I stood up immediately when Roberto appeared in the doorway of the hospital room. “Vitoria, carinyo,” Roberto said, stepping in close to kiss each of my cheeks. “And how is your lovely mother doing this morning?”

“Tired, but alive,” Mama murmured from her bed, her eyes flickering open for only a moment before dropping wearily closed.

The treatments appeared to be working, fortunately, but it would be a little while before she was able to make a full recovery. She still wanted to know how we’d been able to afford the treatments, but I hadn’t told her yet. I suspected Papa knew, from the tight-lipped, considering looks he had been giving me around the house, but he hadn’t said anything.

I didn’t know what I’d expected—that everything would miraculously be better? The victory just felt hollow somehow. I knew we had saved a lot of lives, and I knew that my role had been important in that. But my mother was still in the hospital, Audaz was still all too interested in talking to me, and Dmitry…

Well, I hadn’t heard from him in days. He had called a number of times before the attack, leaving pleading messages that I had felt too guilty to respond to. Again and again, he said he just didn’t understand what had gone wrong. But even if I’d wanted to get in contact with him, Roberto had been watching me closely, and he’d made it clear that if I alerted Dmitry that their plan had been compromised, I would pay dearly.

Besides, I just wasn’t sure how I felt about Dmitry, knowing that he was involved in something so heinous.

Still, over the past few days, having not heard of him, I knew there could only be two reasons for it: either Dmitry had realized my role in foiling their plot, or else he was dead. I wasn’t sure which would be worse. Either was enough to keep me awake long into the night.

I followed Roberto out into the hallway at his gesture. “I’ve done what you asked me to do,” I told him, before he even had a chance to speak. “If you’re here to get me to do something else for Audaz, I’m not interested.” I narrowed my eyes. “Our agreement was that I only did the one task and that bought all of the treatments my mother needed.”

Roberto waved away my words. “That’s not what I’m here for,” he said. “I have something that I thought might interest you. Won in the battle.”

“Well?” I asked, folding my arms and raising an eyebrow at him.

“You’ll need to come with me,” Roberto said.

I sighed, wondering if this was some sort of trap. But he wouldn’t do that to my father, I didn’t think. I slowly followed him. We left the hospital, but we didn’t go far before he led me into a narrow hallway. The building was deserted, and I wondered what we were doing there. Had Audaz already found a new headquarters? But I didn’t really want to know the answer to that question. The less I knew about how Audaz worked, the more safety I had.

I froze as Roberto nudged me into a room at my left. There was one chair in the middle of the room, sheets obscuring all the windows. Shivering in the chair was—“Dmitry,” I breathed, stumbling across the room and falling to my knees at his feet.

“Yes, like I said, I thought you might be interested to see my prize,” Roberto said, smiling at me. “See, I was wondering what I should have done with the Russian. He is, of course, the nephew of the Volkov mob boss. Something tells me that we should make an example of him.” He paused. “But it’s entirely up to you, Vitoria. His life is in yours hands—since, after all, you’re the one who brought him here. He’s your trophy even more than mine.”

“Dmitry,” I whispered urgently, nudging the man. “Are you all right?”

Dmitry stared straight through me, awake but apparently unaware of his surroundings. I swallowed hard, noting the bruising on his face, which tracked along that muscular chest of his and disappeared below the filthy waistband of his jeans.

I felt tears begin to fall down my face. “Please, Roberto, you have to let him go,” I pleaded.

“And why is that?” Roberto asked, even though I could tell he already knew where this was heading.

“Because I love him!” I said fiercely, pulling myself to my feet and spinning to face him, my hands clenching into fists. But I couldn’t fight him, I knew. He was bigger and stronger than me, and I knew he probably had a weapon somewhere on him—maybe more than one.

I suddenly realized that his friendship with my father did nothing to protect me, not really. Especially not if I attacked him. Roberto could make it look like I had simply vanished. He could do anything he wanted with me, and I would have no way to stop him.

I swallowed hard and turned back to Dmitry. “Dmitry, please,” I whimpered. “Are you all right?”

Dmitry’s eyes flickered, and he finally focused on me, licking his cracked and bleeding lips. “Vitoria?” he asked, his expression clouded—and I realized they must have drugged him.

“You know, if you love the Russian so much, you should probably tell him why their sneak attack plans didn’t work,” Roberto commented, picking at his nails.

I swallowed hard, my eyes dropping to the floor as Dmitry frowned at me, a sudden clarity in his eyes, like he was truly waking up now. “What did you do?” he asked, his voice ragged.

I hugged my arms tightly around myself. “When you asked me about Audaz…” I trailed off, not even sure where to start. My tears were flowing freely down my face by now, and I couldn’t stop shivering. “I had to get help for my mother,” I told him. “And Audaz told me the only way that they would help was if I gathered information on what the Volkovs were planning.”

When I hesitantly looked up at Dmitry’s face, he was staring at me as though he had never seen me before. “You lied to me,” he whispered.

“I didn’t want to,” I sobbed. “But I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you. I just wanted to save everyone.” I spun towards Roberto. “Please, Roberto,” I begged. “You have to let him go free. He hasn’t done anything. His uncle is the one you want to go after. And there’s been enough bloodshed already, hasn’t there? You’re just going to make them angry, make them attack again.”

Roberto looked unmoved by my pleas. “And here I thought your father had raised a smart girl,” he sighed. “Apparently not, carinyo.”

“Please,” I tried again. “How many lives did we save, with the information I gave you? Surely I’ve bought more than just my mother’s life.”

Roberto continued to stare at me. Finally, he inclined his head towards me. “You may be right about that,” he said grudgingly. “Although it takes a lot of lives to weigh out the life of someone so close to their leader.”

He strode closer to Dmitry. “Tell your uncle that our business here isn’t finished,” he growled. Then, he cut Dmitry free from the chair. His gaze lingered on me for a moment as he strode towards the doorway. “It’s a pity that you’re such a fool,” he said. “You could have made a pretty wife for someone in Audaz.”

“I’ll never be part of Audaz,” I swore as he left.

He laughed, the sound echoing down the hallway. “Carinyo, you already are,” were his parting words.

I swallowed, feeling like I would be sick. But before I could focus too much on my own condition, Dmitry stirred and tried to stand. I rushed to his side to help him, but he flinched away from me, a steely look in his eyes.

“Dmitry, wait,” I whimpered, reaching for him again. I wanted to remind him that I had just bought him his freedom, his life. But from the look on his face, that didn’t change anything. I wanted to stop him, to try to explain. What I wanted most was to fall into his arms and hold him, tell him how much I loved him, how scared I had been. Plot a life for us, somewhere that Audaz couldn’t reach us and the Volkov family was only a memory.

But Dmitry didn’t care. He stalked out of the room, not even giving me a second glance. I sank to the floor, wrapping my arms around myself as my whole body heaved with sobs. I tried to remind myself about the lives that I had saved. About my mother’s treatments. She was going to get better, and my father was okay, and there were so many others who would have lost their lives if not for what I had done.

None of that felt okay then, though. It still felt as though my heart was breaking.