Chapter Twelve

Evelyn

I'd never been so nervous in my life. Not only did I have to face Danny in a room full of… not exactly strangers, but men I was embarrassed to look so stupid in front of. These men were Knox's family. If he truly meant to keep me in his life like I intended to keep him, then they would soon be my family too. Lemon and Apple already felt like younger sisters.

We walked into the bunker. There was a half staircase leading down where they'd dug into and slightly underneath the small knoll to hide this place but left enough room to work in. One side was filled with what looked like stored boxes and canned goods, while the other side held a table, chairs, and various instruments that might have been torture devices. Might have been tools. I had no idea what they were used for, but it was questionable. The point was, Danny was eyeing them nervously. I didn't blame him. He was tied to the chair he was sitting in. It was obvious he wasn't here to have a pleasant chat.

Two men were already inside talking to Danny. I'd met them both when Knox moved things into the house. Piston and Rattler turned to look at us as we stepped inside the small room.

"Y'all ready for this?" Rattler's smile was pure evil. Like he was going to enjoy whatever happened next and made no apologies for it.

Piston sat in a chair he'd turned around so he straddled the seat and rested his forearms on the back. Rattler leaned against the wall next to the table where the tools had been laid out in a neat row.

"Knox." Danny looked scared as I'd ever seen him. He usually had a cunning look about him I'd misread in the past as him being absorbed in thought about his work. I guess he'd had to be cunning to juggle two women living in the same fucking apartment building.

Knox and Rocket exchanged a look until Rocket nodded. Permission for Knox to start? "Who told you Evelyn had been shot?"

"One of the neighbors. He heard the gunshots and --"

"Cut the shit, Danny! There were no neighbors. No one noticed enough to call the cops. No one but those of us near the house knew. So I'm asking you one more time. Who told you?"

"I can get it out of him if you want, Knox." Rattler picked up a small saw blade, looking it over like the cheesy villain in a movie. "We can start with his toes and work our way up."

"What the fuck? Knox! What the fuck?" Danny was panting now, looking from the small saw to Knox and back, not wanting to take his eyes off the threat. Then he turned his gaze on me. "Evie! Tell them I'd never hurt you. You know I wouldn't."

I had to literally bite my tongue to keep silent. At one time in my life, I might have solidly backed him up. Not now, though. He was a master at manipulating me. I'd chosen to let him by ignoring warning signs. Despite the fact he was the father of my children, despite the fact that my instinct was to support him, I absolutely would not take his side in this. These men would get the truth out of him because Knox said they would. I believed Knox because I'd trusted his father more than anyone else in my life, and he'd trusted Knox.

"Tell me what I want to know," Knox insisted.

Danny shook his head. Knox stepped forward and punched him in the nose. Blood squished between his face and Knox's knuckles, and Danny squealed like a pig, trying to get up from the chair but unable to because of his bonds. He probably thought he could run away, but that obviously wasn't happening.

"No one else was supposed to get hurt." His expression crumpled, and Danny started crying. "No one else, I swear."

"Why Evelyn?" It was a demand, not a question. When Danny just started sobbing, Knox repeated himself. "Why. Evelyn." There was an edge of violence about Knox I'd never seen before. It was like he was struggling to suppress his anger but was now losing the battle.

"Because Jordan won't take me back!" Danny yelled his answer, his gaze darting to mine. I saw resentment there. Frustration maybe? I didn't know. Didn't much care. "She said she couldn't live with knowing I had another woman out there I had a family with when she'd struggled to have children of her own."

"How would killing Evelyn fix that problem? Sounds like your wife is done with you, no matter what."

"If I had custody of the kids and Evelyn was gone, she'd let me come back. She'd have the children we always wanted, and everything could go back to the way it was!"

If he'd slapped me, I wasn't sure I'd have been more surprised. "She actually told you that?" I knew I should have kept my mouth shut, but I couldn't seem to. The question slipped out. Had I been living in the shadow of not one, but two sociopaths?

"She didn't have to," he spat at me, his anger turned fully in my direction now. "She wanted kids. She lost the one she was carrying after the fire. She'd be happy to have my children, no matter how old they are."

"And if she didn't, Danny? What if she wanted babies instead of older kids -- children who would have reminded her every day that you'd led a double life -- one of those lives without her. What if she rejected you then?"

"She wouldn't," Danny said, confidence ringing in his voice even as tears still streamed down his face.

"I didn't ask if she would, Danny. I asked what would have happened if she did. What would you have done if you'd killed me and Jordan didn't want Luke and Aneshya and refused to take you back?"

Danny looked away and I had my answer.

"Got any idea how a blood brother of mine has turned out so Goddamned dumb?" Knox addressed the question to Rocket who shrugged.

"Not sure. I mean, Lemon said you never struck her as particularly bright. Until you claimed Evelyn, that is." He grinned. "I think she'd agree you're not a dumbass. Your brother, on the other hand? Yeah. Did either of your parents smoke? Maybe it was a birth defect?"

Knox snorted. "You've been hangin' with the VP too long, prez."

Rocket scowled. "Christ. That is something she'd say, innit." Rocket shook his head before addressing Danny. "You admit you're the one who killed Grover Knoxville in an attempt to kill Evelyn?"

"I didn't kill anybody!"

"But you had someone else do it."

"How do you know it was me? It could have been Jordan." Danny gave a nervous laugh. "I'm broke! I don't have a job. Never had a job! Jordan is the one with all the money. Her and her parents."

There was movement at the door. I started and moved my hand from Knox's to his arm, gripping tightly and moving so that I was sheltered in the strength of his body. I knew I was safe here, or thought I was, but I was so off-balance I wasn't sure I could hold it together much longer.

Crush stepped inside and shut the door behind him. He met my gaze and ducked his head. "Sorry, Evelyn. Didn't mean to startle you."

"It's OK." My voice was barely above a whisper. "Not your fault."

He patted me on the shoulder awkwardly before tossing a file on the table where Piston sat. Rocket picked it up and thumbed through it, his face hard and unreadable.

"You confirmed all this." It wasn't a question.

"Everything. Byte did the initial research. I corroborated everything he dug up."

Rocket tossed the folder back on the table and scrubbed a hand over his face. "Did you find the shooters?"

"Yep. Ringo took care of them. He's currently spreading them over the Everglades region outside our territory. Different… regions." Crush looked very uncomfortable as he glanced back-and-forth from me to Danny.

"Good. Knox? There anything else you need to know before we take care of this?"

Knox looked down at me. I shook my head, blinking back tears. "He's insane," I whispered.

"He's a megalomaniac," Crush said. "He was in it for the power and the money." He shook his head slightly. "Power from being able to keep you and the kids on the line without his wife knowing. Money from his wife and her family. He'd been slowly siphoning off funds from a variety of his wife's accounts. Looked like he'd recently gotten into some of her father's accounts as well. If things had gone on the way they had been, I have no doubt he'd have cleaned them both out eventually."

"That's not true, Evie," Danny jumped in. It was easy to see the sweat on his face. "You know me."

"Yeah, Danny." I sighed, shaking my head. "I know you. And you're lying. You did all of that. And tried to have me killed. You'd have killed your own children to further whatever scheme you were playing at." I thought I'd have some kind of breakdown, but I felt strangely at peace. I'd weathered what could have been the worst thing to happen in my life outside of my parents' death. Grover hadn't tried to replace my father in my life, but I came to think of him as an extension of my father. They'd have liked each other. "I have no idea what's going to happen to you, but I'm sure it won't be pleasant."

"Damned straight," Knox muttered. He pulled me into his arms, and I let him. Right now, there was no other place I wanted to be than with Knox.

"You want me to have Lemon come get her?" Rocket spoke softly.

"Evie! What about the kids? They need their father!"

"You lost the right to call them that when you had someone try to kill me with the kids nearby." I jerked, shoving away from Knox and moving closer to Danny. "You tried to kill me, Danny. With Luke and Aneshya right there." My voice shook. Hell, my whole body trembled.

"Yeah, Evie, I heard you the first time," he muttered. That was the Danny I knew. The one who talked down to me when he got drunk or was generally frustrated. It didn't happen often, but when it did, I wanted to make him hurt the way he'd made me hurt. I thought that, now, maybe I could dish out what I should have years ago.

"You did, huh?" I wanted to hit him. To hurt him like he'd hurt Grover. Unfortunately, not only did I not have something to hit him with, I wasn't that kind of person. I didn't have it in me to really hurt someone unless it was in defense of my kids. It was the thought that they could have been hurt that brought me to this state of mind in the first place, but they were home safe with Lemon, Apple, and three of Grim Road's men protecting them. So I did the only thing I could do. I spat in Danny's face. "Did you hear that? No? That's the sound of how many fucks I give about you. You disgust me!"

"Evelyn. Evie." Danny gave me his best pleading face. "You know they're gonna kill me unless you do something."

"I'm not sure I could do anything to change the outcome for you even if I wanted to." A hand rested on my shoulder gently. Without even looking I knew it was Knox. "You dug your own grave. Now, it's time you lie in it."

"Come on, Evie!"

I turned and buried my face in Knox's chest. "I want to go home."

"Then that's where I'll take you."

"Evie? Please." Danny actually sounded like he was going to cry. "You and the kids are all I've got left!"

I took a deep breath and turned back to him. "Goodbye, Danny."