Two weeks passed at the safe house.
I was healing. Slowly.
Kyler kept his promise—no more blood. No more pain.
He made me breakfast.
He sat with me by the window.
He kissed me like I was air and he'd been drowning.
It was… peace.
But peace never stays long in a story like ours.
Not when the past is still alive.
Zane came back.
He didn't knock. He didn't call.
He broke in.
Leo had stepped away for one hour. One hour—and that's all it took.
Kyler was in town getting medicine.
And I was alone when I heard the door slam open.
When I turned, he was standing in the doorway like a ghost I never buried.
"Miss me, baby?" he grinned, bruises on his face from the last time Kyler got to him.
My breath caught. "How did you—"
"You think I didn't know where he'd hide you?" Zane said, stepping closer. "You think Kyler's the only one with people?"
I backed up slowly, heart pounding.
"I'm not afraid of you anymore."
He laughed. "That's cute."
Then he grabbed my arm.
Hard.
"You're mine," he hissed. "I don't care who you spread your legs for. I made you. And I can break you."
I tried to fight.
But he slammed me into the wall.
And the world spun.
I woke up on the floor, blood in my mouth.
Zane crouched beside me, whispering.
"All this time, I knew you'd come back to me. You think he loves you? He loves the idea of you. I know the real you. The broken little thing that clings to pain."
"You're wrong," I whispered.
And then—
A sound.
The front door.
Zane turned.
And Kyler walked in.
I had never seen him like that.
Rage didn't cover it.
He was ice.
He walked in slowly, closing the door behind him like a man who already knew how this would end.
"Let go of her," Kyler said, voice low and deadly.
Zane smiled. "You're too late."
Kyler's eyes flicked to me. Bruised. Bleeding.
And something inside him snapped.
The fight was brutal.
Not like the others.
This wasn't business.
This was personal.
Kyler didn't just want to win.
He wanted Zane to feel it.
Every punch was a promise: You will never touch her again.
Blood flew.
Furniture shattered.
And finally—Zane was on the floor, coughing, begging.
Kyler stood over him.
Breathing hard.
Then he looked at me.
And something shifted.
He didn't kill him.
He looked Zane in the eye and said:
"Walk out of here. Crawl if you have to. But if you ever come near her again, I won't stop next time."
Zane spat blood. Crawled out.
And just like that… it was over.
Kyler turned to me.
Knees hit the floor.
Hands cupped my face.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered, over and over.
I held him.
Even though I was the one bleeding.
Because he was the one breaking.