Twisted (Never After #4)(97)

“It would seem you’re being very hypocritical right now, Ian.” Julian takes a step toward him. “I’m not the one pointing a gun at his boss.”

Another step.

“You betrayed me,” Ian spits. “I was loyal to you for years. And the second you get a warm pussy and a bitch who does as you say, you drop me like I’m nothing?”

Julian takes a deep breath, flipping that metal bar around the back of his hand like a baton. “Now, Ian. I’ve warned you about what would happen if you disrespected my wife.”

Ian laughs, waving his arms in the air. “I have the gun, asshole. I could kill her and fuck her dead body in front of you, and there wouldn’t be shit you could do.”

“I fell in love with her, and I won’t apologize for it.” Julian looks at me. “I’m not sorry for loving you. I’m only sorry it took me so long to realize that I did.”

My heart squeezes, and I know without him even explaining the will that he never would have gone through with it. Not after everything we’ve shared.

Not that it really matters now anyway.

“We had a plan,” Ian hisses.

“Plans change. Surely you realize, Ian, that I would never let you harm her.”

Ian’s eyes darken. “You don’t get to call the shots anymore.”

Julian nods, glancing toward Darryn, who is standing over me with his gun digging into my temple. “And I suppose you talked Ian into this sometime in Egypt?”

Darryn shrugs. “What can I say? He came to me for a meeting and left with a new friend instead. Look, we don’t want to hurt your wife. I just want the lamp. And you’ll have to die, of course, to make sure you don’t cause any trouble down the line.”

No.

Darryn’s attention goes to where Julian set down the lamp, and I take the opportunity, because I can’t not, thrusting my head as far as possible into his hand and knocking the gun out of the way.

It scatters on the floor, and then there’s commotion.

A loud yell, and then a stinging sensation on my hair as I’m jerked harshly to a stand.

I whimper, my eyes squeezing shut from the pain.

Suddenly, I’m knocked over again, a high-pitched scream echoing through the tall ceilings of the warehouse, and I land on my side, a heavy throb radiating up from the fall. I roll over and see Riya on top of Darryn, her fists slamming repeatedly into his face.

I should feel relief, but all I feel is more panic that she’s here.

In danger.

Because of me.

She must have followed Julian.

Groaning, I try to sit, but I can’t with my hands and feet tied together, so I roll onto my back instead, inhaling a sharp breath at how broken my body feels when I do. There are loud noises all around me, but my hearing is muffled, my brain foggy from the abuse.

“Princess,” a whisper comes from my right, and then I’m being jostled again and put into a sitting position. Aidan is crouching in front of me, his jaw tense and his eyes dark and heavy.

His hands float down my body, and I suck in a sob that wants to break free because I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I do know that the people I love most in the world are all here, trying to help me, and I don’t want any of them to die.

He gets the gag off my mouth, and my jaw aches as I suck in deep breaths, flinging my head over to where Julian is staring at Aidan as he unties me. One hand comes free and then the other, blood rushing back in and making my fingers tingle.

“Aidan?” I gasp. “What— How?”

“We followed Julian.” He jerks his chin over to Riya.

I start to nod but before I can even focus on what he means, a sharp shot rings out in the air, and time freezes.

Riya falls to the side from where she was punching Darryn, clutching her stomach, blood pouring through her fingers.

“No!” I scream, grief welling up inside me at the sight. I start to struggle against the rope, Aidan working to try and get them off my ankles. “No, please,” I sob.

There’s a scuffle to my right and I turn my attention there, seeing Julian flipping that metal bar and slamming it into Ian’s legs, his knees cracking as they hit the concrete floor, his gun flying from his hands.

Despair surges through me when I look back to my best friend who has sunk back onto the floor, and I can’t think, can’t see, can’t breathe from the pain that feels like it’s ripping me in two.

The second my ankles are free, I’m crawling over the cold ground to where Riya is, trying to wipe away the tears with my trembling fingers.

“No, no, no,” I repeat as I make it to her and press my hands against hers to try and stop the bleeding. “You can’t do this. You’re not allowed to do this, Riy.”

There’s commotion behind me, but I couldn’t care less what it is, trusting that Julian has the upper hand. I need to focus on my best friend, who’s bleeding out on the floor in front of me.

Suddenly there’s a presence at my back and Julian crouches down, his hands grasping me and turning me to him so he can check on me. “Are you okay?”

“I– I— ,” I stutter through my tears. “Please, Julian. Help her. I can’t…I can’t lose her too, please— ”

There’s a groan from close by, and Julian grows rigid when a gun presses against his temple, a bruised and swollen Darryn standing behind him.