Then he stood.
Fast.
Hard.
And turned, driving his fist into the drywall with a crack that echoed like a gunshot.
No one flinched.
This was normal here.
His shoulders heaved. “They werehere.”
“No breach,” Brutus said calmly. “They took out the transformer from a distance.”
“It was a flex,” Ghost added, reappearing with a laptop and a frown. “They knew the generator would kick in. They just wanted her scared.”
“It worked,” I said softly.
Silence.
Then Wrecker was back in front of me, both hands cupping my face again. “You did everything right. You stayed calm.”
I huffed out a bitter laugh. “I collapsed.”
“You breathed. You came back. That’s all that matters.”
His voice cracked on the last word.
That’s what undid me.
Not the text.
Not the memory of that elevator.
Not the panic.
Him.
I reached for his wrist, holding tight. “You came back.”
He swallowed hard, throat working like he didn’t trust his voice.
“I shouldn’t have left you,” he said.
The words weren’t dramatic. They weren’t loud. They landed heavy because they were honest.
“You didn’t,” I said. “You were protecting me.”
His jaw tightened. “From the outside.”
I understood then. Really understood, that this wasn’t just about fear or guilt. This was something deeper. A fracture in thestory he told himself about control. About distance. About how far his reach was supposed to extend.
They hadn’t touched me.
But they had reached him.
I slid my hand into his, threading our fingers together, grounding us both. “I’m still here,” I said softly. “They didn’t take that.”
