Divided (Unguarded #2) - Ivy Stone Page 0,55

inside his jacket, waving it around as he continues speaking, my heart sinking with the echo of his words in my head.

Your junkie sister.

“You know, I always thought you were a smart girl, Lindsey. But what you did in court, not so smart. Now you will pay, both of you will.”

A cry rips from somewhere deep inside of me. A strength I didn’t know I had pulls from me, unrelenting because I’m not that girl anymore. I’m not a junkie. I’m not a whore and refuse to fall victim to these men again.

“No. Please. You can’t. Not now, you can’t kill me now.” My body rocks with the sobs coming from me. I yell, I scream, I try, striving for a future that’s no longer just a dream. I try for me, for Lindsey, for Roamyn. I won’t give up.

“Oh, enough already. Come on, Papa, just get this done. I have to go meet Cannon in ten minutes.”

“Would you shut your fucking mouth, boy? Listen to yourself. You talk too fucking much in front of people,” Giuseppe yells at his son, his Italian accent thick and loud.

“They’re about to die. What the fuck does it matter what they hear?”

The men quip back and forth, but I barely hear them over my heart smacking against my ribs, loud and harrowing.

A soft touch soothes my back and I lift my head from my knees. Lindsey tries to calm me with a tight smile but it doesn’t relieve any fear.

“All right. Enough! It’s time.”

Lindsey and I both jump at Giuseppe’s tone, but when he trains his gun to my forehead, I turn to stone. Pain attacks my lungs, stealing air. I shake my head furiously. My chin trembles. I open my mouth to scream, but nothing comes out because I can hardly breathe and my body fails me at the thought I’m about to die.

His lips curl into a smile, bringing on more tears. I whimper.

Lindsey reaches out, surrendering. Her voice is loud, scratchy, racking with fear for the first time since we entered the warehouse. “No! Don’t. Don’t kill her.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not yet.” Giuseppe tilts his head to the side, something snide in his tone ripples a chill over my clammy skin.

“One last person wants to see you, Alison,” he announces, his voice so smooth, without care that he’s about to kill me.

A woman’s heels travel toward me and as I spin around my heart fights to find balance between relief and revulsion.

“Oh, shit,” Lindsey whispers.

“Adriana,” her name falls from my lips, barely above a whisper.

She smiles at her father, greeting him the same way she would at any family gathering. “Princess.” Giuseppe envelopes his daughter with care and love he had once shown myself and Lindsey. Bile rises in my throat imagining those years.

“Papa, why don’t you let me do the honors with these two? After all, Ali was my best friend.” Adriana gives me a sweet smile, laced with evil, and it’s a blow worse than any Lucio or his father could have laid on me because this is Adriana. My best friend, putting out the palm of her hand for Giuseppe to slip her his gun. A gun she’ll use to kill me.

How could she?

Why would she?

“Make it clean, Adriana. We don’t need a big mess to clean up.”

My pulse speeds up. The adrenaline pushes me to fight.

“Adriana no, please. Don’t do this. I’m sorry, okay? So sorry I betrayed our family,” I beg and plead. Every part of me trembling worse with every passing second. Adriana never meets my pleas with a response or look. I sit back down, my chest caves in.

Adriana coughs and sits her shoulders back. She stands tall, posture stiff, legs apart, eyeing Lindsey while turning the gun on me.

I meet the barrel of the gun.

I meet the end.

I make peace with the present.

“Are you ready, Lindsey?” she asks and Lindsey frowns.

I close my eyes and Roamyn appears.

I whisper, “I love you,” even though he won’t hear it.

I still.

Bang.

I wait for it, for the moment where my soul is sucked from my body. When everything goes dark. When I leave this life and enter the next. But my heart still pounds heavily in my chest. Hot wet tears stain my cheeks. Gasps and rustling fill the air around me. My eyes fly open and everything slows. I soak in the fog of delirium while it lasts. Giuseppe is sprawled out on the ground, blood and brains splattered on his face and suit from