Sabine did not raise her voice.That was the first thing that made her dangerous.People expect cruelty to come in sharp sounds. They expect slammed doors, pointed fingers, a dramatic reveal. Sabine preferred clean lines. Smooth words. A calm face. She liked damage that could pass for procedure.She stood in the lower sitting room as if she belonged there more than either of us.Renaud was already on his feet.I had only stepped back half a pace, but the distance between him and Sabine changed at once. He did not touch me. He did not need to. His whole body had shifted into that cold alertness I had come to recognize. The kind that made even silence feel armed.“I said get out,” he told her.Sabine closed the door behind herself.“No,” she said. “You said it. I declined.”I folded my arms, though my pulse was still unsteady from the road, the blood, the kiss, the fact that all three no
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