Page 92 of Ruined

Ivan tilts his head. "Don't I? You're here, aren't you? Exactly where I wanted you."

I need just a few more seconds, just enough time to spot the weakness in his stance, in his plan.

"Then what happens now?" I ask. "You shoot us both and start a war with the Ferettis?"

I stare at Ivan. My fingers twitch, ready to reach for my weapon, but Ivan's gun remains steadily pointed at us.

"The Ferettis will burn your entire operation to the ground for this," I say, voice low and controlled despite the fury coursing through me.

Ivan laughs, the sound echoing off the concrete. "The Ferettis? They won't start a war over one useless man." His smirk widens. "You're expendable, Rivera. Always have been. You think Damiano sees you as anything more than a tool? A weapon to be pointed and fired?"

I keep my face blank but I feel Evelyn's fingers grind deeper into my back.

"Your delusion that you matter is almost touching," Ivan continues, his accent thickening with amusement. "Just like your mother's delusion that your father loved her. How did that end again? With her blood soaking into the floorboards while her precious violin lay shattered beside her?"

My vision blurs red at the edges. How the fuck does he know about my mother? The rage threatens to consume me but I force it down. That's what he wants—for me to lunge at him, to give him an excuse to pull the trigger.

"You know what's pathetic, Volkov?" I say, my voice deadly calm. "A man who needs to kidnap a woman to feel powerful. Is that how you compensate for your inadequacies? Taking what isn't yours because you're too fucking weak to earn anything on your own?"

Ivan's face transforms, his cruel smirk melting into something unexpected—laughter. Not the calculated chuckle he's been using, but genuine amusement that makes his shoulders shake.

"You know what, Rivera?" he says, wiping his eye with his free hand while keeping the gun trained on us. "I admire that at least you have some balls. Most men would be begging for their lives by now."

I don't respond, my muscles coiled tight, waiting for the perfect moment. Evelyn's breath comes in short gasps against my back. I need to get her out of this fucking cell alive.

"It's almost a shame to kill you," Ivan continues. "We could have?—"

The door behind us crashes open.

Everything slows down.

I see Matteo in the doorway, gun raised.

I see Ivan's eyes widen, his weapon swinging around towards the new threat.

I see Matteo exposed, no cover, no time to react.

My body moves before my mind can process, lunging forward and to the side, putting myself between Matteo and Ivan's gun.

"No!" Evelyn screams behind me.

Ivan's finger tightens on the trigger.

Mine does too.

Two shots thunder in the concrete cell, so close together they sound like one.

CHAPTER 27

The sound of gunshots is deafening, echoing off the cement walls like thunder trapped in a box. Before I can process what's happening Noah's body jerks backward, a dark stain blooming across his shirt.

"NOAH!" My scream tears through my throat, raw and primal.

He's falling, crumpling to the floor in that horrible slow-motion way that doesn't seem real. Noah took the bullet meant for Matteo. He just... jumped in front of it without hesitation.

Ivan falls too, hit by Noah's return fire, but he's not finished. Even wounded he's raising his gun again, this time pointing it directly at me. His eyes lock with mine for a split second—cold, enthralled, devoid of humanity.

A third shot cracks through the air. Matteo fires and Ivan's head snaps back. The light leaves his eyes as he collapses, finally still.

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