“So you don’t fall asleep.”
Her brown eyes locked on his.
“Start at one. Keep going until I come back. Promise me.”
He wanted to tell her that promises meant nothing. That men like him survived by breaking them first. That trust was for children and fools and people who still believed the world cared what they deserved.
But her face stayed there in front of him, solemn and expectant, and for one cracked-open second he felt something he had not felt in years.
Shame.
Because she believed him capable of keeping his word.
“I promise,” he heard himself say.
Lily nodded, satisfied.
“Good. Don’t stop.”
Then she was up and running, her footsteps slapping back through the alley and out toward the street.
Dominic lay alone in the dark, blood thick beneath him, the scarf warming against his ruined shirt, and opened his mouth.
“One,” he whispered.
