"Wine?" I offered.
She gave the smallest nod. It was the first choice she'd made since she'd been taken.
I poured the glass and walked it over to her, watching the way her fingers curled around it. She didn't sip. She drank. Almost all of it, as if it would burn away whatever was still clinging to her chest.
I didn't stop her.
Instead, I sat across the room, opened my laptop, and pulled up the Shimizu project—figures, reports, endless revisions. I stared at it, but my mind was still in that warehouse. I saw a lot coming but not the way it affected Aria. Still locked on the way her voice shook when she laughed bitterly at the sight of me. Still seeing the fucking chain marks on her wrists.
Still seeing her not cry.
My phone buzzed.
Niko: Outside. Sitting room.
I didn't reply immediately.
He knew better than to enter unless I gave him permission.
I looked back toward the bed.
