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My eyes find Luca who’s been silent all this while. He’s standing a few feet away, gun still in his hand, but the arrogance from earlier has drained out of him.

Sweat glistens at his temples. Regret is written all over his face. He meets my gaze, then slowly shakes his head.

“Please, Katerina.” Luca’s voice cuts through the tension. “Just let her go. Let us go. You don’t have to do this.”

Katerina’s jaw tightens. “Not this again.”

“There’s no reason to kill Aurora,” he continues. “She’s learned her lesson. She’ll stay away from Roman, right?”

His eyes find mine. I nod quickly. “Yes.” I’ll agree to anything if it gets me out of here.

“See?” Luca says. “She’ll stay away from him. Just let us go. I’ll take her far away from Chicago. She won’t be a problem for you anymore, and then you can finally be with Roman. You can have everything you wanted. None of this is necessary.”

Katerina stares at him for a moment, then she laughs. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I should have known you were a complete piece of shit who wouldn’t go through with this.” Her voice turns venomous. “A weakling.”

His face hardens. “Katerina—”

“Now you wonder why Roman took Aurora away from you so easily?” She steps toward him. “It’s because you’re weak. You’re a fool who believes anything you’re told.”

“Don’t talk to me like that.”

Katerina’s eyebrows rise. “Oh? What are you going to do about it?”

She gestures around the room. “Look around, Luca. This is my territory. My rules. What I say goes.”

Her eyes shift to me. “And Aurora is going down.”

My heart stops. She means it. Katerina’s gaze returns to Luca.

“You know what?” She raises her gun. “You’re beginning to piss me off, so you got to go.”

Something changes in Luca’s face. “Katerina, wait—”

The shot is deafening in the closed space. Luca’s eyes go wide with pure shock. For a split second he stays upright, staring at me as a dark hole appears in the center of his forehead.

Then his body crumples. He hits the floor hard, eyes still locked on mine as blood begins to pour from the wound in a thick, steady stream.

A scream tears from my throat, echoing through the room as tears spill down my cheeks.

“No, no, Luca! No!”

“Shut up!” Katerina snaps. “Shut the fuck up and stop screaming!”

I can’t. I can’t stop. Luca is dead. His body is lying on the floor, and I can’t tear my eyes away from him. I need to get out of here before she kills me too.

“Help! Help!”

“I said, shut up! What do you think is going to happen?” Katerina snarls. “You think someone is going to hear you?”

She steps closer. “Conserve your energy. You’re going to need it. The time to scream is coming.”

My breathing comes in ragged gasps.

“Look around you.”

I force myself to lift my head.