Chapter 21: Almost Human

Selena's POV

The gunshot echoed through the panic room like thunder.

Morrison stumbled backward, clutching his shoulder. Blood seeped between his fingers.

"Impossible," he gasped. "You only had six bullets!"

David stepped out of the shadows, smoking gun in his hand. "I've been saving this one for you."

But more men poured through the hole in the wall. Too many to count.

"Get down!" David shoved Selena behind a shelf of supplies.

Bullets flew everywhere. The small room became a war zone. David moved like a ghost, taking down attacker after attacker. But there were too many.

"David!" Selena screamed as a bullet grazed his arm.

"Stay down!"

Then, suddenly, the shooting stopped.

Morrison's men were all down. David stood in the middle of the room, breathing hard. Blood dripped from cuts on his face and arms.

"Is it over?" Selena whispered.

"For now."

Morrison was gone. He must have crawled back through the hole while his men were fighting.

David slumped against the wall, exhausted. The fight had taken everything out of him.

"You're hurt," Selena said.

"I'm alive. That's what matters."

She helped him sit down and started checking his wounds. Nothing too serious, but he was shaking.

"David, how did you do that? Fight all those men?"

"Training."

"No, it's more than that. You fought like... like you were protecting the most important thing in the world."

David looked at her with tired eyes. "Maybe I was."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. The panic room felt different now. Not like a prison. Like a shelter.

"Tell me something," Selena said.

"What?"

"Something real. Something that makes you human."

"I am human."

"Are you? Sometimes I wonder."

David was quiet for a long time. Outside, they could hear Morrison's remaining men searching the house. But the panic room was sealed again. They were safe.

"You want to know what makes me human?" David asked.

"Yes."

"The nightmares."

"About my mother?"

"About my first kill."

Selena felt her heart stop. "Your first kill?"

David nodded. "I was seventeen. Just a kid from a bad neighborhood. My mom was sick. Cancer, like me. We needed money for her treatment."

"What did you do?"

"A man approached me. Said he'd pay me ten thousand dollars to kill someone. A rival gang member who was causing problems."

"Did you do it?"

"I took the job. Thought it would be easy. Point, shoot, walk away."

David's hands were shaking again. Not from fear this time. From memory.

"What happened?"

"I followed the target for three days. Learned his routine. He worked at a grocery store during the day. Went to night school to become a teacher."

"He was trying to better himself."

"Yeah. And he had a little sister. Maybe eight years old. She would wait for him after school every day."

Selena could see the pain in David's eyes. Even fifteen years later, it still hurt him.

"The day I was supposed to kill him, I watched him help an old lady carry her groceries to her car. Then he bought ice cream for his sister."

"You couldn't do it."

"I tried to. I followed him to a parking garage that night. Had my gun ready. He was walking to his car, completely unaware."

"But?"

"He dropped his wallet. When he bent down to pick it up, a picture fell out. His sister, smiling at the camera. She was missing her front teeth."

David's voice broke a little.

"That's when I realized what I was about to do. I wasn't killing a gang member. I was killing a brother. A son. Someone's whole world."

"So you didn't shoot?"

"I put the gun away and walked home."

"What about the money? Your mother's treatment?"

"The man who hired me was furious. He said if I didn't complete the job, he'd kill my mother instead."

Selena's heart clenched. "What did you do?"

"I went back the next night. Found the target in the same parking garage."

"And?"

"And I shot him."

The words hung in the air like poison.

"But you didn't want to."

"No. I threw up afterward. Cried like a baby. But my mother got her treatment."

"Did it save her?"

David shook his head. "She died six months later anyway. The cancer was too advanced."

"So you killed someone for nothing."

"I killed someone to buy my mother six more months of life. Was it worth it? I don't know. But I'd probably do it again."

They sat in silence. Selena tried to imagine seventeen-year-old David, desperate and scared, making an impossible choice.

"That's what makes me human," David said. "The guilt. The regret. The knowledge that I destroyed someone's life to save someone I loved."

"Is that why you became Rook? To punish yourself?"

"I became Rook because after that first kill, I realized I was good at it. And if I was going to be a killer anyway, I might as well get paid for it."

"But you hate it."

"Every single time."

"Then why keep doing it?"

David looked at her. "Because sometimes the person you're protecting is worth more than the person you have to kill."

"Like me?"

"Like you."

Selena felt tears in her eyes. "David, you're not a monster."

"Aren't I?"

"Monsters don't feel guilty. Monsters don't cry after their first kill. Monsters don't risk their lives to save people they care about."

"Maybe I'm just broken."

"We're all broken. That's what makes us human."

David smiled for the first time in days. A real smile.

"When did you get so wise?"

"When I fell in love with a dying assassin."

The moment was broken by a loud bang on the panic room door.

"Selena!" a voice called out. "It's me!"

Her father's voice.

"Dad?" She ran to the door. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, sweetheart. Morrison's men are gone. You can come out now."

David checked his watch. "The twelve-hour lock should be up in a few minutes."

"Dad, how did you escape?"

"Someone helped me."

"Who?"

"Open the door and see."

The locks clicked. The door swung open.

Enzo stood there, bruised but alive. And next to him...

Selena's mother.

Maria Rossi looked exactly like she had at the pier. But her eyes were different. Softer.

"Hello, sweetheart," she said.

"Mom? But I thought... Morrison said you were working with him."

"I was. Until I realized what he really planned to do to you."

"What do you mean?"

"Morrison lied to me. He said he just wanted to fake your death and put you in witness protection. Keep you safe while I finished my mission."

"But?"

"But he really planned to kill you. Tonight. In this room."

David stepped forward, gun ready. "How do we know you're telling the truth?"

Maria pulled out a recording device. "Because I have his confession right here."

She pressed play.

Morrison's voice filled the room: "The Rossi girl has to die. She knows too much. And she's too dangerous to let live."

"But you said—" Maria's voice on the recording.

"I said what you needed to hear. The girl dies tonight. Then you disappear forever."

Maria stopped the recording. "That's when I knew I had to choose between my mission and my daughter."

"And you chose me?"

"I chose family."

Selena felt her world spinning. Her mother was alive. Her father was safe. Morrison was gone.

But something felt wrong.

"Mom, where is Morrison now?"

"He escaped during the fight."

"So he's still out there."

"Yes. But we have bigger problems."

"What problems?"

Maria and Enzo exchanged a look.

"Sweetheart," her mother said, "Morrison wasn't working alone. He has a partner. Someone who's been planning this for years."

"Who?"

"Someone you trust. Someone who's been close to the family all along."

Selena's blood went cold. "Who, Mom?"

Before Maria could answer, David collapsed.

He hit the floor hard, unconscious. Blood pooled beneath him.

"David!" Selena dropped to her knees beside him.

That's when she saw it. A small dart sticking out of his neck.

"What happened to him?" she demanded.

Maria held up a dart gun. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. But he's the partner."

"What?"

"David has been working with Morrison all along. Everything that happened - the attacks, the escapes, the romance - it was all part of the plan."

"You're lying!"

"I wish I was."

Enzo knelt beside his daughter. "Selena, I know this is hard to believe. But we have proof."

"What proof?"

Maria pulled out a file folder. "Bank records. David has been receiving payments from Morrison for three years. Ever since he supposedly quit working for our family."

Selena's world shattered.

"No. David saved my life. Multiple times."

"To maintain his cover. To keep you trusting him."

"But he told me about his first kill. About his guilt. About his feelings."

"All lies."

Selena looked down at David's unconscious face. The man she had fallen in love with. The man she thought she knew.

"Wake up," she whispered. "Wake up and tell them they're wrong."

But David didn't wake up.

And in his jacket pocket, Selena found something that made her heart stop.

A cell phone. With dozens of text messages from Morrison.

Mission almost complete.

The girl trusts you completely.

Prepare for final phase.

The last message was sent ten minutes ago:

She said she loves you. Perfect. Kill her tonight.