Wild & Wounded

KNOX

Eight Years Ago

She came back for me.

I knew she would, even before I heard her boots hit the ground. Emily Hollis had never let distance keep her from loving loud. From loving me.

The Texas heat shimmered off the concrete, and there she was, cutting through the sun like every damn prayer I’d whispered in silence. Blonde hair loose and catching the wind. A summer dress swaying around her knees, pale blue and soft-looking. Her eyes caught mine like they always did, blue as a goddamn sky untouched by war.

I grinned.

Dropped protocol. Dropped my goddamn pride. I ran.

“Em.”

I scooped her up before she could say a word, spun her until she laughed so hard it caught the attention of half the base. Didn’t give a damn. Not about the stares. Not about rank. Not about the brass behind me probably choking on their egos.

Her arms wrapped around my shoulders like they never let go. Like it hadn’t been months since I touched her.

“Call,” she laughed against my neck, her breath warm. “People can see us.”

I shrugged, still holding her like the lifeline she was. “Long as it’s not your brother’s eyes, I’ll survive.”

She snorted, slapped my shoulder, and I finally, reluctantly so, set her down. My cap felt suffocating all of a sudden. I ripped it off, ran a hand through my hair.

“You know,” she said, tilting her head, “I still like you better in a baseball cap. Or that old cowboy hat you used to wear when you picked me up after school.”

“Still got it,” I said, chuckling. “Tied to the back of my truck like a damn memory.”

“It’s only six months, sugar,” I added.

Emily reached for my dog tags and gave them a soft tug, just enough to pull me down to her height. Her eyes searched mine. Brave, and so heartbreakingly unsure.

“What if you don’t go?” she whispered.

And just like that, the weight of the world came back.

“Em, come on.” I tried to smile, reaching for her waist. “You know I have to. It’s my life.”

But she took a step back.

Just a step.

Still, it splintered something in me.

“Em?” I asked, the smile dying on my lips. “What’s going on?”

She was chewing the inside of her cheek. Shit. She only did that when she didn’t know how to say the thing that would hurt.

I held out my hand, waiting for her to take it like she always did.

She didn’t.

“Me or the army?”

I laughed.

She didn’t.

“Em,” I said, taking a step back, breath catching, “come on. What’s gotten into you?”

“Knox, I’m graduating next month. You won’t be here. You won’t be here for my first job, or my first apartment. Pops and Mom are celebrating forty years this fall, and there’s a big party; family flying in, neighbors, everything. I thought we would finally…”

She took one of those deep, centering breaths she does when she’s trying not to fall apart.

“I thought we’d finally tell everyone. Be like everyone else. Four years, Knox.” She said my name like it hurt. “Four years of waiting.”

I stepped forward and grabbed her hand before she could drift further away.

“We can, baby. In six months. I’ll be back, take a long leave, build you the house. With the wraparound porch you want, the swing out front. Horses at the back. I swear, Em. Just six months.”

She shook her head.

“Me or the army.”

Two Years Ago

“How come Emily didn’t come for Christmas this year?”

Elizabeth asked the question I hadn’t had the guts to say out loud. My cousin. Emily’s best friend.

Austin, the only one Emily still talked to regularly, picked up a drink, his jaw tight. “Luc took her skiing. Said it’s some kind of holiday tradition with his family.” He paused, swirling the amber in his glass. “Emily... she was sad about it. I told her to come after, spend New Year’s here, but she said Luc didn’t think it was a good idea to travel that far when she had a project lined up.”

What the fuck.

I clenched my jaw and looked away. A year. She hadn’t been home in a whole goddamn year. Not since last Christmas. Not since she left with him.

Luc. The French boyfriend. The one who didn’t like Texas, or ranch dust, or me.

I was a goddamn fool.

I chose the army and lost her.

Elizabeth cursed under her breath, and Mama Hollis gave her the look, sharp and disapproving. Elizabeth ducked her head, then elbowed me hard in the ribs.

“Since when does Emily listen to anyone who tells her what to do?” she snapped. “She never listened to your every whim. Hell, you couldn’t even get her to wear boots when it rained.”

I grabbed a beer from the counter and downed half of it in one long pull.

“You should call her,” I muttered.

Elizabeth didn’t hesitate. She grabbed her phone and dialed.

The call rang a few times, then her face appeared. Emily. Towel wrapped around her head, her bathrobe pulled high, covering her chin and half her mouth.

“Hey, Eliza,” she said, voice soft. “What’s up?”

“Where have you been? Why didn’t you come home?”

A male voice mumbled something in French behind her. Luc.

Emily turned slightly, whispered something I couldn’t catch.

She looked back at the screen, her face dimmer now. Distant.

“Sorry, Eliza. Luc needs his sleep. I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

And just like that, the screen went dark.

Elizabeth looked at me. I didn’t say a damn thing.

I just stared at my beer and wondered how the hell the girl who used to twirl on my porch in bare feet had become someone I barely recognized.

One Month Ago

“Knox, can I count on you to help at the ranch? I need to leave for Belgium.”

I blinked at the screen, unsure if I’d read the name right. But yeah—Austin Hollis, plain as day, his face shadowed under the brim of a cap, eyes bloodshot and jaw tight.

“Belgium?” I rubbed the back of my neck. ”What the hell, Austin? You found some girl over there?”

He didn’t laugh.

Just let out a breath that sounded more like a gravel drag through his throat.

“Our girl, actually,” he said. “Emily’s in trouble.”

My heart stopped.

He kept going, voice clipped and raw. “I don’t know all of it yet. She sounded... off. So I’m flying out tomorrow. Soon as I land, I’ll track her down.”

I leaned forward, elbows on the table, a thousand questions jammed in my throat.

What kind of trouble? Is she hurt? Why didn’t she call me? Can I come?

But none of them left my lips.

She hadn’t been mine for six years. I’d lost the right to ask.

“You can count on me,” I said, steady. ”Whatever you need. Call if anything changes. I still got some military contacts in Europe...couple favors I can cash in. Just say the word, brother.”

Austin’s shoulders eased, just a little.

“Thanks, Knox.”

Then the call dropped.

And I just sat there, staring at my reflection in the black screen, wondering how the hell Emily Hollis had ended up needing rescuing, and why the hell she hadn’t reached out to the one man who would’ve burned the world down to get to her.

Present Day

I stand behind my bar and stare at her.

Emily Lucille Hollis.

The woman who stole my heart when I was seventeen. Maybe sixteen. Hell, I don’t even remember the exact day just that one morning, I woke up and knew: Emily Hollis is it. She’s the one.

Back then, I swore she’d be my wife.

And between that day and this moment, more than a damn decade has passed. War. Silence. Hurt. Other men. Other women.

But seeing her now, those blue eyes locking on mine like nothing ever changed, I know one thing with the kind of certainty you don’t shake loose from:

Emily Hollis is going to be Callahan.