Like someone just ripped the air out of his lungs.
His voice drops to a growl.
“Elena. What the hell are you doing here?”
Chapter 26
Istare at the doorway like my mind can’t process what I’m seeing.
Elena.
In my warehouse. In the room.
Surrounded by blood and violence and the pieces of the man I become when she isn’t looking.
My heart stops. Then it restarts with a vicious snap of fury.
“The hell are—” I take a step forward.
Rocco is moving too, fast and feral, as protective as I’ve ever seen him. “Jesus, El—”
But I get to her first. I grab her hand—too hard, too desperate—and yank her out of the room. I don’t think. I don’t look. I don’t care that I’m dragging blood—someone else’s blood—onto her skin.
All I know is she shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t see any of this. She shouldn’t see me like this.
I barely register Dante barking orders behind me as I haul her down the hallway, shoving open the first door I find.
A bathroom.
Fine. I push her inside and slam the door shut so hard the frame rattles.
Then I step back because if I touch her again, I won’t be able to stop from shaking her.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I roar, pacing away from her, hands ripping through my hair. “You left the house—alone—without telling anyone—you came here—to a fucking war zone—are you out of your mind?”
She doesn’t flinch. Not once.
Her back stays straight. Her chin stays high. Her eyes stay on me—steady, unblinking.
That mask is back. The one I hate. The one her father carved into her from childhood.
And I feel it—guilt slicing through my rage.
She saw me like this. Covered in blood. Losing control.
Becoming the monster I never wanted her to see.
I face her fully, chest heaving.
“Why the fuck,” I growl, stepping closer, “would you do something so dangerous? Why would you come here? Why would you put yourself in the middle of this? Why would you want to—” I choke on the last words. “—see me like this?”
She looks up at me.
And then—
She smiles.
A soft, heartbreaking, infuriating smile.
