Page 84 of Fractured Allegiance
She knows it’s me.
Her back is to me, but her reflection’s caught in the narrow window.
She speaks without moving.
“You fight like you don’t care what breaks.”
I stop two steps behind her. Close, but not close enough to touch.
“I don’t,” I say. “Not when I’m ordered to.”
She turns. No surprise in her expression. No fear either. Her hair’s pulled back now, exposing the hard line of her jaw. The black dress clings to her like something forged, not worn.
“I wasn’t told I’d be watching that.”
“Neither was I told you’d be there to watch.”
She crosses her arms. One of her knuckles is scraped, maybe from where she braced herself against the cage’s rail.
“Drazen said it was about loyalty.”
“Then he got the wrong lesson.”
Her gaze narrows. “Which is?”
“That loyalty doesn’t need to be proven in blood. Only control does.”
That lands. I see it shift something in her. Her arms fall to her sides.
“I’ve seen men kill for power,” she says. “But you didn’t fight like you wanted to win.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then why?”
I look at her. Not at her mouth. Not at her collarbone. Just her eyes.
“Because you were there.”
That holds the moment like a knife.
She doesn’t back away.
She doesn’t blink.
But something in her exhales.
I step closer.
Close enough that the space between us becomes tension instead of distance.
“I didn’t ask for protection,” she says.
“I didn’t offer any.”
“So what is this, then?”
“You tell me.”
