Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
“I think you really should get seen, Mom.” Luke ignored the byplay between Mr. Knoxville and his son, focusing instead on me and his sister. “We’ll all go and you’ll be there with us.”
“I’ll take you and Aneshya. If I try to get seen too, they might put us in separate rooms. If I still feel bad after you guys are cleared, I’ll check in then. OK? Besides, we’ve still got to find Danny. He was right beside me when we realized there was a fire.”
“Fuck him,” Luke muttered.
That shocked me. “Luke! Why would you say something like that?”
The kid looked disgruntled and more than a little miserable but shook his head. “Sorry, Mom.”
Luke had started calling Danny by his first name a few weeks ago. Both of them refused to tell me why, and if Aneshya knew, she wasn’t saying either. Given the fact the poor girl couldn’t keep a secret to save her life, I figured she was telling the truth when she told me she didn’t know what had happened. But the relationship between Luke and his father had changed. Drastically.
“Mr. Knoxville, I have to find him. Can you take the children to the ER, and I’ll meet you there? I need to find Danny, but I don’t want to wait to get them care.”
“Evie. Honey.” Mr. Knoxville sighed, placing a hand on my shoulder before giving it a gentle squeeze. “How many times have I told you to call me Grover? And yes, Danny is my son, but these are my grandkids. You are the daughter of my heart.” He gave Knox a wry smile. “Had you been around when Danny first met Evie, I have no doubt you’d be their protector, Denver.”
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t. I’m not.” Knox frowned, looking like he didn’t take too kindly to Mr. Knoxville’s words. The last thing I wanted was to be on this guy’s bad side, but I wasn’t asking for anything from him.
“Danny isn’t their protector either. Someone needs to take care of them.”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here, or, worse, like I’m not capable of keeping my children safe.” My heart was starting to pound. Anger and fear rose up to overshadow any injuries I had.
“No one’s saying you can’t take care of Luke and Aneshya.” Mr. Knoxville sighed and shook his head. “Danny isn’t the right man for you. He’s not a good father to those kids, and you know it better than me. You’re just too kind to say so.”
“Good or bad, he’s still their father.”
“He’s an asshole,” Luke muttered.
“Luke!”
“Well, he is, Mom. He’s never here. He’s always got… other things to take care of,” Luke said, not meeting my gaze.
“Honey, your father’s a busy man. He works so hard.”
Luke snorted. “Yeah. Whatever.” Luke looked away but didn’t stray far from me or his sister.
“Luke.” Knox addressed my son. “Get your sister into the truck. Start it if you need to. I’m gonna secure my gear, then we’ll go to the hospital.”
“Why won’t you guys listen to me?” I would have screamed if I could have, but it came out more of a croak. “Danny is still in there somewhere!”
“He’s not.” Mr. Knoxville said, giving Knox a look I couldn’t decipher.
“Come on, Mom,” Luke said, taking my hand. “Aneshya says her chest hurts. We need to get to the hospital.”
I hadn’t really noticed but firefighters and police had finally turned up and were fighting the fire and blocking the place off. “Aren’t you with the fire department or the ambulance service?” I looked up at Knox who shook his head.
“No.” No other explanation. How the hell did he have all this equipment if he wasn’t with fire or EMS? “Come on. We need to get going.”
Mr. Knoxville was already in the truck with the kids. Surprisingly, he’d started the vehicle before climbing in the back with them. Luke was fussing over Aneshya while Mr. Knoxville sat staring out the window at the burning building.
“I’m sure he got out, Mr. Knoxville.”
The older man sighed before turning to face me. “Evelyn, I’m not going to tell you again. You’ll call me Grover. You call me mister anything again, I’ll put you over my knee.”
That got a giggle from Aneshya. I glanced back at her. She had covered her mouth with her hand, and Luke was trying to smother a grin.
“I suppose that means he told you.” Knox had opened the door and was climbing inside the cab. “Put that oxygen mask back on…” He glanced back at my children before adding, “young lady.”
That got another giggle from Aneshya. Knox, though as scary a man as I’d ever seen, glanced back at my daughter and… winked.
Sweet God…
With that gleam of humor and the upward twitch of his lips, Knox was… devastating. It was only a glimpse before his mask of indifference was back, but I knew without a doubt he’d shown that side of himself to the children to ease their fears. Aneshya wasn’t immune to his charm, though Luke just sneered at him. That was my son. If it involved me or his sister, he wasn’t prepared to take anything at face value.