- RORY -
When Hansen said he wanted to be alone to let me fight him, to give him scars, the rage came back with a vengeance. Adrenaline spiked again, making me forget all the discomfort of the rain, the blood, the pain in my arms and hands.
But then Luciano walked in, and I felt the weight of that responsibility to punish Hansen lift. Seeing Luci was an immediate comfort—an immediate relief that made my muscles relax, my heart and breath start to slow.
Now I can be vulnerable. I don't have to rise with the tide of my anger. I can let it wash back out into the sea.
Luci's dad walks in with a few other men, and I take a step back toward the door, feeling the full force of how overwhelming this is now. There are so many men in here. So many associated with the mafia. I can feel the danger they all exude—the shield that clicks into place the way it was meant to.
