Page 94 of Captured Heart

“No,” I lie. “Just ready to move on.”

He nods, pushing off the wall. “Good. A van will pick you up in twenty minutes. Be ready.”

As the door closes behind him, I sit back on the cot, staring at the blank walls. Twenty minutes until I face Victor in court. Twenty minutes until I help tear down the empire that’s been haunting me for years.

And then, after all that, I’ll disappear. A new life. A new name. A new everything.

But no Katelyn.

It’s the right thing to do. It’s what she wanted for me. Freedom, safety, and a second chance. And I owe her that much. Hell, I owe her everything. But that doesn’t make it any easier to let her go.

MY LEGS FEEL LIKE LEADas the guard escorts me down the cold, sterile hallway toward the courtroom. Each step drags, myankles weighed down not just by the cuffs, but by the weight of what’s about to happen.

The second I step inside, the air shifts. It’s icy, hostile, thick with tension. My eyes immediately find him. Victor. He’s sitting at the defense table, his face a mask of barely contained fury. His eyes lock on me, burning with a mixture of surprise and rage. It’s not disbelief; Victor’s too smart for that. It’s something worse. Betrayal. With the exception of Bowman, I was probably the last person he ever expected to turn on him.

For a split second, doubt creeps in. I can feel his glare cutting through me, a silent promise of retaliation. My gut churns, and for a brief moment, I think about backing out. With the way Victor’s sneering at me, I might not even make it out of this courtroom alive, much less to the safe house.

But then my eyes shift, and I see her. Katie. She’s sitting in the gallery, her hands clasped tightly in her lap. Her face is calm, controlled, but I can see the strain in her posture. She’s trying so hard to keep it together, but I know her well enough to see the cracks beneath the surface. She’s terrified for me, for what this means.

And I realize, I can’t let her down. Not after everything she’s done to get me here. She pulled strings I didn’t even know existed, made deals, took risks. All to give me a chance at a life I didn’t think I deserved. She’s my salvation, and I can’t let her down.

I square my shoulders and take a deep breath as I step onto the witness stand. The bailiff approaches, holding out a Bible, and I place my hand on it.

“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”

“I do,” I say, my voice neutral even as my heart pounds like a jackhammer.

I sit down, the chair creaking slightly beneath me. The prosecution doesn’t waste a second, diving straight into the questions.

“Mr. Kazlauskas, how long have you been associated with Victor Salazar?”

“I started at seventeen...and got arrested at twenty-one, so about four years.”

“And during those four years, what was your role within his organization?”

“I started off running small errands. Moving cash, delivering messages. Later, I got pulled into thefts, robberies...some hijackings. Eventually, I was managing shipments and overseeing security for some of his operations. But shipping wasn’t my primary role.”

“What kind of shipments are we talking about?”

I shift in my seat, my eyes flicking to Victor. He’s staring me down, but I don’t flinch. “Weapons. Drugs. Sometimes other things.”

The lawyer narrows his eyes. “What do you mean byother things?”

I exhale slowly. “I suspected it might include people. Human trafficking. I saw...signs of it. Young girls loitering in the warehouse. I didn’t handle those shipments directly, so I wasn’t sure what was going on. I got arrested before I found out anything concrete. All I know is that those girls had no business being in that warehouse.”

There’s a ripple of murmurs through the courtroom, but the lawyer doesn’t let up. “So, you’re saying you had no direct involvement in the trafficking?”

“That’s right,” I confirm. “But I knew enough to know Victor was running that part of the operation, just like everything else.”

The lawyer moves on. “Let’s talk about Victor’s other crimes. How many murders are you aware of?”

My stomach twists, but I force myself to keep my composure. “Dozens. Maybe more.”

“And your involvement in these murders?”

“Victor committed most of them himself. Some he just gave orders to take them out. I helped...cover things up. Disposal of bodies, cleaning up crime scenes. I didn’t pull the trigger, but I’m not innocent.”

The lawyer nods, jotting something down before continuing. “And these bodies you disposed of? How many are we talking?”

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