Chapter 48

• ELEANOR
• There was this loud, piercing ringing in my ears. I’d barely registered what had hit me, but I found myself flat on the floor, my cheek throbbing and my head spinning. The pain was blinding—a sharp ache radiating through half of my face, and it took me a few seconds to push myself up. I could feel my hair tangled around my face, strands sticking to my cheek where it was hot from the slap. My vision was hazy, but it was starting to clear, and the first thing I saw was Armando, his hand wrapped around the neck of the man who’d struck me, holding him against the wall like he could squeeze the life out of him.
• But I didn’t care about that—not right now. My gaze went past them and landed on the other man bleeding helplessly on the floor—barely conscious. I felt a jolt of horror, and without thinking, I scrambled over to him. Blood was streaked across his face, his clothes immensely soaked with sweat—looking like he’d been dragged through hell. I didn’t know his name or who he was, but I couldn’t just stand there and watch him suffer.