CHAPTER 91

CHAPTER 92
Chapter 92:
Kane’s POV
My finger hovered over the trigger.
It would’ve been easy.
One breath. One squeeze. End it.
Reynolds smiled up at me like a man who had already made peace with hell.
"Do it," he whispered. "Be the monster they say you are."
The words stung.
Not because they weren’t true.
But because once, I was the boy begging this man to be my father.
I lowered the gun.
Kelly’s eyes widened. “Kane—”
“No,” I said quietly. “That’s what he wants. An ending he controls.”
Reynolds’ grin faltered.
I stepped back. “You don’t get that.”
“You think sparing me makes you better?” he sneered.
“No,” I said. “It makes me free.”
Kelly was breathing hard beside me, hands shaking. The fury in his face made him look younger—like the boy I failed to protect.
“I burned that lab down because of him,” Kelly said, voice trembling. “I have scars I don’t even remember getting because of him. And now you want to walk away?”
“No,” I said, locking eyes with him. “I want you to walk forward.”
His jaw clenched. His gun didn’t lower.
But he didn’t shoot.
Reynolds’ laughter broke the silence.
“God,” he hissed, “you’re both still such children. Weak. Predictable. You know this doesn't end unless I say it does!”
He lunged toward the detonator.
I saw the flash of movement too late….
Bang.
Kelly’s shot rang out like thunder in a coffin.
Reynolds staggered back, blood blooming across his chest like red ink in water.
He dropped to his knees, eyes wide with shock.
“You don’t get to say how this ends,” Kelly said coldly, stepping forward. “Not anymore.”
Reynolds gasped, fingers twitching toward the button—reflex or spite, I didn’t know.
I crushed his hand beneath my boot.
He screamed, but I didn’t move.
“I won’t let you take anything else from us,” I whispered.
He collapsed back, breath rattling in his chest. “You… think… you’ve won…”
“No,” Kelly muttered. “We survived.”
Reynolds coughed one last time.
Then went still.
We stood in silence, the three of us—except now there were only two.
The wind blew ash across the concrete floor.
The detonator blinked once… then died.
Kelly looked at me, eyes damp.
“I didn’t shoot for revenge,” he whispered.
“I know.”
“I shot because if he lived, he’d just keep coming.”
I nodded.
We didn’t speak after that.
We just stood there a little longer… like we were giving space to the dead.
Then, together, we walked out of the lair.
The sky outside was beginning to turn a soft grey.
The kind of sky that made you believe, just maybe, you could start over.