Chapter 41 The Check

• The alley breathes behind them — cracked concrete, cheap neon, two bodies groaning in the dark where Knox left them like trash he hopes Talia steps over herself.
• His boots scrape glass when he shifts beside her — his hand dragging warm at her elbow, not rough but heavy enough to say don’t run. Not from him. Not from what just nearly dragged her back under.
• Ellerei tries to shrug him off when they hit the corner — boots scuffing the curb where the street hums quieter under the busted streetlight near the safehouse lights.