The New Adventures of Richard Knight Read online

  She extended a hand and asked: “Help a girl up, will ya?”

  Knight did as requested, bringing her up close enough that their hips were touching. Their eyes met and he felt his body grow warm. All he had to do was lean forward and their lips would touch…

  Sophia leaned her back and glanced up to the starry sky. “It’s getting past my curfew, Mr. Knight. I should get home soon before my mom gets really sore with me,” she said. She pushed herself free and began walking away, her hips swaying gently with each measured step. “Thank you again for the lovely time.”

  “You know what I see when I look at you, Soph?” Knight asked after her.

  Sophia stopped and half-turned back to face him, an arched eyebrow questioning.

  Knight took a deep breath and dove in, and tried to ignore his hands shaking. “Something so beautiful, you can never know what it truly is. And if you look too hard, you get sucked down into the abyss; so far down that it overwhelms you, and you… explode. But you never see what’s in the center, not really. Unless you’re really lucky. Or really special… Maybe that’s why the Crystal didn’t work on me. I wasn’t looking for it.”

  A small smile cracked Sophia’s lips. She slowly turned around to face Knight. Butterflies hit his stomach when he saw the crescent moons. “And why do you think it didn’t work on me?”

  Knight blushed. “I was hoping you would tell me.”

  Sophia let out a sharp laugh. “So long, darling,” she said with a short wave. “Guess I’ll be seeing you around.”

  “I’m afraid it’s not going to be that simple, Soph,” Knight confessed, pulling Xander’s gun from his holster.

  Sophia stopped short. “Aw, Richard, even after all we’ve been through?” she asked mournfully without looking back.

  “Especially because of that,” he replied. He wouldn’t aim his gun. Not yet. “I would be willing to overlook the fact that you tricked me into flying out here, shot down my plane then put a gun to my head, but you did kill a woman in cold blood.”

  “She wasn’t exactly a very nice woman.”

  “Neither are you.”

  “Never said I was,” Sophia shrugged, her back still toward Knight. He watched her hand slowly move up toward the gun holstered to her thigh.

  Knight licked his lips, his throat suddenly dry. “Soph…”

  Her hand fell on the gun’s handle, fingers curling around as her thumb teased at the hammer. “And here I was hoping we could have moved past it all. I’m sorry, darling, but that won’t work for me.”

  “Wasn’t asking for permission.”

  “Wasn’t giving it,” Sophia said, her voice trembling.

  Sophia spun around, drawing her pistol and aiming for Knight’s head as he aimed his at hers, but neither fired. They stared at each other in silence, their fingers quivering against the triggers.

  “So where does this leave us?” she asked.

  Knight gave her a nonchalant shrug, but his face was grim. “This is how my relationships go. Short and sweet with a little bit of gunfire.”

  “At least we keep it interesting,” she said with a smile, tears filling her crescent eyes.

  “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  They cocked their pistols and waited to see who would fire first.

  THE END