I freeze.
Cold slices down my spine.
I turn to where he is looking.Slowly, painfully, I look to the desk where a small tablet has a screen with a video call active, It’s there I see a small figure on the screen.
Kelly.
Eyes wide with horror and something else—Fear.
“Kelly,” I breathe.
She doesn’t move.
Greene laughs under me.“See?What did I tell you?You can’t hide what you are from her.”
My hand trembles.
He sees it.He feels it.And he presses on the wound.
“She sees the monster, Ledger.”
“STOP TALKING!”I roar.
A hand clamps down on my shoulder.
I flinch, snapping my head up, Mellow is here.
Shaft.Stunt.Chux.Nitro.
They are all here circling me and hiding Kelly from seeing the monster I am more.
“Riot,” Chux says sharply, pushing through the others.“Off him.”
“He hurt her,” I rasp.
“And we need him alive,” Chux barks.“Move.”
I don’t move.
Not until Kelly whispers, voice cracking through the tablet, “Riot, please.”
My vision tunnels.Not because she’s scared of me.
No.
Because she looks heartbroken.I push off Greene’s body like it burns.
Mellow drag him up, cuffing him with reinforced zip-tie style restraints, then binding his legs.He spits blood, smiling a broken smile.
He thinks he won.He thinks I’ve lost her again.He doesn’t know Kelly at all.
ButIdon’t move toward the tiny screen.I can’t.I don’t trust myself.
I stay planted, breathing hard, wiping blood from my mouth, trying to shove back the darkness clawing through my ribs.
“Riot,” she whispers.“You didn’t scare me.”
My lungs seize.
