The thought arrived with startling clarity. Not metaphorically. Not someday. Immediately.
But Emily, God help me, held.
“I can do whatever I like, Adam,” she said. “I don’t belong to you. And I assume, since you’re hovering out here like this, you’re the messenger. What happened?”
His mouth tightened.
“The surgeon came out. Everything went better than expected. Sophie’s in recovery.” Then, after the briefest pause: “Assuming you care.”
“You can leave us alone now,” she said. “You’re not welcome.”
“Careful, Emily.”
“Or what?”
I loved her for that.
Hoka was right. My woman had fire in her, the kind worth preserving at any cost.
“Yes,” I muttered softly to myself. “Or what?”
Adam looked toward the car then, distracted for half a second, and Emily used it. She slipped past him at once and headed for the hospital doors without looking back.
I should have stayed where I was.
I promised.
I promised.
I promised.
Fuck it.
I opened the door and stepped out, leaving my cane behind in the car.
He looked at me properly, appraising, the way weak men always did when they suddenly realized someone else might be dangerous enough to rearrange the balance they’d been relying on.
I promised Emily I would stay in the car. I promised not to escalate. I also promised myself, with much greater sincerity, that if this man ever put fear back on her face while I was close enough to stop it, I would make certain he regretted the attempt.
“Who are you supposed to be?” he asked, lifting his chin with the kind of false confidence that only ever looked convincing on men surrounded by easier targets.
I stopped close enough to make him step back if he had any instinct for self-preservation at all. He didn’t.
Interesting.
“The man she calls when she’s tired.”
He laughed, but there was strain under it now. “Right.”
I looked him over once, deliberately, taking my time with it the way my father had taught me years ago.
Let a man feel measured. Let him understand he has already been found lacking before you’ve raised your voice.
“You should leave,” I said.
“Or what?”
There it was.
