Page 122 of Blood Code

“Why am I a traitor, Ghost?” he asked. “Do I know you?”

Yes.

But my lips remained sealed. I swallowed the truth because it was more dangerous than any lie I could ever tell. So silence stretched between us until I reached for the one truth I could say aloud.

“You betrayed your girlfriend.”

“Delilah?” Confusion crossed his face.

“No, Xeniya,” I snarled.

He sucked in an audible breath. “Xeniya?”

His confusion deepened, and those cerulean-blue eyes darkened, and his fingers tightened around the armrests.

“I would never betray Xeniya,” he said through gritted teeth.

“You sold her to the Order.”

“I loved her more than anything I’ve ever known. I’ve been obsessed with her since I was nine, and I will be obsessed with her until the day I die.”

My chin trembled. I didn’t want to hear another word. Nothing he said was true because every word from his mouth was a beautiful lie.

“You sold her to a trafficking cult to be raped and murdered,” I snarled.

“No,” he breathed. “She died in an explosion at the Orpheus restaurant with my Uncle Viktor. She died, and I never got to take it all back.”

“All?” I asked, trying to keep him talking.

“I’d hurt her. I tried to break up with her by telling her that I never wanted her. I forced her to leave to protect her. But it didn’t matter. She went to a restaurant with my uncle and was killed by the Caruso family in an explosion, and I never got to take it all back—to explain.”

“None of that is true.” I pressed the blade harder against his throat.

“All of it is true. I have the video evidence. She exploded, and we found her DNA to prove it.” His eyes flicked toward the laptop, still open on his desk, its screen dark from inactivity. “Press play if you don’t believe me.”

“No.” I shook my head, my voice wavering.

His throat bobbed. “Press play. I was about to watch it again.”

My chin quivered, my teeth chattering with the movement. I reached across the desk, turned the laptop toward me, and pressed Enter. The screen flickered to life, revealing a video waiting to be played.

For a moment, I looked back at Severin.

He nodded. “Do it. I’m not lying.”

I pressed Enter again, and the video began playing without sound.

Viktor Volkov and I sat together at the Orpheus, a fancy restaurant he owned. I slipped a USB stick from my pocket and slid it across the table to him. Although there was no sound, I remembered exactly what I’d said. “I found this. You were right. Members of the Russian mafia are involved in human trafficking again. Something called the Order.”

No one watching could have heard those words, and the angle made reading my lips impossible. The camera caught me mostly in profile.

Viktor nodded. “As I thought.”

A flash of light exploded between us, tearing the table into pieces and spreading out, ripping through everything it touched. Human flesh turned into red mist in a moment. The camera shook and then went black.

It all happened in a moment.

When the video came back on, all that remained was destruction and a sea of crimson.