Knox: A Suspenseful M/M Brother's Best Friend Romance, page 15
“I was with Gunnar when it happened,” I tell them.
“What exactly happened?” Mrs. Carr asks.
“Gunnar went to help someone he thought was hurt, but it turned out to be the person who has been trying to kill me,” I supply, simplifying the details. “She stabbed him.”
Gunnar’s parents gasp, and Malcolm looks white as a ghost.
“I’m sorry. If I had known this was a possibility, I would never have let him come with me.”
Mrs. Carr sits next to me and wraps me in a hug. “It’s not your fault, sweetheart,” she reassures me as I cry into her shoulder.
“Mr. and Mrs. Carr,” an older woman calls out, and they make their way to her.
I want to follow to know what’s happening, but I can’t exactly say I’m his boyfriend right now.
“Why did the girl stab Gunnar?” Malcolm asks when we are alone.
I shrug. “I don’t know. It should have been me.”
Malcolm nods, not disagreeing. “You can go if you want. He’s got me and his parents now.”
I shake my head. “He’s in this because of me. I’m not going to abandon him. I’ll leave when I know he’s okay.”
Malcolm stares me down but, thankfully, doesn’t press the issue. The last thing we need right now is for him to lose his shit while his best friend is in surgery.
“Boys,” Mrs. Carr calls out, and I immediately rush to her.
“He’s stable and asking for you,” she says. I know she’s talking to me, but Malcolm doesn’t seem to get that.
“Makes sense. Can I see him?” Malcolm asks.
I shoot Mrs. Carr a pleading look that I hope she understands.
She nods. “Head on in, honey. He’s in room two twenty-four. I have a question for Knox that will only take a second.”
Malcolm walks away, and I’m left standing with my boyfriend’s mother, who doesn’t know we’re dating, or maybe she does now.
“How long have you two been together?” she asks.
“Just a few days,” I answer honestly. “How did you know?”
She smiles and grabs my shoulder. “I’m his mother, dear. We have ESP about our children, but when he asked for you and not Malcolm, it was a clear giveaway. Then he told me the truth.”
“We didn’t want to say anything until we knew how real it was. Malcolm isn’t going to accept it, and we figured it was better not to cause a blowup if this was only going to be a passing thing.”
Mrs. Carr pulls me into her arms and holds me for a minute. “I understand, and I’ll do my best to keep your secret.”
I squeeze her back in thanks.
“Come on, he really wants to see you.”
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to come and stand outside the door,” Bennett says. “I’m Bennett, by the way, a coworker of Knox’s.”
“It’s nice to meet you. I’ll take that to mean they didn’t catch whoever did this,” Mrs. Carr states.
“I’m sorry. I wish I could say differently.”
“It’s fine. You work for good people, and I’m sure they’ll catch the person soon,” she declares, leading us to Gunnar’s room.
When we enter, it takes all my strength to stop myself from rushing to his side.
“How are you?” I ask with a lump in my throat.
Tears spring back to my eyes, and I try not to sob.
“I’m alive. Sorry for scaring you,” he says, staring directly into my eyes.
“I can’t believe some asshole stabbed you when they were trying to get to my brother,” Malcolm says, shaking his head. “Why were you with him anyway?”
“We were trying to lure the person out and thought it would make sense for us to be seen together since we’re roommates,” Gunnar explains, but Malcolm scoffs.
“That’s stupid. Just because he’s staying with you doesn’t mean you’re all of a sudden besties and have to spend all your time together. It would have been smarter for you to do this on your own,” he says to me with disdain.
“I didn’t want him to do it alone,” Gunnar argues.
“That’s ’cause you’re a good guy, but my brother should have been smarter and said no.”
I want to argue, but Malcolm isn’t wrong. If I had followed my gut and forced Gunnar not to participate, none of this would have happened.
“I’m glad to see you’re okay, but I should probably get going,” I interject, and the way Gunnar frowns makes my heart ache more than it already is.
“Please, Knox, don’t go,” Gunnar begs.
Malcolm’s brows furrow together as his eyes ping pong between Gunnar and me. “What the hell is going on?”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. The words I’m about to say are guaranteed to piss my brother off, but I have to say them. “Gunnar and I are dating. That’s why he went on the hike with me this morning. We knew that the person was most likely stalking me and would be suspicious if I went by myself.”
“You’ve got to be joking with me,” Malcolm grumbles.
“We’re happy for you, son,” Mr. Carr tells Gunnar, whose lips turn up the smallest amount.
“I fucking told you not to do this!” Malcolm sneers at me. “I said he was off-limits. You are not supposed to date my fucking best friend. And now you’ve gone and put his life in danger, you selfish prick.” Malcolm shoves my chest, causing Mr. and Mrs. Carr to gasp.
“Malcolm, stop,” Gunnar pleads.
“No!” he shouts, turning to his best friend. “You knew how I would feel about this, and you did it anyway.”
“This isn’t just some meaningless fling,” I tell my brother, hoping it will calm him. “If it was, we wouldn’t have started anything. We both really like each other. We tried our hardest to stay away because we knew how you would feel, but we couldn’t stop it.”
“How the hell could you feel that strongly about each other in such a short time?” Malcolm asks, running a hand through his hair.
“Because I’ve been in love with him since I was fifteen years old,” I admit, and Gunnar’s eyebrows damn near touch his hairline.
“You always have to do stupid shit, don’t you?” Malcolm growls at me.
“Stop talking to him like that,” Gunnar commands. “Knox isn’t stupid, and you need to stop treating him like he is. He’s always put you and the entire family first. You can’t keep treating him like he’s a fuck-up because that’s the last thing he is.”
“I can’t deal with this right now,” Malcolm grumbles, then storms out.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper as I rush to Gunnar’s side.
He shakes his head and reaches for my hand. “You love me?”
A tear trickles down my face, and I nod. “Yes, I have for a long time, and I do even more now.”
“I love you too,” Gunnar tells me, and I lean down to give him a gentle kiss.
“Oh! This is just too sweet,” Mrs. Carr gushes.
“You’re not mad that we kept it secret?” Gunnar asks.
“Seeing how Malcolm just reacted, it makes sense,” Mr. Carr says.
“We didn’t want to keep it from you guys,” I assure Gunnar’s parents. “We just wanted to make sure this was more than just a surface-level attraction. I knew, for me, it would be since, like I told Malcolm, I’ve had a crush on Gunnar since I was a teenager, but I didn’t know what it would be like for Gunnar.”
“I think I’ve had a minor crush on you for some time but just didn’t realize it,” Gunnar tells me. “But the moment we got together, I knew it was right.”
I smile and kiss his forehead.
“How long are you likely to be in the hospital?” I ask.
“A couple of days to make sure there isn’t any infection, and then I’ll be home on bed rest for the first week or two, followed by four to six weeks more of slowly increasing activity,” he tells me.
“I’ll help you,” I state.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know, but I want to,” I assure him. “Please, I already feel guilty enough. And it’s not like I can go back to work until we catch the girl.”
Gunnar smiles and nods. “I won’t say no to my hot boyfriend taking care of me.”
“Why don’t you go home, have a shower, change, and eat something,” Mrs. Carr suggests. “We’ll stay with Gunnar until you get back.”
“I need to call Nixon first,” I tell them. “Since things have escalated, I want someone posted outside his room at all times, and there is no way Bennett will let me leave without him.”
“Sounds good,” Mr. Carr states. “Whatever you think is necessary.”
Stepping out of the room, I pull out my phone to call my boss.
“How’s Gunnar?” he asks when he answers.
“Alive,” I respond. “I need to head home and shower quickly, but I don’t want to leave his room unguarded.”
“I figured that would be the case,” Nixon notes. “Stefan is already on his way to the hospital.”
“Thanks. Any word on who the girl is?” I ask.
“Penelope Mercer,” he says, and I gasp.
“Mercer?” I clarify.
Fuck, I haven’t heard that last name in a long time.
Penelope must be the sister of Edward Mercer, the only person I ever killed outside of the military.
When I started working for Hunter Security, I was guarding a young woman who used to date Ed. He was mentally and physically abusive. When she finally left him, she hired us to keep her safe until she could figure out a new place to move to where he couldn’t find her.
One night, she went to her sister’s bachelorette party, and he showed up with a gun. He aimed it at her with the clear intent of killing her, but I jumped in front and caught the bullet in my shoulder. I shot him back, but my bullet hit his heart, killing him instantly.
The investigation into his death was a long process, and I was on desk duty until it was all sorted, but the physical evidence, eyewitness testimony, and the company’s background information on the guy all made it very clear cut in the end. It was deemed a justified killing. Justified or not, I still wish it had ended differently.
His sister must have only been a kid at the time.
“Why does she want me dead? Her brother wasn’t exactly a good guy.”
“She was young. She could have a skewed memory of how he really was,” Nixon suggests. “Maybe he was good to her, and she doesn’t understand how you could take him away from her. It looks like she was living with him at the time of the incident and went into foster care after. Their parents died a few years earlier when she was eight and Ed was eighteen.”
“Fuck,” I murmur.
“Yeah, I’ve sent all the information to the police,” he informs me. “I’m sure they’ll be there shortly. I’d hurry up and change if I were you.”
“Fuck it, I’m staying,” I grumble. “I’ll give Stefan a key to my place when he gets here and see if he’ll grab me a change of clothes.”
“I’ll grab your stuff,” Nixon says. “There isn’t much we can do right now anyway.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it,” I tell him, ending the call.
Bennett is staring at me with wide eyes, having obviously only heard part of the conversation. “The blue-haired girl is Ed Mercer’s sister?” he checks in a hushed tone.
“Crazy, right?”
Bennett blows out a breath and grabs the back of his neck. “How could she defend a fuckwad like that?”
“Nixon pointed out that she might have a skewed memory. He raised her for two years after their parents passed away. Maybe he was different in her presence.”
“I guess that makes sense,” he responds. “Still, this is crazy. That was what, like, eight years ago now?”
“Yup, that puts Penelope at eighteen. It was probably too hard to try and pull this off sooner.”
“At least we have a name now,” Bennett says.
It’s a start, but if Penelope hates me this much, I’m not sure anything will stop her. And having grown up in the system, she’ll know how to keep a low profile. It wouldn’t surprise me if she evades the cops for a while.
We’re going to need a miracle to end all of this without someone else getting hurt.
After the police have interviewed Gunnar, I’m finally forced to leave the hospital to take care of myself, and I fucking hate it. I want to stay by his side, but my body and pants are covered in dried blood, plus I’m starving. A fact that Mrs. Carr didn’t miss. Although she might have had my stomach not been rumbling like crazy.
Bennett doesn’t push to fill the silence on the drive, and I can’t decide if it’s a good thing. Guilt settles in my gut, my thoughts racing about how I got Gunnar into this mess. If only I hadn’t taken him up on his offer for a place to stay. But the alternative of putting my family in danger doesn’t sit right either.
Pulling up to the house, I’m not shocked to see Malcolm sitting on the front steps According to the camera footage, he’s been here for about an hour at least.
“Go on ahead. I’m going to check on a few things, then I will be inside,” Bennett offers as I get out of the car.
“Why did you have to go and ruin everything?” Malcolm asks as I walk up the path to the front door. His head is in his hands, and he looks miserable.
“Dramatic much? Nothing has been ruined,” I assure him. “But it’s not like I can just shut my feelings off. Neither can Gunnar. And why should we be expected to?”
“But why Gunnar?” he grumbles. “He’s my only close friend. He’s like another brother. You should think of him as a brother, not want to fuck him.”
“Exactly, he is your close friend, not mine. I was only ever your younger brother to him. But I did ask myself the same thing the first time I noticed my crush on him, but the fact is, he isn’t, and never has felt like a brother to me,” I admit. “Besides, Gunnar is a great guy, so why not him? Why can’t I be with the person who means the most to me, outside my family?”
“Because he’s my best friend,” he shouts. “If you two break up, I’m going to lose him, and I’m done losing people. Hell, given today’s events, even if you don’t break up, I might lose him anyway because of you,” Malcolm all but spits out, and I’m taken aback by the amount of venom in his voice.
“Look. I didn’t mean to put him in danger. I fucking hate myself that he got hurt because of this situation. I even tried to refuse to let him come, but do you really think there was any possible way to keep him from going with me today? You know Gunnar better than most people. He’s strong-headed, and as soon as he has his mind set on something, there’s no stopping him. He would have shown up anyway.”
Malcolm lets out a snort but doesn’t respond right away. “You’ve always done stupid stuff,” he states. His voice is now eerily calm as he stands. “But this is one thing you had control of. No, you can’t control how you feel, but you can control how you act. I don’t ask much of you, but this is one thing I said was off-limits.”
I scoff. “Bullshit, Malcolm. All you do is ask things of me, boss me around, and put me down. At first, I thought you didn’t want Gunnar dating me because of some weird overprotective brother shit and not wanting to see me get hurt, but now I can see it’s not that at all. It’s that you don’t want Gunnar dating me. What the fuck did I ever do to make you hate me this much?”
“Fuck off,” he barks, but I won’t back down.
“No. I’m done being your verbal punching bag. I’m a good brother, a good friend, and a good son. I was a good officer while I served and left with an exemplary record. I’m a highly trained and highly valued member of one of the best and most sought-after security firms in the world.
“I’ve always done everything you and the rest of the family asked of me despite my own feelings. This is the first time I’ve ever done something just for me because it was right for me.
“I’m tired of not being happy, of not being allowed to be happy. It’s not right, and I’m done taking your shit. I don’t deserve it, not then and not now.
“The fact that you can’t see that only tells me one thing… that the problem is not me and not Gunnar. It’s you! You’re the one with the problem, and it’s past time you got some fucking help.”
The last thing I expect is for Malcolm to punch me in the face, so I don’t brace for it.
I’m clutching my face in pure shock when Bennett races over to us, shouting at my brother. “Get the fuck out of here.”
Malcolm’s eyes are wide as if he’s just as surprised by what happened as I am. “Shit,” he mutters, rushing to his car.
“You okay?” Bennett asks.
I nod, and even though my face hurts like a son of a bitch, I’m positive nothing is broken. Although, I’m guaranteed a good shiner for the next week or so.
“I can’t believe he just did that,” I murmur, full of disbelief. “We’ve argued plenty over the years like all siblings do, but he’s never punched me.”
“Something’s clearly fucking with his head,” Bennett states as we watch Malcolm drive away.
I wasn’t wrong when I said he needs help. I just hope he gets it.
Chapter Twenty-four
Gunnar
It’s only been three days since the incident, but everything in my life feels different. Knox is a bundle of nerves, and it’s beginning to transfer to me.
I’ve never had someone wanting me dead. I can’t begin to imagine how he feels. Because even though Penelope attacked me, I’m still not her main target. She’s out there, and no one can find her, and it has us all walking on pins and needles.
I wish I could do something to lessen Knox’s anxiety, but my hands are just as tied as everyone else’s.
I was also hopeful that Malcolm would have called by now, at the very least, to apologize for punching Knox, but he’s been radio silent to both of us. He’s also refusing to talk to anyone in his family, but according to Tatiana, Ayla, Malcolm’s wife, is ready to lose it.
Knox and I are sitting on the couch, watching some reality television show I’ve never heard of that might be entertaining if my brain wasn’t otherwise distracted.
