“I’m sorry, baby,” Kane says, as the blade slips out and blood runs down my arm. I wince at the sight, and seethe through my teeth. I turn away as he uses the tweezers to get the tracker out before wrapping a towel around my arm. It doesn’t hurt right now because of the drugs I'm on, but I know it’s going to catch up with me later. Fear grips me, but then I remember. They’re all dead. No one is going to know it’s out of me. Even if they do, they don’t have the backing to come for me. All of them are fucked with the data Tony found and sent to the police.

I’m happy and grateful that Kane told me. I want to believe I have no reason to be scared anymore, and knowing that helps. But I’m still terrified. We have no one. It’s just the two of us hiding out in an abandoned safe house. If the Valettis are planning on screwing us over, we’re fucked.

I look back at my arm as the towel grazes my hand. He takes the towel away and I’m surprised to find only a small and neat cut where the tracker used to be. He’s quick to put a small bandage over it. His hand travels the length of my arm and stops at my wrist where a small barcode is tattooed. Instinctively, I itch to touch the scar on my shoulder. These are two marks that will forever stay with me, and they’ll never let me forget.

He stands with the bloodied tracker wrapped in the towel and walks to the front door. He grabs the hammer that's sitting on the stairway banister before going outside. I close my eyes and listen as he smashes the tracker to nothing.

I wait in the silence for him to tell me what to do. There’s no plan; I’m not certain he’ll keep me. If he doesn’t want me, I’ll have nowhere to go. I grew up in the States, before we moved back to Russia, but I have no family here. I have no family at all anymore.

My chest feels hollow and rings with pain. If Kane doesn’t want me, I have no one. I have nothing. I hear Vadik’s vicious words in my head as he sneers, “You are nothing.”

I shake my head and close my eyes tightly, denying it. I can’t be nothing. I cross my arms and grab my shoulders, needing to be held. I don’t want to be nothing.

“Ava, baby, what’s wrong?” I open my eyes and see Kane. His arms open and wrap around me, bringing me into his chest.

I’m not nothing. I’m his.

I hold onto him and bury my head in his chest. I need to hear him say it. I need that, but I don’t dare ask. I’m too afraid to hear the answer.

“It’s all going to be alright. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I’m sorry I even brought you along.” My eyes open at his words, but he can’t see that. I’m not sorry I was there. I’m fucking happy I killed them. But he wouldn’t be happy with that.

What kind of person am I that I revel in the fact that I’m the one who killed him?

“Ava, I’m going to ask you this once. Do you want to stay with me?” I pull away from him, eager to answer. But before I can, he puts a finger over my lips to shush me.

“Just hear me out first.” I nod my head as his finger leaves my lips. I don’t care what he has to say though. My answer is already decided.

“I have enough money to take us wherever we need to go. I was smart about shit, and we can get by for a long fucking time. But I don’t have anything else lined up. I don’t know where we’ll go.” His eyes look past me, and his face turns stern. “Before we leave, I have to have a chat with Vince, too.” He swallows hard before looking back at me.

He cups my chin in his hand, and tilts my head to face him. He leans in with his nose brushing mine, and plants a small kiss on my lips. “But this is real for me. What we shared. I’ve never felt that before, and I want it, Ava. More than anything else.”

His words melt my heart. A warmth floods through me. Security, desire, and something else. Something I’m afraid to admit.

“I want it too, Kane. Please.” I look up at him through my thick lashes and see a sexy-as-fuck grin growing on his face.

“I’m all yours then. I’ll take care of us, baby.”

“Yes, Kane,” I say diligently. He backs away slightly, and I have to force my expression to remain as he likes it.

“You okay, Ava?” he asks, with a slightly worried tone in his voice.

No, I’m not. I know I’m not okay. But he won’t want this fucked-up version of me.

I press my lips together to keep the automatic response of “Yes, Kane” from coming through. He doesn’t like that. Or he at least doesn’t want it right now. So I nod my head instead and offer him a sweet smile.

He smirks at me and leans in for another kiss before saying, “Good girl.”

It soothes the broken part of me. That’s all I need right now. I just need to keep being his good girl.