Chapter 100

~CAMI~

Everything I had ever believed myself to be was a big fat lie. I didn’t know who I was anymore. I had killed a man in cold blood. Not in the name of the law, not in some noble crusade for justice, but out of rage and vengeance. A need to even the score. This was a side of myself I had never faced. For twenty-six years, I believed myself to be upright, moral, a woman who wore the badge with honor. How wrong I had been. The truth was uglier. I was a monster. A monster Brian had awoken in me. Or Remington. Or whoever the hell he really was.

The rain had soaked me through, chilling me to the bone, but I welcomed it. The cold proved I was still alive, that I had not been swallowed entirely by the darkness clawing inside me. The cemetery gates loomed ahead, the rusted iron bars looking more like prison doors than an escape. I pushed through, each step dragging behind me like a chain.

Brian had vanished into the shadows, leaving me with nothing but the truth. The truth that he had twisted everything. That he had pushed me to this point. That he had turned me into a killer.

By the time I stumbled to my car, the cobblestones had become slick rivers of regret. I drove in silence, headlights cutting through the storm, the steering wheel slippery under my hands. My vision blurred, rain mixing with tears until the world became nothing but streaks of gray and red.

Inside my house, the warmth felt suffocating. I peeled away my wet clothes and dropped them in a heap. Mr. Whiskey padded over, his yellow eyes full of concern, but I couldn’t even bring myself to stroke his fur. I collapsed onto my bed, but sleep never came. My mind spun in an endless cycle of images: Andre’s lifeless body, Brian’s hands gripping me in the cemetery, the taste of his mouth on mine. Every thought was barbed wire around my chest.

When morning came, I felt as though I had been crushed beneath something heavier than steel. My phone buzzed on the nightstand. A message. I opened it with shaking fingers.

Meet me at the docks tonight. I have answers. – Remington.

I almost deleted it. Almost. Instead, I typed, Why should I trust you?

The reply came instantly, as if he had been waiting. Because you don’t have a choice. We are in this together now.

I threw the phone down, but the words burned into me. He was right. I hated him for it, but he was right.

~BRIAN~

The docks were quiet except for the creak of ships shifting in their berths and the slap of water against wood. The storm had passed, leaving behind a sky that was heavy and low, clouds stretched thin like bruised skin. I stood under a broken lamp, smoke curling from the cigarette between my fingers. Every sound made my nerves twitch, but it was not fear. It was anticipation. Cami would come. She had to.

When I saw her silhouette appear through the mist, my chest tightened. She moved like a soldier headed to war, shoulders squared, jaw locked. Even drenched in shadows, she was fire.

“Cami,” I said, my voice low.

She stopped several paces away, arms folded across her chest, every line of her body radiating fury. “You wanted me here. Talk.”

I flicked the cigarette away, sparks scattering across the wet concrete. “You deserve the truth. All of it.”

Her eyes narrowed. “That would be a first.”

I stepped closer, slowly, giving her space to walk away if she chose. “My name is Brian Dinelli. My father was Andre.”

Her breath hitched, just enough for me to notice. She masked it quickly with venom. “So it’s true. Every moment with you was a lie.”

“No,” I said firmly. “Not every moment. You were the only thing real in my life. The only thing I didn’t want to corrupt.”

Her laugh was sharp and hollow. “Funny way of showing it. Manipulating me. Pushing me. You turned me into—” She broke off, her voice catching. “Into something I don’t recognize.”

I stepped forward again, close enough to see the storm still raging in her eyes. “I never wanted you to carry this. I wanted to protect you from it, from him, from all of it. I tried to change things, but I was too deep. And when you pulled the trigger… it was already too late.”

Her hand twitched near her hip, hovering over the gun holstered there. “Give me one reason not to end this right here.”

“Because you feel what I feel,” I said, my voice raw. “Because no matter how much you hate me, you want me too. And because as much as you think you’re free of me, you are not. We’re bound now, Cami. By blood, by secrets, by what we’ve done.”

For a moment, the only sound was the water lapping at the docks and the groan of an old ship’s hull. She stared at me, her lips pressed thin, her body shaking with rage and something else she did not want to name.

I did not reach for her. I only held her gaze. “You can kill me if you want. You’d be justified. But if you walk away, you’ll never know the whole story. You’ll never know what we’re really up against.”

Her breathing slowed, and I saw the war playing across her face. Hate, need, grief, fire. The same fire that burned in me.

Finally, she whispered, “One chance. That’s all you get.”