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But I’m not alone this time. AJ sits beside me, slouched low in his chair, legs spread out, black duffle bag resting between his boots. He uses a foot to slide it over to me.

“It’s all there,” he says, his voice low.

I nod, using my boot to nudge the bag under my chair. It’s much heavier than I expected, but the weight of it grounds me. It reminds me I still have options.

“You sure about this?” he asks, watching me closely.

“As sure as I can be,” I say. “It’s my best course of action right now.”

He eyes me a moment longer, then leans back again. “How you holdin’ up, man?”

“Honestly?” I scrub a hand down my face. “I feel like I’m deteriorating. But I still have hope,” I add. “Just a little.”

“You love her.”

I side-eye the fuck out of my closest friend. “I doubt that.”

AJ shakes his head. “You a stubborn motherfucker, you know that?”

“Easy for you to say. You know what it feels like. I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”

I raise a brow.

“Ilove you,” he says, straight-faced.

That gets a genuine laugh out of me. First one in a while. “You know I’m talking about a different kind of love.”

AJ smirks. “Still counts.”

We go quiet for a moment. Then, in a low voice, I ask, “Any word on the police?”

He gets serious fast. “From what I could dig up, they don’t have much. No weapon, obviously, no prints, no known motive. But—“

“But?”

“One of the nurses saw you. They have a sketch.”

I shrug. “Does it look like me?”

AJ grins. “Yeah, but a more handsome version of you that gets hoes.”

I laugh again, the sound breaking through the tightness that’s been lingering in my chest all week.

“You want me to take care of it?”

“No,” I say with no hesitation.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I’ve been thinking about it.” I pause and scrub a hand down my face. “I’m done killing.”

His brows lift as he studies me for a beat. “You’re really moving on?”

“Yeah. To something more human.”

AJ nods, then glances towards Sable’s room. “She really turned you out, huh?”