Damien’s POV
I got to the club and found a few of the staff still around, asked them about Alex.
Fortunately, someone knew where he lived, and gave me enough to go on. I drove to his place alone, no driver. I couldn’t drag anyone else into this.. not without knowing what I was walking into.
I’d already told the driver to call the police the second anything felt wrong, just in case.
I just hope that wherever Cassie was she’s safe.
I walked up to his apartment and the door was already unlocked, hanging slightly open like someone had forced it. I pushed inside. Empty. Nothing but silence.
I searched room by room until I found a door standing wide open im one of the rooms. I stepped through it into near-total darkness. Creepy didn’t even begin to cover it.
What kind of person lives like this?
I moved further in and saw photographs — dozens of them, covering an entire wall. Him and Kate, over and over, every frame more unsettling than the last.
Obsessed motherfucker.
Then I saw it.. a massive painting of Cassie, rendered like some kind of villain, twisted and exaggerated. Part of me almost wanted to laugh at how absurd it looked. The other part of me understood exactly how dangerous this man actually was, and how little safety Cassie had ever had around him.
I spotted someone tied to a chair in the corner — not Cassie, but close enough in the dark that my heart stopped for a second before I got close enough to see clearly. I rushed over and tore the tape from her mouth.
"Cassie — Cassie!" she screamed immediately.
"Where is she? Tell me where she is."
"He took her to the roof. Please, hurry. He’s going to kill her."
I bolted for the stairs, taking them two at a time, my chest pounding harder with every step.
Please don’t let me be too late. I prayed silently.
Cassie’s POV
If I’d ever imagined how I might die, I always assumed it would be my father. My oldest, most obvious enemy. Not some obsessed, delusional stranger standing over me on a rooftop.
I shut my eyes. This was it. My only real hope left was that he wouldn’t hurt Kate once I was gone.
"I hope you’ve made your peace. Said whatever prayers you needed to say."
I kept my eyes closed. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of watching my face when he finally pushed me.
"Cassie." A voice cut through the wind. Not Alex. Not Kate either. A man’s voice — and for one absurd second I wondered if it was some kind of angel, come to collect me.
"Who the fuck are you?" Alex snapped, spinning around.
I opened my eyes and saw him. Mr. Blackwood. Damien. Sprinting toward us, already shouting something that sounded like "No—"
What is he doing here? How did he even find me? A dozen questions collided at once, none of them answerable.
"I said, who are you?" Alex screamed again, snatching a metal rod off the ground.
"Watch out!" I shouted, but Damien had already seen it coming — he dodged, swept a leg under Alex, and sent him crashing to the concrete.
"Why are you going through this stress to rescue her?" Alex spat, blood already dripping from his split lip. "She’s nobody to you."
Damien didn’t answer. He grabbed Alex by the collar instead and hit him. Again. And again.
"Stop — please, stop, before you kill him!" I didn’t want that on him. Not because of me.
"Please."
He looked over at me, and slowly, deliberately, loosened his grip.
Alex coughed, gasping for air, as Damien crossed the roof toward me instead. He worked fast, untying my wrists, moving down to my ankles next — and that’s when Alex fired a shot into the air.
"Stop!" he screamed.
I froze completely. What happens if Damien dies because of me?
"Alex, please — don’t shoot. It’s me you want. I’ll come to you, just leave him out of this." My voice cracked on every word.
Alex laughed, spitting more blood onto the rooftop. "Who exactly are you to be giving orders here?"
"Please," I begged. "I’ll do anything. Just don’t shoot him."
"You." He jabbed the gun toward Damien. "Step back."
Damien didn’t move, jaw locked, clearly unwilling.
"Please, sir. Step back. I’ll be fine." I said it as steadily as I could manage, even though I had no idea if it was even close to true.
Somehow, he listened. Stepped back with both hands raised, eyes never leaving Alex.
"Jump." Alex screamed. "Jump off this roof, and I’ll let him walk out of here alive."
Tears burned down my face immediately.
"Jump, or I shoot both of you right now." His voice had gone somewhere past anger, somewhere flatter and colder.
I looked over the edge. Heights had always terrified me, and this — this was so far down there was no version where I survived hitting that ground.
There was no real choice left. Either I jumped, or we both died up here, and there was absolutely no version of this where I let Damien die because of me.
"I’ll count to one. If you’re still standing here, I kill you both."
"Five."
I looked at Damien, who was already mouthing something — you don’t have to do this.
"I’m sorry," I said. "I won’t be able to live with myself if you died because of me."
"Four."
"No, Cassie. There has to be another way."
"There isn’t. It was nice knowing you." A broken little laugh escaped me. "Working for you though — not so much."
"Three."
"Goodbye, sir."
"Cassie — don’t."
"Two." Alex was laughing now, actually enjoying this. "I didn’t think today could get any better than this."
God, please help me.
"On—"
I was already leaning forward when I heard Kate’s voice cut through everything.
"Baby." She was shouting, running toward us. "Please, come back to me. I’m so sorry for leaving — but it was never Cassie’s fault."
Something in his face shifted instantly, softening in a way I’d never seen from him.
"Why are you here?" he asked, voice suddenly unsteady.
"None of that matters. All that matters is I’m here with you now."
"But I have to. I have to get rid of them so we can finally be happy."
"You don’t have to kill anyone." She kept walking, slow and careful, closing the distance between them. "We can start over. I’ll cut her out completely, I understand now, I do."
He slowly lowered the gun, his whole focus narrowing to her while Damien crept up quietly behind him, unnoticed.
"We could go to Tokyo. Leave all of this behind us. You’ve always loved Tokyo."
"Yes," she said, though her voice trembled hard enough that I could see the fear behind every word.
"No — no, wait. I remember you telling me you hated Tokyo. What was that other place you liked?" He frowned, trying to recall.
"Baby, it doesn’t matter where. Home is wherever you are." She was close enough to touch him now.
"Forget Cassie. I wasn’t really going to kill her, you know. Just wanted to scare her a little." He paused, watching her face. "Am I forgiven?"
"...Yes, baby. You’re forgiven."
He smiled, reaching to pull her into a hug — and she flinched, instinctively, bracing for a gunshot instead.
His whole expression collapsed. "You haven’t forgiven me." His voice dropped low. "You’re actually afraid of me."
"Do I look like a monster to you?" he shouted, snapping the gun back up, aimed at her now.
"This is all your fa—" As his eyes started drifting back toward me, Kate moved fast, knocking the gun clean out of his hand, sending it skidding toward Damien.
Alex lunged after it. Damien lunged too. They collided, grappling over the weapon on the rooftop floor — and then, without warning, a gunshot cracked through the air.
Everything went silent.
I stared, frozen, watching blood spread across the concrete.
"No—" I screamed, tears already streaming down my face before I even understood what I was looking at.