The Billionaire's Secret Kink Box Set: Knox: Secret Alpha Billionaire Romance Bundle (Rosesson Brothers Book 1) (19 page)

Mica pulled out her phone. She had a bit of battery left and needed a distraction. Her only message was a text from Justin.

How was it?!?! I need details!!

Mica smiled at her phone. Last night felt like an age ago, but still she couldn't resist the urge to mess with Justin.

So good he's in the ER

Mica laughed lightly to herself as she imagined Justin's reaction. She saw him throwing his head back and laughing like a loon, then doing a little-boy-who-has-to-pee dance as he texted back. The text came through and she wasn't disappointed.

GIRL! I always knew you were a freak!

Mica shook her head, a bemused smile playing on her lips. He knew no such thing.

Just kidding. We didn't do anything. We're in the ER because Bailey showed up and stabbed him. In the arm. He's getting stitches.

Mica didn't have to wait long for a response.

HOLY SHIT! It's a good thing you called Mr. Hot Stuff. He took a knife for you. That's called love, baby. What about Bailey?

He got away.

Bronx touched her on the arm as she waited for Justin's reply. She looked up.

"They are done with him. We are just waiting for his IV to finish and then they will discharge him. You can come in now," he said.

She smiled at Bronx and nodded her head toward her phone. "In a minute."

He smiled back and she was struck by how much it made him look like Knox.

"What did the green eye say to the blue eye?" he asked, that silly grin crossing his features again.

This time Mica was prepared. "I don't know, what?" she said.

"Are you adopted?"

Mica laughed, surprised. She'd never had someone make up silly jokes about her eyes before.

Bronx waved at her and disappeared into the room as Mica's phone buzzed.

Damn girl, you staying safe?

I'm with Knox.

Mica looked around the hallway after pressing send, realizing that answer was complete in itself. She'd never felt so safe in her life as she did with him.

A man rushed down the hallway, his head swinging right and left. Mica recognized Daxton at once, this time wearing jeans, work boots, and a light blue t-shirt with writing on it. He looked more like an off-duty cop than a head of the wealthiest security company in the city. As he drew closer, she could read his t-shirt. It said
Majestic as Fuck
. Mica stifled a laugh.

She raised her hand to get his attention and pointed into Knox's room. His face lit up when he saw her and Mica winced, wondering why he wasn't angry at her for getting his brother stabbed. Her phone buzzed in her lap as Daxton disappeared into the room.

Good. Text me tonight.

I will. How is the show?

Epic. You going to come?

Mica looked up, thinking. The show was still two days away. Anything could happen by then.

I don't know
.

Promise you'll try.

I promise.

Laterz babe.

Bye Justin.

Mica looked up from her phone, realizing she felt a little better. A booming laugh from Knox's room caught her attention. She heard Knox's voice, loud, excited, like he was telling a gripping story that he couldn't wait to share.

"So then, Bronx grabs the King's guard statue from the hallway shelf and points it at him like it's a gun! He yells 'stop or I'll shoot!' like he had a real fucking gun!"

Mica craned her neck and peeked in the room to see Bronx and Daxton crowded around Knox's bed, both with their heads thrown back, laughing at Knox's words.

"What else was I gonna do?" Bronx howled. "Run in there and get myself stabbed like you?"

"Yeah, that's what a real man would have done," Knox said, his smile belying his words.

"Nah, just a real idiot."

Daxton shook his head. "So then what happened?"

"Bailey must have believed he had a gun, because he rolled away from me, grabbed the gun in his other hand and tried to shoot Bronx. I'm pretty sure I broke all the fingers on his right hand so his aim was crap. He pointed the gun at me and I threw the coffee table at him. That's when he ran out the door and drove his car through the gate."

Daxton whistled. "Where'd he get a cop car from?"

Knox stared hard at Daxton. "No idea. I was hoping you could find out."

"I'm on it," Daxton said.

Mica marveled at their humor. They'd been shot at and they thought it was nothing but a funny story? Just hearing Knox retell it had her heartbeat galloping along in her chest. She faced forward in the hallway and pressed a hand to her midsection, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm down.

Bronx spoke, his deep voice catching Mica's attention again. "So that Mica, she seems sweet. Is she available?"

Mica's heart pounded faster as her eyes widened.

"No, fucker, you keep your eyes and your hands off her," Knox growled to his brother. "She's with me."

Bronx and Daxton exploded into laughter and Bronx spoke again. "I'm kidding. Daxton told me to ask. No worry Grog, me no touch your woman."

Mica shrank into her chair.
His woman? Was that what she was?
How had things happened so fast? She blushed as she remembered telling him she wanted to sleep with him just before Bailey had showed up. What had she said again?
Screw me? Do me?
She dropped her head into her hands, not knowing how to face him now that the moment was over and they'd been interrupted so horribly.

A pretty blonde nurse in pink scrubs walked past her and Mica tried to melt into the wall. The nurse entered Knox's room and spoke so quietly Mica couldn't hear what she said. "Of course, beautiful," Knox replied and Mica's heart shot into her throat.

Beautiful?

She remembered his words to her back at the house.
I'm not who you think I am
.

That word said different. That word said he was exactly who she thought he was. A womanizer. A playboy.

Someone she would never let herself open up to.

What now, Mica, what now?

Knox

Knox signed the form the nurse had given him, handed it back to her, and looked at his brothers. "Who's giving me a ride home?"

Bronx raised his hand. "Just call me Jeeves."

"Ok Jeeves, where's Mica?" Knox asked, standing up.

He swung his arm experimentally as Bronx checked the hall. They'd wrapped his wound quite snugly and the pain wasn't bad. His fingers and his waist were just scratches. They barely hurt at all.

Bailey was smarter than Knox had given him credit for, and he'd paid for that oversight, but he wouldn't again. Bailey would not have a second chance to put new holes in his body. Knox shook his head, just glad it had been him who had been injured and not Mica. He was also fiercely glad Bronx had shown up when he did. The thought of Mica being hurt in any way filled him with a deep anger and fear that threatened to overwhelm him. He'd only just gotten Mica back, he wasn't about to lose her again.

"Who's got a shirt I can wear?"

"I've got one in the truck," Daxton said and disappeared.

Bronx waved hard at someone in the hall, motioning them into the room. Mica finally appeared, her eyes downcast, her face flushed.

"You alright?" Knox asked.

"Fine," she mumbled.

"Good, we're out of here in a second. I've been released. I'm just waiting on a shirt."

"Ok," Mica said into the floor. Knox watched her closely, trying to figure out what was wrong with her.

Knox stretched his spine, his eyes still on Mica. Daxton rushed back into the room and handed him a white t-shirt, thankfully one with no pithy saying on it. Knox pulled it over his head slowly, noticing his arm hurt more when he raised it over his head, but it was still manageable. He hadn't let them give him anything but local injections for the pain, and he'd refused the offer of painkillers. He needed to be alert in case Bailey came back.

"Let's go," he said, heading out the door. He spoke to Daxton as they walked. "I need someone to fix a window at the house. And the gate."

"Bronx told me already. I've got guys working on it. And I asked dad to borrow Lulu and Tiny. They're in the truck. Oh, and I called out a cleanup service for the blood and glass."

Knox nodded his head. "Thanks, bro, you're on it as always. But I doubt that guy's going to come back to my place."

Knox looked around, alarmed to see Mica had fallen far behind them, even behind Bronx. She looked sad and upset. He wondered if she felt guilty that he'd been injured. She shouldn't. It wasn't his first scar and it wouldn't be his last. Knox realized he felt good actually, energized. Blood loss, pain, and fear aside, he was born for this kind of thing. Their dad had trained them all to be soldiers, but Phoenix had been the only one who'd actually ended up in the military.

Now though, he needed a plan to find Bailey. If he'd thought Bailey was crazy before, now he
knew
it. They couldn't just sit around and wait for Bailey to make his next move. The more time he had to think about it, the worse it would be.

Knox nodded to Daxton and dropped back to Mica's right side, putting his uninjured arm around her. "Hey, it wasn't your fault, you know that right?"

"Yeah, I know," Mica whispered without looking at him.

She knew huh? So something else was bothering her. He'd have to wait till they got back to his place to find out what. He knew he had little chance of getting her to open up with his brothers around.

***

Knox

Knox sat in the back seat of Bronx's truck with Mica, feeling her cold shoulder and not sure where it was coming from. She'd slid all the way to the other side of the cab, smushing herself against the door.

They pulled into his driveway and Knox watched as Daxton, in the truck ahead of them, gave Adam instructions. They pulled through the mangled gate, past the contractors who had promised to replace the gate by midnight, all the way to the house. Knox could tell at a glance that the window Bronx had busted through was already replaced. Good. He didn't see a cleanup vehicle either, so maybe that meant all the blood was gone too. Orange light from the sunset filtered through the sky, making his yard turn dark.

He got out of the truck, wanting to run around and open Mica's door, but she'd already done it and slipped out. Bronx must have noticed the tension because he'd kept up a steady rain of stupid jokes the entire way home, like
what kind of bagel can fly? A plain bagel
.

Knox loved him and hated him for it, but there was no sense fighting it. Bronx had been telling stupid jokes since he could first talk, and he'd never told the same one twice.

Knox walked up to the window and looked at Bronx. "Thanks, man, I owe you."

Bronx snorted. "Yeah, like you haven't saved my ass a dozen times."

"True, but never quite like that," Knox said grinning at the memory of Bronx's fake gun trick.

"You need anything else?"

"Nah, Daxton took care of everything. Just keep your phone on, ok?"

"Got it," Bronx said and threw the truck into reverse, leaning out his window to look behind him. "Nice to meet you Mica!" he yelled and waved to Mica, then reversed down the long, black driveway.

Mica stood behind Daxton's truck, eyeing Knox, a guarded look on her face.

Knox walked up to her. "We just have to get the guard dogs out of Daxton's truck."

Mica's expression turned nervous. "Guard dogs?"

They both looked up as Daxton jumped down from his truck and opened the back door. Two huge, white dogs swarmed out and ran off to smell the ivy growing up the security wall on the side of the driveway.

Mica smiled for the first time since Bailey had appeared. "Oh! They aren't guard dogs, they are Labradors! I've never seen a white one before, though."

Daxton approached them. "They're not Labradors, even though they look like 'em. They are called Kuvasv and they are a Hungarian livestock dog. Dad likes them because people look at them and think they are harmless, but if the person steps one foot out of line the dogs turn vicious. He says he's seen three grown men wet their pants because of them. I just think he likes the fact that he's one of the only people in the country who has them."

Mica nodded. "They are bigger than any Lab I've ever seen."

"Tiny is one hundred and fifteen pounds, Lulu is eighty-five. Dad's got more. One of them tops almost one hundred and thirty pounds."

"They look bigger."

"It's all that fur. They have a very thick coat."

Knox stepped closer to the dogs. "I'll watch them while you drive out, Dax, thanks for everything." He gave Daxton a look he knew his brother would catch immediately.
No more small talk. I want to be alone with her.

Daxton raised an eyebrow and smiled, then climbed back into his truck. "I gotta go. It was good to see you again Mica. Knox, call if you need me."