Page 81 of Final Vendetta

But when I peered into his eyes, the realization hit me, the breath whooshing out of my lungs.

Liam.

He looked like a ghost of himself — pale, trembling, his eyes darting around the room like a trapped animal. For a second, I thought I might be hallucinating. But it was him. The man who’d betrayed me. The man who’d wanted me dead.

The man I’d sworn to destroy.

I should have known Myers would do something like this. Hell, he’d probably had Liam for months. Probably knew where he was all along. Hell,heprobably planted those photos at Imogene’s house and staged the break-in for some reason I couldn’t even begin to fathom. Was he responsible for what happened to Ollie, too?

I wanted to kick myself for not realizing it all sooner. I’d been so intent on blaming Liam that I refused to consider it could be anyone else.

Now I feared Imogene would pay for my mistake.

We all would.

Liam’s gaze locked onto mine, and the terror within was unmistakable. He knew where he was and what was expected of him.

He took another shaky step forward, his movements jerky, as though his legs were on autopilot while his mind screamed at him to run.

I’d imagined this moment a thousand times — his face bloodied, his body broken, his cries for mercy falling on deafears. I’d dreamed of it, planned for it, savored the thought of making him feel even a fraction of what I’d endured because of him.

Now here he was, trembling, vulnerable, and looking at me like I held his life in his hands.

But this?

This wasn’t the Liam I’d envisioned.

This wasn’t the smug, self-assured bastard who’d laughed with me over beers while secretly planning to kill me.

This was a broken man.

“Surprise,” Myers drawled, his grin widening. “You wanted revenge, didn’t you? Well, I’m giving it to you. On a silver platter.”

Liam’s eyes darted to the cage, then back at me, panic bleeding into his expression.

The guard shoved him inside and he fell to his knees, only to be yanked back up. Meeting my gaze, his lips moved silently, forming a word or maybe a plea, but no sound came out.

As I watched him, a feeling I never expected washed over me.

Pity.

It burned in my chest, a reminder of the man I used to be. The man who believed in fairness, in justice, in humanity.

Before my business partner left me for dead.

And yet, as I looked at Liam, trembling and terrified, I couldn’t help but see a reflection of the man I was when I was thrown into this cage for the first time. The fear. The desperation. The crushing realization that there was only one way to survive.

I didn’t want to feel this. Didn’t want to see myself in him.

“This is what you’ve been waiting for, isn’t it?” Myers said, circling the cage like a predator. “Poetic justice. You, the avenging angel. Him, the traitor who wanted you dead. Andher…” He nodded toward Imogene, who was staring at us, wide-eyed and silent. “The woman who started it all.”

My hands balled into fists, jaw clenched. I didn’t want to play his sick game anymore. I didn’t want to be his puppet, dancing to the tune of his twisted fantasies.

But what choice did I have?

“The rules are simple,” Myers said, his voice slicing through my thoughts like a death knell. “There are no rules. The match ends when one of you is dead.”

A choked sob echoed in the room, and I pulled my attention away from Liam, meeting Imogene’s tear-stained eyes.

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