"And me?"
"You weren't supposed to be part of it." His eyes fill with tears. "You were supposed to stay clean, stay out of it. But when you started working at the track, they said you could be useful. They said if I didn't use you, they'd find someone else who would."
"So you used me."
"I tried to protect you!" The words tear out of him. "I kept you away from the worst of it, gave you safe jobs, made sure you never saw anything that could get you killed."
"Except you almost did get me killed..." I step closer, and he flinches. "Or you tried to."
"I didn't know they were going to?—"
"Stop." I hold up my hand. "Just stop lying."
He looks at me for a long moment, then nods. "I knew. When they told me to give them your location, I knew what they were planning. But I thought… I thought if I warned you somehow, if I gave you a chance to run?—"
"You thought wrong."
"I know." His voice breaks completely now. "I know I did. But I was scared, Zoya. They said if I didn't cooperate, they'd kill both of us. At least this way, you had Maksim. He could protect you."
"He did protect me." I look back at Maksim, who hasn't moved from his position. "From you."
Damir's face crumples. "I never stopped loving you. Even when I was lying to you, even when I was using you, I never stopped being your brother."
"Yes, you did." My words march off my tongue in a single-file line like good soldiers going to war. I'm done being pushed around by him. "You stopped being my brother the moment you chose them over me."
He stares at me, and I see him realize that there's no coming back from this. No apology that will fix what he's broken. No explanation that will make me trust him again.
"I'm sorry," he whispers.
"I know."
He raises his gun again, but not toward me. Toward Maksim. "I can't let you take her."
"You don't have a choice."
"I'm her brother."
"And I'm her husband." Maksim's voice is ice. "Which means I'm the one who gets to decide what happens to the people who hurt her."
Damir's finger moves toward the trigger, but I'm already stepping between them. "No."
"Zoya, get back." Maksim's voice is sharp with command.
"No." I look at my brother, this broken man who used to bring me tea and promise to keep me safe. "He's not worth it."
"He tried to have you killed."
"I know." I don't take my eyes off Damir. "But I'm not going to let you kill him in front of me."
"He's Karpin," Maksim says. "He's a threat to the family. To you. And he killed Alexei."
"He's finished." I step closer to Damir, and he lowers his weapon. "Look at him. He's already dead."
It's true. Whatever fight was left in him has drained away, leaving behind a shell of the man who raised me. His face is gray, his hands shaking. He looks like he hasn't slept in days.
"You're right," he says quietly. "I am finished."
"Then walk away." I hold out my hand. "Give me the gun and walk away."
