I cried out, fuming mad.
What the hell was she doing? She was going to kill herself out there.
I quickly pulled my boots on and slammed the door shut of the SUV and took off, running after Kate. The wind was strong and forceful, practically pushing me back. “Kate!”
The visibility was crap! I could barely see a thing in front of me. This was crazy. What was she thinking? Running off like that in this freaking blizzard!
I hurried as fast as I could on foot, sloshing through the thick white snow hills after her. God, she was fast on foot. Adrenaline could do wonders to the body.
“Hey!” I shouted out when I spotted her stumbling. She wasn’t far ahead of me now. But she was standing wobbling before she toppled over into a snow bank. “Kate! No!”
I reached out to grab her but it was too late, she’d slid down the slippery snow bank and into a hidden small lake. The ice was too thin and cracked as soon as her body hit the surface. She’d fallen in. I reached out and grabbed her hand but she’d slid out from my grasp. The cold air was frigid. My fingers already felt numb. I knew frostbite in a weather condition like this could happen in seconds but I didn’t care. I had to reach Kate. I had to save her. Shit! Why had I told her the truth now? Was it all worth it? I could lose Kate. Her skin was pale and white like the falling snow, her fingers felt like icicles. I was feeling numb by the minute. Kate’s fingers slid from mine, she’d gone into the water first. “Kate!” I shouted out but I could barely hear my own voice. Was I dying? Was I already dead? I didn’t give a shit—as long as Kate would be okay. But that wasn’t going to happen, was it? It was too late.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Kate Samuels
Oh, God! Where am I?
How long have I been out of it? How long have I been here?
Ouch! My head is killing me.
I was lying down on a narrow bed in a room with warm air. I felt weak, paralysed. Was I heavily sedated? Was I dead? My eyelids felt too heavy to open but I heard the sound of beeping from some machine and the humming sound of what sounded like an air conditioner but only it wasn’t. It was too warm. My neck was secured in some sort of brace.
The aroma of pine disinfectant wafted past my nostrils—that distinctive hospital cleaning product smell. Was I in a hospital bed?
I racked my brain trying to figure out what happened. Why I was there. My mind drifted again. I tried to move my hand but I felt a pricking feeling in one of the veins in my right hand. There was an intravenous inserted in there. Fluids must have been running through my blood right now. Warm fluids. Probably salt water or something. That was what I had before when I was in a hospital setting with a severe case of meningitis.
My mind drew a blank as if I had drifted into a nothingness.
A chill swept through my body.
Was I dead?
Was I dying?
Silence.
Darkness.
Moments passed before I became aware of my surroundings again. Maybe it was hours that passed. Who really knew? I moaned but I didn’t think anybody was in the room to hear me. My eyelids were still heavy and remained closed. I must have been drugged up. Maybe on Morphine or something.
Fear gripped my throat and wouldn’t let go. I was trapped—inside my self and my thoughts.
My guilt.
Guilt was always a heavy burden to carry.
But why had I felt this horrific bout of guilt? What had I done? Or what hadn’t I done?
Pieces of images splash across the dark screen of my mind. Peter. Oh, God! Peter was gone. He was dead. My heart squeezed at the memory. Or had it just happened? I felt tears well up inside my eyelids. Peter was standing up leaning over me…I looked up and looked around me. I screamed out but nobody heard me. I was in a casket and he was looking over me. Then he shut the door. I screamed again and banged hard on the wood but nothing happened. It was dark. Dark, icy cold. I felt numb. Lifeless. Why had Peter locked me in there? Why?
As I felt the breath sucked out of my lungs, the door to the casket re-opened. I was expecting to find Peter but only it wasn’t. It was Cory.
Cory Knights.
Cory saved me from being buried alive.
Cory.
Cory.
Cory.
My mind drew a blank.
Nothingness again.
Moments later, I became aware again. Awake but my eyelids still closed tight as if welded shut. As if I’d never be able to re-open them ever again. As if I would never see again. This time images of being submerged in an icy river ran across my mind. I was drowning, freezing, losing consciousness. A hand came out of nowhere. I screamed for Peter but it was Cory who had me. “Hold on to me, Kate! I’ve got you.”
Then…
I was under water, my hair washed into my face. I could not see, nor breathe. I was gone. Cory was with me under the water, too. His eyes were closed. He was gone, too. Peter was there under the water. He was already lying at the bottom of the frozen lake. Waiting for us. Waiting…
Then I heard sirens…
Darkness.
“She’s coming around, doc,” I heard a voice whisper. It was a male voice.
I felt a probe in my earlobe.
“Temperature back to normal, now,” the male voice said. His voice had been accented with a southern drawl.
“Good,” a woman’s voice called out. “She’s a lucky one. Isn’t she?”
“Yeah,” the male voice agreed.
“Usually in cases like this, frostbite and other localized injuries result in deep tissue damage.”
Deep tissue damage?
Oh, my God! I could have died!
“Affected body parts are usually amputated,” the woman’s voice continued.
My heart froze. My breath stopped!
Amputated?
They would have to amputate?
Jesus! No!
If there was every a time in my life when I felt that fear could actually choke me with one hand and suck the living breath out of me. It was then.
Amputation?
Everything seemed so much more into perspective now. My problems were nothing before, compared to this. Losing someone you love kills the soul, and losing a limb…? Unthinkable. Yet so many of my friends who served overseas have come back heroes—minus their limbs.
Oh, God!
I had nothing to complain about before. Nothing.
I heard the sound of paper shuffling, and the soft sound of a continuous beeping sound and smelled the fresh brew of a Starbuck’s coffee, probably belonging to one of staff members in my room. That quiet lull sound of distant beeping. There was stuff stuck to my skin, like markers or something. I was probably hooked up to an ECG machine.
My left arm had a sudden squeeze to it. A soft material strangled the heck out of it before deflating itself.
“Her blood pressure is still ninety over sixty,” the male voice said.
The female sighed and instructed the male to continue to watch it and retake the blood pressure again once the second bag of fluids go in.
