Page 43 of Darkest Before Dawn (His Perfect Darkness #2)

But the eyes are the same. Flat and dead.

Then he flicks open his coat, and I see why my gun would be of no use. His torso is wrapped in duct tape, with the same makeshift incendiary devices that I saw downstairs all over his body. The wires wind down his right arm.

He lifts his hand to show me he’s holding the trigger.

“Put down your gun, or we all die.”

Rex

The press conference takes forever. Nadia walks me out, and finally, I sink into the back seat of the car and wave at Ivan to start driving. I can’t wait to get back to Inara.

Alfie alerts me that Hamish is trying to reach me and connects the call.

“Hamish?” I ask.

“Victor has urgent news for us.” Hamish’s voice is tight and strained.

I sit up in the seat. “Victor?” The assassin I hired has been quiet, only checking in with sporadic reports.

“He got a lead that put him on Ted Raider, the photographer, and followed him tonight. There’s something you should see.”

My phone screen lights up with footage of Inara entering the building and Ted hovering in the back.

No. “Get me eyes on that building. Now .”

Inara

Checkmate. BK’s done it. He’s lured me out alone, and now I know his plan. If I shoot him, it’ll trigger the explosion. If I don’t, he’ll probably do it anyway.

We’re going to die together. The only question is if I can stall him long enough for Ted to save his family.

I raise my hands in the air to show I’m complying, then slowly set the gun on the ground.

When I straighten, I raise my face to the sky. Come on, Rex . One thing I know is that he’s got this whole city surveilled. He might be watching us, even now.

I don’t want him to see me like this, but I don’t want to die alone. So it’s a comfort, knowing he might have eyes on me.

A tiny part of me holds out hope that he’ll come for me. I try not to dwell on it, but the more I push it away, the stronger it becomes. I even sense someone behind me again.

Don’t think about it. Focus.

“Come closer,” BK says.

Adrenaline races down my arms. I want to snatch up my gun and shoot. Remember the family. Stay strong. “Promise me the family will live.”

“Just the family? Not you?” He coughs a few times.

I say nothing. We both know my life is a lost cause. I’m not going to beg for it.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Why?”

“It was always going to end like this. You and me, together.”

Ugh, I hate this. I don’t know if I can do this.

As soon as I think that, I hear Lacy telling me, He’s a man, and he makes mistakes.

What would she do if she were here? She’d rely on her training.

I know BK’s profile. He thinks of himself as extraordinary and better than everyone. He liked our small town because he blended in. He was able to move from home to home freely, finding his victims. He seemed ordinary in every way, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

He thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. Even now, he thinks he has the upper hand.

I can work with that.

“That’s why you’ve done all this?” I ask. “Killing victims, entire families? You could’ve just asked me to come to you.”

“Would you have traded yourself for them?”

“I’m here now, aren’t I?” I’m tempted to rush him and get this part over with. Let him blow us both. Relieve the intense pressure.

But then—there’s a flicker of something from the corner of my eye.

This time, I know there’s movement behind me.

BK mumbles something, but I’m only half listening. Is that a crunch of gravel under a booted foot?

It takes everything not to turn and run toward help. I don’t need help, but the family does.

“The family on the first floor—you need to let them go,” I say loudly to cover any other sounds of my backup. Go downstairs, I think, as if I could connect telepathically with them. Don’t try to save me. Get the family out. “They’re innocent. They’ve done nothing to deserve this.”

“No one is innocent,” BK says, but I’m not focused on him. I’m watching the shadow. Please, Rex. Please. If it is him, I’m hoping he’ll get the message. I need him to get the family out.

I need to keep BK talking.

“I was,” I say. “So was my family.”

“They would’ve kept you from me. I watched you in the park but couldn’t get close. Your parents were protective.”

“Is that why you killed them?” It’s breaking my heart to talk about this, but I’ll do anything to distract him. If I have to use my pain as bait, so be it.

The shadow moves away. Hopefully, they got the message to focus on saving the family downstairs.

My work is almost done.

I can hear Lacy Collins saying, You’re going to nail him.

BK is coughing again, a hacking sound that doesn’t sound good.

“Are you alright? You sound like you’re sick.” I concentrate on the conversation but keep an eye out for any more movement. Whoever was behind me is gone. I can sense it.

Maybe the family will be okay.

“The after-effects of smoke inhalation.”

“Smoke inhalation?” Keep him talking. Give Rex time.

“The fire in Elyria.”

I shudder when he says my town’s name.

“It almost took my life. Collins made sure of that, the bitch.”

“Lacy?” I try to follow.

“She found me out. I had to blow the building early, and I almost didn’t escape.”

“We all thought you’d died.”

“I nearly did.”

“And then what?”

“I hid out. Healed best I could. Reached out to a friend to help nurse me back to health.”

“A friend?”

“A protégé of sorts.” He says it with such pride that I get a hit of insight.

“Protege. The Blackbird Killer?”

“Yes.” Now, he does sound smug. Like a proud papa talking about his son making the honor roll.

“Who is the Blackbird Killer?” Even though I’m about to die, I want to know.

“My student.”

“Who are they? Give me a name.” I take another small step forward but stop when he raises the trigger.

“Ah, ah.”

Shit, I pushed too hard. I need to have more finesse. But I’m wired, my whole body buzzing with adrenaline and my senses heightened. Suddenly, the lights from the glittering city and the sound of my own heartbeat are all too loud, too bright.

“This isn’t about them,” BK says. “It’s about us.”

“Us?” I can’t keep the disgust out of my tone. “There is no us.”

“Ah, but there is.” His rasp grows softer, more intimate. “That’s why I had to find you. We’re meant to be together.”

The sour taste is back in my mouth.

“Only you can heal me.”

I shake my head. I shouldn’t deny it; I should feed his delusion, feed his fantasy. But I can feel his darkness threatening to pull me under, and if I go down, I’ll drown. “I don’t understand.”

“You know what you said to me? The first night I came for you?”

He means the night he killed my family. “I don’t remember.” I do; I just don’t want to.

“You said you saw me die. In an explosion, in a fire.”

That was the first night my visions came to me. It would be harder now to hear this if I hadn’t told everything to Rex last night.

I’ll let him boast and relive that night. The night of his triumph and my suffering. I’ll give him the fantasy and let him wallow in it.

Only I can do this. Only I can give him what he needs.

“You were so young. So wise. You knew that I had killed them,” BK says. “I didn’t have to tell you. You knew everything.”

I was a child , I want to scream. My body aches like he’s beaten me. “Why did you kill my family? Why did you spare me?”

“I came for you. You were special,” he says now.

I swallow. I’m not a little girl anymore, trapped. I’m a grown woman with a gun nearby. I can take control of this situation at any time because I’m not afraid to die. “That’s why you killed them all?”

“We were supposed to be together.”

“So it is my fault.” I knew it. This is the guilt I’ve carried all along. “You killed them so you could have me.”

“Yes,” he says softly, and it hurts so badly knowing the truth. I’m the reason BK murdered them.

“We have a connection,” he says, and I want to deny it. But I know it’s true. We’re connected in so many ways. He was there when my psychic ability awakened. He was the reason I am who I am today.

And now we’re going to die together. I couldn’t kill him the night he first came to me, but I can now.

Before I can grab my gun and rush him to end this, a new voice rings out.

“No, Inara is mine.” And Rex steps out from the shadows.

The gravel crunches under his boots. He looks larger than life in his dark suit, but all I can think of is how he’s bulletproof but not bombproof.

“No, please.” I hold out a hand to stop Rex from moving forward. “Wait,” I say to BK as much as I do to Rex. I step between them, like I’m protecting one from the other. I’m not sure who I’m protecting from whom.

Rex speaks over my head. “It’s over, Dennis. You’ve lost.”

BK tries to say something and starts wheezing instead. His hand trembles around the trigger.

“Stay back,” I say to Rex. “He’s rigged to blow.”

“It’s okay,” he says to me. “We got the family out.”

Relief weakens me, making me bow forward. I did it. They’re safe.

Rex looks back at BK. “The only victim tonight will be him.” He makes a move toward BK, and I panic.

Rex is going to try and take BK down, but BK isn’t bluffing. Rex will get blown to bits.

I can’t let that happen.

I have to stop it.

And I know how.

“This ends now,” I say to them both. Before they can react, I stride to the edge of the roof and jump onto the ledge. The wind whips up from several stories below. I don’t look down, though, because I’ll get dizzy.

“Inara, no?—”

BK wheezes something. He lifts his hand, wiggling the trigger at us. He’s seconds away from killing us all, I can feel it.

It’s now or never.

I face Rex. “I love you,” I mouth to him and leap into the night.