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I saw Brysen’s eyes flicker to her sister and then tear back up I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding on to

“Should you be this cynical at sixteen?” I asked it as a joke, but I kind of really meant it

Karsen snorted into my side “I’m not cynical I’m realistic”

She could call it whatever she wanted She ay too perceptive and way too aware of the ways of the world for a pretty young thing from the suburbs

The ambulance rolled to a stop and they wheeled Brysen into the eency roo around the busy unit

“They probably had to take hiery”

She blushed bright red and fiddled with her hair just like Brysen did

“Don’t you want to know if he’s going to be all right? He got shot trying to keep us safe”

I didn’t know Booker well, but I knew the cloth he was cut out of It was the same unbendable steel that Bax was hewn from Guys like Booker didn’t take a bullet because they were chivalrous, or because they were altruistic and brave Guys like hioing to end up there anyway They took that risk every ti, breathing part of who they were, but I wasn’t positive I could explain that to Karsen in a way a sixteen-year-old with an obvious crush would understand Or that she would believe ht words I could see her tender heart shining out of her dark eyes when she talked tobrute

“I’ to leave your sister but I’o check on Booker Don’t be gone too long, all right? Once we know Brysen is all right, I have to get in touch with Titus so you can give him your statement about what happened”

I was pretty sure it was a clear-cut case of self-defense, but I guess when there was a dead body I could see why Titus felt the need to handle the situation by the book I had no worries that he would draw it out, not with Dovie right in the center of another shooting There was no way Titus would risk pushing Bax back out onto a ledge by reement and took off toward the busy nurses’ station