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“If we get to the house and it’s a cabin with a lake right by it, I’m officially going to start freaking out,” Jensen states, interrupting Trick and only partially joking.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Riot replies. “The likelihood of that happening is in the minus.”

Jensen just raises his eyebrows and looks at him.

“Anyway,” Trick says, continuing the story. “Knox was a few years older than us. He used to throw these huge parties at his place. He would invite everyone around and then disappear up to his attic at the house and lock everyone out. He would come down and have a few drinks, maybe talk to a few people, but he would quickly disappear again.”

“Did he even want to throw the parties?” I ask because it certainly doesn’t sound like it.

Jensen shakes his head. “Not really, no. He lost his whole family in a house fire. He was old enough when it happened, just a couple of months away from being eighteen, that they didn’t ship him off to be with long-lost relatives that seemed to suddenly appear, as they do in these situations, especially if the kid has suddenly inherited a fortune. I’m not even sure they were actual relatives. That’s just the story that circulated. He managed to keep hold of the lake house that also belonged to his family and didn’t go into care. I guess that’s the perk of Serendipity being a small town. I was pretty close with him, as close as you could get with Knox, and I’m pretty certain that he just threw the parties because he didn’t like the silence. His family was huge. He went from being surrounded by fifteen-plus people to having no one.”

“Fucking hell. That’s horrific,” Rage says. Then, putting on his investigator hat, he asks, “It was an accident?”

Jensen shakes his head. “No. The fire was arson, and before the cops could locate the guy they suspected had done it, they found him shot through the head in one of his barns. There was a suicide note that matched his handwriting exactly and everything they needed to write it off as suicide.”

“Well fuck, that’s even worse, poor Knox,” I mutter.

Jensen’s eyes darken, and he frowns as he tries to recall details. “Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve thought about it, but if I’m remembering right, then even though they had all of the evidence to write it off as suicide, they were still looking at Knox for a while. No one could put him at the scene or figure out how he would have known that he was the guy who deliberately set the fire though.”

“Why would they even look at Knox in the first place? He was a kid, right? You said he wasn’t even eighteen at the time,” I ask.

Rafe raises an eyebrow. “What were we doing at eighteen?”

I pull a face. “Fair point, but that’s different.”

“Not really. Knox was like us,” Jensen replies.

It’s clear to me that Jensen genuinely considered Knox a friend, and knowing Jensen, most likely still does consider him a friend, even though they haven’t seen each other for years.

Chapter Seven

Ever

It’s a pretty big coincidence that I was thinking about Rylie and how time hasn’t changed the way that I feel about her, and Jensen clearly feels the same way about Knox.

I wonder why we’ve never gone to see him when we’ve gone back to Serendipity to visit the parents, or why we never went to one of his parties when I came back to live with Trick and his parents.

“We were never sure of anything when it came to Knox. There were quite a few mysteries surrounding him, but he left town before we could ask him about anything,” Luc adds. “Not that long after Atlas left, I don’t think.”

“He left in the year between Atlas leaving and Ever coming back,” Rafe says.

Well, that explains why I never met him.

“He was a good guy,” Jensen adds. “I liked him. This gate looks incredibly similar to the one that he had at his place.”

“That’s a weird coincidence,” I mutter, looking back up at the stunning gate, and feeling sorry for a person that I’ve never met.

“Not really. I mean, we never asked him about the gates. He most likely had them commissioned, or his family did, and the artist probably does work all over the country. It’s just strange that of all the places that there could be another set of them, it’s at Zemi’s place,” Trick reasons.

“Good point,” Jensen replies. “It shocked me. We haven’t been back to Knox’s place in years. Not since he left. I have no idea if it’s even his place anymore. Although I would be surprised if it isn’t.”

“I think I heard that he still owns it,” Trick says with a frown.

“When?” Cash asks with surprise.

“One of the times we went to visit the parents. I ran into one of our old classmates, and they just kept talking and talking, and that was something they mentioned. I think they were in law enforcement now, and they check on it every now and then,” Trick explains, his brows furrowed as he tries to remember.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Jensen asks.