The sting on my cheek was a rhythmic thrum, timed perfectly to the frantic beating of my heart. I stayed on the floor where he’d struck me, the cold marble pressing against my skin.
"I was just walking, Jason," I sobbed, the words thick and clumsy. "I just needed to breathe. I wasn't even gone twenty minutes. I just walked around the block."
Jason stood over me, his shadow stretching long and jagged across the foyer. He didn’t look angry anymore; he looked clinical, like he was solving a puzzle that annoyed him. "And how, exactly, did you get out without anyone seeing you? The staff, the doormen, the security—are you telling me my entire security apparatus is as incompetent as you are 'unstable'?"
"I just... I just walked out," I choked out, shielding my cast with my good arm. "Nobody w
