His suit is torn, soaked, and streaked with blood. A cut runs across his scalp. Dark bruising shadows one side of his jaw. His pistol hand is steady. Too steady. His face is utterly still.
That stillness scares me more than rage.
Arturo sees me first.
His eyes widen. “Evie?”
Kauss hears my name.
He turns.
The moment he sees me, everything in him fractures.
The pistol lowers by an inch, then rises again because Ron shifts on his knees.
“Why are you here?” Kauss’s voice is raw.
I pull free from Nara and Darlene because I need to stand on my own for this, even if standing feels like being held together by thread and profanity.
“To stop you.”
His expression tightens. “You should be in the hospital.”
“You should be at home.”
The word hits him visibly.
Home.
Ron laughs wetly. “Look at that. Sunshine crawled out of the hospital to save the monster.”
Kauss’s pistol steadies again.
“Be silent,” he says.
“No,” I say.
He looks at me.
My legs shake. Pain burns through my shoulder with each heartbeat. Rain drips from my hair into my eyes. I am terrified. Not of him. For him.
“Evie,” he says quietly, pleading inside the warning. “Step back.”
“No.”
“He will not stop.”
“I know.”
“He attacked you in your home.”
“I know.”
“He tried to kill you.”
“I know.”
His voice breaks at the edge. “He put you through a window.”
