Chapter 85 Chapter 85
Chapter 85
Nina’s POV
My heart was trying to punch its way out of my chest. Sabina’s finger still hovered near her lips, glistening with the proof of how my body had betrayed me. The words “join us willingly or we do this the hard way” hung in the air like smoke. I could not breathe. I could not move. The other girl watched from the bed with that lazy smile, and Sabina stepped closer, her naked skin still flushed and shining from everything she had just done. My mind screamed run, fight, do something, but my legs felt glued to the floor. This was it. She was going to force me now, and the boys were listening to every second of it.
Then the ceiling exploded with sound.
A high-pitched fire alarm ripped through the room, sharp and endless, like a thousand knives in my ears. At the same instant, the sprinklers overhead burst open. Water poured down in thick, angry streams, but it was not cold. It was scalding. Hot water, straight from some boiler somewhere in the house, hit my shoulders and back like boiling rain. Steam rose off the floor in white clouds. The sheets on the bed turned dark and heavy in seconds. Sabina flinched, the other girl yelped, and I heard shouts and running footsteps exploding from the hallway outside. Doors slammed. People yelled in panic. Glass broke somewhere downstairs. The whole mansion had gone mad.
The noise drilled into my skull. I could barely think past it, but I knew this was my only chance. Nikolai. Dante. Enzo. They had done this. They were coming. I had to survive until they got here.
I spun toward the nightstand while the hot water kept hammering down. My skin burned wherever it touched. Red patches bloomed across my arms and chest. I ignored the pain. My fingers closed around the black gun first, cool metal slick with spray. Then I grabbed the wallet. It slipped open in my hand and the slim black flash drive tumbled into my palm. Small. Heavy. This was what I had risked everything for. My heart hammered so hard I felt it in my teeth.
Sabina lunged for me, eyes wild now, water streaming down her face. “You little bitch—”
I raised the gun with both shaking hands and pointed it straight at her chest. Water poured into my eyes, blurring everything, but I locked my elbows and tried to look like I knew what I was doing. “Give me the drive,” I shouted over the screaming alarm. My voice cracked, but the words came out anyway. “Now.”
Sabina stopped two steps away. Hot water cascaded over her breasts and stomach. She laughed, low and ugly, pushing wet hair out of her face. “No,” she said calmly, like we were still having a conversation over whiskey. “And besides, I know you can’t shoot that thing. You weak little girl. Do you know how long I have been in this game? You think a medical student with shaking hands is going to end me? Put it down before you hurt yourself.”
Her words hit like another slap. My finger tightened on the trigger anyway. The flash drive felt slippery in my left hand. I kept staring at it, mind racing. If I ran now, could I make it to the door? Would the boys hear the gunshot and know exactly where to find me? The hot water kept burning my shoulders, turning my skin bright red. Steam filled the room so thick it looked like fog. I took one sideways step toward the edge of the room, trying to put the bed between us, still pointing the gun.
“Someone should turn this shit off!” I screamed at no one, voice raw. The words tore out of me as another wave of scalding water hit my neck. It felt like fire ants crawling over every inch of exposed skin. My heels slipped on the wet floor. I almost fell but caught myself against the wall. The alarm would not stop. It drilled deeper into my head with every second. Outside, I heard more chaos—men shouting orders, footsteps thundering past the door, something heavy crashing downstairs. The virus the boys had triggered was working. Lights flickered. Somewhere a window shattered.
Sabina took another step forward, completely unbothered by the burning water running down her body. “You are out of your depth, kitten. Hand it over and maybe I will let you walk out of here alive.”
I could not look away from the flash drive. It was so small. This tiny black rectangle could be the thing that saved my father, or ruined him, or ended everything. My mind spun with every possibility. What if I dropped it and it broke? What if I gave it back and she killed me anyway? What if the boys burst in right now and saw me holding a gun like some criminal?
I never saw the other girl move.
She came from the side, fast and silent on the wet floor. One second she was still on the soaked bed, the next her wet body slammed into mine from behind. Her arms locked around my waist, trying to rip the gun away. Her nails dug into my skin. I felt her breasts press against my back, slippery with water and sweat. Panic exploded in my chest. I twisted, elbow flying back on instinct. The gun jerked in my hands.
I pulled the trigger.
The sound cracked through the room, louder than the alarm for one terrible second. The recoil kicked my arms up. Smoke and the smell of gunpowder cut through the steam. The other girl screamed—a high, broken sound that cut off almost immediately. She stumbled backward, hands clutching her side. Bright red blood mixed with the hot water pouring from the ceiling. It ran down her thigh in thick streams, pooling on the floor in pink swirls. She hit the bed and slid down, eyes wide with shock, mouth open but no more sound coming out.
Everything froze except the water and the alarm.
I stared at her. At the blood. At the way her chest still rose and fell in shallow gasps. My hands shook so hard the gun almost fell. The flash drive was still gripped tight in my other fist, edges cutting into my palm.
“Did I just become a murderer?” I whispered. My voice shook like the rest of me. The words barely made it past my lips, drowned by the alarm and the endless hiss of hot water raining down around us.