Chapter 20: The Breaking Point
Jane drove her elbow into Marcus’s face with bone-crunching force. He staggered backward, blood spraying from his nose, but he retained his grip on the weapon. He fired again. The bullet clipped Jane’s shoulder, spinning her around.
White-hot pain flared, but the monster inside her—the cold, dead thing she had nurtured since the pier—took over. She didn't feel the pain. She felt rage.
She lunged, tackling Marcus to the hard floor. They grappled in a vicious, animalistic struggle. Marcus was stronger, but Jane was desperate and entirely unhinged. She clawed at his eyes, fighting for survival. Marcus managed to pin her down, bringing the gun to her forehead.
"Goodbye, Jane," he snarled.
Jane slipped her hand down to her thigh, grabbed the last ceramic throwing knife, and drove it upward, burying it deep into the soft tissue under Marcus’s jaw.
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Marcus’s eyes widened in shock. The gun dropped from his limp fingers. He gurgled, blood spilling from his mouth over Jane’s face, and collapsed dead on top of her.
Jane shoved his heavy corpse off, gasping for air. She clutched her bleeding shoulder, grabbed the decrypted drive, and stumbled out of the vault.
