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My hand clenches tighter in the towel around my body.

Brynn.

Her name doesn’t feel like a name anymore.

It feels like a wound being reopened with dirty hands.

Noir’s eyes stay on mine as he speaks, and that almost makes it worse. Like he wants me to hear every word. Like he wants the truth to hurt exactly right.

“I loved her more than anything in this miserable fucking city.” His voice is quiet, but steady. “She was smart. Reckless, yeah, but smart. She saw things other people ignored. She knew how dirty Severance Point really was before any of you wanted to admit it.”

Dagger’s jaw flexes.

“Don’t.”

Noir looks at him then.

“She wanted out.”

Those three words hit harder than they should.

Because Mina said that too.

Brynn wanted me gone.

Brynn wanted out.

And I was too caught up in missing her, resenting her, trying to understand why she kept slipping away from me, to realize she’d been trying to claw her way out of something bigger than either of us.

“She wanted out,” Noir repeats, voice sharpening. “But she couldn’t get clean enough to run because you kept feeding her just enough to keep her close.”

Dagger’s face goes completely still.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“No.” Dagger shakes his head once. “I didn’t get her hooked.”

Noir smiles with his teeth now.

“Of course you didn’t. You never do anything bad if you can dress it up as protection, right?”

Dagger moves like he’s going to hit him again, but Noir keeps talking, louder now, crueler.

“You gave her the drugs. You made sure she knew where to find more. You liked her wild. You liked her easy to manage. Then when she got too messy, when she started owing the wrong people, when she started becoming inconvenient, you cut her off and called it helping.”

Dagger’s face twists.

“I tried to save her.”

“You pushed her straight to Dante.”

Silence slams down.

My stomach drops.

Dante.