RIVAL’S POV
My knuckles were still throbbing when I got back.
Not from regret — from impact.
Thomas's face had enough bones to bruise half of them.
I’d only been gone ten minutes. Just enough time to walk off the heat in my blood, splash cold water on my face, and keep from finishing him off for good. Shadow taught me how to beat someone. He also taught me when not to — if I needed them breathing later.
And I did.
Because something about Thomas still didn’t make sense.
The little bastard didn’t have a death wish — not the dumb kind, anyway. He was jumpy, sloppy, annoying as s**t… but not suicidal. So what the hell was he really doing under my bunk?
I locked the door again behind me, the metallic click like a heartbeat in my chest. The room smelled like iron and sweat. His blood was
