Page 134 of Inked Athena

Katerina’s arm snakes around my throat as she drags me backward until we collide with the rear wall.

“Stay back!” Her scream hits a pitch that makes my ears ring. The gun digs deeper into my temple, cold metal kissing bone.

Through the bathroom door, chaos erupts in the main hall. Ilya’s voice carries over the mayhem—no longer the triumphant boom we first heard. He’s spewing Russian curses now, each word more venomous than the last. The sound of his world crashing down.

Katerina’s breath comes in ragged gasps against my ear. All traces of perfume are gone. There’s only the acrid scent of fear-sweat. The arm around my neck trembles.

“You don’t understand,” she murmurs, though I’m not sure if she’s talking to Sam or herself. “Wewere the ones who had it all planned. Every detail. The funeral was supposed to be your ending, not ours.”

Sam takes one deliberate step forward. “You still think you know me, Kat?” His voice drops to that dangerous velvet that sets my skin on fire. “After all this time, you still haven’t learned?”

The gun at my temple wavers as Katerina processes the truth: she never really knew him at all.

Her desperation rolls off her in waves. The same turbulent terror that clings to abused dogs when they’re cornered. Ready to bite because they see no other choice.

I’m not out of the woods just yet.

I meet Sam’s eyes over the wall of tactical gear between us. His finger hasn’t moved from the trigger, but something in his expression shifts when I give him the tiniest shake of my head.

“You don’t have to do this, Katerina,” I say quietly. “There are other ways out.”

Her laugh is like stones crumbling. “You think I have options? I never had fuckingoptions.Ilya made sure of that. The moment I agreed to his plan, he owned me. Every move, every breath—” Her voice quivers. “He used me, just like your precious Samuil did.”

“The FBI can protect you,” I murmur. “You could start over, build something real?—”

“Shut up!” But there’s a frantic edge to her command now. “You don’t understand what it’s like to lose everything.”

“Don’t I?” I think of my father, my brothers. The family I lost to corruption and greed. “Sometimes, losing everything is how you find what really matters.”

The raw anguish in Katerina’s face is jarring. For the first time since I’ve known her, the polished mask slips completely.

“I loved him,” she spits out, and her grip on me loosens just enough that I can finally take a full breath.

I frown. “Sam?—?”

“No,” she snaps. “Not Samuil—never Samuil. Ilya. Since we were young, I loved him.”

Through the bathroom door, the agent’s voice rings clear as he reads Ilya his rights. The charges roll off his tongue like a grocery list: racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder, money laundering, trafficking. Each one drives Katerina’s nails deeper into my shoulder.

“I thought, once we took power, we’d finally be together.” She sniffles and hiccups. “But he lied. Didn’t even tell me he was making this move. I was just another pawn.”

The gun slips a fraction lower. I scoot a fraction farther.

My eyes find Sam’s again. He hasn’t moved, hasn’t holstered his gun. But there’s something in his gaze now—not quite sympathy, but understanding. He knows exactly what it’s like to have love turned into a weapon.

“You have a choice,” I tell her softly. “Right here, right now. You can be more than what Ilya made you.”

For a heartbeat that stretches into eternity, the bathroom fills with the sound of Katerina’s ragged breathing and the echo of Ilya’s curses from the hall.

And for that heartbeat, I feel like we’re all going to make it.

She’s going to drop the gun. Going to surrender. Going to make the right decision for once and?—

Then she wrenches me closer and jams the gun into my belly. Her finger goes to the trigger.

Men shout.

Things move.

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