“Lucian! We’ve made progress on Stella’s case. Don’t do this!”

Hayes couldn’t get past the men at the entrance.

He could only shout.

Lucian wasn’t listening.

Seeing the gun in his hand, Hayes reached for his own weapon.

Knox pulled up his collar to cover the lower half of his face and moved in front of him.

A butterfly knife flashed in his right hand.

Both sides drew weapons.

The rooftop became a standoff.

I could barely breathe, though I no longer needed to.

Only Julian was enjoying himself.

With his back to Hayes, he raised his hands.

His voice shook with fear.

“I don’t know what I did to offend you. Whatever it was, I’m sorry. Please leave my family alone. Stella has been sold to Veyra. We don’t even know if she’s alive. She’s waiting for me to save her.”

His knees bent.

In front of the police, he knelt at Lucian’s feet.

Humble.

Pitiful.

But I could see his face.

The challenge in his eyes.

His lips moved silently.

“Dare to shoot?”

Then he bent his head and resumed the performance, voice breaking.

“Even if you’re going to kill me, give me a little time. Let me bring my wife home first.”

I stared at him.

How could one person divide himself so completely?

He was more frightening than any ghost.

“Lucian!”

I tried to catch him as he moved.

His coat passed through my fingers.

He hauled Julian up by the collar and struck him across the face with the gun.

At least he hadn’t fired.

Some of the tension left me.

Hayes fired a warning shot into the air.

“Blackwood!”

Lucian gave him one expressionless glance.

Then he caught Julian as he tried to rise and punched him to the ground again.

He had driven him to the edge.

Police surrounded the building below.

Julian scrambled up.

Lucian’s six-foot-two frame completely blocked him from view.

Excitement lit Julian’s eyes.

He had decided Lucian wouldn’t shoot.

That made him bolder.

“You lost.”

Blood filled his mouth and stained his teeth. It ran down his chin as he smiled.

“Actually, you’ve never beaten me. All these years, I won every time.”

I didn’t understand.

I had represented the Whitmore Group in every business fight.

Julian had barely faced Lucian directly.

And how could he possibly have won?

Then I understood.

He wasn’t talking about business.

He meant me.

A trophy he could hold up in front of Lucian.

“At nineteen, she gave me a kidney. She’s been part of my body ever since. If I died, she’d follow me.”

His voice was soft and poisonous.

“But you? You could die right in front of her, and she wouldn’t blink. She’d celebrate. To her, you’re worth more dead than alive.”

“Shut up!”

I turned toward Lucian, crying.

“Don’t listen. I don’t hate you. I don’t dislike you anymore. Not at all.”

Darkness covered his face.

His eyes looked as though they had been dragged through blood.

He stared at Julian as if he wanted to take him apart.

“Do you really think I won’t kill you?”

His voice was utterly calm.

The madness beneath it was worse.

Julian’s confidence froze.

Before he could react, Lucian kicked him over the edge.

Everyone stopped.

Even me.

Instinct saved him.

He caught the railing with both hands.

Empty air stretched below his feet.

His face went white.

The taunting smile vanished.

He had wanted the police to think Lucian might kill him.

He hadn’t wanted to die.

“Help! Detective! Help me!”

His scream tore across the roof.

Lucian broke the finger wearing his wedding ring.

The sight struck straight through me.

That night, Julian had used the hand that put a ring on mine to break my fingers, one by one.

“Lucian!”

Hayes forced past the men at the entrance and came forward, furious and frightened.

Julian hung by one arm.

One small movement from Lucian, and he would fall.

Hayes swallowed.

“Calm down. Pull him up. We can still work this out. Otherwise, this is murder. You’ll pay for his life.”

Lucian smiled without warmth.

He looked as though the whole world could collapse and he wouldn’t care.

“You’re right. A life must be paid for.”

He looked down at Julian.

“What you owe her, I’ll collect.”

My whole spirit shuddered.

Tears blurred him.

His figure seemed to press into my eyes and cut all the way into the place where my heart should have been.

No heartbeat.

Yet there was pain.

Dull and unbearable.

He didn’t care whether anyone believed him.

Didn’t care what it cost.

He didn’t even care about his own life.

But why should he pay it?

I had owed him so much while alive.

Was he going to lose his life for me now that I was dead?

“No!”

As he reached toward Julian’s remaining hand, I threw myself forward and wrapped both arms around his waist.

“Please, Lucian. Don’t.”

My arms didn’t pass through.

They closed around him.

His narrow waist.

His warmth, even through the fabric.

I stared in astonishment.

Without expecting anything, without daring to hope, I had actually held him.