I leaped, high and calculated, arms stretched out in front of me as I flew toward her. In a heartbeat, I caught her mid-descent and wrapped my arms around her. “Gotcha.” The impact drew a gasp from her mouth and pulled the air from my lungs.
Seconds later, we collided and tumbled to the other side of the pit with her on top of me. Breathless, I checked her body to make sure she was okay.
“Are you okay?” I asked her, my heart racing in my chest.
She nodded, her whole body shaking in fear.
“No, no, no, no, no—no!” Kane cried out, struggling to his feet. “She was supposed to die, and you were supposed to be miserable!”
Blair’s face contorted into a frown as she got off me, her gaze sweeping across the floor. I watched her expression shift from fear to raw rage. She grabbed a long steel spike lying carelessly on the floor, covered in dust and grime.
With a raw, primal grunt, she threw the damn thing with all her remaining strength. The steel hissed as it cut through the air and then hit its target.
Kane’s eyes widened in shock and fear as the impact slammed his back against the wall with a sickening force. The steel was deeply embedded in his chest, pinning him there with his eyes and mouth open.
“That’s for my unborn child, you son of a bitch,” she murmured under her breath, her shoulders rising and falling as she glared at his dead body across the room.
“Nice throw,” I said to her.
She turned around to face me, and before I could say another word,Dikayawrapped her arms around my back. “You saved me—you saved us,” she whispered, her head resting on my chest. “Thank you.”
Just as I held her close and kissed her forehead, the sound of heavy footsteps pounding on the floor shattered the silence. At first, I thought it was Kane’s men again, and I quickly pushed my Dikaya behind me, ready to defend her.
But I was wrong. It wasn’t more of his men; it was the authorities. They stormed the place in a heartbeat, armed with tactical gear.
“Stay close; it’s me they want,” I said, shielding her with my arms. “They’re not gonna harm you.”
A woman in a black suit stepped forward, waving her badge at me. “Nikolai Tarasov, you’re under arrest for human trafficking, kidnapping, and the murder of Richard Kane.”
I tilted my head to the side, shocked by the allegations. I was guilty of many crimes—but not any of these.
“Cuff him,” she ordered her men.
Four of them, all armed to the teeth, stepped forward and pinned me to the ground. They secured my wrists with the cuffs and then forced me back up.
“Good work, Agent Blake,” she added, her voice softening as she looked behind me. “I never doubted you for a second.”
Agent Blake?I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces when Blair walked past me and hugged the woman in the black suit.
Fuck.
“Are you hurt?” the woman asked her.
Blair shook her head.
My eyes fell on myDikaya, her betrayal cutting deeper than any knife I’d ever been stabbed with. I was speechless, shocked to my bones, and weak-kneed. Overwhelmed by her own guilt, she couldn’t look at me—couldn’t lift her head to face me.
Why?
Why did she do this to me?
So, this whole time, she’d been working for the Bureau? This was all just some performance?
I felt like an idiot—a really big one at that.
It finally clicked: her fighting skills and fiery attitude—she was a damn agent sent to ruin my life. And I was stupid enough not to see through her. Turns out, I was right about this being a game—one I lost.
It wasn’t the arrest that hurt me. It wasn’t the betrayal that would haunt me for life. It was the one who did it, the one I was beginning to trust.
