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I shten when my dimple appeared in s like et what you’re telling s I will always choose to be with you, Brysen, but I can’t just walk away froaped at s off of her forehead “I do love you and I need you to keepI hate, but I can’t ask you to give yourself to the streets, to this life, if it’s not what you want”

She narrowed her eyes at ainst my palm “Then don’t ask”

I feltin the center of my chest twist so hard, my heart couldn’t find a way to beat around it

“All right, I won’t” Even if it felt like it would kill me

“Good, and then when I’m there—on the streets in the city, when I’m there every time you come home, you’ll know that’s the only place I want to be It’s where you are, Race, so it’s where I have to be”

I wanted to collapse in relief, but all I could do was lean over and kiss her in a way that probably wasn’t appropriate, considering her banged-up condition

I would hold on to her with everything I had and I would make sure she stayed just the way she was I would never take the little things for granted, and just as tightly as I planned on holding on to her, I was going to hold on to this dark and dangerous place that wasand everything to keep them

“It’s not a place anyone really wants to call hos out, I can dom I can make this a place that isn’t so terrible to be” It was a bold claih hell and move the very earth the Point sat on to live up to Bax illing to watch the city burn and eat itself alive for Dovie I wanted the opposite I wanted to build it up, give it legs, make it a place that could stand tall and proud

“There is good on those streets I know that’s what you’re fighting for, even if you have to do it in a nontraditional way”

“How can you see that through all theinvolved withthe other way?” It would have been the s for her to do the second after I kissed her Her fate was sealed from that very instant

“That bad stuff didn’t cos happen and we just have to deal with the at you for a long time, Race—all of you I know exactly who you have to be and who you want to be”

If I could rip my heart out of , I would For a long ti attached to et taken away from me I could tell by the look in Brysen’s eyes and the slant of her irl away fro I had for her a no-brainer

“I’ to tell you that I’ll take care of you any to make it my mission from here on out to see to it that you can take care of yourself You already have the fight in you; we just need to give you a little ooo with it”

She lifted a blond eyebrow at me and the conversation was cut short as the doctor finally rowled at him, and he told her he did indeed want another CT scan of her head That knot on her te as she ake and looking atto freak out

Before a couple nurses showed up to wheel her off to radiology, she flashed iven to Bax and asked et to be your queen?”

Thatlook

“I’ll give you whatever you want” And I would until both the parts of the ive

We weren’t really a good bet onshot, and I always putthe fact that ere undeniably in love with one another put the odds on our side

THEY WANTED TO KEEP Brysen in the hospital overnight Her CT scan came back all clear, but that knot on the side of her head was some cause for concern, so they just wanted to keep her under observation Since there was only room for one of us to stay with her in the room they ht and wandered off to find out what happened to Booker