Page 105 of Rescued Dreams

She had a rope tied around her neck that stretched up to the chandelier.

Ridge turned to run for her.

A man appeared at the top of the stairs holding a gun. Ridge froze.

The man’s dark gaze narrowed on him. “Surprise.”

“Let her go!”

“I don’t think so.” Nicholas shook his head. “Not if you want your sisters to live. Isn’t that why you’re here. To save them?”

“Allof them.”

He sneered.

Before Ridge could do anything, the gun exploded in a flash, and something heavy slammed into him. He toppled over onto the stairs and rolled.

Down.

Down.

He hit the floor at the bottom of the stairs.

Amelia screamed behind the cloth.

THIRTY-FIVE

Nicholas dragged her back over the rail. Amelia wasn’t sure it had been his intention to only make itlooklike he was going to hang her from the chandelier. She thought he probably would have killed her, depending on what Ridge had done in that moment.

She hadn’t expected Nicholas to shoot him.

Kill him.

Her mind was a hot haze of questions, painful sensations, and the utter heartbreak of what she had just seen.

She stumbled onto the carpet and almost fell, dragged back to the rail by the rope around her neck. Nicholas untethered her with one cut of a knife he sheathed back on his belt.

I guess you’ve thought of everything.

This scenario was over. But the outcome had cost her everything she wanted.

Ridge.

Her mind spun at everything that had happened so far tonight.

This whole thing was why it had taken so long for him to show up in her life, looking for revenge. The man had planned this thing on an elaborate scale. Maximum pain and maximum casualties. There was no way he expected to get free of the situation. He was far more likely to be determined to kill himself along with the rest of them at the end of this cat-and-mouse game.

No one had noticed he was this far gone.

He certainly hadn’t sought help.

Nicholas dragged her by the arm, her hands tied behind her back. Thankfully that had enabled her to grab the rail and keep from falling. That would have meant strangling herself on the rope he’d tied around her neck. But if he’d pushed her off the rail, she would never have been able to maintain her grip.

Ridge was dead.

The twins were going to be devastated—if they survived. He might’ve already killed them, though they’d been alive when he dragged her out, and he hadn’t left her side since.

She couldn’t make much noise behind the cloth tied around her mouth.