The chapter opens with Alex at the KM Academy, his Krav Maga training center, where he channels his carefully controlled anger into a grueling session against a training dummy. His instructor Ralph, one of the only two people Alex considers a true friend, mentions that the center is opening beginner classes. Alex immediately thinks of Ava and texts her about self-defense lessons, viewing it as part of his commitment to keeping her safe for Josh.

Alex reflects on the measures he has taken since Josh's departure: upgrading Ava's home alarm system (over her protests), running background checks on her photography clients, and requiring her to share details of her photoshoots. He acknowledges an unwanted physical attraction to Ava—remembering her in tiny shorts and a tank top—but is jolted back to focus when Ralph lands a punch during their sparring session.

After the session ends, Alex checks his phone and finds that Ava hasn't replied to his text in nearly an hour, which is unusual for her. He calls with no answer, and a rising panic triggers a flash of a traumatic memory—blood on his hands and clothes. He uses a coping technique, focusing on a different memory, to suppress the episode. Driven by worry and anger, he races to Ava's house without changing out of his training clothes.

At the house, Jules answers the door and initially deflects Alex's questions about Ava's whereabouts. Alex threatens Jules's law internship to extract information, and Jules agrees to share the address only if she can come along. They drive to a friend's house in D.C., where Alex barges past the homeowner—a skinny, bespectacled man—and storms upstairs to find Ava posing in revealing black lace lingerie for a boudoir photoshoot with a blond photographer.

Alex is consumed by a volatile mix of lust and fury. He throws a blanket over Ava and demands she get dressed and leave, insisting the photographer delete every photo. Ava fiercely resists, arguing it's artistic boudoir photography she volunteered for and that Alex has no authority over her. When she threatens to walk outside in the outfit, Alex counters by threatening to destroy the photographer's career. Ava relents, calling him an asshole, and changes in the bathroom while Alex finishes deleting the photos and intimidates the photographer into never asking Ava to model again.

The drive back is tense and silent. Ava refuses to look at or speak to Alex. He turns on the radio at low volume and tells her it was for her own good, but she doesn't respond. Alex insists to himself that he doesn't care about her silent treatment, though his actions throughout the chapter suggest otherwise—his protectiveness has crossed from duty into something far more personal and possessive.