With wide unblinking eyes, I stared at the glint of the gun.

I struggled with the thought of a life without Kelly in it. Though that was what my future entailed. Kelly had failed me. Whatever Madam decided when our time was up would be nobody’s fault but his own.

Shifting my eyes over to the roses, I had them laid out side by side. The first half of Madam’s note, folded in the middle, was perched on the table like a tent. I didn’t want Kelly to see the photo of his family out of fear that it might remind him that I wasn’t good enough. I’d stashed it away before I called.

A minute later, there was a knock on my door.

It was unlocked, so I didn’t bother with the inconvenience of letting him inside. I knew it was Kelly, and when I heard the front door crack open his scent drifted over my shoulder.

I twisted in my chair and watched him enter with worry creasing his brow.

Kelly hurried over to me, stopping short of the table when his eyes landed on his own gun. With mouth agape, he flicked his eyes to me, then back to the gun. “Where did you get that?”

Swiveling my head around on my shoulders, I went back to staring at the trigger. My veins constricted, slowing down my blood. I knew my call would get his attention. Now that I had him here, I needed Kelly to make me believe that I mattered more to him than anything else in his life. The moment of reckoning was upon us—the fate of our relationship hanging in the balance.

“You shouldn’t have left it where others could get to it,” I murmured through a scratchy throat.

He breathed heavily through his nose before lunging forward and taking it away. It was a relief to know that I no longer had it within reach. Too many temptations floated through my head when I had it in my possession, and I was certain I would have eventually found a way to use it.

Kelly unloaded it behind me. I listened to each bullet hit the floor with a thud, each drop louder than the last, before he tucked it behind his back.

Falling into the chair next to me, Kelly reached for my wrists.

I closed my eyes as his radiating heat kicked my heart into higher gear.

Choking on the tears that threatened to spill, I focused on the way Kelly’s thumb brushed over my pulsing artery. I had calmed myself before he arrived, but this was how it was when I was with Kelly. He brought me to life despite feeling like there was nothing left inside to give.

When I opened my eyes, he was there ready to catch my gaze.

He didn’t know what to say, and neither did I. I was close to doing it. Pulling the trigger and ending it all. In the end, though, I was weak—too afraid of what might be waiting for me in my next life.

“Do you still have it?” Kelly asked.

Jutting my chin toward the folded note on the table, I said, “Read it.”

He barely glanced at it. “Please tell me you still have the flash drive.”

My eyes scurried across his face, searching for answers. Somehow he knew, and I could only assume that Madam had told him. “Just read the note.”

When Kelly pulled his hands away from my wrists, he left me shivering in the cold. I watched him read the note. “Bella, what was on the flash drive?”

I pushed away from the table to make myself a glass of water. He didn’t even care about the part about my uncle receiving the information of my inheritance. After slamming down the entire glass, I turned to him and said, “I had to do something.”

He tipped his head back and closed his disappointed eyes.

“You were dragging your feet.” I started to breathe heavier. “You gave me no choice.”

He rubbed his face inside both his hands before snapping to his feet. “What did you do?”

Straightening my shoulders, I held my ground despite the fear rolling down my legs. Kelly’s eyes were dark as he glared at me from beneath his brow. His shoulders were broad, imposing, and his body seemed to swell, very much intimidating. “Sylvia is going to get what she deserves.” I clenched my hand into a tight ball. “She wants to slap our face, I want to punch her in the gut.”

Kelly rooted his hands into his hips as he stared. Then I told him everything that was written in the article. How Sylvia was at fault for Maria’s murder, how Mario was set up to take the fall, and how Sylvia should be charged with his murder as well.

Kelly’s jaw ticked as his listened. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

My jaw slackened. “You should be thanking me for what I did.”

He shook his head.

“That story will polish your reputation. Make people see who the real villain is.” My hands waved through the air with added emotion. “This was something we should have done long ago. Something Julia offered to do the other night at Angel’s gala. Tell me, what could possibly go wrong?”

Kelly turned his head away, taking a moment to think. “Bella, baby, I need to know who you gave the flash drive to.”

My eyes rounded with fear when Kelly refused to confirm that I’d done the right thing. “I don’t know.” My voice was surprisingly weak. “Madam told me where to go. She gave me a puzzle piece to connect to her contact.”

“Shit.” His posture stiffened a second before he rushed over to me. Taking me by the shoulder, he said, “We can’t let them publish this.”

His eyes were wild as they danced with mine. Stepping away, I brought my hands to my head. “This is a good thing.”

“No, Kendra, it’s not.”

“Why do you keep blocking us from finding Sylvia?” My voice threatened to give out.

He closed the gap between us. “Where?”

I refused to listen. “Why can’t we publish this?”

Kelly took my face between his hands, forcing me to look at him. “Because she didn’t kill Mario,” he growled.

My eyes probed his. “If not her, then who?”

“Oscar Buchanan. The DA.”

Feeling my emotions bubbling up inside of me, I muttered, “I did this for us. Everything I have done was for us.”

“I know.” His thumbs stroked my hot cheeks. “And now you need to tell me who you gave the flash drive to.”

Shaking my head, I said, “This can’t be. Sylvia is out to get me. She gave Marvin my grandmother’s will.” My eyes glanced to the table toward the note. “Didn’t you read that in the note?”

“I did.”

“Then why aren’t you doing anything about it?”

“What do you think I’m doing?”

“Nothing. That’s just it. Nothing. Sylvia called you and you’re still dragging your feet!”

Kelly’s hands squeezed, making my head feel like it was in a vice. “I’m putting everything on the line for you. Don’t you get it? Sylvia isn’t against us.”

“Then how can you explain that?” I pointed at the note.

“Sylvia might be on our side.” His words floated on a cloud of hope.

Slapping his wrists away from my face, I stomped away, saying, “I should have never called you here.”

Chasing after me, Kelly said, “We can’t give up now. Madam wants us to split so she doesn’t have to do it for us.” Flipping my head around, my hair fell over my shoulders. Kelly’s eyes glistened as he pleaded with me. “Now, where did you hand off that flash drive?”

“Not until you recognize that Sylvia handed Marvin my grandmother’s will.”

“We don’t have time for this shit.” Kelly’s tone deepened. “Our time is about to expire and, when it does, I’ll have no choice but to let Madam take you away from me.” The vein in his neck swelled. “But you seem to have forgotten about that.”

In a voice the size of a mouse, I told him the name of the bar and a brief description of the man I handed the envelope to. Then, before he ran out the front door, I said, “I guess it was foolish of me to think that I could ever compete with your love for Nora. She wins. She will always win.”