[ miles's reflexes are just fast enough that he manages not to move when river comes at him like lightning, flinching as the pen drives into the desk with an audible thunk. he can taste his heart in the back of his throat, staring at river wide-eyed and unmoving, mouth open just enough for shallow breaths.
someone who would know how to hurt. oh, she knows how to hurt, alright -- miles knows training and conditioning when he sees it. but want to hurt... that's something else entirely. anger and old injury born out of fear and torment radiate off her like hot air from an exhaust. it makes him angry -- makes him remember taura, mark, every one of jackson's whole's victim of every dirty trade out there, because she might not have been made by jackson's whole but she was made by someone like it, and that's just as bad. worse, even, if their motivations were as bad as they appear. miles swallows, remembering their first meeting, and his voice goes soft, barely level. ]
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someone who would know how to hurt. oh, she knows how to hurt, alright -- miles knows training and conditioning when he sees it. but want to hurt... that's something else entirely. anger and old injury born out of fear and torment radiate off her like hot air from an exhaust. it makes him angry -- makes him remember taura, mark, every one of jackson's whole's victim of every dirty trade out there, because she might not have been made by jackson's whole but she was made by someone like it, and that's just as bad. worse, even, if their motivations were as bad as they appear. miles swallows, remembering their first meeting, and his voice goes soft, barely level. ]
And what do you hear now?