nt apartment, Carissa aggressively shoved her few items of clothing i

oor. Men shouted outside, hurling curses. Isiah ha

hut. Her heart slammed against her ribs. She reached over to

ted plants and kicked the metal tr

ng the duffel bag over her shoulder, too

knife raised high, a feral s

ons, stumbled backward. Carissa sprinted through the

tch!" one of

the heavy rain blinding her. Her lung

ped out of an alley. He grabbed her arm, his grip crushing down i

and tried to drag her into the shad

y handle of the knife into the drunk's skull.

shed into a deep puddle of muddy water

k lunged

blinding LED headlight

ts brakes, sending a wave of dirty w

wore a black trench coat, his dark hair instantly plastered to his

d kicked the man square in the chest. The drunk flew backward, hit the b

a halt. They saw the armored car and

the mud. He looked down at her, his jaw locke

e shrugged off his custom trench coa

ody heat, and smelled strongly of cedar and expensive colog

d, his voice dripping with disdai

you. She pulled the coat tight around her shiver

shirt. He ordered the driver to head to Long Island, then told his guar

drumming on the roof. Water dripped from

d out a bottle of water, and slammed i

the bottle and drank greedily. The c

lling on her cheek. "You rejected my mon

ed window. "I don't have a family anymore," she said

He looked at her thin, rigid posture wrapped in his coa

state. Alistair was waiting with a black umbrella, his th

a guest room," he told the butler, and w