Page 55 of Take My Throne

“What’s Milly doing here?” Lucas asks.

“I decided that eliminating your competition wasn’t enough to send a strong signal to my darling daughter,” my father explains. “Ivy needs to learn that the only true friends she has in this world are her family. So now all that remains is for Ivy to make her choice. Who dies first? Friend or lover?”

“I’m not going to choose.” I shake my head, desperately struggling to break free but the guard is too strong. “If you force me to pick someone, then I pick me. Kill me, dammit!”

“Your time will come no doubt, daughter,” my father says. “But you are far too useful to me alive right now, although believe me, I will make sure to punish you for your insolence. No, I will be shooting every single one of our guests, the children first so the parents can watch.” He turns to face the watching parents. “I bet you wish you’d accepted my offer to buy your businesses now, huh?”

To give them credit, not a single one of them rises to his bait, staring impassively at him.

My father turns to one of his guards and nods. The guard takes a gun out of his holster and passes it to my father.

“So, who dies first?” He walks slowly along behind each of my lovers. “Romy? Archer? Declan?” Such pretty faces. It’ll be a shame to spoil them with a bullet, but that’s how it goes. No open casket funerals for any of you. But no. I think it should be ladies first.”

He stops next to Milly and holds the gun to the back of her head. My best friend screams through her gag, her desperate cries muffled by the cloth. She shakes her head, tears streaming down her face.

“Any last words, Milly?” my father asks. “Oh wait. You can’t speak. Never mind. From what I hear, you never had anything worth listening to anyway.”

He cocks the gun.

“Nooo!” Lucas launches himself at my father, who is so surprised, he doesn’t resist.

Seeing my opportunity, I stamp on the foot of the guy holding me. The heel of my boot digs deep into his foot and his grip on me loosens enough for me to be able to elbow him in the stomach. As he doubles over, I spin round and kick him hard in the balls. As he collapses to the floor, I pull his gun out of his holster.

“Don’t move!” I warn, keeping the gun trained on him, as I hurry over to set free the captives. The table had been laid out for dinner, so I grab a knife and quickly saw through Archer’s bonds. Lucas keeps his gun pointed at my father as Archer starts to work on the others, and soon everyone is free.

“So what do we do now?” I ask, looking to Archer, Romy, and Declan for guidance.

“You leave.” It is Ben Navarre who answers me. “None of you need be involved in this. This is a job we should have done years ago when Solomon married your mother and didn’t look after her.”

I open my mouth to argue that I have earned the right to take care of my father, but Romy subtly shakes his head.

“Fine.” I hand my gun to Ben, while Lucas gives his to Claude.

The boys, Lucas, Milly, and I all walk out, going out of the house and into the grounds. None of us say a word. There isn’t anything to say.

A few minutes later, a gunshot breaks the silence.

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