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A lazy grin pulls at his lips. “You Britishers are fucking obsessed with grammar, kid. If you understand me, then language doing its job, no?”

“I don’t need your money.” I reply, wiping the blood on my hands with my t-shirt.

I’ll need to take another shower before I see my woman. She hasn’t woken up yet, and I needed to kill Anthony before she opens her eyes to the world I’m going to build for her.

One that brings her nothing but peace.

“I’ll send it.” The mysterious man speaks again and starts to walk away. “Sergei Zaytsev, I know you have the files from the trafficking, I need Maria Reed’s file.”

“I’m not sending you a girl’s file.” I grunt, rage simmering inside me and I shake my head.

“She’s family.” He replies, dousing the wrath with cold water as I connect the dots.

I look at the heart resting in his helmet and remember the name I once read in the files, my lips pursing with sympathy and I nod.

“Gentlemen.” He nods before exiting from the view.

“Who was he?” Roman asks and I can only shrug.

He knew my name.

He knows I have the files.

He knows I have the means to find the victims and if his looks were anything to go by…

He seemed just as dangerous.

“Another psycho who’s ready to kill for his woman.” I reply.

FORTY-SIX

Elara

Pain.

So much Pain. Car. Bridge. Lake. Pain.

Every fibre in my body throbs the moment my eyes open. My vision blurs, the world swimming in a haze before it slowly begins to clear.

I had a dream—no, not a dream. It felt too real to be one.

His voice lingers, vivid, echoing in my head as I blink and relive it.

My hand lifts to my forehead, fingers brushing the spot where I struck it before everything went dark. The last thing I remember is Sergei diving into the lake after me.

He saved me.

That night—when I wanted to end it—he saved me. And I had no memory of it.

“What’s your name?”

“Sergei.”

A groan tears from my throat as the memories crash into me all at once.

“What does that word mean?” “I’ll tell you if you choose to stay.”

I wanted to see him again. And if I wanted to see him, I couldn’t die.