His vehemence, that intensity, is enough to stun her into silence, but only for a split second. Then her anger flares up all over again.

For Ian, this is all tangled up in something very personal. For Kyna, it's not. It's a simple, broad thing—how could she live with herself if she just stood in the shadows and watched someone she cared about get dragged off? The thought of it makes her heart twist.

"You wouldn't be doing shit to me. What the fuck am I supposed to do, just write him off as a lost cause? Write you off as a lost cause if the same shit happened?"