Roman's breath escaped his throat in feathering gasps. Waves of rage, confusion, and panic washed over him and overpowered his consciousness, driving him to the extremes. He pulled away from Ruby vehemently.

"Did you do this?" he said.

Ruby fumbled to respond.

Roman wrapped his hands around her arms, fingernails digging into her skin. She flinched, but she made no sign of protest. "Ruby, I need you to tell me you didn't do this."

Ruby's mouth gaped, trying to force out sounds. The last shred of rationality left in Roman's frame of mind told him that his reaction put her in a state of shock. However, his body was shaking from all the adrenaline surging in his blood, and he could hardly find it in him to care about anything other than self-preservation.

He started to shake her. "Tell me!"

"No," she finally mustered. "I-I wouldn't." A glimmer of light appeared around the edges of her eyes.

Roman pulled back. "What—are you going to cry?"

Ruby struggled against his grip to wipe her eyes. The sounds she made were merely incoherent attempts at words, muddled in her despair. "I could never hurt you," she whimpered.

Roman stuttered for a response, but the generosity of her honesty put him at a loss. She always failed to hide anything on her face—a single shred of emotion would ripple on the surface where Roman could see it. The way he would never have to doubt his perception of her was such a refreshing taste in comparison to the people who spent their entire lives learning how to sell their lies.

Roman's scroll rang.

"I'm sorry," he said, looking down at her torso as he loosened his grip on her arms.

Ruby shook her head. "It's okay." She ran the edge of her finger beneath her eye. "I get it."

Roman looked up at her, the saddened expression on her face replaced with one of defiant strength. Ruby spoke softly "Are you going to get that?"

Roman snapped his head down to the scroll, which at some point had fallen to the ground in the spout of his rage. His fingers trembled as he reached for it.

"It's Junior," he said, holding the scroll up to his face as he accepted the call.

As he waited for Junior to speak, Ruby brushed strands of hair dewy with sweat away from his eyes. Roman felt the unbridled anxiety in his chest unwind as her fingertips grazed his skin.

"Junior?" he said.

"Get off the streets right now," he said.

Roman swallowed. "Where am I supposed to go?"

"I'll text you the address. Get there right away and cover your face."

The line went silent. Roman hung up the call and stood up.

"I need to go," he said. "You should probably get away from me."

"No," she said, grabbing his hand and standing up beside him. "I am coming with you."

Roman rubbed his eyes. "No, Ruby, you can't. It's dangerous out right now."

"All the more reason why I shouldn't be walking alone tonight. You're not getting rid of me tonight."

Ruby's stare bore into him. Her hands around his were less reassuring and more of a statement that she would be true to her word and hold onto him until she herself wanted to let go.

"Ugh, fine, but we have to go. Now." He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her into a run as he exited the park.

Ruby reached over and pulled the fringes of his hair into his face. He sighed for the fortieth time since they had sat down in the subway car, arms crossed over his chest and face tucked inward.

Ruby cast her eyes up to the map interface, which read that they were still five stops away from their destination. "How much longer?"

"Junior says it's a fifteen-minute walk from our station. Suburban area." He fiddled with his jacket as he looked around the subway car.

Roman had contacted someone in the metro system to find out exactly which cars were updated and retrofitted with cameras, but that had not stopped him from being wary of their surroundings. Ruby would have considered his actions to be paranoid, but if she were in his position, she probably would have acted the same way. The law out for your head? Yeah, she couldn't say she blamed him. Even so, she worried.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Roman sighed. "I'll live." He pressed the heels of his palms into his eye sockets.

Ruby ran her hand over his back, watching the tension leave his face. For someone that she used to know as stubborn and sociopathic, her touch seemed to do wonders for regulating his behavior. But he was also so out of sorts with himself that he probably welcomed the release from his own thoughts too much to resist her.

"Wanna talk about it?"

Roman scoffed. "No, I don't."

"Yeah, I tried," Ruby laughed.

Roman reached for her hand and wrapped his fingers around hers. There were red indentations present beneath his right eye—his scar.

"Hey, your scar is visible again," Ruby pointed out.

He waved it off. "Don't worry about it. We're far enough from the city that it's not a problem."

Ruby rubbed his arms and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

Roman's chin poked her head when he turned to look down at her. "What are you sorry about?"

"I just don't want anything to happen to you." Ruby snuggled closer to Roman's side.

Roman pulled back. "Well, stop apologizing. You didn't have anything to do with this."

"I want to help, though." Ruby's eyes fell to her lap, where her vision blurred. "I can't help but feel that I'm not doing anything."

"You can't always help people," Roman said.

Ruby snapped back to him. "You helped me," she declared. "Don't you remember?"

Roman's hand tightened around hers. "Of course I do."

"Then you know why I'm going to keep trying to help you, right?"

He shook his head. "I'm not worth it. You shouldn't be spending time around someone like me."

"Screw that," she snapped. "You're not going to stop me from giving a crap about you. So stop it." She grabbed his chin and turned him to face her.

His gaze sharpened in focus as he looked back at her. And without a moment further, he grabbed her face and kissed her.

Hey guys! It's been a while-sorry about that lmao. I have been in such a headspin because I just randomly got this hold placed on my account with the university because they needed a letter from my doctor to say that he was okay with me returning next semester...AND HE WOULDNT WRITE IT. Ya know, even though I'm employed and my treatment has been nothing but successful...like, really? I still don't know whether I'm gonna be able to go back, but I have a whole bunch of doctors who I can talk to and two weeks to do it, so I'll be able to sort it out eventually. There's no failure like there is an opportunity, so this shit ain't gonna bring me down. ALRIGHT now for the reviews.

buzzsaw935: HAHAHAHAHA YES oh my god I feel that was exactly how I pictured it lololol

T-tawny: Don't worry, that psychotic bitch ain't comin' within a mile of the end of this story...even though I'm still struggling to pick one out. I dunno-I'll have it all figured out when the time is right. Also, thank you! I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

YearsLate: Thank you! I really appreciated this review because I know it must annoy the absolute CRAP out of some people that I don't write longer chapters, but honestly, I can't write large chunks of a story because at some point my writing just gets ultra stale and it's a really hard hole to dig myself out of, so I'm glad that you found something to appreciate in the way I publish. Pretty sure that's how James Patterson writes too lmao. Thank you so much, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story :)

-Sera