REINA

The door slammed shut behind me with a violence I didn’t know I had in me. The sound echoed through the empty hallway like a gunshot, sharp and final, and I pressed my back to the wood as if I could physically hold the night outside. My chest heaved. My palms were slick with sweat. My nails had dug half moons into the meat of my hands so deep I could feel the sting now, belated and distant, like pain happening to someone else.

I held my breath.

Listened.

The low growl of his engine started, idled for a heartbeat, then faded down the street. Gone. Just like that....