That calm, almost indifferent gaze Mina gave him when she left fell like a final death sentence, nailing him forever to the cross of regret.
The searing burn of the wound on his back was agony beyond words, yet it wasn't even one ten-thousandth as crippling as the hollow void left behind when his heart was ripped clean out of his chest.
But he knew he couldn't collapse.
Not as long as that venomous snake, Oscar, was still loose. As long as Oscar breathed, Mira and Leo would never be safe.
Gritting his teeth through the pain, he forced himself to sit up. Ignoring his doctor's frantic warnings, he insisted on checking himself out of the hospital that very afternoon.
Every tiny movement pulled at his gaping wound, sending a white-hot spike of pain tearing through him. But that agony only
