It was pure instinct, the same instinct that makes you put your arm across a passenger when you brake too hard.

“Mr. Ransom, she is extremely unstable right now. Her sensory threshold is completely overwhelmed — she’s in severe withdrawal, and today is one of the bad days. This is not a good time to introduce a new person.”

And then, because I am human and I was frightened, my eyes went to his hands. I couldn’t stop them.

They dropped to those enormous, scarred, trembling fingers, and for one ugly second every scrap of professional courtesy left me, and all I could think was: I cannot let this man put his shaking hands on a child who could fit in one of them.

Chapter 4 — Let Me Try

He saw where I was looking. Of course he did — a man who reads a room for exits reads a face without effort.

He looked down at his own hands, turned them over once, and let out a slow breath through his nose.