My eyes find Sam's again. He hasn't moved, hasn't holstered his gun. But there's something in his gaze now---not quite sympathy, but understanding. He knows exactly what it's like to have love turned into a weapon.
"You have a choice," I tell her softly. "Right here, right now. You can be more than what Ilya made you."
For a heartbeat that stretches into eternity, the bathroom fills with the sound of Katerina's ragged breathing and the echo of Ilya's curses from the hall.
And for that heartbeat, I feel like we're all going to make it.
She's going to drop the gun. Going to surrender. Going to make the right decision for once and---
Then she wrenches me closer and jams the gun into my belly. Her finger goes to the trigger.
Men shout.
Things move.
Then the shot rings out before I can
