Chapter 38 I woke up to the scent of her. Then felt the pain. A deep, grinding throb in my side that made every breath a conscious effort. I forced my eyes open. The world was a bleary mess of sterile white and dim light. It took a second to place the weight on the edge of the mattress, the head of dark curls pillowed on arms beside my hip. She was asleep, but it wasn't a peaceful sleep. Even unconscious, she looked exhausted, frayed at the edges. God, Maya. She was safe. I barely breathed, and she stirred. Her eyes opened, and the moment they met mine, something electric passed between us. A jolt to my tired, damaged system. "Raziel," she whispered. I tried to sit up. Pain cut through my side, and I gritted my teeth. "Hey, hey," she was on me in a second, palms bracing my chest. "Don't move too fast." She climbed up on the bed-gentle at first, like I was glass, her skirt riding up her thighs. "Let me look at you," she said. Then pressed kisses all over my face. Then her mouth crashed into mine, soft and hard at the same time. Wild. Desperate. I groaned into the kiss, half from pain, half from her. "Maya-fuck this hurts-but don't stop," I muttered, eyes fluttering closed as her lips moved over mine, down to my neck, then back again like she needed to memorize the shape of me. She pulled back, breathless, her pupils blown wide. She searched my face, her expression shifting from desperate relief to something more serious, more grave. "There's something I have to tell you," she whispered. "Before the doctor comes in. Before anybody else." I nodded, my own breath coming in short, painful rasps. My hand found her hip, holding her there. "You remember when you came down from New York... after Priest's wife offed herself? When you met me at Miyori's?" I nodded again, slower this time. A cold trickle of dread started to seep through the haze of painkillers and pain. I remembered. Of course I remembered. I wanted her from the first moment I saw her. "That wasn't the first time we met." I blinked. The words didn't compute. "What?" She shifted, sitting up straighter, her gaze dropping to my chest for a moment before lifting to meet mine, filled with a terrifying gravity. "You don't remember, but I do. I'll never forget it. I was about to be sold... trafficked. They had me and three other girls in a backroom in some warehouse in Little Haiti. We were high. Out of our minds. They'd gotten us hooked to make us compliant." My blood turned to ice. The room seemed to tilt. "What-" "You walked in," she continued, her voice distant, like she was reliving it. "You were there for a deal with the piece of shit running it. But you saw us. You asked them why we were there." She swallowed hard, her eyes glistening. "And they told you. They laughed and told you. Said we were the side business. 'Disposable.'" "Jesus Christ..." My throat burned. The memory came back in flashes. A warehouse. Dim light. The stench of piss and bleach. Ugly, greasy laughter. Four girls slumped on mattresses. One of them-God, I could see her now-was Maya. Braids matted, lip cracked. The dealer's smirk. The roar of my gun. Her scream when I lifted her. The way she clung to my jacket after. "That was you?" I'd done a lot of things in my life, but never would I treat people like cattle. I was a monster, yeah-but not that kind. She nodded, tears welling. "You saved me before you knew me. I spent years wondering why." I sat up straighter, dragging a hand down my face. "I didn't do it to be a hero. I didn't even remember your faces. I just... I couldn't walk out and leave you all there." She leaned in again, slower this time, hands on my face. "And that's why you'll never get rid of me. At first, I wanted you because you saved me. I worshipped you. Like you were some dark angel. But now..." Her voice broke, just for a second. "Now I love you because you're you. Because you're cold, brutal, mean... but you still had sympathy for four girls about to have their lives ruined." My hands trembled as I gripped her wrist and pulled her back down to me, holding her like I could anchor myself in her skin, thinking of the countless ways a life could have gone wrong, and the one thread of decency that somehow led her back to me. Five-year-old Annie, who can understand animals, saved Landon Hawthorne, a wealthy businessman, from suicide. Now she's his whole world and he's her legal cheat-code against every villain fate throws ...