Page 121 of Twisted (Never After)

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 Idoknow 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’tbreathefrom 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 notallowedto 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.Helpher. 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.

Darryn spits, blood dripping on the floor around him. “Don’t make me hurt anyone else.”

Julian ignores him, and I’m barely coherent from the panic that’s splintering apart my insides. He cups my face in his hand, his jaw set and his eyes clear. “Remember what I told you? My love for you is dangerous, amore mio.”

I shake my head against him, pressing my hands farther into Riya’s stomach, my fingers slipping in the blood. “I can’t let this happen. I can’t let— She can’tdie.”

“I can’t save you both,” Julian continues. “Go.”

I’m not even able to comprehend what it is that he’s saying or what’s happening orwhyhe’s doing this. “No, Julian,please…”

He looks behind me and nods sharply, his head pushed to the side when Darryn presses the gun harder against his temple. “I’m beingverygenerous with my time here, Julian. I don’t have to kill them, just you.”

And then there are arms wrapping around me from behind, Aidan dragging me back, away from the two people who I love most in the world.

“No!” I scream, fighting against Aidan’s hold. “Don’t do this!”

Julian’s face is solemn as he drops his head, his hand twitching on the ground as it wraps around that metal bar he’s been carrying since he walked in.