Bracing my left hand on the wall, I hold the gun out ahead of me as I go.
My feet are tracking bloody footprints, so it’s not like it would be hard for someone to follow me, but I want to keep moving. It feels safer.
I try to listen for anyone approaching but can’t hear anything.
I hit the turn in the hallway, and I slowly creep around it.
Still empty.
But I spot a door.
A door with a giant deadbolt on the outside.
Bile rises in my throat, but I push forward through my trepidation.
Nothing good locks from the outside.
Sorrow and rage crash into me.
I know what these men do. I know who Gabriel Marcoux is to Hans.
He’s the man responsible for Freya’s disappearance.
He’s the man responsible for her torture and death.
He’s the man who crushed the soul of a teenage Hans.
He’s the type of man who would keep human beings locked in a basement.
I hurry my steps until I stop in front of the door.
My body starts to tremble, so I press my left hand to my chest.
Just breathe.
I want to yell through the door. Let whoever’s inside know I don’t mean them harm. But I can’t be sure there isn’t a bad guy on the other side.
Admitting to myself that I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing, but that I’m going to do it anyway, I decide to mimic every police reenactment I’ve ever seen in my true crime documentaries.
Quick and low.
Steadying the gun, I use my left hand to flip the dead bolt and shove the door open. Then I rush into the room, crouching low and stepping to the side so my back is against the wall.
When I’m not immediately filled with bullets, I tell myself to take a breath.
The room has the same dim lighting as the hall, but it’s enough.
Enough to see the small table and chairs, the pair of bunk beds, the kitchenette in the corner.
But I can’t look at any of that. Because staring back at me, from the other side of the room, are three women.
CHAPTER 119
Hans
Karmine’s shout for backup pulls my attention away from the man Nero just shot through the heart.
She’s supposed to be getting Cassandra to safety.
There’s another burst of gunfire from the direction of her shout, then it quiets.
A man sprawled on the floor stretches his arm out to the side, reaching for the pistol that lies just out of his grip.
Walking past, I twirl the sword in my hand and slice through his upper arm, severing tendons and his brachial artery.
I haven’t seen Gabriel yet. But I know he’s close. I can fucking taste it.
When I turn the corner into the main hall, I see Karmine and three of her fighters, the backup she needed.
“Where is she?” I bark while I slide my katana back into its sheath.
Karmine points down the stairs to the basement.
CHAPTER 120
Cassie
My heart is crawling up my throat.
I knew—I knew what I might find in here. But the devastation of seeing them, of having them be so real…
My eyes fill with tears, and I lower the gun to my side.
Freya would have been in a room like this.
“We—” I have to swallow. “We’re here to help.”
The women—closer to Freya’s age than my own—all look at me, then glance past me to the empty hallway.
“There are more of us,” I promise. “I’m not—I’m sorry.”
I fight down a sob. They don’t need my sympathy.
They need me to keep my shit together.
“Come with—”
Before I can finish, a door I hadn’t noticed on the far side of the room opens, and Gabriel Marcoux steps through.
I swing my gun up, shakily aiming at him, and steady it with my left hand.
“Isn’t this sweet.” He takes a menacing step forward.
“Stop!” My voice is hoarse, but I yell it as loud as I can and move farther into the room, putting myself between Gabriel and the women.
I can’t do much. But I can do this.
“What?” he laughs. “You’re going to kill me, an unarmed man, in cold blood?” He shakes his head. “You’re not like the women upstairs. Quit pretending to be.” He takes another step forward and points to the women behind me. “This isn’t about you.”
I think of the way Hans holds me like he’s afraid to lose me.
I think of those three lonely graves somewhere in this desert.
I think of all the women whose voices are never heard.
And I think about how much better the world will be without this piece of shit man in it.
“No, it’s not about me.” I take a breath. “But this fight belongs to all of us.”
I pull the trigger.
CHAPTER 121
Hans
A gunshot rings out through the basement, and I race after the blood smeared across the floor.
Cassandra.
I want to shout her name. I want to scream.
But my chest is so tight I can’t make a sound.
She’s already bleeding.
She’s already hurt.
My feet fly beneath me as I round the corner.
There’s an open door just ahead, and I swear I’ll give my life for hers if she can just be okay.
The gun in my hand is shaking. For the first time in twenty years, I’m shaking.
She has to be okay.
I brace myself as I reach the doorway.
But I’m not prepared.
Standing in the center of the awful room, between the man I’ve been chasing for two decades and three more of his victims, is Cassandra.
Her arms are stretched out in front of her. And she’s gripping a gun that’s pointed at Gabriel.
And there’s blood blossoming across his chest.
Cassandra lifts her aim, just a bit. “This one is for Freya.”
She fires.
For Freya.
A lifetime of guilt and torment unlatches from my soul as I watch the bullet penetrate Gabriel Marcoux’s forehead and blow out the back of his skull.
Blood and gray matter spray through the open door behind him.
It’s done.
The world shifts around me.
It’s truly done.
My beautiful Butterfly ended it.
She took my burden and made it her own.
My sister’s radiant smile flashes before my eyes.
Images of my family, my parents and Freya, sitting around the breakfast table flicker in my mind.
Memories of a time when we were all happy slip back into existence.
Reminders of who they were before…
A vision of me bringing my children to visit their grandparents’ graves presses me to the doorframe.
I haven’t visited them.
I couldn’t bear to face them, not until I put this to rest.
The dead body of Gabriel Marcoux falls to the floor.
It is over.
My family can finally rest.
And so can I.
Because of her.
CHAPTER 122
Cassie
“Butterfly.”
At the sound of Hans’s whisper, I drop the gun and turn.
I don’t even make it a step before he’s there. Before his strong arms wrap around me, and he lifts me against his body.
I circle my arms around his neck and hitch my legs around his hips.
My Hans.
He’s here. Right here.