“No, wait,” she said.
Sergei paused, his gun still aimed at his target.
Ellie leaned in and said to me, “This is about Varro.”
My interest was piqued, and my brows knitted as I listened to her.
“They kidnapped me because they wanted to know what I knew about him,” she whispered.
“Are you sure?” I asked with the same tone.
“Positive,” she answered. “I overheard them talking about him.” She glanced at the captive, then met my gaze again. “Trust me. He’s in league with Niklaus Varro.”
I’d been looking for that bastard for almost a decade. Now I was finally going to find him. And Ellie played a major role in that. This woman was a blessing to me in ways I wasn’t even ready for.
My shoes scuffed against the concrete as I approached the kneeling man. I knew his name, but I would rather not acknowledge men like him.
“Where is he?” I demanded, my voice low and menacing.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to be a little bit more specific than that,” he replied.
“Don’t make me come over there,” she warned him from behind me.
For some reason, this fool actually feared her. Impressive.
He exhaled sharply. “Look, if I tell you where he is, he’ll kill me.”
“Varro isn’t here.” I crouched down to his level, glaring at him with evil intentions. “I am.”
He swallowed hard, fear flickering in his gaze.
“So let’s try this again,” I growled. “Where…is Niklaus Varro?”
***
The mansion was quieter this evening, pain and grief still heavy in the air. I lost good men today, loyal men, who had families to go back to. Agata was hanging on to life by a thread, and I had to let Sergei go be with her at the hospital.
In all my years of knowing that man, I’d never seen him more shaken about losing someone. He was always so uptight, never emotional. Yet the incident today had almost broken him.
The way it almost broke me.
Sergei’s pain and fears were a reflection of mine. And that’s when it hit me. We were two heartless monsters, reminded of what it felt like to be human again.
This was proof we weren’t too far gone after all. We didn’t lack emotion; we just forgot how to feel it. Until, of course, these women appeared in our lives and began slowly tugging at the thread of our humanity.
I hoped to God that Agata would make it, because I couldn’t imagine how her death would completely break Sergei.
The man would never admit it, but I could see right through him. He was in love with her.
Like you are with Ellie?a quiet voice whispered in my head.
The question was like a blow to my gut: sharp, sudden, and heavy. Was I truly falling for her, or had I completely fallen already?
The fear I felt today was more than anything I’d ever felt before. The thought of losing her made my chest tighten so muchthat I almost lost my mind. I didn’t realize how attached I’d become to her, how connected we were, until the kidnapping.
Bit by bit, Ellie had slipped into my heart, body, and soul. She lived in my head rent-free, all day, every day, a constant reminder that she was etched into my mind like a permanent tattoo.
It was hard to imagine life without her because over these past few weeks, I’d grown used to having her around. She had a way of making my dark days seem bright.
