Chapter 15 #2
I peer back before leaping up, mustering my last bit of strength to pull myself into the dusty, cramped space. I quietly close it behind me, holding my breath despite the dizziness it brings, and proceed cautiously, weaving through dust and cobwebs to locate the next open vent .
I wince each time there’s a groan, half expecting him to burst through and find me.
You’re almost there.
He isn’t saying anything. He isn’t taunting me.
That can only mean one thing—he’s pissed .
I approach the light of the next vent, stifling a cough.
Glaring through the slender cracks in the vent, I wait… observing, thinking.
My hands travel across my body until my fingers brush against my belt. I crouch, unbuckling it before sliding the leather off my waist. Gripping it firmly, I wait for a glimpse of my mentor.
Seconds feel like minutes.
Minutes feel like hours.
I don’t hear him. Not a sound… then finally, he turns the corner, stalking like a predator. His footsteps make no noise. I glance at the belt, knowing I have only one chance at this. One chance to prove myself.
I bite my lip, grabbing the vent from above as he passes under it. And with one breath to give me strength, I slide through the open space, landing on him.
My limbs surround him with a quickness I didn’t possess before, my hands seizing each side of the belt as I dig the material into his throat.
He grunts loudly, trying to speak, but I won’t let him.
My teeth grind painfully as my legs tighten around him while he drops to his knees, unwilling to desist.
“Do you yield?” I snarl, overtaken, possessed by something animalistic that lives inside of me.
His fingers jab beneath the leather, but he can’t dislodge it. I’m latched on too tightly. I watch his head bob frantically before I loosen the belt, letting it clamor to the ground, heaving as severely as he is.
I stare down at the floor, gasping.
I did it.
“I did it?—”
I look up, my eyes widening as I see his discolored face quivering with rage, glaring at me. He is visibly discomposed as he brings himself to his knees, raising his arm against me.
Not too long ago, my first instinct would’ve been to cower before a man consumed by anger. I’m surprised that none of my muscles flinch, that my eyes don’t even shift from him when he resorts to strike me—and stops just before.
I nearly killed him. His outrage is justified.
However, beyond training purposes, I would kill any man who laid a hand on me. I would bend my world beyond repair to protect myself this time.
He drops his arm, feeling betrayed as anyone would when their feelings are used against them.
I'm heartless enough not to care.
I'm not here to satisfy a man’s loneliness.
“Congratulations,” he snaps before turning to leave me in this place. “You win.”
“Cara, the dining hall is open. Come on.”
Unwinding the tape that protects my knuckles, I climb the stairs, glancing toward Isaac’s room. The door is shut. At some point, I’ll need to apologize. Not right now. I gesture for the others to continue. “I’ll be right over.”
As I reach my room, I hear Victoria’s voice.
My stride lapses, my feet lurching to a stop.
“I did what you asked. I said what you wanted me to say. What more do you want from me? I want to go back. I want to see him. It’s been a year!”
When she turns, I’ve already pressed myself against the wall, hidden from view. “No, come on. This is so fucked. This has gone way beyond us. Do you know how long I’ve been dealing with this? Lying? He already thinks she’s dead. What more are you going to do to them?”
Her voice sounds distinctly different. D esperate . Tearful.
“Tell my father to release him. I’ve done what he asked. I found her. I…” She lowers her voice. “Of course, I heard about Madrid. No, she’s not going to leave. I just told her about him. I'm leaving. I don’t care what you say. I'm not going to be here when you come for her?—”
My hand slips from the cold metal.
The clammy frost seeps directly into my veins, corrupting my composure. Disbelief and dread only last so long… then rage takes over.
She didn’t bring me here to free me.
She brought me to keep me hidden… hidden from Xavier.
I could laugh—if I weren’t so fucking murderous .
The years I’ve spent crawling through life, always running, trying to find the will to get through each minute, each second, settle in this moment.
As she breathes frantic whispers in secret, I let the grief—the betrayal—inhabit my heart, allowing it to take shape.
Mold into something that will change the course of my life forever.
The door swings open.
Victoria visibly recoils at the sight of me in the doorway.
My eyes drill into hers. With each passing second, I feel a little less human—a bit more monster.
I enter the room silently, forcing her to stumble into a corner.
“I had no choice, Sophie.”
My training is handy in moments like this, when despair could easily cloud my actions. As Isaac taught me, I breathe in and out steadily, lowering my heart rate until my hands stop shaking. This way, when she makes a frantic decision, like sprinting for the door, I can anticipate it.
My elbow slams into her back .
She collapses with a startled wheeze as I bend, ensnaring her throat, squeezing with rage.
Her nails dig into my flesh. “Soph?—”
I drag her up, colliding her back against the wall. Leaning in close, I can almost smell the fear seeping through her pores. “I wonder how stupid you’d have to be to bring me to a place that would teach me how to kill you with my bare hands?”
Others have heard the chaos at the door. Every person here knows my sister. They knew her before they even laid eyes on me. This isn’t the kind of place that will save her. These people have been betrayed. They are running. They watch as I seize my traitor, seething with rage.
“How long? How long has he thought I'm dead?”
The veins of her neck swell under my grasp. “Madrid.”
A year. My eyes expand in disbelief. A year .
Her apologetic eyes tremble as she attempts to pry my hands away. “Dominic made a huge scene at your apartment. He… He wanted to destroy him.”
My wrath builds into a scream that makes me cast her at the wall as I turn, frantic. One by one, our audience retreats like a wave pulling back before a tsunami forms. An ominous feeling fills the air, a war that cannot be escaped. “Everything you’ve ever told me is a lie, isn’t it?”
“No, Sophie. Come on. You know I'm stuck in this shit like you!”
I don’t care about excuses. I don’t care about anything but him. “Is he married? Is Xavier even married?”
She doesn’t give me the satisfaction of an answer, but I know. I just know. My lips quiver with outrage. “You bitch .”
She showed up on my doorstep in Madrid with a plan. For months, I doubted her. After so long, that doubt eased, and I let myself imagine she actually cared.
It’s jarring to know that she doesn’t… that she never did.
“They wanted you to stay here. They knew you wouldn’t go if you thought he had moved on.” Her tone pitches with desperation. “Listen, they have Nicky. Sophie, you, out of all people, should understand?—”
“I don’t.”
“Cara! Stop!” Isaac’s bellow echoes through the vast space. I hear his heavy boots against the iron stairs. Victoria flinches as I slam the door closed in his face, locking it.
She’s panting heavily, her breath hitching as she speaks. “Don’t… Don’t you want to know why I’m doing this?”
“No.”
In horror, she screams.
She screams as my fists plow her into the wall, pounding her face into the concrete.
I do it until my vision blurs, adrenaline taking over.
I do it until wetness coats my cheeks as she falls to the floor, scrambling to escape me.
My knee slams into her back, forcing her down against the ground, pinning her there. Her hands scramble to push me off as I draw my gun from the holster. She goes still when I flick off the safety, pressing the cold barrel against her skull.
My hands are shaking, training or not. A million images flash through my brain, my subconscious desperately trying to bring me back to the light.
This isn’t who you are.
You wouldn’t kill her in cold blood.
Just as I finally catch a fleeting glimpse of my true self, suffocating darkness obscures the reminder, swallowing any light, any hope I dared to cling to.
My nightmares come forth, memories of a prison, of constant torture.
Watching Thomas take his last breath. The imprints of fingers bruising my wrists.
Saliva clung to my filthy skin. The blood coating my clothes as I lost my baby.
“Don’t do this, Sophie. Please. ”
My teeth grind painfully, tears spilling from my eyes. “You were going to sell me to the fucking devil !”
“We can talk about this. We can figure out a way to do this tog?—”
The pounding on the door fails to drown out the piercing gunshot I charge into the back of her skull.
Everything falls silent.
No fists banging on the iron.
There are no screams or chaos.
Just complete stillness as I rise to my feet, staring down at Victoria Marin—my little sister—who will never move again.
Never betray me.
Never tell me she’s sorry.
I forsake it all for peace.