Chapter 37

Lakeland

I feel nothing as I launch out of the water and run at my father, I won't allow these bottom feeding cockroaches to harm the man I love. I haven't even gotten a chance to speak to him or hold him since my memories came back and I won"t allow these bastards to take that chance from me. Percy spins around and his eyes widen, but he has no time to prepare as I jump at him, the momentum taking us to the ground. I scream as I hit, punch and claw at his face.

"Fuck you!" I scream. When I hear Clara scream, I snap my gaze up, forgetting all about Percy as Knox stands there looking from his mother then to me before closing his eyes, waiting for his end as Gio fires his gun. I scream, wanting to look away but unable to. My stomach drops as I wait to watch another person I love die before my eyes but at the last second Roberto spins around covers Knox with his body, taking the bullet to his back and taking them both to the ground. That's all I see before my father punches me. I fall to the ground groaning.

I hear shots over the buzzing in my ears and try to shake away the dizziness and push to my feet, but I'm sent sailing backwards when I'm kicked in the side. I cry out only to have the cry silenced when I'm robbed of air by another kick. I lay on my back gasping for breath as I stare up at my father. The cold, callous look in his eyes reminds me of all the years I had forgotten about when he would take his anger out on me, only for River to swoop in and save me, she took the beatings meant for me. Percy kicked her out because she refused to allow him to hurt me. She also wanted to tell me the truth about the accident but the monster we call Dad told her he would kill me if she did. Percy lifts his foot and presses his boot down on my throat, cutting off my airway. I claw at his leg and thrash beneath him trying to get free.

"You ungrateful little cunt. You spread your fucking legs for the wrong member of that fucking family!" My head begins to pound from the lack of oxygen, I feel my arms turning sluggish, the sounds of gunfire are drowned out by the sound of my blood pumping in my ears. In a last ditched effort to save myself, I reach up and grip the inside of his thigh with my fingers and pinch the fuck out of it. It's a pussy move but I don't care. The moment he removes his foot and stumbles backward, I suck in lungfuls of air. He roars in anger as he comes at me again but this time he rips my head back by my hair and punches me right in the mouth. The metallic taste of my own blood is the first thing to register before pain explodes in my face when he delivers the second hit.

I fling my arms, trying to shield my face from his punishment. "Why are you doing this?" I scream. The hits stop and I chance a glance through the gaps in my arms to see my father looking down at me with nothing but malice in his eyes. I see the real him, the angry jaded coward of a man I am forced to call my father. He is the only living relative I have left and yet I still know I would be better off without him.

"It was never about you to begin with, then you caught Gio's eye and I made a deal but that fucking prick Roberto ruined it, or so we thought, until you had no memory of your time with his bastard son."

"What the hell does Knox have to do with any of this?" His lip twitches in a snarl and I tense in preparation for him to strike me again, but he doesn't.

"The night his sister died he changed. I could control Roberto with the help of Giovani until Knox ruined it and took out his father. Keeping you alive and away from him kept our family safe, we knew he would never harm us so long as we had you. The bastard thought he hated you but he could still never bring himself to kill you because your sister made a deal with him that kept you alive. Things changed when he took the chair as the head of the family with the other Don's. We knew marrying you off to Gio would force him out of hiding, all we had to do was wait for him to come for you and now look, this is all because he fell in love with a worthless bitch. Hurting you meant hurting him which in turn led to us getting the upper hand on his father. Once he's gone, you will be sold to the highest bidder and finally make yourself worth something to me."

I almost wish I hadn't asked why he had done any of this. How could a monster like him ever share blood with me and my sister? He rears his arm back ready to strike me again and I don't bother to lift my arms to ward off the blow. I know Knox was outnumbered and I would rather be beaten to death like Riverland than face a reality of living in a world where Knox no longer does or being sold to some sadistic fuck.

"You're right." The husky sound of his voice has my head jerking upward to see Knox standing there with a gun pressed to Percy's temple. My father pales and freezes with his arm still raised. "All of this is for her. I stayed away because of a deal I made with one of my best friends but the second you broke that deal I came for what is mine." The conviction and the way he says I am his, I feel it in my soul.

"Pull the trigger then." Percy tries to sound unaffected but he can't keep the quiver out of his voice.

Knox tsks him. "Now, where would the fun be in ending a piece of shit like you so quickly?" Percy pales, he begins to ramble and plead for Knox to kill him as Mase and another guard grab Percy's arms and haul him off me, kicking and screaming. The moment he is gone, Knox drops to his knees beside me and I take in the sight of the blood covering him as he reaches for me and crushes me against his chest. I cling to him like he is my lifeline, being in his arms chases away all my fears. I feel safe, loved and protected.

I pull out of his embrace and gaze up at him. His eyes scan my injuries and darken at the sight but I don't care about that, I need him to know how I feel. "You never had to be anything more than who you were for me to love you." Reaching out I push to my knees and cup his cheek, loving the way he nuzzles into my touch. "I choose you, Knox, in every life I'll always choose you!"

The heated look that enters his eyes at my words has my breath hitching and my heart racing for a whole new reason. Knox leans down and rests his forehead against mine, we breathe each other in and all the sounds around us fade to white noise and nothing else exists in this moment except for me and him.

"I'll choose you always, Lay," he says softly before sealing his lips to mine. This kiss isn't like any of the others, there is no urgency or rush to it we take our time getting reacquainted with the feeling of each other. I know for him this must be too slow because he has been kissing me for weeks but this is six years in the making for me as the woman he has been kissing wasn't the real me. Not the me who is madly in love with him and has been since I was child, he was kissing the me that had no control over falling in love with him even when he was an asshole.

"We got to move, I got a crew coming to scrub the scene now, we need to get out of here, Knox." We pull apart at the sound of Taylan's voice. I look up and my chest clenches at the sight of his battered face. I push to my feet and wrap my arms around him, he's stiff for a second before he finally returns my embrace. "I knew calling you kitten would jog your memory." I snort out a laugh and shove him back, he flinches and I feel like a bitch.

"I'm so sorry–"

He raises a hand stopping me as Knox wraps an arm around my waist. "You and I both look about the same right now, kitten." I purse my lips and glare at him.

"You don"t get to call me kitten, you get to call me Lay or Lake." Tay and Knox both chuckle.

"It's good to have you back, Lay." Taylan's words have warmth spreading through me, then I take in the scene around us and gasp.

"How?" I breathe out.

Knox picks up what I'm putting down without me having to elaborate. "Once you attacked, Roberto took a bullet for me just as Mase and the others got here and joined in on the fight, that gave us the upper hand."

"What happened to Gio and Percy?" I spit out.

"They will be taken back home where I can take my time with them and… enjoy not having to rush." A shiver trails down my spine at his sinister words. Knox leads me back toward the cabins. I take in the sight of all the bodies on the ground. These men gave their lives for a cause they thought to be noble but how fucking wrong were they, they fought for an evil fucking monster and they paid the price with their lives. "Hey." Knox draws to a stop and turns me to face him, a couple of guys try to draw his attention but he waves them off keeping his focus on me. That, what he just did, not ignoring me to deal with someone else is the reason I will always choose him. He showed me for years before my accident when he professed his love that I could always count on him to be there for me. "What's wrong?"

Stepping into him I crane my neck back and hold his gaze as I wrap my arms around his waist allowing his warmth to soak into me. "Promise me that we will always find our way back to each other, no matter what."

His eyes soften as he leans down and kisses me. "I will always find my way back to you, kitten." I breathe him in, needing to be close and reminding myself that this isn't a dream and he is really here.

"Knox, I never want to miss a day with you. We lost six years together and I don't want to lose another second. I don't want anyone else to die so we can be together?—"

"Shhhh." I clamp my mouth closed and fight back the tears that want to fall. "These men around us knew there was a possibility they wouldn't return home. The men who fought for us died fighting to end a sex ring leader. With Gio and Percy gone we can now end that fucking app. The moment Karl steps a single foot out of line, I'll be there taking his ass down. All of that aside, I would go to war with God for you any day of the week because that's what you mean to me, Lay."

"Knox!" At the sound of his mother's cry, I step away from him as she comes bounding toward her son, crying. He pulls her in close and assures her he's okay repeatedly. I shiver and rub my hands up and down my arms, trying to get some warmth into my bones. I decide to slink off back to the cabin so I can take a hot shower before we leave and get out of these wet clothes before I catch a cold.

I feel horrible for feeling happy and like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders when so many have lost their lives. I pause at the bottom of the stairs of our cabin and tilt my head back looking up at the night sky, the stars shine brightly. I spot three bright ones and I allow myself to think of them as the three women I love most—Waverly, Riverland and my mom. I hate that the three of them aren't here with us, with me. My best friend and sister died so I could live, how the fuck do I live with the weight of their sacrifice?