Tomorrow she was dead.
Overdose they’d said. Accident. But I knew. I knew she’d been slipping. Knew she’d needed me.
And I’d made her wait.
My breathing slowed. Still ragged, but controlled.
I lifted my head. Met Xavier’s attention across six feet of blood-stained snow.
Two dead men between us. The violence he was capable of laid bare.
And beneath the horror. Beneath the shock. Beneath the moral weight crushing my chest.
One truth remained.
He needed me. Right now. Couldn’t explain. Couldn’t ask properly. Could only stand there and give me the choice.
Leave him or stay.
I’d made a promise to myself. Never again would I make someone wait when they couldn’t.
Even if it cost me everything.
Even if it made me complicit in this.
My throat worked. Mouth dry. Voice came out raw. “How long before someone finds them?”
Xavier’s focus widened fractionally. Question and understanding mixed.
I took a step toward him. Then another. Legs unsteady but holding.
“How long?” Steadier now. Colder. Something shifting inside me. Some line crossed that couldn’t be uncrossed. “Ten minutes? Twenty? How much time do we have?”
He pulled out the notepad. Wrote fast. Less. Five maybe.
Five minutes. Five minutes before every cop in France descended on this clinic. On us.
No going back from two dead officers.
I grabbed the backpack from where it had fallen. Shoved it at his chest. “Then we run. Now.”
Understanding flooded his expression. And something else. Something that looked like relief mixed with regret.
I couldn’t think about that. Couldn’t think about the wedding ring or the families or the futures cut short.
Could only think: five minutes. Maybe less.
“Move.” The word came out harsh. Command instead of request.
Xavier moved.
I grabbed his wrist. Pulled him toward the darkness beyond the clinic entrance. Away from the bodies. Away from the blood. Away from the choice I’d just made.
We ran.
Chapter 10
Clare
