Page 111 of Till Death Do Us Part

“Elaine,” she whispered. “Go. Escape. Live.”

“What—no! Vera—”

“I can’t possibly outshoot him,” she said, her voice wobbly. “But I can make sure… this score is settled.”

“I can’t leave you like this,” I choked, my hand on her shoulder. She smiled back at me, and my heart shattered seeing that look in her eyes.

Total resolution.

“The others will take care of you,” she said. “They’ll make sure you’re safe. Everything’s going to be taken care of.”

“Vera!” Tears streamed hot down my face, and she smiled sadly.

“I’m sorry. I should have been more open with you from the start. I love you, Elaine. I love you for giving me something to live for, so that I could finally live for the first time. And I love you for giving me something to die for, so that I could finally die for the last time.”

“You can’t… do this…” I whispered, but she put a hand on my collar, and firmly, she pushed.

With a gasp, I fell backwards, over the ledge and onto a pile of bags on the floor below, where I could just see the top of Vera’s outline as the wind whipped her hair around her head. Quayle’s voice was distant but cut through the wind.

“You think I won’t be able to catch her?”

Vera laughed. “I think there won’t be anything left of you to catch her, Quayle.”

“Go ahead. Try the explosives. You’ll be dead before you can reach the detonator.”

“I think I’ll take my chances.”

The air seemed to hold its breath for one crucial, heartbreaking second, before a single noise split the night.

Not a gunshot. Not an explosion.

An alarm.

Vera gasped as brilliant flashing strobe lights flared on around the building, and the outer scaffold lifts roared to life at the edge of the building. I whirled back just as the one behind me shot up to the top, a heavy clanging noise echoing through the air, with Petra at the front of a handful of other people, all with guns out, trained on Quayle. From the other side, Yulia, at the front of a group of Whitecliff operatives, and then more people on either side too, the wailing of alarms heavy in the air.

“Time’s up, Quayle,” Petra shouted. “If anyone around here is going to kick Vera’s ass, it’s going to be me.”

“Next time you’re planning on going off alone, Vera?” Yulia said. “Perhaps don’t.”

Vera breathed out a quiet word. “Everybody.”

“Hm,” Quayle said. “So, you contacted Rail’s logistics network… befriended the Whitecliffs, and hacked the construction zone systems. Unexpectedly coordinated from a traitor.”

Vera let out a small laugh. “Traitor? No… I’m not the traitor. I never betrayed my family. I just found my real one.”

An explosion rang through the night, and the scream of gunfire heralded their arrival.

Chapter 56

elaine

Vera held onto me tightly as the lift carried us back down, burying her face against my shoulder. I held her just as tightly, crying quietly as we went, from the overwhelm, from relief.

“Vera, you’re bleeding all over her,” Petra said.

“I don’t care,” I said. “She’s my wife. If we bleed, we bleed together.”

“Disgusting,” Petra said lightly. She turned away, leaning on the lift railing, pretending she didn’t see us.