Free The Pulse by Shoshanna Evers Page A

hugging her backpack to her chest as if she were a child, clutching a teddy bear for comfort.
    “I have a sister named Stephanie,” he said, sitting down on the edge of an uncomfortable plastic hospital chair. “She lives in LA.”
    Emily didn’t speak, but she was still listening, which Mason took as an invitation to continue. “She got attacked. Raped, by a man who worked in her apartment building.”
    He felt his pulse pick up as the memory came flooding back—how he had rushed into the emergency room, only to find his sister beaten, a half-dead look in her eyes.
    He pushed the memory to the back of his mind so he could focus on speaking. “I tried to play by the rules. We pressed charges. Hired a lawyer. But the—the man who ruined Steph’s life got off on a technicality. A fucking technicality!”
    His voice rose in anger and he had to count to ten before he could speak again. The seconds seemed long.
    Emily didn’t speak, but she hadn’t run away, either.
    “Then it became clear to me—my sister would spend the rest of her life traumatized and scared, and this asshole—this rapist—would get away scot-free. So… I knew I had to take matters into my own hands. Caught up with him after he got off work and beat the shit out of him. But I couldn’t stop—didn’t want to stop. I just… kept going, kept hitting him. All I could think about was what he’d done to my sister.”
    Emily still hadn’t said a word, but he knew she listened. Tears filled her eyes. Were they tears of fear… was she scared of him?
    “I’m not proud of what I did,” he said. “The cops got me the very next day, and I went without a fight. I deserved to go to prison for life for what I had done. And I’ll probably go to hell for it in the next life as well.”
    Mason looked down at his hands, surprised to see they weren’t trembling.
    “It wasn’t my place to decide who gets to live and who should die,” he said. “I understand that now. But I can’t say I’m sorry for what I did. Because with that evil man dead, Stephanie could finally breathe again, you know?”
    Emily nodded. “Yeah.”
    “Do you see what I mean now, that I’m not a danger to you? I’d never hurt you, Emily. And I can’t let you run off. Because that would be like letting you kill yourself.”
    Emily dropped the backpack on the hospital bed and ran up to Mason, throwing her arms around his neck. “I’m glad you killed that rapist,” she said. “We need fewer of those in the world.”
    Mason hugged her tightly, burying his face in her hair. “Thank you,” he said. Knowing she didn’t hate him for his crime made him feel like a weight lifted off his shoulders.
    “But, Mason,” she whispered, “I can’t stay. No matter what you say to me, I can’t stay in New York. I know you don’t believe me, but it’s true. I’m not safe here.”
    Mason nodded even though he wanted to hold her here, tie her down and make her stay safe with him. He couldn’t keep her if she didn’t want to be kept.
    Emily picked up her backpack and hefted it onto her narrow shoulders, tightening the straps so the weight was distributed equally. She stood on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek.
    A chaste kiss. A kiss that said good-bye.
    “Good luck, Em,” he said, his throat tight. “It was really great meeting you.” He shook his head—that didn’t sound right. They had more than just met. “If you change your mind, I’ll be at my apartment.”
    He pulled a worn pencil stub from his cargo pants and scribbled his address on a scrap of litter.
    Emily took it from him with shaking hands and read it before putting it in her backpack. “Thank you.”
    She turned and walked out of the room and down the corridor.
    Mason stepped out into the dank hospital hallway and watched as she strode determinatedly toward the front exit of Roosevelt. With no way of communicating, no phones, no Internet, unless people were within walking distance of a visit they