CASSIE’S POV
The door didn’t open.
It exploded.
The force of it was so hard that the wood of the frame splintered and the door burst inward, swinging back so hard it bounced off the wall, and in the space it left stood Smalls.
I had to blink repeatedly to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. It really was him.
He looked different here than he had at the mansion. At the mansion he had been professional, composed, gentle in the kind way he spoke to me. That calm professionalism was gone. Now there was nothing gentle about him.
His jaw was set like concrete. His eyes swept the room in under a second, assessing every threat before settling on me.
He took everything in - my mother on the floor, me on the ground propped up on one arm, barely holding myself upright, three armed men standing
