Page 101 of His Stolen Bride

“I didn’t buy loyalty,” I answer. “I bought a way out.”

His face contorts in a mix of rage, panic, disbelief. The first real emotion I’ve seen on him that isn’t performance. He lifts his pistol higher, and now it’s aimed at my chest. “Step aside,” he says. “Let me leave. You’ll get your wife back. You’ll get to keep pretending you’re noble. I’ll go elsewhere and I won’t burn your house down.”

Enzo laughs quietly. “You’re bargaining.”

Vladimir’s eyes snap to him. “Shut up.”

Enzo’s voice stays light. “You’re not used to being the one begging.”

Vladimir’s cheeks go red. He turns back to me. “Last chance.”

I don’t move.

“Your men,” he says through his teeth. “Your son. Your mother. You think they’re safe. You think you can lock a house and call it protection.”

My spine goes cold for half a second. Then I remember my mother’s message. Oisin asleep. Sofia beside him. The house locked. Extra men outside.

Vladimir doesn’t know what we’ve set up. He’s guessing. He’s reaching. “That’s all you have,” I say. “Threats you can’t back up.”

He snarls. “I have her.”

“You don’t,” I say.

His eyes flicker again, involuntarily, to the wall behind me, toward the medical room he left.

He realizes and his mouth opens, and for the first time, his smug mask slips fully.

“You’re here,” he says slowly, “and she’s not.”

“Correct.”

His pistol jerks up a fraction. That’s the moment he decides he’s going to shoot me and run anyway. He starts to squeeze the trigger, but I fire first. It’s one shot. Suppressed. Clean. Center mass.

Vladimir staggers like he didn’t believe bullets applied to him. His gun slips from his hand and hits the floor. His eyes are wide, shocked, furious, almost offended. He tries to speak.

No words come out.

He falls to his knees.

I step closer and keep my pistol trained on him.

Enzo stays in the doorway, scanning the hall, not looking at the man dying in front of me like it’s a show. Enzo has seen too many bodies to care about this one.

Vladimir’s mouth moves again, trying to pull air that won’t cooperate.

I crouch slightly, just enough that he can see my face clearly.

“You thought she was currency,” I say quietly. “That you could own her. You couldn’t.”

His eyes burn with hate. I don’t let him have a last speech.

I fire again.

His head drops and silence hits the room. My chest doesn’t loosen. It doesn’t feel like relief.

It feels like the end of a long irritation that still leaves a mark. Enzo’s voice is steady. “Outside teams report all exits sealed. Dock’s clear. Two men tried to jump. They didn’t make it.”

“Good,” I say.