Page 91 of Twisted Steel

Steel is suddenly beside me, too close, blood dripping from his hand.

His eyes sweep over me, frantic in a way I’ve never seen.“Harper.”

I flinch.I don’t mean to.But I do, and his whole body stills.The room seems to still with him.I look at his face.Blood streaked over his cheek, a cut above his eyebrow, and his eyes are black and empty and burning all at once.

The man at his feet is not moving.The blade in Steel’s hand is crimson and slick.

I know he saved me.I know that.I know the Vulture would have shot me if Steel hadn’t come through that door.I know violence kept me breathing.But knowing doesn’t stop the sickness crawling up my throat.

“Harper,” he says again, softer.

“Back up,” I snap.The words come out before I can soften them.

Steel takes a step back immediately, and somehow that makes it all worse.Because even now, covered in blood, with a dead man cooling behind him, he listens.

Mama M drops beside me and checks Tyler’s pulse.“Ambulance is coming.”

“I can stabilize him.”

“You already did.”

My hands are shaking now.Badly.Steel watches them, watches me.

“Are you hit?”he asks.

“No.”Another sharp reply from me.

“You’re bleeding.”

“Glass.”I think?

“Let me...”

“No.”

That word stops him dead.His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t move closer.Raven’s eyes cut between us because she knows.Of course she knows.Women who stand in violence learn math.They also learn the exact second a heart starts breaking.

Savage appears beside Steel, eyes taking in everything.Tyler.Me.Raven’s bleeding arm.The body.Steel’s knife.My face.His expression shifts almost imperceptibly because he knows too.

Saint’s voice cuts from the doorway.“Two got away.Reaper wasn’t with them.”

Of course not.Reaper sends men to die and stays breathing like the godforsaken rat he is.

Steel turns toward the door, and I see it happen.The switch, the moment his eyes go empty again.

“No,” I say, and he stops.“You’re not going after them.”

“They attacked the compound.”

“And Tyler is bleeding on the floor.”

“He has you.”The words should sound like he trusts me to handle this, but they simply feel like abandonment.

I stand too fast, blood rushing in my ears.“You’re going to leave me standing here with another body and more blood because there’s always someone else to kill?”

Steel’s face locks down.“That’s not what this is.”

“Isn’t it?”