The echoes fade, leaving silence.

I am on my toes in seconds, shifting via the warehouse, checking each darkish nook, each room.

“Karina!”

A faint, muffled sound bounces again to me. I chase it, my coronary heart in my throat, not respiratory. Not dwelling.

I discover her in a small, windowless room behind the warehouse. She’s certain to a chair, tape over her mouth. Her eyes broad with worry and reduction as they fall on me.

“Karina,” I breathe, a blaze of protectiveness surging via me.

She whimpers behind the tape.

“Shh, it is okay. You are protected now,” I whisper, reaching her aspect in two steps. My fingers shake as I gently peel the tape from her face after which set to work on the knots, shortly untangling the ropes to free her.

“C-Coda?” Her voice is hoarse, barely above a whisper, however it’s the sweetest sound I’ve heard in an eternity.

“I am proper right here, cara. I’ve acquired you.” I run my fingers over her, making an attempt to persuade myself that she’s actual. She’s protected. On this second, nothing else exists—not the gunfire, not my betrayal. All that issues is shielding her from the darkness and holding her near me.

Her gaze tangles with mine, emotion blazing like twin suns within the grey depths—worry, gratitude, and one thing extra profound, one thing so fragile I practically destroyed it totally—belief.

Seeing it there now offers me hope. We aren’t damaged. I can nonetheless repair this. I am going to spend the remainder of my life making an attempt if that is what it takes.

I hold one arm locked round her as I lead her out of her jail. My gun is in my different hand, ready to guard her. She trembles in opposition to my aspect however does not falter as we make our manner, one cautious step at a time, again to the primary a part of the warehouse.

Midway there, she grabs my arm. “The weapons are right here,” she whispers. “I heard them speaking about them.”

I nod, not significantly stunned Alamilla has them right here. “We’ll deal with it, cara.”

They’re going to go away this place with Domani. I belief them in our fingers way over I do in Chicago PDs. Not less than we cannot launch them within the streets, turning Chicago right into a killing discipline. I can not say the identical for Chicago’s Best. Not any longer.

My reply satisfies Karina. She settles in opposition to my aspect, assured within the data that I am going to deal with this drawback. I relish the truth that she does not ask how or demand solutions. She merely trusts that I am going to do as promised.

I missed that nearly as a lot as I missed her these final hours—her belief. The data that, it doesn’t matter what I’ve performed or how a lot blood is on my fingers, this fiery angel nonetheless sees one thing in me worthy of religion.

Not having her belief is insupportable. I am going to by no means jeopardize it once more. Not once I want it so fucking badly. It is develop into a cornerstone of my life, a constructing block of this new Coda—the one who belongs to her and never the darkish.

We emerge into the primary cavern of the warehouse. Her gaze instantly falls on the our bodies we left in our wake.

“Coda,” she whispers.

“They by no means ought to have taken you, Karina,” I say, anger seething slightly below the floor. I am nonetheless pissed they dared. “I do not remorse it. I am not sorry. That is what waits for anybody who touches you.”

She does not say something. I do not assume she is aware of what to say.

“That is who I’m, angioletta. You wished me to allow you to in. You wished to know my secrets and techniques. That is me,” I murmur. “I’ve blood on my fingers and homicide in my coronary heart. I kill with out mercy. Till you, that is all I used to be. It is all I knew.” I contact her cheek. “You modified every little thing.”

She shivers, wanting up at me, her grey eyes broad and bottomless.

“You make me higher. Loving you makes me higher.”

Her gaze flits throughout my face, susceptible and looking out. Afraid to hope, however determined to imagine. Even now, she loves me. Even now, she desires to belief that I am a person worthy of her. I am not. I by no means have been. However I am going to spend each waking second combating to develop into one, identical to I’ve since I met her.

That is a struggle I am going to gladly struggle. If you’ve spent a lifetime within the trenches, what’s another battle? I will be a person at struggle for stolen moments of peace together with her. It is not even a call that requires thought. Something that ends together with her in my arms, I am going to do.

“Coda, I…”

Domani and Miles slip out of the hallway throughout the warehouse, distracting her. Her brows furrow, shock filtering via her eyes as she seems from them again to me.

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