Something inside me breaks, and I know there’s no putting it back together.
"You think you can just walk out of here?"I hiss, the words ragged, torn straight from the wreckage inside me."The second you step one foot out that door, there’s a bullet with your name on it.That’s how this world fucking works, Emery."
Her jaw locks, fire flashing in her eyes, but she doesn’t flinch.Not an inch.She leans in, closer.Right in my face.Daring me to stop her.
"So what, Matteo?"she breathes, voice low, shaking, barely holding together."You pulling the trigger?Or are you just gonna let someone else do it?Because I’ll take my chances in the open before I rot in here, than be trapped and treated like I’m already six feet under."
She doesn’t move.Just stands there, staring at me as if waiting for the words I can’t give her.
When all she gets is silence, she turns away.
"I’m done talking, Matteo," she says, voice low, every word sharp."Do whatever the fuck you have to do."
She walks toward the door, shoulders squared, steps steady, like she's already made peace with whatever hell’s waiting on the other side.
The kind of peace that tastes like gunmetal and finality.She’d take the bullet.No hesitation.Anything’s better than one more day suffocating in the same air as me.
My glass hits the table with a hard CLINK as I slam it down.In seconds, I’m on my feet.My heart pounding, breath ragged, moving before I can think.
"Emery."Her name rips out of me, wrapped in a desperation I can't bother to hide.
I don’t even know why the fuck I’m chasing after her.There’s no way she’s walking out of here; every damn door in this place is under my control.She knows it.I know it.But none of that matters when every step she takes feels like she’s dragging my heart across broken glass.
I catch her just as her fingers graze the door.
My arm wraps around her waist without thinking, fast, unrelenting, yanking her tight against my chest.Her breath stutters, but she doesn’t move, doesn’t speak.Just stands there, caught in the wreckage of what we are.
I grip her tighter, my mouth grazing her ear as I say, "If you think I’m gonna stand here and let you walk out there just to take a fucking bullet to the head, you’re out of your goddamn mind."
She stiffens in my arms, but I pull her closer, locking her against my chest.My voice softens.
"I’ve seen what’s waiting out there, Emery.I know exactly how fast this world chews up people like you and spits them out into a shallow grave."
She breathes slow, ragged, pulling herself back together one broken piece at a time.
Then she turns.Just enough to meet my gaze.And fuck… it hits hard.That look, cold, gutted, cuts through me.She’s not just seeing me.She’s seeing through me.
And I don’t think there’s anything left she wants to find.
"I need answers, Matteo," she says, her voice breaking."I need to find my father.I need to hear the fucking truth from his mouth.Not yours.Not anyone else's."Her breath shudders, but she barrels on."And if what you’ve said is true… if he really sold me out, then he’s yours.Drag him back to your father.Use him.Break him.Do whatever fucked-up shit you have to do to end this nightmare."She pauses, pulling in a shaky breath."But until I look him in the eyes and see it for myself, I’m not stopping.Lock me up.Chain me down.I’ll tear this fucking place apart with my bare hands if I have to."
I stand there, arms still wrapped around her, her words echoing in my skull like gunshots.
I let out a slow breath.My voice comes out rough, scraped raw over gravel.“Do you know where your father is?”
She doesn’t hesitate.“Yes,” she says, like the word’s been sitting on her tongue for days, waiting for the right moment to cut loose.“I know where he is.”
Fuck.
It hits me hard.
How fiercely she fought to protect him, even when I had her tied to that chair, breaking her down piece by brutal piece.She didn’t bend.Didn’t crack.Wouldn’t give him up, no matter how hard I pushed.She carried his secrets in her veins, took every hit as if it belonged to her, endured the pain without flinching.
She’s tough.I always knew that.But watching her survive that kind of hell?It rewired something in me.Because if she’s willing to risk everything now, willing to hand me his location after everything I did to her, then I know one thing for fucking sure: nothing’s going to stop her from facing him.Not me.Not fear.Not even the wreckage we left behind.
“Where is he?”I ask.
She doesn’t flinch.Just lifts her chin, eyes locked on mine like she’s daring me to look away.
