All The Truths - Rina Kent Page 0,73

the ledger, you can have it.” Rai steps forward.

“Where is it?” The humor Ivan tried to fake disappears.

“Where’s my sister?”

A red drop hits the ground and I follow the line, realizing the source is his hands, which he’s been hiding since he opened the door.

Reina…?

“See, it’s a bit too late. She wouldn’t talk, and you know I hate the silent ones.” He pauses. “She’s not dead yet, though, so give me the ledger and I might let her breathe another second.”

The need to pull the trigger and shoot him in the head overwhelms me, but I can’t do that, not without knowing how many of his men are in there. What if I hurt him and the others kill Reina?

“My sister first.” Rai’s voice doesn’t change.

He extends a hand. “The ledger, Rai. Don’t make this too difficult and try to take what was never yours.”

“That’s you, not me. But fine, I guess you win.”

“I always win, suka. Now give it.”

Rai reaches a hand under her hoodie and Ivan’s eyes light up like a kid.

Instead of a ledger, she pulls out something glinting and grabs him by the hand, going straight to his eyes with a knife. His roar of pain can be heard in the long empty hallway.

He reaches blindly at her. The knife in his right eye gushes blood all over his cheek and neck and down to his shirt.

I push him aside in his stupor and run inside. If there is anyone in there and they’ve hurt—

The sight in front of me stops me in my tracks. Reina lies on the ground, tied to a chair. Her blond strands are smudged with red. Everything is red—her face, her arms, and even her clothes.

Fuck!

I run toward her, tuning out the commotion between Rai, Kyle, and Ivan. Crouching in front of Reina, I push the strands over her cheeks and find one of her eyes swollen, the other closed shut. Her lips are bloodied and busted. If I hadn’t recognized her as my Reina from afar, I wouldn’t have known it’s truly her.

I cut through the wires around her wrist like a maniac with the knife Kyle gave me. I hold her hand mine and wait with a held breath to see the rise and fall of her chest, the proof she’s alive and won’t put me through the torture of living without her anymore.

A small sound rips from her, something that resembles a whimper or a moan of pain—or both.

I release a breath and stand up.

The fucker tortured her. He beat her up until he erased her features and turned her unrecognizable.

Ivan is still fighting off Rai as Kyle holds him with both his hands locked behind him. The moment Rai sees Reina, she abandons Ivan and runs toward me. I don’t think twice. I don’t even count as Kyle told me to.

I aim my gun, cock it, and then shoot straight into the fucker’s chest. Kyle glares at me as Ivan falls limp in his hold. I ignore him and focus back on Reina.

Rai kneels beside her, begging her to open her eyes, demanding she keeps her promise.

Reina always said shit about wanting to leave, and this better not be the time she decides to do that.

I can’t possibly live in a world without her anymore.

The end is a weird feeling.

It just…happens. Or maybe it doesn’t happen and you’re stuck somewhere in the unknown.

That’s how it feels the moment I open my eyes. It’s too quiet, too white, too full of nothingness. I think I’m in an afterlife of sorts. Everything ended in Ivan’s torture chamber, and now I get to meet Mom and Dad.

But then the pain kicks in. It snaps from the back of my head to my temples. My eyes, which I thought I opened a second ago, are now half-open, drooping and…are they swollen?

I stick my tongue out to wet my dry lips and wince when it connects with tender, injured skin.

Then the smells register, strong and potent. Antiseptic and the cleanness of a hospital swallow my senses.

The sounds come into focus, too, as the blurriness slowly fades away. A familiar face stares down at me. She’s calling my name, tears welling in her eyes.

It’s…me.

No, it’s not me. It’s Reina.

Oh, God. My heart picks up speed and the machines go mad with the beeping.

She can’t be here. If she is, it could mean she’s in the afterlife with me. She’s—

“Doctor—call the doctor!”

A hand wraps around mine, warm and familiar, like Mom’s. It feels just