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The echoes fade, leaving silence.
I'm on my feet in seconds, moving through the warehouse, checking every dark corner, every room.
"Karina!"
A faint, muffled sound bounces back to me. I chase it, my heart in my throat, not breathing. Not living.
I find her in a small, windowless room in the back of the warehouse. She's bound to a chair, tape over her mouth. Her eyes wide with fear and relief as they fall on me.
"Karina," I breathe, a blaze of protectiveness surging through me.
She whimpers behind the tape.
"Shh, it's okay. You're safe now," I whisper, reaching her side in two steps. My hands shake as I gently peel the tape from her face and then set to work on the knots, quickly untangling the ropes to free her.
"C-Coda?" Her voice is hoarse, barely above a whisper, but it's the sweetest sound I've heard in an eternity.
"I'm right here, cara. I've got you." I run my hands over her, trying to convince myself that she's real. She's safe. In this moment, nothing else exists—not the gunfire, not my betrayal. All that matters is shielding her from the darkness and keeping her close to me.
Her gaze tangles with mine, emotion blazing like twin suns in the gray depths—fear, gratitude, and something more profound, something so fragile I nearly destroyed it entirely—trust.
Seeing it there now gives me hope. We aren't broken. I can still fix this. I'll spend the rest of my life trying if that's what it takes.
I keep one arm locked around her as I lead her out of her prison. My gun is in my other hand, prepared to protect her. She trembles against my side but doesn't falter as we make our way, one careful step at a time, back to the main part of the warehouse.
Halfway there, she grabs my arm. "The guns are here," she whispers. "I heard them talking about them."
I nod, not particularly surprised Alamilla has them here. "We'll handle it, cara."
They'll leave this place with Domani. I trust them in our hands far more than I do in Chicago PDs. At least we won't release them in the streets, turning Chicago into a killing field. I can't say the same for Chicago's Finest. Not any longer.
My answer satisfies Karina. She settles against my side, confident in the knowledge that I'll handle this problem. I relish the fact that she doesn't ask how or demand answers. She simply trusts that I'll do as promised.
I missed that almost as much as I missed her these last hours—her trust. The knowledge that, no matter what I've done or how much blood is on my hands, this fiery angel still sees something in me worthy of faith.
Not having her trust is intolerable. I'll never jeopardize it again. Not when I need it so fucking badly. It's become a cornerstone of my life, a building block of this new Coda—the one who belongs to her and not the dark.
We emerge into the main cavern of the warehouse. Her gaze immediately falls on the bodies we left in our wake.
"Coda," she whispers.
"They never should have taken you, Karina," I say, anger seething just below the surface. I'm still pissed they dared. "I don't regret it. I'm not sorry. This is what waits for anyone who touches you."
She doesn't say anything. I don't think she knows what to say.
"This is who I am, angioletta. You wanted me to let you in. You wanted to know my secrets. This is me," I murmur. "I have blood on my hands and murder in my heart. I kill without mercy. Until you, that's all I was. It's all I knew." I touch her cheek. "You changed everything."
She shivers, looking up at me, her gray eyes wide and bottomless.
"You make me better. Loving you makes me better."
Her gaze flits across my face, vulnerable and searching. Afraid to hope, but desperate to believe. Even now, she loves me. Even now, she wants to trust that I'm a man worthy of her. I'm not. I never have been. But I'll spend every waking moment fighting to become one, just like I have since I met her.
That's a war I'll gladly fight. When you've spent a lifetime in the trenches, what's one more battle? I'll be a man at war for stolen moments of peace with her. It's not even a decision that requires thought. Anything that ends with her in my arms, I'll do.
"Coda, I…"
Domani and Miles slip out of the hallway across the warehouse, distracting her. Her brows furrow, shock filtering through her eyes as she looks from them back to me.
