Chapter 19 · You expect me to believe I let him do all that?

She stared at him.

Kane could hear the faint click of her safety shifting beneath her thumb.

"You expect me to believe I let him do all that?" she said.

"No. I expect you to believe you fight him until the last second. That’s why he has to kill you personally."

Her expression cracked.

Only a little.

But Kane saw it.

He remembered her body on the command platform. Her hand still wrapped around a dead radio. Her last order cut off halfway through a word.

He had heard it in every death since.

Selena leaned closer. "Who kills you?"

Kane’s throat tightened.

"Answer me."

"Victor."

"That’s not what I asked."

"You don’t need to know."

"I do if you’re part of this."

"I was part of everything."

"Were you his pilot?"

"No."

"His spy?"

"No."

"Then what were you?"

Kane looked at her hand on his chest. "The weapon he threw away after you were dead."

The words sat between them.

Selena’s forearm loosened, but she didn’t step back.

"You expect sympathy?" she asked.

"I expect you to stop wasting time."

He reached into his inner pocket.

The pistol snapped up.

"Slowly."

"It’s paper.