You can almost feel him coming. Even the air seems to change.
“This tension is unbelievable,” I say to nobody in particular. I go up next to Garrick and check the little window in his camera that shows what he’s filming. “The theme I’m going for here is straightforward and unambiguous.”
“Kiro,” she calls, holding her belly. “Don’t fall for it! Stay out there!”
Oh, this is good. Better than I imagined. Death, like porn, needs a bit of a story. Not a lot of story, but a bit, and these two are going to deliver.
Kiro in his last moments holding his dying beloved in his arms before they’re both gunned down. Nobody will doubt his death with this kind of performance.
Aleksio and Viktor will go wild.
I’ll get this footage to them and put every resource out looking for them. Killing them after they see footage of their brother dying like this will be like taking candy from a baby. They’ll be fucking stumbling around on the streets like drunks.
I turn to my men, motion with my gun. It meansweapons up.I’m taking the shot. Not them—me. It’s not just that I want to be the one to kill Kiro, but also, I don’t want to cut the scene too fast. I want this shit to spin as long as possible.
“You sure?” my number one says. He thinks I’m getting greedy.
I have only to raise my brows. He, too, puts up his weapon.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Ann
I’m on therough, cold cave floor on my side, holding my belly, legs drawn up. I can’t imagine moving.
Still, I yell.
“Don’t fall for it, Kiro! Leave! Run!” I take a momentary break, then: “They won’t kill me if you stay away!”
It’s a lie. No way will they leave me alive.
The pain is blinding. I press my palm to my belly, sucking in the smoke-tinged air, thinking about this last day with Kiro, and the way we connected.
I thought I was helping him feel less alone by reaching out, but he was helping me.
All my life, I’ve looked in from the outside. Kiro showed me what it was to be on the inside. To live my own story. Those moments when I looked into his eyes made me feel like we’ve been together forever.
I think to yell, to warn him off again, but I know it’s pointless.
Kiro will come.
Kiro has wanted one thing his whole life—to belong.
Kiro would rather die belonging than remain alive and alone.
And there’s that vow.
“Kiro, please…no.” It’s barely a whisper. He’ll come to die with me.
I hear the men talking. They know it. That leader knows it.
I hold my side, trying to keep my mind clear and objective as long as possible. I need to stay awake for him.
A wave of pain. Trauma to the liver, I’m thinking. Not good. The liver is the most regenerative organ. It can be 95 percent destroyed and regenerate itself. It’s more the internal bleeding that’s the problem.
I grit my teeth against the pain.
I think of the eyes of people I’ve treated with injuries like this. It’s like they can see you, but there is so much going on behind the eyes. I always thought it was a sense of the body, the animal taking over, slowly shutting down, preserving blood flow to the core. I’m thinking now it’s just fear.