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She never got to finish her thought. Three bullets fired in succession into her body, flinging her back in the chair. She gasped one last time, and then she went silent, her head falling to the side.
I sat there, stunned and unable to believe what I had just seen. She was dead right before my very eyes. I was supposed to protect her. I swore I wouldn’t let anything happen, yet she was dead with blood pooled all around her from the brutality Ivan inflicted on her.
Yuri shoved the gun in his pants and nodded to Ivan. As he walked to the door, all I could do was stare at Raven and replay all the ways I had let her down. I remembered that first night I met her, how she had been so full of life and sass. She licked my ear. And I had liked it.
Yet now, that woman was gone. The life had drained from her body and all that was left was a shell of the woman she used to be. I hung my head, unable to look at her any longer. Ivan could do whatever he wanted with me. There was no way I could ever go back to the life I once led. Not when I knew I was no longer worthy to do the job.
Ivan’s footsteps echoed through the warehouse as he walked over to me. He stood just feet from me, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared down at me.
“You did good.”
A loud bell rang and a voice echoed over a loudspeaker. “That’s a wrap!”
Men and women swarmed around the room, bustling about as they started grabbing weapons and carrying them away. Furniture was moved around and lights were lowered from the ceiling. Someone carrying a camera walked out and winked at me.
“Nice performance.”
“What?”
Cash came jogging over to me, a grin on his face. “That was some great shit. Seriously.”
“Great—”
Movement caught my eye as Raven sat up, groaning as she rubbed her chest. “Man, did you have to shoot me three times, Ivan?”
“It was Yuri!”
A little brunette spitfire came running over, practically throwing herself in Cash’s arms. “Thank you so much! That was perfect!”
I shook my head as I finally put the pieces together. I hadn’t spent a lot of time with OPS and their families, but this woman… “Zoe?”
She turned to me with wide eyes. “Oh my gosh. Amazing performance. Seriously, I believed it was real.”
“It…this was for show?” I exclaimed, nearly tearing out of my bindings.
“Yeah, for my new movie. FNG called and said he needed use of my set and—wait, you didn’t know?”
“Know that you were fake killing my girlfriend?” I snapped.
Her face paled as she took a step back. Then she spun on Cash. “You didn’t tell him? I thought he was just faking it!”
“I—”
“You big jerk!” She punched him in the arm. “I can’t believe he didn’t know that was a setup!”
“It had to be authentic!” he shouted as she ran away. He turned to me with a sigh. “Thanks for getting me in trouble.”
“Yeah, I can see how this is all my fault,” I snapped. “How the fuck could you do this to me? I thought she was actually dying! I had no way to save her!”
“Right, but if I had told you it wasn’t real, there’s no way you would have gone along with the plan. I sort of needed you there for it to work.”
“For what to work? For you to put her in the line of fire? Do you have any idea how badly that could have gone?”
He nodded. “See, this is why I didn’t tell you.”
“He fucking shot her!”
“She was wearing a bullet-proof vest.”
