I know what he’s doing.
He’s still redirecting him.
This brave, beautiful man will die ten times just to keep a madman’s gun away from me.
Kane cranes his neck and looks at me.
“That’s something I’ll never be again thanks to this woman,” he whispers softly.
Oh. My. God.
Lee coughs and spits blood on the floor next to Kane.
“Shud the fugg up!”
“No. I heard what you told her. I lost my life once, too.” Kane looks back at Lee again, and I slowly lower the statue. The gun hasn’t moved, but Lee frowns, hesitating. “Took me forever to find it again, but I did. I filled that chasm. After meeting Margot Blackthorn, I can die happy if you shoot me tonight. I found the woman I love.”
Love.
He loves me and I’m so freaking gutted I can’t move.
That’s why he stayed.
That’s why he put his kids on a plane and rushed back for me.
That’s why we’re both here, staring death in the face.
That’s why he’s prepared to die any second, to give up his life for mine.
It’s all a violent blur now.
All the early mornings in the kitchen.
Late nights under the twinkling stars and glowing planets.
The laughter and kisses.
The sweetness, the standoffs, the memories we made with Sophie and Dan—of course it meant something.
Only the entire world.
“If you kill me,” Kane growls, “then you’re giving up on your only way back. You can still be human. You can stomp out that fire, that hate, that ugliness before it ruins you, Lee.”
Silence.
There’s a massive lump in my throat as my lips twitch and I whisper, “I love you too.”
Not how I ever imagined we’d say those words.
Absolutely the most messed-up timing.
But that just makes it truer, holy vows written in adrenaline and blood. If this maniac murders him in front of me, at least we—
The statue starts to slip in my hands and I lunge for the ground.
Lee slumps against Kane’s hold with a groan, his head hanging.
It’s like he’s a human balloon deflating, a long ribbon of blood and saliva drooling from his mouth.
