Page 151 of Savior

He was still wearing the navy shirt from that morning. Same jeans. Same bruise. The little split in his lip had opened at one edge.

I had been trying to keep him from splitting it again at lunch.

It felt like that had happened on a different day.

He stopped beside the table and looked down at my arm.

I waited for him to ask whether I was okay.

He didn’t.

“Show me where else,” he said.

I moved the strap of my tank enough to show him my shoulder, then held out the other arm.

He looked at every mark.

Riot stood behind him, one hand braced against the back of an empty chair.

“I’m okay,” I told them both. “They’ve checked me.”

Chief looked up immediately.

His eyes were worse than the bruises.

“I know what happened,” I added. “There aren’t any blank parts.”

He nodded once.

It didn’t seem to help as much as I’d hoped.

The room was too small for everybody.

Dad sent the other brothers to the chairs near reception after letting them each come in long enough to see me. Clayton kissed the side of my head and stood there until I made him go. Rook put a hand against the back of my neck, checked my face, and said nothing at all.

Ruckus’s good mood from lunch had disappeared.

Micah looked at my wrist for a long time.

I wanted to tell him to put his bandaged hands where I could see them.

It didn’t seem like the moment.

Chief stayed in the chair beside the door. Every time somebody passed in the hallway, his head turned.

The young officer finished checking his notes with me. “He’s being booked for assault,” he said. “He also wants it in the report that you hit him.”

“I told you I did.”

“I’ve got that,” the officer assured me, touching his pen to the page.

“She was trying to,” Sadie said. “I’m glad he noticed.”

Riot lowered his face toward the coffee somebody had handed him.

“Sadie,” Dad said.

She settled back in her chair. “Right. I wasn’t there.”