Page 105 of Forbidden Fate

“I love you!” I walk toward him, moving quickly while still being aware of my surroundings. “I love you, Ştefan,” I say again, and I make my voice crack with what I hope registers as fear and yearning. “Please. Stop shooting.”

His face twists.

Behind him, another shot cracks. He flinches but doesn’t turn away from me.

Good.

Keep looking at me.

“I want to be with you,” I say. The lie tastes like bile. “I want to spend my life with you.”

He shakes his head once. “No.”

“Yes.”

“You lie.”

“No.” I step closer. “No, I swear.”

He raises his gun toward another officer. I move fast, putting myself in front of him before he can aim.

“Don’t,” I say. “Don’t shoot.”

His eyes widen. “Move.”

“No.”

“Colette, move!”

“If you stop, I can help you.” I’m close enough now to see blood on his cheek. Dust in his hair. The wild pulse beating in his throat. “I lied before. I do have a family. They have money. They can help. Legal bills. Lawyers. Whatever you need. They can get you out. They can get you safe.”

He stares at me.

He wants to believe it.

God, he wants to believe it so badly.

For all his violence, all his choices, all his cruelty wrapped in tenderness, there is still a boy in him desperate for the woman he took to choose him back.

“You come with me?” he asks.

“Yes.”

His face softens. “You stay?”

“Yes,” I whisper. “I’ll stay.”

He loosens his grip on the gun.

Behind me, someone shouts.

Ştefan flicks his gaze away from mine, just for a fraction of a second.

A shot rings out.

I jump back as he collapses at my feet. Blood spreads beneath him.

For a second, I can’t move.