Chapter 10 - What Elena Hid
The office was burning when they arrived.
Viktor stood behind Cassian’s desk.
One hand held the ledger.
The other held a small envelope.
Elena stopped.
“No.”
Viktor smiled.
“You hid it well.”
Cassian raised his weapon.
“Drop it.”
Viktor looked at the envelope.
“Elena, should I tell him?”
Cassian looked at her.
“Tell me what?”
Elena’s mouth tightened.
Viktor opened the envelope.
Inside was an old photograph.
He tossed it across the floor.
Cassian picked it up.
His father stood beside three men.
One was Viktor.
One was Elena’s former commanding officer.
The third was a federal official Cassian recognized immediately.
A man who had spent years publicly hunting the Thorne family.
On the back was a handwritten date.
The same month Julian supposedly died.
Cassian stared.
Viktor said, “Your father did business with everyone he claimed to hate.”
Cassian looked at Elena.
“You knew.”
“I knew enough.”
“What else?”
Viktor answered.
“Elena’s team wasn’t sent to rescue an accountant.”
Elena’s face changed.
“Stop.”
“They were sent to retrieve evidence your father wanted destroyed.”
“Stop.”
“Elena discovered the truth and took the ledger.”
Cassian looked at her.
“So my father caused your team’s death.”
“No.”
“Did he?”
Her eyes filled with tears she refused to let fall.
“Yes.”
Cassian lowered his gun slightly.
For eight months, she had cleaned the desk belonging to the son of the man responsible for the worst night of her life.
“You came here to kill me?”
Elena whispered, “At first.”
Cassian stared at her.
Viktor laughed.
“But she didn’t.”
Elena looked at Cassian.
“I watched you.”
“I noticed.”
“No. You didn’t.”
There was no cruelty in the words.
Only truth.
“I watched how you treated people when nobody important was looking. I watched you pay medical bills for Marcus’s mother without telling him. I watched you send money to families of men who died for you.”
Cassian’s expression hardened.
“I also watched you threaten people. Hurt people. Build fear like your father did.”
“So you decided what? That I was half a monster?”
“I decided you were still choosing.”
Viktor raised his weapon.
“How touching.”
Elena turned.
Viktor fired.
Cassian moved.
The bullet struck him in the chest.
Elena screamed.
Cassian collapsed.
Something inside her broke.
Viktor ran through the shattered doors with the ledger.
Elena dropped beside Cassian.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“No. No, no.”
Cassian tried to breathe.
“Elena.”
“Don’t talk.”
“You slapped me.”
Her eyes filled.
“You’re complaining now?”
“Seemed important.”
She pressed her hand against the wound.
Cassian looked up at her.
“Go.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“He has your ledger.”
“I don’t care.”
His eyes locked with hers.
“You spent six years hiding it.”
“And I spent eight months learning what matters more.”
Cassian stared.
Then footsteps approached from the hallway.
Elena raised her weapon.
Marcus appeared.
Behind him came police officers.
Marcus dropped beside Cassian.
“He’s alive.”
Elena looked toward the open doors.
Viktor was escaping.
Cassian whispered:
“Finish it.”
Elena stood.
And for the first time in six years, she stopped running from Viktor Volkov.
May you like
She went after him.
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