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She no the feeling was a Rashid proxi? If he ould it be because he?

She wished Heto check up on her after she’d misled him about the nature of her turmoil But what if

Reality check,from the bedroom she occupied

Breath bated, she expected hiined it?

No Soht ’s switchblade had been? That wound Rashid had dis to fester He’d probably refused antibiotics like he had analgesics

She shot to her feet At thehalt as if she’d slammed into an invisible force field Fro reverberated in her ears, her bones It felt and sounded like the erratic, furious pounding of a distant, gigantic heart

She hadn’t heard the sound in the sequestered bedroo through her

She ran down the stairs, alher floor, her dash resumed The force of the sounds ratcheted up with every step as she approached a wall partition at the far end of the loft Beyond it, the pounding felt as if it would bruise her insides

Her own heart thundering in response, she walked around the wall And she saw the sound’s origin Rashid

Stripped to the waist, barefoot and barehanded, he was kick-boxing a punching bag in a constant barrage of viciousness that had almost destroyed its supposedly indestructible for doall A single one would have killed anything living It made her realize he’d actually held back when he’d dealt with her attackers

It was as if he was venting surplus anger, tearing the bag apart as he hadn’t a chance to do to theiven hi on a path of mutilation from his neck, it widened as it ran down his back At his waist it snaked around to his front, as if to shackle his body, slithered up over his abdouration Where it ended, its very tip, sharp and jagged, seee beneath his skin to skewer into his heart