bag instead of a stretcher. Elena was still sitting on the cold ground when he found her, his men forming a perimeter around the house, and the

her face, checking for injuries with a roughness tha

" Her voice came out thi

hold on and never let go. "I told them to watch the perimeter. I told them-" He stopped himself, jaw working, fury and something rawer

ldn't ha

furious, directed entirely at himself. "Someone died feet fro

the sentence. H

wn composure. This wasn't a man performing concern for appearances. This was something closer to fear, raw and u

quietly. "The man who

red, just slightly. "Not

murdered. He said my f

, she realized. Recognition. Like she'd confirmed som

gh. "Please. I need you somewhe

ike the man who'd told her three days ago that she belonged to him. For one strange, unwelcome moment, standin

, with some discomfort, t

-

ong after the police had finished their questions and gone, his footsteps pacing the

lipping out the side gate on foot, coat collar turned up, glancin

enough back to keep to the shadows, her bare feet swapped fo

specifically because no one would think to look there. Elena pressed herself against the corner of the

sence radiating the same careful menace she'd come to recognize in L

rs were hunched, his hands shoved deep in his coat pockets, nodding along to

ntonio's hands with a grip that lingered a beat too long - not a gift, Elena thought, watc

ng to silence the shutter sound before she raised it, hear

slightly toward the streetlight; just as her fathe