I feel Lily’s fingers curl tighter into my jacket, her breath still uneven but steadying, like she knows—feels—that the worst of it is over. That she’s not alone anymore, and she never will be again.
“You’ve been running a goddamn sex trafficking ring,” I say, each word landing like a nail in a coffin. “You’ve tortured these women. Sold them. Used them and then tossed them aside. And you used Jen and my mother to find you more victims, didn’t you?”
Una tilts her head, smug and cruel. “Oh, please. Call them what they are. Expendable. Product.”
Lily makes a sound—a strangled, wounded exhale—and I feel something inside me snap.
“Expendable,” I repeat, stepping forward, voice low and dangerous. “So that’s all they were to you. Product to be sold for profit.”
“Usefulproduct,” Una corrects, eyes glittering. Whatever calculations she’s done, she’s decided to drop the act and own her fucked up viewpoint.
The room goes dead still.
Jonathan’s voice is soft—deceptively so—as he lifts his gun. “You trafficked them. Girls. Women. Children.” His finger tightens against the trigger, aimed squarely at Antonio’s heart. “You ran the entire ring.”
Footsteps click down the hallway—too light to be a guard.
Then another set. Heavier, and unhurried.
Antonio’s jaw tightens as a woman steps into the doorway.
Isabella.
And behind her—
Nico.
The world drops out from under me.
My gut twists hard, vicious. Every instinct screamsyou missed something. Every check, every background search, every random detail I peeled back and I still didn’t see this coming. She looked innocent. Shelooked like Lily’s friend. And yet here she is, tangled in this nightmare.
I don’t have time to process Nico’s appearance before Lily reacts.
Her breath hitches. Her body tightens for a fraction of a second, like a spring wound too tight. Then she moves. Not trembles, not flinches.Lunges.
Rage, terror, betrayal, it all fuels a fire inside her that can’t be contained. She tears past me, hands flying toward Isabella, fingers clawing for her throat, a feral snarl spilling from her lips. Every ounce of fear she has felt, every second she spent here, every bottled-up emotion, it transforms into a violent, blinding fury aimed at the person she once called a friend.
“Lily—”
Shoving my knife into the holster on my belt, I move. Catching her just before she reaches Isabella, my arms lockingaround her waist, hauling her back hard against my chest. She thrashes wildly, fingers clawing at the air, sobbing and snarling all at once, her fury vibrating through her body like a living, breathing thing. I hold her tighter, anchoring her, even as my own pulse goes feral.
At the same time Nico shifts. Just one step, one twitch of intention. Aidan is on him instantly.
In a split second, he’s grabbing Nico by the collar and slamming him back into the wall with bone-jarring force, forearm pinning his throat before Nico can even open his mouth. The impact echoes, sharp and final.
“Don’t,” Aidan growls in his face. “You move again, you die.”
Nico’s eyes flick to Lily—wild, calculating—before Aidan slams his head against the wall, forcing him to look at him instead, and whatever he sees there makes him still.
Lily is still shaking in my arms, breath coming in ragged bursts as the betrayal continues to sink its claws into her.
“Lily, stop!” I growl, voice raw, shaking with the heat of fear and fury. “I’ve got you! You can’t—she’s not worth it!”
She twists, breath ragged, hair whipping across my face, and I feel her grab my knife, but before I can so much as blink, Lily is out of my arms, holding Isabella to her chest like a shield as she presses the knife against Isabella’s throat.
Isabella freezes, wide-eyed, her hands going up half-heartedly. “I-I thought—” Her voice trembles, disbelief bleeding through.
“You didn’t think!” Lily spits, voice jagged, slicing through the tension. “You didn’t care! You helped them! You sold me out! You betrayed me!”
