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Jordan’s head snapped back and a second later, he crumpled to the ground like a used paper towel, unconscious.
Tenley blinked down at him, nonplussed for a moment. Damn. That’d been easier than she’d thought.
But this was no time for musing. So, she bent down, grabbed his wallet, keys, and phone from his pockets, gave him a swift kick to the kidney for good measure, and beelined for the door. When she ripped it open, she stopped dead in her tracks.
“Knox,” she whispered.
CHAPTER 29
It took every bit of strength Knox had not to fall to his knees at her feet in sheer relief. He settled for dropping his baseball bat, grabbing her, and tugging her into his arms.
“I was so fucking worried,” he whispered into her hair. “Are you OK?”
“How are you here?” she asked, tightening her arms around his waist to the point that he could barely breathe. “How did you find me?”
“Ren helped.”
He pulled back just far enough to run his gaze over her, searching for injuries. Her lip was split, and there was an ugly bruise blooming on one of her perfect cheekbones. That alone was enough to make him want to kill whoever had the fucking nerve to touch her. But other than that, she looked blessedly unharmed.
Her lower lip trembled as she looked up into his eyes. “You came to…rescue me?”
He snorted. “Looks like you beat me to it. I should’ve known you had it under control.”
“I could handcuff myself to the chair again if you want,” she suggested. “Give you another shot at it.”
This was just one of the many, many reasons he loved her. “I think we can skip that.” He glanced behind her at the fallen body of the idiot who’d been stupid enough to think he could best her. He didn’t really even care who the bastard was. “Why do you seem surprised to see me?”
She swallowed hard. “The way I disappeared. I thought…well, I assumed…you would’ve…”
He kissed the corner of her mouth as gently as he could so that he wouldn’t hurt her poor abused lip. “You thought I’d assume you abandoned me because I told you I love you and you didn’t say it back?”
“Well…yeah.”
“Oh, baby.” He kissed her forehead this time. “I wasn’t expecting reciprocation. I was just telling you how I felt. You’ll tell me how you feel when you’re ready. I can wait.”
“See, that’s the thing. I didn’t know exactly how I felt yesterday when you said that, because I’ve never felt anything like it before.”
That was a gut punch for two reasons. First of all, it hurt his heart that Tenley couldn’t recognize love because she’d never felt it before. No one had shown her love in her life, and that was tragic. But also…was she saying she loved him without actually saying it? Because he’d take it. “It really is OK. You don’t need to—”
She slapped a hand over his mouth. “I’m not saying it. Not right now. But not because I don’t feel it. It’s just that…it’ll seem disingenuous if I say it right now, after this whole kidnapping ordeal. I’ll say it when there’s no reason for me to. That’s when you’ll know I’m being truthful and not being, well, you know…me.”
Knox kissed her palm before pulling her hand away from his mouth. “I can live with that. In fact, I can live with anything, as long as I have you.”
He was just about the kiss the hell out of her when he was nudged out of the way from behind.
“Yeah, very touching. Whatever,” the guy grumbled as he moved past Tenley and dumped a black duffel bag the size of a small country next to the body on the floor. He huffed out an exasperated breath and glanced from the body to Tenley. “Jordan, huh?”
Tenley nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. Traced me from the Whitehall job, then took a job on the dark web to kill Knox.”
“What an idiot,” he said, looking disgusted.
Tenley leaned into Knox and gestured to the newcomer. “Knox, this is Ren. I think you guys are already good friends, right?”
Knox held out a hand. Ren didn’t even bother glancing at it before saying, “Introductions can be done later. You know, when there’s not a body on the floor.”
Rude. But not wrong. Which was pretty much how Knox would describe everything he knew so far about Ren…whatever his last name was.
Physically, everything about Ren was aggressive. The angry slash of his black brows, his messy mop of black hair, the black eyes, the towering height and bulky muscles (there weren’t too many guys who made Knox feel dainty, but Ren was definitely one of them), the black-on-black, military-looking wardrobe, the holster and weapon he wasn’t even attempting to conceal…it was all very intimidating.
