A beat passed before Voss continued, voice just as calm.
“You stopped doing what you were told.”
His gaze flicked briefly toward Sage.
“I needed to correct you.”
He didn’t say anything else.
Didn’t need to.
Rook shifted before anyone else could speak, the movement tight, locked, like it cost him something to do it. His hand flexed once at his side, jaw working like he was biting back more than he was willing to say. The movement was small, but strained.
His breath hit unevenly once before he forced it steady again.
“You told me to kill Ashley to control—”
He cut himself off, jaw clenching. His gaze flicked toward Sage for half a second, then away again, shoulders tightening as if bracing for what was coming next.
Voss didn’t look surprised.
If anything, the interruption seemed expected.
His attention moved to Rook with slow precision, the shift deliberate enough to pull the weight of the room with it.
“You killed Jade because Rook wouldn’t kill me?” Ashley’s voice shook. “And I thought we were monsters.”
Voss ignored her, his murderous gaze on Rook. “You left the landlord alive. Your mistake was thinking I wouldn’t find out.”
Just a statement. Calm.
“You run things from here,” Rook said flatly. “I knew you’d find out.”
Voss’s eyes turned ugly.
Sage stepped forward a fraction, voice low. “So, you used Ashley to control me. I told you to leave her alone.”
“You did,” Voss said, giving a slight tip of his head. “But you stopped answering my calls.”
“So, this was your solution?”
“You two tend to think you’re better than what you are. You’re nothing but killers I designed.”
Sage felt the shift in the room register before he could stop it. It snapped tight, the moment tipping all at once.
Rook raised his gun.
Voss lifted his.
Sage flung the knife as both guns went off. Voss was already moving, so the blade only grazed his arm. Rook’s shot went wide as he dove for Ashley, tipping the chair and taking them both to the ground.
The gunshots cracked through the room, sharp and deafening in the confined space. The sound slammed off the walls and died fast, swallowed by the building.
Voss’s bullet—Sage caught the angle—hit Rook, the grunt he gave confirming it.
“No!” Ashley’s cry tore through the room.
Sage sprang after Voss, who was already diving toward the open window and the fire escape—but Ashley’s cry had him stumbling to a stop.
