Page 107 of Goodnight, Sinners

He stared down at her. His face was set in stony lines, but his eyes were brittle. They shone with unshed tears. Tears for her.

It moved her. She felt responding tears pool in her eyes and trickle down her face.

“Sit with me.” She patted the bed next to her.

He sat and she reached for him. He took her hand, holding it up against his chest.

The ache in Dasha’s throat grew.

She pictured him as a child. His serious little face, his sharp chin, his dark hair flopping in his eyes. He was a beautiful child and he’d turned into a beautiful man.

“I’m proud of you,” she whispered. “You’re everything I could have wanted in a son.”

The words were meant to stab him in the heart, to make his decision to kill her just as painful for him as it was going to be for her. But they stabbed at her as well, cutting deep.

Perhaps if she’d fully let him into her heart when he was a child in desperate need of love, this moment could have been avoided. Then, perhaps not. He’d have eventually learned of her part in the death of his parents. Secrets had a way of coming into the light eventually.

Close your eyes,he signed and reached beneath his coat, pulling his gun from its holster.

He wasn’t wearing gloves. This was personal. His hand, his kill. She looked at the tattoos on the back of his gun hand, the spiderweb. She was the spider, patiently waiting for each victim to come along. Now she would be the victim, caught by another predator.

He was the same as her, only he was better.

Her eyes drifted shut and she thought of Krystoff, finding comfort in his image. She imagined him wrapping his arms around her and whispering in her ear that he loved her no matter what, despite everything.

She felt the press of the gun against her chest, over her heart.

Then intense fire.

The pain was incredible, but brief.

She felt the muzzle against her forehead.

Then nothing.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Saskia loved everything about school. She loved the books, she loved her laptop, she loved taking notes, she even loved exams. When Jozef deemed it safe enough for her to return to the University, she’d immediately registered for her winter classes. It took some cajoling to get into a few of them, given her late attendance, but she managed a full course load.

Saskia loved university and opted to spend more time on campus than off. She ate in the cafeteria, she studied all over the place, wherever she could find a sunny nook. She spent time in the library almost every day, soaking in the atmosphere.

It was the university that made her return to Prague bearable. The shining goal of finishing her linguistics degree.

As a child she had grown up with tutors, only attending classes with other students in her two years of boarding school. That had been different from the university. The students were similar age and background, and class sizes were limited to a handful of students.

Saskia found she loved learning in large lecture halls with dozens of other students. It gave her a sense of competition and comradery. She would occasionally eat lunch with one of her new friends, usually people who took classes with her. She hadn’t stretched her wings much in the friend direction. Her security detail wasn’t easy to work with and they preferred she kept to herself, minimizing her exposure to potential risks.

Saskia was currently holed up at the back of the library on the third floor. She was sitting at a table in the corner, so she was surrounded by windows and light. She loved the feel of the sunshine falling across her shoulders and spilling onto her books as she studied.

It was June. She was taking summer classes to make up for missed time.

She wore her noise cancelling headphones and had Metallica’s Fade to Black blasting. She learned better with music.

She was so absorbed in her book that, at first, she didn’t notice the man striding through the stacks toward her, a predator zeroing in on his prey. It wasn’t until a shadow fell across her books that she realized someone was standing next to her, too close.

Her heart picked up as she stared down at the shadow across her notebook while reaching for her gun with the other. It was tucked in the front flap of her backpack, which she kept zipped.

Damn it, she couldn’t reach it. She must’ve kicked her backpack away.

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