"Get the fuck back!" Sarah screams. She whips the gun away from my waist and presses it against the side of my head instead. "Don't come any closer! I’ll pull the trigger!"
Viktor’s boots skid slightly as he halts. I have never seen him look like this. He is losing his absolute mind.
I need to talk sense into her. "I will deal with Noah myself. I can protect your family, Sarah. He won't be able to touch them, I swear to you."
"You don't understand!" she wails, pressing the gun so harshly to my head it feels like it’s going to embed in my skull. "I already tried! I went to the police weeks ago, and they told me I have no proof! They said there was nothing they could do! Noah knows everything. If he hears I outed him to you, he’ll have my mother killed in minutes. There’s nothing I can do! I’d rather go to jail myself than let them die!"
The pieces finally click together in my mind.
The box. The box with the gun—the one we could never trace back to a sender. It was because the person who organized it being sent to Noah was Sarah. She had organized it for Noah, and she had organized it perfectly.
Sarah’s eyes go completely vacant. She's going to do it.
I can fucking feel it.
Oh good god.
In a fraction of a millisecond, Viktor lunges across the space with a roar. He throws himself directly over me, using his own body as a human shield.
BANG.
Viktor’s weight crashes down on top of me, knocking the wind completely out of my lungs. The bullet tears straight into his shoulder. He lets out a choked groan against the crook of my neck.
"Viktor!" I shriek.
Before Sarah can empty the bullets, the security team rushes into the room. They tackle Sarah to the ground, restraining her as she screams and cries on the floor.
But I don't see any of it. My entire world has shrunk to the bleeding man collapsed over my lap.
"No, no, no, God, please, Viktor! Help me! Someone help him!" I sob.
Viktor slowly raises his uninjured arm, his fingers tangling into my hair, looking up at me as if I am the only thing left in his universe.
"It's been... my pleasure," he rasps. "And my greatest... honor, Valentina."
I slap his cheek gently. "Don't you dare say that! This isn't goodbye."
His fingers tighten weakly in my hair, pulling a few dark strands down toward his face. He presses them against his nose, inhaling the scent of me like he’s doing it for the last time.
"Ma'am, an ambulance is on the way!" one of the security guards shouts, rushing forward.
Two other guards drop to their knees beside us, putting pressure over Viktor's bleeding shoulder.
Viktor’s grip on my hair slips away.
"Viktor! Open your eyes!"
A scream of absolute madness rips from my throat—it feels like my voice box is literally going to pop out. I grab his face with both of my hands, my palms slick with his blood.
God, the regrets. There are so many things I wish I had done. So many arrogant, prideful words I wish I could take back. So many truths I wish I had the guts to have said.
I bury my face against his ear. "I love you!" I confess. "I love you so much, Viktor! And I said it first! I said it first, so you can't just leave! You can't not say it back to me! Come on, please!"
But he doesn’t open his eyes or say it back to me.
And I’m scared he never will.
Chapter Twenty-Six
