Chapter 23 The Knock

• The safehouse hums low around her — Decker’s soft shuffle in the kitchen, Bishop’s voice on the phone somewhere near the hallway, the kind of murmur that means he’s covering another lie that keeps them fed.
• Ellerei’s tucked into the corner of her narrow bed — hoodie sleeves swallowed in her fists, hair loose across the pillow where the white streak brushes her cheek like a mark she didn’t ask for. She’s not really asleep — not with her heartbeat still wired from the truck, that Why still echoing in her chest like a song she hates.
• She wants to hate him. Wants to hate herself more for wanting him to knock.