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I can’t answer. I can barely breathe. Ethan is down, the agency team is nowhere to be seen, and I’m still tied to this pipe with no way out.

This is it. This is how it ends.

Callum turns to me, and his smile is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. “Now then,” he says. “Where were we?”

He raises his hand, and I know the next blow is coming. I close my eyes and wait for the pain.

It doesn’t come.

Instead, there’s a sound—a crash, followed by shouting and more gunfire. I open my eyes and see a figure striding through the chaos, and my heart stops.

It’s Maxim.

He looks like death. There’s blood on his face and his clothes, and he’s moving with a limp that suggests an injury to his leg. But his eyes are fixed on Callum with a fury so intense it seems to burn the air between them.

“Get away from her,” he says, his voice quiet, but carrying across the room like a thunderclap.

Callum laughs. “Look who finally showed up. I was starting to think you didn’t care.”

What follows is the most violent thing I’ve ever witnessed. Maxim fights like a man possessed, taking down Callum’s men one after another with a brutality that makes my blood run cold. He doesn’t hesitate, doesn’t show mercy, doesn’t stop until every man between him and Callum is on the ground.

Then they’re facing each other.

“You should have stayed dead,” Maxim says.

“You should have made sure of that,” Callum replies.

They clash, and it’s like watching two forces of nature collide. Callum is faster than I expected, and he fights dirty, using every trick in the book to gain an advantage.

Maxim is relentless. He takes hit after hit, bleeding from wounds I can’t even count, and he keeps coming.

At one point, Callum gets his hands on a knife and slashes at Maxim’s side. Maxim staggers, and I see red blooming across his shirt. He doesn’t go down. Instead, he grabs Callum’s arm and twists until something snaps, and Callum screams.

It’s over quickly after that. Maxim pins Callum to the floor, his knee on the other man’s chest, his hand around his throat.

“This is for her,” he says, and then he does something that makes Callum stop moving entirely.

I think I’m going to be sick.

Maxim stands, and Callum doesn’t move again.

The room is silent except for my own ragged breathing. Maxim turns to me, and for a moment he just stands there, looking at me with those pale blue eyes that have haunted my dreams since the day I first saw them.

Then he crosses the room in three strides and cuts through the rest of my ropes.

“Are you hurt?” he asks, his hands gentle on my face as he examines my injuries.

I can’t answer. I’m shaking too hard. All I can do is nod, and then I’m crying, great heaving sobs that seem to come from somewhere deep inside me.

He pulls me against his chest, and I can feel his heart pounding beneath my cheek. “I’ve got you,” he murmurs. “You’re safe now. I’ve got you.”

Behind us, Ethan is struggling to his feet, one arm wrapped around his ribs. “Is he—” He looks at Callum’s body and winces. “I’ll call it in. He’ll be arrested, assuming he’s still alive.”

Maxim doesn’t respond. He’s still holding me, his hand stroking my hair. Then his legs buckle.

I catch him, or try to, but he’s too heavy and we both go down. He’s lying on the floor now, his eyes half closed, blood seeping from too many wounds to count.

“Maxim!” I shake his shoulder. “Maxim, stay with me!”