Divided (Unguarded #2) - Ivy Stone Page 0,37
soften.
Cupping a hand around her face, I pull her against me and whisper in her hair, “I got you, babe. I promise I’ve got you.”
Ali wipes the back of her hand across her face and pushes off my chest. “No, you haven’t, Roam. You haven’t got me. This is what you’ve got.” She motions around us, anger in her tone. Hopelessness in her slow movement. “You wanted to bring down the mafia? Well, congratulations. You probably made the bust of your career. I hope it’s worth everything and everyone you’ve hurt in the process.”
My brows pinch together. The loss of her closeness almost an immediate throb. Her accusations, a punch to my stomach. She has no clue how many times I’ve dreamt for this day to finally happen. But I never imagined this was how it would all go down.
“Ali—”
“No. Just stop. I don’t want to see you right now.” Her shoulders drop and she hangs her head. “My sister was supposed to be picking me up. I need to go out there and pray she missed all of this. So please, just leave me alone.”
Her eyes beg me, plead me to listen. I nod reluctantly, pushing past the lump in the back of my throat. “Okay.”
I push up from the floor and make my way out. Surprise stops me mid-step when I reach the bar and find Mason, arms enveloping, lips to the ear of the same woman he jumped in front of a bullet for less than five minutes ago.
“You know I think that’s the closest contact I’ve ever seen him have with a woman and I’ve been working for the dude for three years.” Elias comes up behind me, hands in his pockets, eyebrows halfway up his forehead as he stares at Mason and the brunette. “She’s pretty hot.”
Cassidy walks over, obviously hearing Eli and slaps him upside the back of his head. “Would you two pick your jaws up off the floor and do your damn jobs.” She keeps on walking without another word. We weren’t the only ones to notice Mason with a female in his arms that wasn’t his daughter. I wander over to them. My presence goes unnoticed. They’re too busy eye fucking each other to see me standing beside them. I cough, breaking their moment and Mason shoots me a glare screaming, fuck off. The brunette backs away from Mason and I can’t help the smirk breaking out on my face because Elias was right. She’s gorgeous. Fit little body with long brown hair to the top of her ass, high cheekbones, perfect thick lips and steel-blue eyes to set off her creamy colored skin.
Steel-blue eyes.
Just like Ali’s.
I double take, my stare incredulous. No, could it be?
It could. It is. And if there was any doubt in my mind this is Ali’s sister it was gone when the pretty brunette swept her into her arms.
I’d like to say things turned out just the way they should have. That Ali told us everything she knew and escaped without charges. That she got help and went on to have a normal healthy life without living in fear from betraying the only real family she’d ever had. That the Marino men were found guilty on all accounts and would never see the light of day again. But that didn’t happen. Life didn’t gift us an easy journey of smooth sailing with the occasional light breeze. We were sent into a storm with waves big enough to drown us all and everyone we cared about. We just had to find the strength to swim against the current and make it out alive.
Rehab Treatment Center – Day One
“Get away from me. I hate you! I hate you… just go away,” Ali screams through a face full of tears. Two nurses restrain her, calming her with soft words but it doesn’t have any effect. It doesn’t resonate at all.
I hold my hands up in surrender. “Ali. Please.”
My heart splinters. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Her sweaty hair sticks to her face as she fights the strength of the nurses despite her having no strength at all. I’m sure if they held her fragile body tightly enough a bone would crack. Her cries and screams pierce the air and rip me to shreds. I could be stabbed again and again and the pain wouldn’t hurt as much as watching this, seeing her fall apart.
“This is your fault! Everything is your fault. I hate you.”
A hand comes to rest on