He let her talk. Ethan didn’t interrupt her flow of words, the words that had been building inside of her since they met four months ago on that fateful raid. That one desperate question that had haunted the both of them was finally out in the air, and there was no avoiding it.

He had known what he was going to tell her for a long time now. The answer had been building inside his subconscious since she had shouted that question to him for the first time, just over three months ago as he glided away on the ferry bound to Seattle. For a moment he tried to find a way around them, around the dishonesty that burned within them. Technically his words would be the truth, but they would be skirting so far around his desperate desire to avoid the truth of his ability that they might as well be an outright lie. Why did he care about lying to her? Where in this absurd game of cat and mouse had she become more than the hunter, and he more than the prey?

“The mob was already there, Bree,” he told her gently, softly. Would she break? Would the answer to her question take away the few supports that kept her upright? “That is why I was wearing the uniform. I was there to make money. Knowing what cards you are going to get is the ultimate gambling technique. I didn’t need the money.

“When I noticed the raid coming I tried to leave. The last thing I wanted to be was caught by the police. But when I tried to leave I noticed the presence of the mob. If I’d actually walked out of the building I would have been shot. So I decided to take advantage of the raid.

“You weren’t supposed to notice me. I was supposed to be one of the many workers taken away. I’d answer the questions, and no one would look twice at me. But then you gave me a personal escort, and I had to find another way to get away.

“The mob had left one hitman. Just in case the off chance of a shot presented itself. There was a clean line between him and Victor. The only thing blocking his sight was... me. And I just... stepped aside. It was one little move, and it seemed so easy. Everything is easy in your head. Reality is a lot harsher. It didn’t feel like murder when it was just an idea.

"I didn’t do anything to the bullet. It took its course. All I did was step aside.”

And it was true. He was the only thing blocking the hitman’s line of sight, and he did simply step to the side. But he didn’t tell Bree that he had set things up. He didn’t tell her that the only reason the mob had left a hitman in the first place was because he fixed the numbers. That the only reason that there was a clear line of sight was because he had made sure that it would be there.

But he hadn’t lied about the numbers. It hadn’t felt like murder. It wasn’t as though he had pulled the trigger. But Ethan had accepted that darkness on that very same ferry ride. He had accepted the pride within him that let him believe he had the right to manipulate the course of events. That he had the right to change things however he wanted to promote his own desires.

Somewhere in that raging waterfall a stroke of relief had found him. His crime wasn’t any less, but there was atonement waiting for him. It didn’t make what he had done any better, but it still freed him.

He had saved her life twice. But she had saved him, too. She had saved him, and she had shown him himself. Perhaps they were even.