Page 151 of Claiming Pretty

My chin quivered, and I shook my head, more to myself than anyone else.

“I can’t,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “I can’t do this.”

“You will,” she said, her voice smooth and unyielding. “While it would be nice to trust you when you say you’llleave Ireland and never again interfere with the Sochai, I can’t take that risk. A good mother must always be wise, mustn’t she?”

The mockery in her tone was a dagger to the chest, twisting with every word.

I couldn’t breathe. My vision blurred, and my hands trembled as I fought the overwhelming panic threatening to consume me.

She continued, her voice so calm it was almost clinical. “To protect myself and my organization, you may take one brother and flee. The other will stay here with me, as assurance that you’ll keep your word.”

The room spun. Ebony’s words sounded distant, like they were coming from underwater. I couldn’t process them. Couldn’t comprehend the cruelty of what she was asking.

I must have looked horrified, but she didn’t care. I wasn’t her daughter anymore. I was just another adversary to be outmaneuvered.

Her tone hardened, final and unyielding. “It’s really quite simple. One… or the other.Choose.”

“I can’t,” I croaked, my voice breaking into pieces.

Ebony’s eyes narrowed, and she shrugged again, as though my refusal meant nothing to her. “Then I kill them both. And you.”

The guards moved in unison, raising their weapons with a cold precision that made my blood run ice-cold. Two barrels pointed at Ciaran’s head, two at Ty’s, and two more… at me.

My body froze, every muscle locking in place. My mindscreamed at me to do something,anything, but I was paralyzed, my breaths coming in shallow gasps.

Ebony stepped forward, and I flinched, but I didn’t pull away when she took my hands in hers. She lifted them to her lips, kissing the backs with an obscene tenderness, her touch as cold as her heart.

“Well, my darling,” she said, her voice dripping with false affection. “What will it be? Or rather…whowill it be?”

Disbelief, panic, and utter grief collided within me, a storm raging in my chest, tearing through every shred of composure I had left. It clawed at my insides, twisting and writhing, leaving me raw and exposed.

“You must decidenow,” she said softly, her voice carrying the finality of a guillotine.

The sound of weapons cocking echoed in the tomb, loud and brutal, like the snapping of bones.

The room spun. My knees threatened to give out.

“I can’t,” I whispered again, my voice barely audible over the pounding of my heart.

“You will.” Ebony’s lips twisted into a mockery of a smile. “OrIwill decide for you.”

AVA

Ebony grabbed my jaw tightly and I yelped when her long, pointed nails pierced my skin. She roughly shook me as I choked on her Chanel No. 5.

“Don’t embarrass me, Ava,” she snarled. “No daughter of mine will take the easy way out. You’ve made your bed, now lie in it with whichever brother fucks you best.”

“Get your hands off her,” Ty shouted, lunging forward, earning him a hard crack of a gun butt to the back of the head.

He lurched as they yanked him back and when his hand came away from his head, there was blood.

Ty’s eyes met mine and for once, feeling blazed in them, a reflection of my own—fear, conflict, pain, and utter hopelessness.

“This one, then?” Ebony laughed as she pointed my chin toward Ciaran. “Fast on the keyboard, fast on the clit? Does his rage excite you, Ava? Or will it consume you like it’s consumed him? Will you two fizzle out just as fast?”

Ciaran’s eyes burned like embers beneath ash, a tempestof restrained emotions threatening to break free. For once, he wasn’t the fiery storm I was used to, all fury and heat laid bare.

Instead, there was a quiet, agonizing depth to his gaze, a raw vulnerability that he wouldn’t dare voice but couldn’t entirely hide.

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