Page 13 of Rocky Top

He was the kind of dangerous that made you feel alive just before he set your world on fire. And heaven help me, I was already warming my hands on the flames.

“Eliza,” he said, voice a gravelly drawl. “Give us a minute.”

“I wanna know what that was. And don’t you dare lie to me,” I bit into him like the big chunk of meat he was.

Eliza looked between us. “You sure?”

He didn’t answer.

She took the hint and squeezed my shoulder on the way out.

The door clicked shut behind her.

Rocky leaned back against it, arms crossed, gaze pinned to me like I was a puzzle he wasn’t sure he wanted to solve.

I stared right back.

“What were you doin’ out there alone?” he growled like an animal.

“I told you. Camping.”

“Alone?”

I bristled. “Yes, alone. I needed space.”

“Not smart.”

I hopped off the counter, anger bubbling up. “Thanks, Dad.”

He didn’t smile. Didn’t blink. Just stepped forward, slow and deliberate until we were toe-to-toe. Where I had to look up at him.

“You shouldn't have been out there alone,” he finally said in his gruff tone.

I crossed my arms, trying to mask my unease. “I can take care of myself.”

He took a step closer. I was amazed he could get any closer. “Clearly.”

Anger flared. “I didn't ask for your help.”

He smirked, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “Didn't haveto.”

I opened my mouth to retort but faltered under his intense gaze. There was something about him, something primal and magnetic, that left me off-kilter.

“Stay away from the mountains,” he warned, snarling. “It's not safe.”

I lifted my chin defiantly. “Why do you care?”

For a moment, vulnerability flashed across his handsome face, quickly masked by his usual stoicism. “Just do as you're told, Birdie. You could’ve been killed.”

“But I wasn’t.”

“Only ‘cause someone, something, intervened.”

There it was. The flicker. A crack in his armor. Like he knew something. Like he was hiding something.

My heart pounded in my ears.

“You’re not telling me everything,” I said.

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