Bella's POV
Elias's car speeds through empty streets at midnight.
I sit in the passenger seat, my gun pressed against his ribs. He doesn't seem bothered by this. Actually, he's smiling.
"Are you really going to shoot me?" he asks, amused.
"Try anything, and find out." My voice is steady, but my heart is racing. "Where are you taking me?"
"Somewhere safe. Somewhere we can talk." He glances at me, his gray eyes soft. "I'm not going to hurt you, Bella. I'd never hurt you."
"You killed six people!"
"Six people who hurt YOU." He says it like that makes it okay. "Jeremy Walsh photoshopped fake evidence. Patricia Moore lied under oath. Robert Chen blocked your legal appeals. Judge Morrison threw out your case without investigation. Dean Williams expelled you from university. And Sarah Kim—your former best friend—sold stories about you to tabloids."
Each name hits me like a punch. I didn't know about Sarah Kim. Didn't know she'd betrayed me too.
"How do you know all this?" I whisper.
"I've been investigating for five years. Finding everyone who participated in your destruction." His hands tighten on the steering wheel. "I made a list. Twelve names total. Six are dead. Six remain."
"My father," I say, my stomach churning. "Vivian. Marcus. Who else?"
"Thomas Hartley—your father's business partner who helped forge the documents. Catherine Mills—the prosecutor who pursued charges even though she knew they were false. And..." He hesitates.
"Who?"
"Agent Morrison. But he's dead now, so that's seven down actually." Elias sounds pleased. "Only five left."
"You can't kill my father!" Despite everything he did, he's still my father. "Or Vivian. Or—"
"They destroyed you!" Elias's calm mask cracks. "They took a beautiful, kind girl and broke her into pieces! They deserve to die!"
"That's not your decision to make!"
"Then whose decision is it?" He slams on the brakes, and we screech to a stop in an empty parking garage. "Yours? The same justice system that failed you? The police who believed their lies?"
"I became a detective to fix that system!" I press the gun harder against his ribs. "Not to become a murderer like you!"
"I'm not a murderer." His voice drops to something dangerous. "I'm an executioner. There's a difference."
"No, there isn't!"
We stare at each other, both breathing hard. This close, I can see the scars on his neck—surgical scars from his treatments. He really was dying. He really did survive against impossible odds.
All for me.
It's romantic and horrifying at the same time.
"Bella," he says softly, "I understand you're angry. But you'll see. When the last five are dead, when everyone who hurt you is gone, you'll feel peace. Justice. You'll thank me."
"I'll never thank you for murder."
"Then what would you have me do?" He actually sounds curious. "Turn myself in? Go to prison? Let those monsters live free while I rot in a cell?"
I open my mouth to answer, but my phone rings. It's an unknown number.
"Don't answer it," Elias warns.
I answer anyway, keeping the gun on him. "Hello?"
"Detective Hartley." A woman's voice, terrified and familiar. "Please, you have to help me. Someone's trying to kill me."
My blood runs cold. "Vivian?"
"He's outside my house right now!" She's crying, panicked. "He has a knife! He's going to kill me like he killed the others! Please, I'm sorry for everything, just please help me!"
I look at Elias. He's watching me with that unsettling calm.
"Did you send someone to kill Vivian?" I demand.
"No." He tilts his head. "But I was planning to visit her tomorrow. Someone beat me to it."
"Bella, please!" Vivian screams through the phone. "He's breaking down the door! I can hear him—oh God, he's inside! He's—"
The line goes dead.
"We have to go!" I lower the gun. "Now! Vivian's address—"
"I know where she lives." Elias is already starting the car. "But Bella, think about this. If we save her, she'll tell the police everything. About me. About you being with me. You'll be arrested as an accomplice."
"I don't care! Drive!"
He drives.
We arrive at Vivian's mansion fifteen minutes later. The front door hangs open, broken. Lights blaze inside.
I jump out before the car fully stops, gun drawn. Elias follows, his own weapon ready.
"Police!" I shout, entering the house. "Anyone here?"
Silence.
Then I hear it—a whimper from upstairs.
I take the stairs three at a time. Elias is right behind me, moving like a shadow.
Vivian's bedroom door is open. I burst in and stop dead.
Vivian sits on the floor, alive but terrified. And standing over her with a knife is—
Marcus.
My ex-fiancé. The man who destroyed my life. The man who planned everything.
He looks different than I remember—thinner, desperate, with wild eyes. When he sees me, he laughs. It's not a sane sound.
"Bella! Perfect timing!" He grabs Vivian by the hair, pressing the knife to her throat. "We were just talking about you."
"Let her go, Marcus."
"Why? So she can live after everything she did to you?" He yanks Vivian's head back. "This bitch helped me frame you! She planted evidence, paid off witnesses, smiled while we destroyed you! And you want to save her?"
"Yes," I say firmly. "Because I'm not like you. I don't solve problems by killing people."
"Then you're a fool." Marcus's eyes are filled with madness. "They all deserve to die. Your father, Vivian, everyone who participated. That's why I'm finishing what someone else started."
My mind spins. "You're killing them? You've been helping Elias?"
"Elias?" Marcus laughs again. "I don't know any Elias. I'm doing this alone. Cleaning up loose ends before they expose what we did to you."
Wait. What?
"You're killing your own accomplices?" I step closer slowly. "Why?"
"Because Victor Crowe is dead!" Marcus's voice cracks. "I worked for him. He had dirt on me—evidence that I helped frame you. He was going to use it to blackmail me forever. But then someone killed him tonight. Now I'm free. Except all these people know what I did. So they have to die too."
He's tying up loose ends. Eliminating witnesses to his crimes.
"Marcus, this is insane—"
"Insane?" He presses the knife harder. Vivian whimpers as blood trickles down her neck. "You want to know what's insane? I actually loved you once. But Victor paid me five million dollars to destroy you. And I chose the money. That's insane."
The confession hangs in the air.
He loved me. And he sold me anyway.
"If you loved me," I say quietly, "then do one good thing. Let Vivian go. Turn yourself in. End this."
For a second, something human flickers in Marcus's eyes. Regret. Shame. Guilt.
Then it's gone, replaced by cold determination.
"No," he says. "I've come too far."
He raises the knife to stab Vivian—
A gunshot explodes.
Marcus jerks backward, the knife falling from his hand. He looks down at the bullet hole in his chest, confused.
Then he collapses.
I spin around. Elias stands behind me, his gun smoking.
"You killed him," I breathe.
"He was going to kill her." Elias lowers his weapon. "I saved her life. You're welcome."
Vivian scrambles away from Marcus's body, sobbing. She looks at me with tear-filled eyes.
"Bella, I'm so sorry," she gasps. "For everything. I was jealous and stupid and—"
"Save it." I keep my gun raised, pointed at both Elias and Vivian. "Vivian, call 911. Report a break-in and shooting. When the police arrive, tell them everything. About the frame-up, about Marcus, all of it."
"But you'll be arrested—"
"I don't care anymore." I'm so tired. So tired of running, of lying, of surviving. "Just tell the truth for once in your miserable life."
She nods and reaches for her phone.
I turn to Elias. "You need to leave. Now. Before the police arrive."
"Come with me," he pleads. "Bella, we can disappear together. Start over somewhere new. Just us."
"I can't."
"Because of Damien?" His eyes flash with jealousy. "He used you! He admitted it! Why do you care about him?"
"I don't know if I do." Honest truth. "But I know I can't run away with you. You're a killer, Elias. And I'm a cop. Some lines can't be crossed."
He looks like I just stabbed him in the heart.
"After everything I did for you—"
"I never asked you to kill for me!" My voice breaks. "I never wanted any of this! You saved my life once in a hospital by making me smile. That was enough. That was the person I could have loved. But this?" I gesture at Marcus's body. "This isn't love. This is obsession."
Sirens wail in the distance. Getting closer.
Elias stares at me for a long moment. Then he leans in and kisses my forehead gently.
"Someday," he whispers, "you'll understand that everything I did was for love. And when you do, I'll be waiting."
He backs toward the window.
"Elias, wait—"
But he's already gone, disappearing into the night like a ghost.
I stand there, gun still raised, until the police burst in. They find me with Marcus's body, Vivian's testimony, and no way to explain what happened without incriminating myself.
I'm arrested on the spot.
But as they put handcuffs on me, I see something that makes my blood run cold.
A black card on Vivian's nightstand. Silver lettering. The same cards from all the other crime scenes.
I read it quickly before the police take me away:
"Eight down. Four to go. Don't worry, my love. I'll finish this for you. Even if you hate me for it. Especially then. - E"
Eight down. But Marcus just died. That's number seven.
Which means someone else died tonight.
Someone Elias killed while I was distracted saving Vivian.
I'm dragged out of the house, and I see news crews setting up outside. This will be everywhere by morning. The detective arrested at a murder scene. My face on every channel. My past exposed.
Everything I've built for five years, destroyed in one night.
Just like before.
As they push me into the police car, my phone buzzes one last time. A text from an unknown number:
"I freed Damien. He's safe. And I'm coming for your father next. You can't stop me, Bella. But you're welcome to try. Winner gets your heart. - E
P.S. - Ask Damien about the night we found you. Ask him why he really saved you. The truth might surprise you."
The car door slams shut.
I sit in darkness, handcuffed and helpless, while somewhere out there, two brothers are fighting over me.
One wants to save me.
One wants to own me.
And I'm not sure which one is more dangerous.