Page 139 of Hard Bargain

Knox felt the realization move through him in a slow, disorienting wave.

Dominic knew, and the world hadn’t ended.

Dominic was watching him with an intensity that made it hard to breathe. His thumb pressed under Knox’s jaw, tilting his face up a fraction higher. “There’s nothing wrong with you. Anyone who’s ever made you think otherwise—that was their weakness, not yours.”

Knox’s eyes burned, but he didn’t look away.

“If your father thought he could scare that out of you, he didn’t deserve to be your dad.” Dominic’s voice had dropped to something dangerous. “You don’t get to be ashamed of this. Not with me. And you shouldn’t fear losing people over it either. Anyone worth keeping doesn’t walk away from you because of who you are.”

His thumb brushed against Knox’s jaw. Slower now, but the intensity didn’t ease. “You think you’re bi?”

Knox nodded.

“Then that’s what you are,” Dominic said, pressing their foreheads together.

All Knox could see staring back at him was acceptance, wrapped in something darker. He closed his eyes and breathed him in.

For the first time in his life, the thing he’d been most afraid of didn’t hurt at all.

Chapter 35

Knox

Afew days later, he drove back home from his mom’s place, morning light cutting across the windshield in blinding streaks.

The visit had gone about as expected.

She wasn’t better, but she wasn’t worse either, and lately that felt like the closest thing to a win he was going to get. She’d complained the entire time—about Knox leaving, the apartment, the neighbors, but mostly about the nurse Dominic had arranged. Said she was too strict, too cold, and too controlling.

Knox almost smiled at that. The woman was tough. She didn’t take any of his mom’s usual bullshit, didn’t let her skip meals or “forget” her medication. Every time his mom tried to push back, the nurse shut it down with the practiced efficiency of someone who’d been doing this her whole life. It was exactly what his mother needed, even if she hated it.

Knox adjusted his grip on the wheel as traffic thickened closer to Dominic’s side of town. He was rushing back for a sparring session with Cassian, and this time Dominic was joining.

His gaze flicked to the side mirror, then back to the road, his mind drifting ahead to the gym.

Then—movement.

Too fast. Too close.

A car shot into his peripheral vision from the left, cutting through the intersection like it hadn’t even considered slowing down. Knox’s foot shifted instinctively, hands tightening on the wheel—

The impact hit from the side.

Deafening. Everything lurched. The world didn’t spin so much as tilt violently, like it had been ripped off its axis. The wheel wrenched from his hands and his body snapped sideways with a force that emptied his lungs completely.

Sound collapsed into itself. There was metal grinding, glass breaking, and a shrill ringing tore through his skull.

He tried to breathe and couldn’t. Panic surged as his lungs refused to expand no matter how hard he fought for air.

He couldn’t tell where he was, which way was up. There was a dull, distant awareness of pain—somewhere, everywhere—but it didn’t settle long enough to make sense.

The world flickered.

And then there was nothing at all.

* * *

Knox came back to himself slowly. Not all at once, just fragments. A dull ache pulsed behind his eyes, the taste of iron sat at the back of his throat, and restraints dug into his wrists.