Scout rolled his head back against the wall with a wince. “Missed you too.”
I didn’t realize I’d stepped out into the hallway until Wrecker’s hand landed gently on my shoulder.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
I nodded, though my chest felt like it was cracking open from the inside. “That’s him.”
Wrecker’s grip tightened just a fraction. “Yeah.”
Doc turned when he saw me in the doorway, his expression softening immediately.
“Hey, sweetheart. You should be resting.”
“I know,” I said. “I just wanted a minute.”
Scout lifted his head at my voice.
Our eyes met.
For a beat, neither of us moved.
Then he let out a rough breath. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said hoarsely. “You’re upright.”
“Barely,” I said. “But I’m here.”
His mouth tipped into a faint smile. “Good.”
I stepped closer, careful of the bruising wrapped around his ribs. “They didn’t get you.”
“No,” he said. “They tried like hell, though.”
Something tight in my chest loosened.
“Guess we’re both bad at staying gone,” I said.
A quiet huff of laughter escaped him. It faded just as quickly, leaving something heavier behind.
“They scared you,” he said, not asking.
“Yes,” I admitted. “But not the way I thought they would.”
Scout studied my face. “What does that mean?”
I took a breath. “When they took Ariel, everything was chaos. Panic. Noise. I was reacting, not thinking.”
His jaw tightened at my sister’s name.
“But when you disappeared,” I continued, “and then the elevator happened… it wasn’t chaos anymore. It was a pattern.”
Scout nodded slowly. “Yeah. That tracks.”
“That’s what scared me,” I said. “Not freezing. Realizing how intentional it all is.”
I looked down at my hands. “They don’t just hurt people. They wait. They stack it. They let things pile up until your body can’t tell the difference between danger now and danger remembered.”
Scout was quiet for a long moment.
“They talked about that,” he said finally.
