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“Got it,” I whispered, more to myself than Carmen or Liam. The ropes around my wrists fell away, the last fibers tearing apart with a silent snap of triumph. My hands were free.
“Ade.” Liam’s voice was a low murmur, his eyes signaling me to stay calm, stay smart. I nodded, rubbing at the red marks where the rope had dug into my skin. “You guys stay here. I’m going to run to him and see if I can stab him.”
“Don’t!” Carmen said, a little too loudly for the situation.
Diamond’s head whipped towards us, an eyebrow arched in question. Carmen recovered quickly, offering him a smile that was too tight to look genuine.
“Nothing,” She said, almost flippantly, “We’re just bickering like usual. Right, Ade?”
I nodded, playing along with a sigh. “Yes, Carmen loves making mountains out of molehills.”
Diamond eyed us suspiciously for another moment before he shrugged and returned to his phone. Once he wasn’t looking, I shook my head at Liam.
“We can’t risk it,” I murmured, “If you get caught, we’d lose our only weapon.”
I didn’t tell him that he would die. That seemed…unnecessary, given the situation.
Diamond was a menace; even with the blade, taking him down would be risky. But we couldn’t just stay here, not with Tristan and Kieran out there. Not when we’d heard gunshots.
“So what do we do?” Liam asked.
“Well, we wait for him to stop paying attention,” I said, the words tasting bitter on my tongue. “And then we kill him.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Adriana
My eyes darted to Liam, whose fingers had deftly worked free of his own binds. The blade he had hidden was our hope, our chance to turn the tables on Diamond. I could almost taste the anticipation, a bitter tang at the back of my throat.
“Got any ideas?” Carmen’s whisper was a brush of sound against the tension-filled air.
“Wait for—“ My words snagged on a breath as the door swung open and Nick Rossi barged in, dragging the limp form of Tristan Callahan with him. Blood matted his blond hair, a stark map of injury across his once-charming face. He was so bloody.
So so bloody.
I could hardly see his features, and it made everything in me scream.
“Tristan!” Instinct overrode caution, and I lunged forward, every other thought evaporating.
“Adriana, no!” Carmen’s warning came too late.
Diamond’s gun snapped up, its barrel cold and unforgiving against my temple. “Not so fast,” his voice was deceptively calm, a serpent’s hiss.
“Let me go,” I said. “Where am I going to go? Please, just let me see him.”
Diamond’s gaze must have caught someone else’s because he removed the barrel from my temple.
My gaze whirled around the room, taking in Kieran, another casualty of violence, bruised and battered. Anger roared in my chest, hot and wild. Nick Rossi stood with that smug certainty that made me want to rip it off his face. Killian O’Hara and Gio Rossi were there too, walls of muscle and menace.
“What the hell is this?” The words clawed out of me, raw and desperate as I knelt by Tristan.
“Business.” Nick’s reply was dismissive, but I barely heard him.
Tristan was so still, too still. My fingers trembled as I felt for his pulse, a thrumming beat beneath the chilled skin. His chest rose and fell, a shallow dance with death. Tristan was dying.
The man I loved was dying.
The father of my unborn children was dying.
And I had no idea what the fuck to do.
