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"How touching," Kane mocks. He reaches into his tan linen jacket and pulls out a sleek black handgun. For a moment, I think this is it—he'll shoot us both and dump our bodies into the ocean below. A neat, clean end to his problems. He looks between the two of us, a cold smile stretching the corners of his lips, and I know in that moment that it’s not going to be that simple.

He steps forward, pressing the gun to my temple as he gestures to one of the men. The cold metal digs into my skin, but I don’t flinch, keeping my eyes on Valentina. If I am about to go, I want the last thing I see to be her.

To my surprise, the guard unlocks Valentina’s handcuffs. He pulls her to her feet, roughly, and I lurch forward, fighting against the hands holding me. “Get your fucking hands off of her!” I snarl, and Kane shoves the gun against my temple, hard enough to hurt.

“Manners,” he snaps. “Valentina?”

The guard pushes her forward, close enough to touch if my hands were free. Kane pulls the gun away from my temple and holds it out to her. Her eyes widen, shock filling her features.

"Take it," he orders.

She stands there, frozen. “What?” Her voice is small, almost childlike. She knows what he’s going to do, as clearly as I do. We’re both people of this world, molded by cruelty, trained in violence. None of this is a shock, except for the part where we’re caught up in it, forced to perform brutality past what even we’ve imagined.

Kane smiles, pleased at his own theatre. “I'm giving you a choice, my dear. One final test of your loyalty." He nods toward me. "Kill him, and all is forgiven. You return to your place at my side, where you belong. Fail, and, well…” His smile tightens. “I’ll have to get more creative.”

Valentina's eyes meet mine. I see the calculation there, the rapid processing of options and outcomes. She’s trying to think of a way out, a way to turn this to our advantage. One that won’t end in our deaths.

"If I refuse?" she asks, still not taking the gun.

Kane shrugs, that cold smile never leaving his lips for even a second. "I’ll kill him anyway. But slowly. Painfully. After I force him to watch as I kill you. Or maybe I’ll make you watch, since you’re the one who betrayed me. A lesson to others who might consider the same."

"So my choice is to kill him myself, or watch you kill both of us," she clarifies, her voice steady despite everything. I know she’s thinking. Buying herself time to plan.

Kane nods, pleased. "Exactly. Though I prefer to think of it as a chance for redemption. A way back. You can prove to me that this was all a mistake,daughter."

It was the wrong thing to say. Valentina's eyes find mine again, and in them I see a thousand unspoken words. Regret. Resolve. Something deeper that makes my heart clench painfully in my chest.

Valentina reaches for the gun, her fingers closing around the grip. Kane steps back, satisfaction evident in his posture.

"Good girl," he murmurs. "I knew you'd make the right choice."

Valentina turns to face me fully, the gun leveled at my head. Her expression is unreadable, her eyes locked with mine. And though I trust her more than I ever thought I could, I don’t discount that she might buy her own life with mine, even if it tears her heart out to do it. I don’t believe she will… but she could.

The thought doesn’t upset me as much as it should.Is that what love is?I wonder. I’d die, if it meant she lived. However that happens.

I don't close my eyes. If these are my last moments, I want to spend them looking at her. Memorizing every detail of her face, every shade of green in her eyes. Remembering everything we shared, even if I still don’t know how much of it was true.

Some of it was. And if we get out of this, I want to know every moment that she meant. Every one that was real.

"I'm sorry," she whispers, so softly I barely hear it.

Then she moves, faster than I thought possible in her injured state. The gun swings away from me, toward Kane?—

And everything explodes into chaos.

27

VALENTINA

It feels like time slows as Kane extends the gun toward me, as I take it, as I point it at Konstantin. I feel my heart shredding into ribbons at the look on his face, as I realize that some part of him is wondering if I’m going to pull the trigger. If I’m going to buy my life with his.

The gun gleams in the morning light as the sun rises, burning through the glass walls, lighting up the room all around us. My wrists throb where the zip ties have left raw rings of abraded skin, my body a catalog of pain from Kane's punishment. But none of that matters now.

All that matters is that somehow, we both get out of this. Alive.

Konstantin’s eyes remain locked with mine, unwavering, accepting. He doesn't close them, doesn't look away. Even now, even facing death at my hands, he sees me. He wantsme.

Even after everything. Maybe because of it. Maybe because after all the lies, if we choose each other at the end of this, it can only be the truth.