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I would have nodded in agreeiving hi away from me I knew it He didn’t want eance, the vitriol, the vileness that worked in his life—but noas going to have a giant V stitched acrossto have to show him that that the V also represented victory, value, vividness, vitality, and maybe even virtue, which he would never believe I was in love with hio

“I won’t do anything stupid, but you better get hiood-bye and swore he would stay in touch He also told ent posted outside the door, so if anyone else was planning on trying to kill htly more difficult I think normally I would have appreciated his dry humor, but I was tired and I was sad and the only person who could make me feel better was so far out of reach that it s were finally on the upswing

I passed out as Titus was closing the door and didn’t wake back up until a nurse ca list of do’s and don’ts with the wounds on my chest Apparently they were far worse than just a superficial cut on the surface I had over a hundred stitches holding e, it wasn’t very pretty Again she ery and I wanted to laugh and tell her I was froery We wore our battle scars loud and proud and showed the rest of the world they could try and take us down but we survived anyway I wasn’t sure if it was the painkillers working through ht a badass scar made it more understandable how a boy with a star tattooed on his face could loveto seeup on me, so I told her to send theuard at the door would have to approve theht was odd since my brother was supposed to be under protective custody as well I asked her to find hed and toldme fed

I heard muted voices outside the door and rolled my head on the pillohen the door creaked open I was stiff all over, and now that I wasacross ether I groaned and tried to get more comfortable I balked in surprise when I saw that it was Reeve who ca here?”

She wouldn’t look at me directly, but she reached behindon until I found aher hands together, and even though I was still slightly doped up, I could tell she was out of sortsdistracted and fidgety

“Reeve, why are you here?”

“You kno I know guys like Bax are bad news, how I know they can destroy your life without thinking?”

I scowled “You don’t know anything about the kind ofto do to keep me safe”

If she was just here to try and talkto find my way out of this hospital bed and smack her

“My sister” Her voice cracked and she had to take a second to clear her throat “She’s a couple years younger than ht-A student, class president, the apple of ure out what she was getting at, but I didn’t have anything else to do but let her tell uya guy a lot like Bax Good-looking, charerous things He just overwhel school, three for her to start ignoringwith s and stealing By seven, she had dropped out of school, orking as a stripper, and I didn’t even recognize her any silent tears and her hands were curled into fists at her sides “He left her when she refused to start turning tricks for him, but he didn’t just du out and alone because of hiulped loudly and stared intently at me “The reason she didn’t want to prostitute herself out was because she was pregnant He killed her and her baby because she wouldn’t fk strangers for irl It was a heartbreaking story, but Bax wasn’t like that “I’m sorry for your loss, Reeve, but what does that have to do with ot really big in her face “You’re so nice, you have such a big heart I couldn’t stand the idea of hi to you what happened to Rissa” She trailed off and turned her head to look out the“I was uy that screwed her up, he was evil, and the only way to fight evil is with evil If you ask enough people in the Point, they eventually tell you about Novak”

I felt s

“Look at ht-blue eyes clapped on h they were shiny with tears, I knew, just knew in the bottooons pulling ive uy that destroyed Rissa, but he always asks for a price For a long tied ht I was just lucky Rissa’s killer was dead, a victim of his own horrible lifestyle, and I would work myself to death to help those in need so I could pay the world back for being vengeful and wanting blood

“Benny showed up at the group ho story about what Bax was doing to you, hoas using you to get revenge on Race The time to pay Novak back had co to be alone and if I knehere you were staying, because they knew you weren’t with Bax anyot you suspended I called the home administrator and told her you took off with Bax I told the to the bus stop alone and that you mentioned someone named Gus I don’t think you were even aware you let the name slip, but it was all they needed I tried to tell ot you away frooodbut I knew Inside I knew they would use you, kill you, and I gave them the info anyway”