The rain drummed softly against the glass roof.
Jane stood motionless, her hand still resting in Hawk’s.
She realized what she was doing and quickly pulled away.
“I’m sorry…”
Her voice was barely audible.
Hawk frowned.
“You don’t have to apologize.”
Jane lowered her eyes.
“I do.”
“For everything.”
A strange sadness settled over Hawk.
“You keep apologizing for things that aren’t your fault.”
Jane let out a bitter laugh.
“You don’t know what I’ve done.”
“No.”
“I don’t.”
“But I know fear when I see it.”
Jane stiffened.
She instinctively glanced toward the entrance of the greenhouse, as if expecting Victor to appear at any second.
That single movement told Hawk more than words ever could.
She wasn’t worried about being caught.
She was terrified.
“You’ve always been afraid of him.”
Jane remained silent.
“I’ve seen victims before,” Hawk continued quietly.
“They all look over their shoulder before they speak.”
Jane’s eyes filled with tears.
“He bought me.”
Hawk froze.
She didn’t say it dramatically.
She said it like someone stating the weather.
“I wasn’t a wife.”
“I was a transaction.”
For the first time since entering Victor’s world…
Hawk felt his hatred hesitate.
This wasn’t the woman he’d imagined.
This wasn’t the cold-hearted killer who had taken his brother away.
This was someone who had never truly belonged to herself.
“Why are you telling me this?” Hawk asked.
Jane looked at him for a long moment.
“Because…”
She struggled to find the words.
“When I’m with you…”
“I don’t feel like someone’s property.”
Silence settled between them.
Neither of them noticed the soft hum coming from somewhere beneath the greenhouse floor.
Miles away, inside Victor’s private laboratory…
A monitor blinked.
A technician looked toward Victor.
“The biometric readings are changing.”
Victor studied the screen.
Jane’s pulse.
Her stress levels.
The trace compounds of the experimental drug still lingering in her bloodstream.
“So…”
Victor murmured.
“The medicine is weakening.”
He smiled faintly.
“Interesting.”
Back in the greenhouse…
Hawk noticed a small scar behind Jane’s ear.
“What happened?”
Jane instinctively covered it.
“I…”
Her expression became distant.
“I don’t remember.”
Fragments flashed through her mind.
A bright operating light.
A needle.
Victor’s voice.
“You’ll forget. It’s easier this way.”
Jane suddenly staggered.
Hawk caught her before she hit the ground.
“Jane!”
She grabbed his sleeve, panic in her eyes.
“I keep having dreams…”
“There are flashes…”
“A gun…”
“A man falling…”
“And every time…”
She began to shake.
“There’s blood on my hands.”
Hawk’s breathing stopped.
His brother.
He saw the memory he’d carried for years.
A woman raising a pistol.
A single gunshot.
The face hidden by smoke.
Could it…
No.
He pushed the thought away.
Not yet.
He couldn’t allow himself to believe it.
Not until he knew the truth.