Lena
I should have told him to leave.
Instead, I watched Damien Vale stand in my ruined living room looking like violence wrapped in a tailored black coat while rain whispered against broken windows.
A man who had probably ordered deaths before breakfast.
A man who terrified everyone around him.
A man who had just protected me without hesitation.
And somehow those things were becoming impossible to separate.
“You can’t kill people every time you’re angry,” I said quietly.
Damien’s expression didn’t change.
“I’m not angry.”
The calmness in his voice chilled me more than shouting would have.
“You literally look homicidal.”
“That’s different.”
I stared at him.
“You hear yourself, right?”
His gaze flicked over my face slowly, like he was checking something invisible.
“Are you a
