Elsie had bitten him. Hard. His forearm still throbbed beneath the silk h

te. He filed that information away next to everything else he'd catalogued about her: the way she'd scanned the driveway cameras on ar

bin had sent. She was either i

s pressed to her wrist. Taking her own pulse. Her lips moved slightly, counting. After a long

she s

he pallor of her skin. The heart condition was real. He'd seen her medical file-severe, chronic, managed by a cocktail of expe

t move. He let her see him watching, le

on. In decision. She had chosen her next

ard the centra

on the armrest. Every m

ics, the breathing mask obscuring half his face. The fake scars were a masterpiece of biomedical engineering-dark red,

sound. Cracked lips parted bene

ightly-that same clinical assessment she'd turned on

the headboard. The sterile water p

small amount of water into it, her movements caref

went

ps of liquid. Ta

aged body with a syringe. The way she'd smiled. The way his heart had stopped twelve minutes later. Kor

ned to ice

ow, leaning over Denis, bringing

ded out of

slamming against sterile tile.

was fast, he noted somewhere in the cold m

the cup out

clattered to the floor. Sterile water splashed across

single heartbeat, her eyes went wide-shock, confusion, the raw animal r

watched

t. Shoved it down. Her jaw tightened. Her hands, which had flown up instinctively to protect her f

ied. But she w

fingers digging into her collarbones hard enough to bruise. H

e was barely recognizable, even to himself-raw, guttural

roat, beating too fast, too erratic. Her skin was cha

iving hi

ointed at the spilled water on the floor without breakin

-definitively. A single, controlled

lie t

once since I walked into this house. You want to test the water? Test it. Call your security

her heart probably tearing itself apart

ouldn't use poison. I'd use the fact that none of you see me as a threat. I've been here less than twenty-four hours and I've

in the sterile

n. But something shifted behind his eyes-

uing. He'd watched her do it. And a

id, his voice still

hot back. "Next time, keep your hands o

ched moment, neit

straightened his jacket with a single sharp tug, as if

om her and walked

is voice flat and clinical again, every trace of emotion wiped clean. "Not

one hand on the keypad.

Els

hand now pressed to her sternum, her breath

ing I've ever seen or the stupi

atic hiss. He stepped through. It loc

long, ragged breath she'd been holding for what felt like hours

en at the patient on the bed, who had gone still

ngry, she though

t away with e

he so af