Chapter 103
BELLA
Song- Sacrifice Me, Unprocessed
My brothers trained me for this. Still, training and having a lunatic point a gun at your head are two different things.
Adrenaline is a living animal in my chest. I can feel everything wind up and ready to snap.
I’ll be having serious words with the boys when we’re home, because they should have told me about this. I would have helped them fix it. I could’ve seen through her bullshit. We don’t leave business like this to surprise.
She wants my men, and she’s not having them. I won’t be bullied by her. No one fucking pushes a King into a corner. No one takes what’s mine.
“You realize no baby means I can kill you now, right?” I say, taking a darker turn.
Lyla’s eyes go wide. She’s finally met a real steel in my voice. I’m really not fucking around.
“You aren’t going to hurt me. You aren’t going to hurt anyone, Lyla. Just put the gun down and walk away. You’re done here,” I tell her sternly.
She shakes her head, looking between the twins.
“I-I can’t. My mission. They’ll kill me if I don’t do this.”
My head snaps to her. The word mission lands like a stone in the water, and the ripples are ugly.
“Who?”
“My bosses.”
“Declan?” I ask. Trying to play dumb to see if she will bite and give me the real truth.
She’s as fragile as a bomb with a short fuse. Reggie moves behind me and I hold up my hand to stop him. If we push her, I think she will shoot.
“Who is your boss, Lyla? We can fix this for you. No one has to die. Not even you.”
That is a cold-faced lie. As soon as I have the chance, I will kill her.
“Why do you need both of them, Bella? You couldn’t just leave one for me, could you?” Her voice is almost broken but still hysterical.
I frown. I can’t work her out.
“What’s your mission, Lyla?”
“I can’t tell you. It’s part of our new world. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me? Maybe I will.”
I take another step closer, and she shakes the gun at me again.
“Stop. Right there,” she screams.
“Tell them to put their guns on the floor and sit back down,” she tells me.
I nod, taking a deep breath, holding up my hands. “Reg, Rowan, please, just do as she says.” I keep my voice firm.
They do as I say, but they don’t sit down.
“Sit,” I tell them.
“No,” Reggie says firmly and stands beside me, Rowan doing the same on my right. “We’re unarmed, but we are not leaving her side,” Rowan tells Lyla calmly.
“Fine. You won’t play by my rules. I won’t play by yours. Bella. Pick which twin you want to die, and I’ll take the other one back to my boss.”
My mouth drops open.
“No, Lyla. You’re not killing anyone.”
She laughs. “It’s one of them, or I lodge a bullet straight into your brain. I’ve had training, Bella. I can shoot. I’m ready for war.”
My gut turns. I glance at Reggie. He’s coiled and furious enough to combust—and I feel that shared readiness ripple down our line. This is the moment the boys trained for, but training never sounded like a human voice refusing to stop.
“You couldn’t decide by yourself to pick which one to marry. Now, I wonder where your heart will take you when you have to decide which one to keep alive.”
Her words are a flat, terrible thing—an attempt at a cruelty that tastes like someone else’s fantasy. My insides roll. This woman will do it if she thinks she can. My fingers want to close around something and end the noise.
I step forward; both of them grab my wrists.
“Then, I chose me.” I say it like it’s final.
This is the only choice that makes sense. If I can’t have them both, there is no life for me.