"Asher, we can't leave her!"
My voice was a sharp, frantic whisper, cut through by the sudden roar of an accelerating engine a few blocks away. I gripped the edge of the marble table, my knuckles tight on the surface as I anchored myself between Asher's towering, rigid frame and the trembling girl across from me. "Look at her. If we leave her here, she's dead before she even reaches the corner."
The air around us felt thick, charged with the sudden, suffocating heat of an impending strike. Asher didn't move. He stood like a wall of solid granite, his eyes still tracking a dark sedan that had slowed down at the intersection. His hand remained buried in his coat pocket, his fingers locked around the grip of his gun. Every line of his body screamed combat retreat. He was a man who calculated survival in milliseconds, and right now, his equation only had room for me and Leo.
