Ella leans against the dog, murmuring to him, her voice soft but sure. He presses closer, eyes half closed, his whole body trembling.
I glance at her, just once, then back to the road.
“You didn’t have to do this,” I say.
She looks up at me, surprise flickering through the pale mask of her face. “He would’ve died out there.”
“So?”
Her lips part, like she can’t believe I asked. “So I couldn’t leave him.”
I don’t answer right away. The tires hum over wet pavement, the storm muttering low against the roof. I flick another glance at her. Her hand never stops stroking the dog. Her face is still pale, but the shock has shifted—her focus is on the animal, not the body cooling in the kitchen we left behind.
“You always do this?” I ask finally.
“Do what?”
“Save strays.”
Her mouth curves in not quite a smile. “Somebody has to.”
The dog groans low in his chest, curling tighter against her. She murmurs something I can’t catch, her voice dropping into that same soft cadence that calmed him outside.
I grip the wheel tighter, jaw hard. Thirty minutes ago I’d seen her sparkling like a fool on a security feed. Now she’s sitting pale and stubborn in my passenger seat, a half-dead dog leaning on her like she’s his anchor. “What shelter do you want?”
She looks longingly at the dog. “Eastside. They’re a good one.”
I’m surprised she doesn’t try to keep him and then remember she’ll be on the run soon. She might have a softness for dogs, but her brain is always calculating.
The shelter’s not far. A low building on the edge of town, lights still burning in the storm. I pull into the lot, cut the engine, and sit for a moment, watching her stroke the dog’s head.
I study her profile, pale skin, damp curls clinging to her face under the cowboy hat. “I’ll take him in.”
Her bottom lip trembles.
Cold rage is easy. It burns clean, sharp, leaves noquestions. What I feel looking at her—mud on her knees, sequins catching light even here, kindness bleeding out of her when it shouldn’t—that’s harder to name.
I kill when I need to. So does she. She nearly took Thorn away in a brutal and slow death. I have to remember that fact.
She lifts her head, her eyes filling. “Can we keep him?”
THIRTEEN
Ella
We slip into Malice Media’s private garage, and the air changes, becoming too still and cold. Shadows stretch long against the concrete, and inside them, men wait with guns half hidden. They don’t move, but I feel their eyes tracking me.
A shiver races up my arms before I can smother it. I clamp down on Leo’s leash, holding him close, grounding myself in his warm, solid weight. My dog. Mine. I still don’t understand why Justice let me keep him. He doesn’t strike me as a man who leaves anything to chance, especially not something alive, something that eats and breathes and requires attention. But here we are.
Leo pads beside me without a sound, big head swinging left and right. He doesn’t like the shadows either, though he doesn’t cower. I think he can feel the freedom that’s now his.
Earlier, we’d stopped at a vet. Leo had been scrubbed down until his coat smelled faintly like oatmeal anddisinfectant. He’s gotten shots, a checkup, the whole nine yards. The verdict is that he’s underfed but otherwise healthy. I didn’t even know vets gave baths, but then, Justice has a way of bending the world until it gives him what he wants.
We picked up food. The good kind, the stuff that costs more than I usually spend on groceries for myself. We also walked Leo on a thin strip of grass by the parking lot, a scrap of normal life tucked into a day that was anything but. That moment had lodged in me, stubborn and dangerous.
Dogs don’t belong in apartments. Not big ones like Leo. He needs space, dirt under his paws, and a fence to patrol. I’ll have to buy a safe house with a yard, and soon. Assuming I live long enough to go house hunting.
I kept my gratitude locked tight back at the vet’s office. I didn’t gush. Didn’t thank Justice more than politeness required because I’m freaking the hell out. Why would he let me keep the dog? He couldn’t be so much of an asshole that he’d use the animal against me, could he? Did I just take on a weakness?
