Page 84 of Misrule
Her mouth opened and closed, before she finally found words. “You don’t love me anymore,” she stated in a broken whisper.
“I love you, Kendall. I always will. I just don’t know if I’minlove with you any longer. I don’t know if I want to stay married to you.” He didn’t need her in his life as he once had.
She released a pitiful sob. “Is there someone else?”
“No.”
“Are you looking?”
“As long as you’re my wife, I won’t break our vows,” he swore.
“Suppose someone comes along, someone who isn’tpsycho-cunt Kendall.”
“You’re not a cunt.”
She gasped, swiping her cheeks to remove the tracks of her tears. “But I’m psycho?”
“You’re something,” he retorted.
“As if you’re perfect,” she sneered, then closed her eyes. When she reopened them and stared at him, there was no derision in her gaze, no anger on her face, only an openness Johnnie was determined to ignore. “I’m fighting, Johnnie,” she said with quiet dignity. “For myself and my children. I’m fighting for you and our marriage. I don’t want to lose you.”
Regret enveloped him and he gave her a sad smile. “You already have.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sitting on the edge of the bed in the club room he didn’t want to be in, Knox watched as Johnnie imparted his flat words to Kendall before turning on his heel and sauntering away. Because of all of the cameras, Knox tracked Johnnie’s progress to the front door. The man looked as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He looked at peace.
Meanwhile, Kendall slid to the floor in near hysterical sobs. She sat, angled between cabinets, rocking herself, before she finally curled up on the floor and cried. After ten minutes of watching this, Knox sighed and exited the program. He almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
The other part of him, thebiggestpart, felt vindicated. He got a certain sick satisfaction at watching her fall apart. She deserved every heartache.
However, Knox cursed himself for forgetting to close the front door. Just as he’d gotten back to the club, he’d gotten an alert of activity in Kendall’s house. He’d opened the needed app on his tablet and saw Johnnie searching. Knox knew, without a doubt, it was because he had indeed forgotten to shut the door.
Putting the tablet’s screen to sleep, Knox had called himself a dumb asshole all the way back to the bedroom he occupied, ignoring everyone, just as they ignored him. He’d called Roxanne, but received her voicemail, then he’d waited, expecting her to call and tell him what a fabulous time she’d had with his mother.
He’d gotten nothing. After ten minutes, he’d decided to check on Kendall, wondering if Johnnie had left.
Now, he set his tablet aside, once again waiting. This time for Outlaw’s call. He’d been expecting to hear from him for hours. Frankly, it shocked him that the man had left Knox to his own devices for the entire day.
Another ten minutes slid by in slow, tortuous minutes. He never realized how important the space and freedom to move around was to him, until he’d lost it with the forced exile at the club.
He could always move in with his parents. That, however, would put him too far away from Roxanne. He wanted to be as close to her as possible, since he couldn’t live with her because of Mortician’s hypocritical mandate.
Knox and Johnnie were the only two with both logic and education out of that whole group of men.
Reaching for his cell phone where it lay next to him on the bed, Knox intended to try Roxanne again. Before he dialed her number, the phone started buzzing, indicating an incoming call.
Motherpopped up on the screen, and Knox smiled.
“Hello, Mother,” he answered, excited to hear about the wedding plans.
“Knox, dear, I simply must talk to you as soon as possible.”
An inkling of unease spread through Knox at her anxious tone. “Why?”
“Roxanne, of course,” his mother answered irritably. “What else? The woman isn’t fit to be a Harrington. She says she won’t hold the ceremony here at the estate. She has her own minister chosen, some little priest that Charlotte Redding says is a greedy creature. She only wantedtwoof the items…no, she wantedoneand Bailey wanted another of the menu items that Chef painstakingly prepared. She used the f-word in my house! She insulted Charlotte. She is just not the woman for you.”
