Knotted (Trails of Sin, #1)

by Pam Godwin

Killing the engine, I slide off the bike and curl up on the ground, where things get abandoned, where trash is tossed, forgotten, and never collected.

There, I contemplate dying. Ending it all. I could hang myself, all alone, swinging by a rope around my neck. Wouldn’t that be symbolic? A tragedy that began and ended on a birthday with a passionately knotted rope.

Feeling lighter, calmer, I embrace the void of nothing at all and walk away.

She was supposed to be safe in Chicago. I held onto that belief for two grueling goddamn years. But her dad didn’t give her refuge. He gave her bruises. Soul-deep bruises. The kind only a father can inflict.

I want to berate him for his lapse in judgment, but who am I to cast stones?

I’m made entirely of damaged pieces, stitched together with irreparable flaws.

It’s impossible to describe the bond we share. We’re too great for words. Too sacred. We’re a feeling that goes beyond starts and stops. We’re stronger than hellos and goodbyes and deeper than beginnings and ends.

We’re knotted together, and damn if he doesn’t know how to tie a knot that withstands the test of time.