1. Knox

Chapter 1

Knox

Gilded Lake was gorgeous, if you were into the small-town thing, which I didn't think I was. But pulling up into the tree-lined parking lot, something caught in my throat that felt almost like homesickness. I looked around at the quiet pine trees and blue sky and shook my head. I was here to do a job, and I was determined to be good at it.

I looked in the rearview mirror and put on the cowboy hat I'd bought the day before. I spent a good half-hour scuffing it up, but somehow, it still looked brand-new. I stared at my reflection and sighed. Were they gonna buy this? Either way, I didn't have a choice. I'd been waiting for my own assignment since joining the unit almost two years ago, and now that I finally had this chance to prove myself, I wasn't about to blow it. I turned my eyes into the gritty, hard slits I'd practiced in the mirror, then got out of the car.

With my sunglasses on, I sauntered up to the door and pulled it open. I wanted to look eager, but not too eager, like I needed this job but was also fine if they gave me something else to do.

Several people stood around the receptionist's desk, and they all stopped their conversations and looked at me when I walked in. There were two men in suits holding coffee cups and a woman in a gray dress and a very large pearl necklace waiting for me to say something.

She must be Carla, but she couldn't know that I knew that.

I cleared my throat and nodded my head in my best Southern boy impersonation. "Ma'am. I'm Knox."

They stared at me without comprehension, so I tried again.

"Knox. Um, the mayor's new assistant. I think you're expecting me."

The two men looked at each other and snickered, then disappeared through the back door. The receptionist jumped up and scurried around the front desk, stopping a little too close to my face as she gave me an evil eye. "Why did you come here?"

Oh crap. I was already messing this up. "I was sent here."

I pulled the business card my boss had given me out of my back pocket and handed it to her. She took it from me and furrowed her eyebrows, turning the card over and over as if there were a puzzle on it she was trying to decipher. "Where did you get this?"

My heart sped up and my palms were instantly sweaty. "Look, I'm just doing what I was told." It was the truth, though she didn't know quite what that meant. "Is the mayor here or not?"

Just then, a voice buzzed out from the intercom on her desk. "Bring him back, Carla."

Her expression changed from confusion to annoyance. "Follow me."

We walked through the same door the two men had just gone through, and I had to do a double take behind me to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. We'd come from what looked like a doctor's waiting room and were suddenly standing in something akin to a penthouse suite in a swanky resort. My eyes widened as I looked around at the gleaming mahogany furniture atop luxurious rugs. Everywhere I looked, there were paintings or sculptures.

In the back of the room, huge French doors opened to acres of grassland, and a herd of elk grazed majestically in the distance.

At first, I didn't notice the mayor was there because he was sitting in the shadows against the wall. But when I heard a sound, I looked over and saw Mayor Francesco was standing up in front of an armchair.

I'd seen enough photographs to know he was handsome, but when he stepped from the shadows, my breath caught in my throat. Like a chiseled Greek statue, he put the gorgeous surroundings to shame. He was tall and muscular, but not menacing as he stepped toward me with an unreadable expression. "Knox, is it?" His voice was low and rich.

I extended my hand. "That's right, sir. It's nice to meet you."

He took my hand, but rather than shaking it, he squeezed it hard and scrutinized me with his deep onyx eyes.

I cleared my throat. "Thank you for this opportunity."

"I'm only doing it for Jude."

The mayor had no idea that Jude was currently in our custody, feeding us information in exchange for eventual witness protection.

He turned and walked to the back doors then looked out over the grass. "Do you hunt?"

That didn't sound like a great idea. "Yes?"

He raised an eyebrow, amused. "You don't sound so sure."

"I hunt, just not very well."

"I see." He crossed his arms over his chest, looking me up and down. "Well, everyone in this town carries a gun, even the kids."

The other people in the room, whom I'd completely forgotten about, chuckled.

I hoped that was an exaggeration as I smiled.

A smirk flashed across the mayor's face, but as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. He was gonna be hard for me to read.

I cleared my throat again, hoping I didn't come off as nervous as I felt. "Well, sir, I'm eager to get started."

Without a word, the mayor stepped through the French doors and onto the balcony. Sunlight hit his dark hair like water on glass.

Unsure what else to do, I followed him down the steps. My breath caught in my throat again as I watched him walk. I'd always had a thing for authority figures. It was nearly my downfall in the military, and I couldn't let that happen here.

This job was too important.

I had to keep up my front so he never saw who I really was. I took a deep breath, clenched my teeth, and stepped up beside him.

There were footsteps behind me, so I turned and saw the larger of the two men walking behind us. That was Claude, the mayor's head guard. I'd looked over his file details and they made my blood curdle. He was not a friendly dude. Claude stared back at me, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses, but he was wearing an earpiece and didn't even try to hide the gun at his waist.

I followed the mayor down a trail that led to a stream through the back of the property. When we reached the water, he knelt down and stuck his hand into it. I knelt beside him as his eyes locked on mine, studying me for a moment before looking pointedly at my hand.

I hesitated, then plunged my hand next to his.

The seconds stretched into a minute as my hand was going numb in the ice-cold water. I gritted my teeth, unwilling to be the first to draw my hand out. I had no idea what we were doing. If it was some kind of hazing ritual, Jude hadn't warned me about it.

The mayor's expression was hard to read as he gazed thoughtfully across the field.

I could no longer feel my hand, but I just clenched my jaw and closed my eyes, waiting him out. Did he want me to flinch first? Would that be a show of respect to his strength? That was the paramount question I always needed to be thinking about. What would make him trust me…

Unable to take the pain a moment longer, I yanked my purple hand from the icy water and turned away from the mayor so I could squeeze it in private.

Claude saw me and a smirk passed over his face. Asshole.

To my surprise, the mayor didn't pull his hand out after I did. He kept it in for another thirty seconds, lazily swirling the water with his still-functioning fingers.

Maybe the competition had been entirely in my head. That reality made me feel foolish.

Finally, Mayor Francesco slowly pulled his hand from the water as if he had all the time in the world. He lazily flicked the water off his skin and rubbed his hand on his shirt.

He stood up and walked away with me following, hiding my useless hand behind my back.

At long last, he smiled, and once again, I wasn't ready for my body's response. A gorgeous dimple appeared in each of his cheeks, causing butterflies to take flight in my stomach. "Are you ready to get to work, Knox?"

I nodded and then swallowed hard. "Let's do it."

The mayor led me through his office and back to the front part of the building where the receptionist was flipping through a magazine. "Carla, you've already met Knox. He's my new assistant, and I want you to show him the ropes."

Carla's eyebrows furrowed as she slowly looked me up and down. "Aren't you gonna train him, Luca?"

The mayor was already walking through the door as he answered her without turning his head. "I already did."