I shake my head, clearing the memory. I’m here to do a job, and that’s what I’ll do.
The target steps out onto the balcony. He’s laughing, drink in hand.
I exhale once. Line up the shot. My finger squeezes.
The sound is soft, like a breath. The glass shatters. The man crumples to the floor before the woman realizes what’s happened.
One shot.
One kill.
Clean.
Effortless.
I pack the rifle slowly, efficiently, tucking it into the case with all the care of a surgeon closing up a body. Making sure there's nothing left behind. The leaves crunch softly under my boots as I disappear into the woods.
I walk into Cain’s office and close the door behind me. He doesn’t look up yet and says hello to me without even looking to see who it is. He sits there at his desk, pen in hand, a stack of filesin front of him like it’s any other fucking day. For him it is, this is his life, this club is his, and the only place away from the pit he feels normal.
“It’s done,” I say, voice flat. Cold, the way I’m feeling on the inside at the moment.
Cain leans back in his chair and finally meets my eyes. There’s no surprise in them. Just that calm, calculating look he always wears. Like he already knew the second I pulled the trigger.
“Good.” He nods once, then gestures to the chair across from him. “Sit down.”
I hesitate, because nothing good can come from him asking me to sit down, but I do as I’m asked. My legs feel heavier than they should while waiting for him to say something.
For a long while, it’s just the two of us in silence, broken only by the faint hum of the lights and the sound of his pen tapping once against the edge of the desk.
Then Cain speaks. “Do you want to read the file?”
My eyes flick down to the brown envelope sitting untouched beside his hand. Olivia’s name is printed in the corner in black marker. It’s just a file. Just paper. But it looks like it could burn me alive. And it could if I wanted it to. She’s already burned me once; she could do it all over again.
I stare at it. My throat tightens.
“I can’t.” There’s a pause. I feel his gaze on me. “Have you read it?” I ask.
“Skimmed through it.” His voice is low, unreadable. “Enough to know there’s more to it than what you’ve told yourself.”
My jaw clenches, I know he could tell me, but I also know he is a man who will only tell me if I want to know. Cain is a big believer in, you know when you are ready, even if he knows what’s in the file will help me, he won’t say anything.
“What do you want to do about Olivia?” he asks next.
I sit back in the chair, hands clasped together and shake my head slowly. “I don’t know.”
That’s the truth. I don’t. Every part of me is at war, like there's a fire in my chest and ice in my veins. I'm stuck between the boy who once loved her so deeply I would’ve given her the world, and the man who had that world ripped out from under him.
Cain watches me for a second longer before setting the pen down and leaning forward. “That girl... she’s still got her claws in you.”
I laugh under my breath, bitter and short. “She never let go.”
“Then tell me,” Cain says, folding his hands in front of him. “Do you love her?”
I open my mouth, but it doesn’t come easy. The word feels too small for what she still does to me.
“I do.” My voice cracks slightly. I hate that it does. “Even after everything. Even after she tore me to pieces and left me there to rot in a fucking cell, Cain. I still fucking love her.” There’s silence again. I lean forward, press my elbows into my knees, and run my hands through my hair. “She sent me to prison. I was beaten to shit almost every night. Stabbed. Starved. Humiliated. All for something I didn’t do, and she knew I didn’t fucking do it. How do you forget something like that, Cain? How do you even begin to let that go?”
Cain’s quiet for a while, then he speaks, voice calm but firm. “You don’t forget it. But you figure out what matters more, what she did or what you still feel.” I look up at him, and he meets my stare like he’s challenging me. “I’m not saying it’s right,” he continues. “What happened to you, none of it should’ve happened. And if I ever find out that girl did it with full intent, I’ll handle it myself. But if there’s more to the story… and I’m telling you there is, then you’ve got a choice to make.”
