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I groan, blood exploding from my mouth as I topple onto my back next to Bella. Sorel chuckles as he steps closer before planting a foot on my throat.

“Mr. Barone, I’d like to see how far that grit goes. I want to see how long you stretch your resilience out.” He drags on the smoke and then exhales through a dark smile. “I want to see how long you last before you’re forced to take one…”

His foot begins to press on my windpipe.

“Last…dying…brea⁠—”

Thunderously loud staccato gunfire explodes through the air around us. Sorel whirls, the cigarette falling from his mouth. All four of his men jerk and cry out as a hail of bullets sprays through them, misting blood across the wall behind us before they drop dead around me.

I try to look to see what happened, and who did it.

But I can’t move my head anymore.

I can’t move at all, actually.

So I just look up at Sorel as he stands there white-faced and terrified, staring at someone I can’t see.

…Until they step into my field of vision.

Bashkim Kodra’s face is grim as he sets the barrel of his Glock against Sorel’s forehead.

“You know who I am?” he growls in a thick Albanian accent, his voice low, measured, and lethal.

Sorel swallows. “M-M-Mr. Kodra,” he stammers nervously. “We’ve never met, but I was an associate of your son⁠—”

“Yes, why the fuck else do you think I’m here?” Kodra growls, his eyes boring viciously into the piece of shit standing blubbering in front of him.

His thumb draws the hammer of the gun back. Sorel’s bladder gives way.

“Mr. Kodra,” he bleats. “I had nothing to do with your son’s untimely⁠—”

“My son died because he was a monster, like you,” Kodra hisses. “He wanted disgusting things, and you were the man who gave him those things.”

“Now, h-h-hang on,” Sorel whimpers. “We can talk about this like civilized⁠—”

I flinch when the gun explodes in Kodra’s hand. A spray of red blasts out the back of Sorel’s skull as his neck snaps back. His body hits the brick wall with a wet sound before he slides down it and crumples on the ground.

Kodra’s gaze swivels to me, then to Bella, then back to my hand as I weakly drag it across the pavement to entwine it with hers.

“I find myself conflicted, Mr. Barone,” Kodra rumbles. “On the one hand, you gave me the truth about my son. You also pointed me to the man who brought him into the depravity that swallowed him. For that, you have my gratitude.”

He draws in a slow, thoughtful breath.

“But, on the other…” He shakes his head. “Your actions took my son from me. I know you and Ms. Drakos started the fire which killed my Gaz. And while he may have been a monster toward the end of his life…” His eyes narrow. “He was still my son. And honor demands that a price be paid for that.”

My eyes follow his hand as he holsters his gun inside his jacket, then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a single injection pen.

“The antidote to VX-9.”

I start to exhale.

“But, Mr. Barone…”

He crouches down, his face stony as he tucks the pen into my limp fingers.

“That is one dose.”

I go still.