A metallic click stopped me cold in my tracks. I could pick out that sound anywhere, and part of me only hoped I could say one last word before they pulled the trigger.

My hands crept up beside my head, raised in surrender. If I could just convince them I wasn't who they thought I was.

“Who are you?” A silky voice asked behind me. A voice that I had come to memorize, to hear in my dreams, a voice I had come to love more than anything.

I turned on the balls of my feet, careful not to move too fast and risk her pulling that trigger. Though part of me was grateful it was she who held me at gunpoint, another side of me broke. Knowing that because it was she who stood here in front of me, I might live. But in return, I might break her.

But when I turned I didn't see who I had expected. The Ghost stood behind me, dressed in her typical disguise of tight black leather and a matching mask covering her face. With her hood up, I understand why I never recognized her. I had been so close so many times, but now that I had fallen in love with these crystal blue eyes, I would never forget them.

“Don't,” I whispered. My eyes pleaded with her to spare me just long enough to beg for my life.

“I can't. You've been so close to bringing me down, I can't let you leave here.” Her jaw flexed, and her frame was unmoving. But her eyes were filled with sadness, regret, she didn't want to shoot me.

“Raven…”

Her mouth parted as her eyes widened with surprise. Her bravado slipped, but only for a second.

She rushed me, making me trip over my own feet straight into the wall a step away. I fell into it, but kept my hands visible, not wanting to risk her pulling that trigger.

Cold metal pressed against my forehead, digging into my skin.

“What the fuck did you say?” She gritted between her teeth; she was trying to be threatening, but I knew her, and she was scared.

“Raven, baby.” I pleaded, finding her blue eyes, hoping she would see me behind my own mask.

She pulled back, her eyes frantically searching my face, trying to figure out who I was. But she grew impatient. Her nails slipped between my skin and my mask, ripping it off my face, revealing bits of dried blood and every bit of my identity.

This time, her bravado melted away completely. The gun clattering to the ground beside her, and she backed away like I had shot her. She shook her head, her chest starting to move more frantically.

“I'm sorry.” I wasn't. I wanted to be but I wasn't. We were destined to find each other like this. I had been hunting her for years. She had killed so many people, and somehow I had fallen in love with her.

And she had fallen in love with me over these past few months, and now here we were. I was here to turn her in, and she was here to kill me.

Only one of us would get what we wanted. But I knew without a shadow of a doubt, I'd give her whatever she wanted. Knowing she was the one I had been looking for all these years. I couldn't do it. I just couldn't.