Things We Hide from the Light (Knockemout #2)

by Lucy Score

But Nash struck me as the settling-down type, and I was allergic to relationships.

SO its just backwards naomi and knox

“Small towns are where busy professional women get seduced by a rough-around-the-edges local business owner. Ooh! Or a sheriff. Have you met the sheriff yet?”

Duncan Hugo climbing

This is who linas looking for is well is she like undercover cop cool

“Your gun is digging into me.” “That’s not my gun,” I said through clenched teeth. Her mouth curved wickedly. “I know.”

I’d never stood at a sink brushing my teeth for that long in my life. One thing was certain, Chief Morgan was a ticking time bomb. And whoever this Angel was, I hoped I wouldn’t have to hate her.

Girlllll

Damn you, thin shower walls. Damn you to hell.

“Angel and I are close,” Nash drawled without looking away from me. Angel? I was the Angel from Nash’s shower fantasy? My brain launched into a graphic replay of my nocturnal eavesdropping. I shook myself mentally and decided to deal with that information later.

awkwardddd

“Well, there’s this Girl Dad challenge on TikTok where dads let their daughters put makeup on them. And paint their nails. And some of them do their hair too,” she began. Knox and I shared a frozen look of terror.

stop i can imagine their terror thats too funny

Angel?”

Just realised thats literally a shortened version of her name angelina so angel and lina

“What in the fucking fuck are you doing?” Knox snarled. He was holding a broom in one hand and a beer in the other and looked as though he wanted to break both over my head.

Literally me

So what if his hands on me made me feel melty and decadent like a gourmet grilled cheese?

You feel like a grilled cheese...? interesting

“Same goes. Maybe they’ll be so hypnotized by my pecs and your tits they won’t notice when we go into cardiac arrest.”

they worry. Still. Chalk that one up in the Things We Never Got Over column.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered. “Do you sleep in a suit?” Nash asked him. “I don’t sleep,” he quipped.

“How do you know I spent two nights in bed with her?” I interrupted. “Two nights in bed with who?” My brother slid into the booth next to me looking pissed off and like he’d just rolled out of bed. “What are you doing here?” I demanded. He yawned and signaled for coffee. “Lucy called. Said it was important. Two nights in bed with who?”

now im laughing ts funny

“I’m not talking about it. And how in the fuck do you know what my sleeping arrangements are?” I asked, turning back to Lucian. “Information finds its way to me.”

Creepy much

“Why are we here? What are you doing having lunch with Lina? And what the fuck does that have to do with you suddenly having a hankering for eggs Benedict?” “Why the fuck were you at Lina’s at 6:00 a.m.? And the answer better not be that she’s the one you’re banging,” Knox snarled.

Knox is so confused lol

Nash wasn’t some operation to plan out and execute. He was a grown-ass man and he could make his own decisions.

Preach

At least, up until Dunc fucked up that hit.” My body tensed at the way she so casually mentioned Nash’s shooting. I did my best to keep my expression blank, but on the inside, my heart was thundering against my sternum.

“Well, for one thing, them cop pants looked mighty fine on that man’s ass.” Tina Witt might have been a horrible human being, but she was not wrong on that particular point.

hahhaaa

“I just wish I woulda kept trying to look to the light instead of sinking into the dark,” he said. “A man can learn to live in that dark, but it’s no life.”

Wow deep

“Okay! Oh my God!” She went limp against me. “Just put me down and I’ll tell you everything.”

So im pretty sure thats assault

“Okay, I get that Sloane and Lucian have this hate fest going on, but what’s with you and Knox?” Naomi asked, frowning at her husband. “He didn’t say something mean and offensive to you, did he? He’s supposed to be trying to get better at that.”

“Hold on. We’re not done yet. We haven’t gotten to why Suit Daddy, I mean Lucian, is involved in such immature, emotional shenanigans,” Stef pointed

Suit daddy im dyin rn

“You’re getting dressed and we’re going out for a girls’ plus Stef afternoon,

Absolutely fucking not. Lina wasn’t going anywhere. Not until we’d hashed this out. Not until I figured out why she was under my skin and in my blood. Not until I found a way to either get her out or keep her close.

Nah nash is rlly pmo like you do not own her sir so back the fuck off telling her what to do

Nash Morgan no longer existed to me.

I mean after ts he pulled i suport this like fuck him gal

“What the fuck am I supposed to do?” he demanded. “You take advantage of my trust, betray me, and I’m just supposed to be fine with it?”

She literally did neither of those things

some lottery-winning, bar-owning barber.

Aka knox lol

“I’m not asking for permission, Nash.” “Good. Because I sure as hell wouldn’t give it,” he said.

Oh stfu nash you do not own her

But I wasn’t finished. “And I’m definitely havin’ issues with seeing you ride up to a goddamn motorcycle club on the back of a goddamn known criminal’s bike.” “Look at the bright side, hotshot. Remember how you hated the numbness? Look at the colorful range of emotions you’re experiencing right now.”

Oh, and then there was that whole thing about me falling in l— Yeah,

If I hadn’t already lo—liked him, I would have fallen hard just for that. No one had ever asked me that question before. I wasn’t sure I had an answer.

I noticed that girlllll

“Knew what?” I asked, giving the sage-green paint a stir. The dent in the wall was going to need more than a coat of paint, but until I patched the drywall, paint would at least make it less noticeable. “You, Chief Morgan, scuffed my wall with table sex!” I shot her an irritated look. “Jesus, Sloane. Keep your voice down. This is a library.”

“I saw them, and I thought of you. Made by the woman who saved my life, worn by the woman who reminded me it’s worth living.”

Lucian had ordered seven million pounds of security equipment that they would be installing this week.

Brooo

“See you, Tina,” I said, then followed Nash as he kept his ass to the wall and skirted toward the

Poor nash

“Why the hell am I finding you here instead of at your damn door? I swear to God, Morgan. You’re worse to babysit than that little old church lady in Ala-fucking-bama,” a disheveled Nolan announced, storming into the room and kicking my trash can for emphasis.

Poor nolan man hes just doing his job

“Nash. It’s me. Burner Phone Guy is Cereal Aisle Guy. Mrs. Tweedy was with me when we met him in the grocery store. He was buying the same kind of candy that Waylay said is Duncan Hugo’s favorite. There were candy wrappers all over the warehouse floor in the crime scene pictures. I saw him again at Honky Tonk the night Tate Dilton caused a scene. I know it’s not much to go on, but I feel it in my gut. Call me back!”

Dundunduhhhhh

“Why not just get a tattoo of her name on your ass?” Lucian said dryly. Knox and I shared a look. “Well, it is a family tradition,” my brother mused.

And that was how I ended up pantsless and ass up in the chair at Spark Plug Tattoo. Knox was in the chair next to me shirtless, getting his wedding date tattooed over his heart.

Omg i thought they were kidding

“Been waitin’ for this a long time,” said the man in the hoodie. He sneered, his mustache twitching. A fucking candy wrapper. That was what had been haunting my dreams for weeks. Not Duncan Hugo. A candy wrapper and Tate Dilton’s finger on the trigger.

Shut uppp

“This is so typical of you. You wait until we’re in the middle of a heated situation to coerce me into doing what you want. There are about a thousand decisions we have to talk through. Where would we live? Whose job is more important? Who takes out the garbage?” “And they all start with the first. Are you gonna marry me, Angel?” “Ugh, fine. Yes. But when the adrenaline crash happens and you realize that you just stuck yourself with me from here until the end, that’s on you. I don’t wanna hear any whining.”

why they so nonchalant? 🙏😭

She held up a stack of printouts and waved them around. I snatched them out of her hand, then regretted it immediately when I saw the first few comments. He can protect and serve my ass any day. Thinking about committing a misdemeanor in northern Virginia. BRB.

thats actually too funny

And then there was Waylay. That brave, beautiful girl was happier than I’d ever seen her as she all but skipped down the aisle in yellow tulle. Her hair was curled into princess ringlets with daisies woven throughout. In front of me, Knox’s shoulders shuddered once as he fought back a wave of emotions. He held out as long as he could, breaking rank when his daughter reached the front row.

I love when he calls waylay his dauhter

Lucian demanded. This was the man’s first foray into Bananagrams, and he was taking it more seriously than Sloane, who had given up. She had her feet in his lap while she skimmed an article about her program’s latest success story on her iPad.

Oop book number three right there

The light from the tablet played over the slim, silvery scar on her jawline. A mark of valor. A mark that reminded us all of how brave our little librarian was.

Em what i.need book three rn

Lucian, I noted, was playing one-handed so he could rub his wife’s feet under the table.

Hold tf up

“Twins usually are,” Sloane said, arriving at my side, her hand cool on my shoulder. Lucian followed her. Even after all this time, even while my insides were threatening to exit my body, I still found the way he always put himself in her orbit breathtaking. Painfully adorable.

I just omg dropping all these hints is diabolical

“I’m so sorry, baby. I’ll never do this to you again,” my husband promised fervently. “Get her another epidural or some pain meds or some goddamn horse tranquilizers now! Whatever it takes to fix this,” he barked.

Nashs freak out is kinda funny