Chapter 202
THIRD PERSON.
The bullet didn’t hit anyone, it slamd into the wall an inch from Marina’s head, showering her in plaster dust.
She scread so hard, collapsing to her knees, her hands over her ears. "The truth," Roo whispered. "Next one hits bone."
Katya watched, her breath coming in shallow gasps. She saw the monster in Roo, the one she had always feared.
But for the first ti, she realized that monster wasn’t looking at her. It was looking at the people who had tried to take her.
Marina was sobbing now, her body folded in on itself, fingers clawing at the marble as plaster dust clung to her hair.
"I—I told you," she cried, voice shrill and breaking. "She has the codes! She ca to —she said she needed help—she said you were going to kill her!"
Roo didn’t move the gun.Didn’t even look at Katya. His eyes stayed on Marina, cold and unblinking.
"You’re panicking," he said calmly. "People panic when they’re lying, or when they know they’re about to be exposed."
Marina shook her head violently. "No—no, I swear—"
"Enough." The single word sliced through her sobs. Before Marina could speak again, Adelasia stepped forward.
"Cousin" she said quickly, too quickly. Adelasia never calls him cousin. "This has gone far enough."
His gaze shifted to her. Slowly.
Adelasia lifted her chin, schooling her features into sothing composed. Sothing familiar. Sothing she had worn her entire life in rooms full of powerful n.
"She’s manipulating the situation," Adelasia continued. "Katya. She’s been playing all of us since the beginning. The escape. The system failure. Marina—she’s unstable, yes, but Katya knew that. She used her."
Her voice didn’t break. Roo tilted his head slightly. A silent invitation, his was intrigued with how easily her lies could flow.
How old did she think he was? 5. Marina, the Almighty and entitled Marina could easily be manipulated by Katya who she hates.
Adelasia pressed on. "She attacked first," she said. "She wanted the papers. When Marina panicked, Katya took advantage of it. She planned to leave us here to take the fall."
Katya let out a short, disbelieving breath. "Another lie " she said hoarsely. "Because I didn’t even know the papers existed until tonight."
Roo’s eyes flicked to her for the first ti since the gunshot. She wasn’t shouting. Wasn’t even crying, like she used to.
She was still holding the vase like a shield, blood drying along her jaw, hands shaking just enough to betray how close she was to collapse.
Adelasia turned on her sharply. "You’re lying."
"No, you are and it shows" Katya said. Adelasia’s composure cracked a little bit she faced her cousin back. "Roo," she said again, softer this ti. "You know ."
Her real hand tightened over the tal one. "We are family. I would never betray you. Why would I? ."
Silence.
Heavy. Pressurized. Adelasia’s breathing hitched as Roo took a single, slow step toward her.
He stopped just inches away, the scent of expensive tobacco rolling off him in waves.
"Family?" Roo didn’t scream. He didn’t even raise his voice. The word sounded like an insult coming from him.
"You think blood is anything, Adelasia? You think I care about the na you carry?" He glanced down at the mangled ss of her tal hand.
A cruel ghost smile touched his lips as he vaguely gestures to her hand. "I cut through the bone myself. Have you forgotten how my blade felt?"
The words hit Adelasia with the force of a physical blow. The "two faces" she had maintained shattered instantly.
The ntion of the trauma, the reminder that the man standing before her was the architect of her greatest agony, stripped away every ounce of her composure.
Her face contorted. The professional mask was gone, replaced by a raw, jagged desperation.
Her eyes went from calculating to feral in a heartbeat. She realized then that there was no more lying to him.
There was no more "cousin." There was only the predator and the prey.
"You monster," she hissed. She didn’t try to reason anymore. If she was going to burn, she was going to light the first match.
With a speed that shouldn’t have been possible for a woman cradling a broken arm, she reached into the small of her back.
Click-clack. A small, matte-black semi-automatic appeared in her real hand. She didn’t point it at Roo. She knew she couldn’t beat him in a draw. Instead, she swung the barrel toward the corner of the room.
Toward Katya.
"If I’m dying tonight, Roo," Adelasia scread, her composure completely blown out into a hysterical rage,
"then you’re losing your favorite little pet!" The sound of the gun cut her off mid-breath.
Katya’s breath hitched, the heavy vase suddenly feeling like lead in her hands. She saw the dark eye of the barrel staring at her in slow motion as the shot was fired.
Ti fractured. Katya couldn’t move. Her body locked, the world narrowing to the dark circle at the end of the barrel aid straight at her chest.
The vase slipped an inch in her grip, suddenly useless. Sothing slamd into her.
Hard.
A solid wall of muscle and heat knocked her backward just as the shot rang out. The impact drove the air from her lungs. She stumbled, caught by arms that wrapped around her before she could hit the floor.
Another gunshot followed instantly—this one deliberate, louder, sharper and final.
Katya heard a scream tear through the hallway but it wasn’t hers.
It was Marina’s.
Roo grunted, a sharp sound wrenched from him as pain ripped through his left shoulder. The force of the bullet spun him just enough to stagger—but his arm never dropped.
His gun was already up. Already aid.
Adelasia didn’t even have ti to understand what had happened. One mont she was standing there, eyes wild, hand holding the gun.
The next, her body jerked back as if the strings holding her upright had been cut.
She crumpled to the floor in a heap of black fabric and tal, the gun slipping from her fingers and skittering across the tiles.
Silence slamd down.
"Oh my God—oh my God—" Marina’s scream rose higher, shredding the quiet as she scrambled backward, hands slipping on the floor as she tried to get away from the body now lying motionless between them.
Katya couldn’t breathe. She stared at the spot where Adelasia had been standing, her ears ringing, her heart pounding so hard it hurt.
Roo was still shielding her. His arm trembled once before he lowered it slightly, blood already seeping through the fabric of his jacket near the shoulder.
Slowly—carefully—he glanced back at Katya, as if he hadn’t just killed his own blood to keep her breathing.
††
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