Page 76 of Up In Smoke

She still hadn't seen her sister's face. But it was the only explanation for Carlos’s thinking this was her. “Lily, I'm going to need you to pray.”

Hopefully, it was enough of a clue to her sister, but not to Carlos.

She waited one heartbeat. Two. Then three.

And watched as her sister crumbled to the ground, knees hitting hard, head down, hands clasped in front of her. Ivy knew it was the only advantage she was going to get. She lowered the gun, aiming for his chest.

Killing Carlos would kill Luke.

Ivy took a slow breath, watching as Carlos raised his gun toward her.

“Lily, run!”

She watched as her sister scrambled past her, into the hall and she heard the back door slam as her sister disappeared from her life as quickly as she’d come.

But it didn't matter, she lifted the gun and pulled the trigger on everything she'd built.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Carlos’ eyes rolled as the blood bloomed on his chest.

But the son of a bitch didn’t stop. His hands lifted the gun and fired as Ivy screamed.

She felt the sting of the bullet tearing through her skin and making her whole arm jerk. She dropped the rifle, staggering backward and hitting the wall. But she wasn’t far enough away.

The roaring of blood and shock crowded her head.

Had she failed? Had she been so close to killing him and now she was going to die by his hand?

He looked at her oddly. Her hand clasped her upper arm, blood seeping through the clean sweater she’d put on. The asshole was ruining all her new clothes. But she could see he was trying to figure out if she was really Ivy, if killing her would really hurt Luke or if she was just another impostor.

Ivy laughed, low and resigned.

Carlos had won again.

She saw the moment when he decided that it didn’t matter if she was the real Ivy or not. He had to kill her to get out of the house.

Her rifle was on the floor. He’d kill her before she even got close to it. So she stared him in the eye, the roaring in her head now a scream that started in her soul and let all her rage out at him.

Ivy’s vision was hyper-aware as adrenaline flooded her yet again. She saw the barrel of the gun as it entered her peripheral vision. Carlos saw it, too. But maybe his cool reserve worked against him.

Luke was here.

And she and Luke were full of fury.

She would always believe she saw the bullet leave the barrel of Luke’s gun and enter Carlos’ chest, dead center, before she laughed one triumphant sound and passed out cold.

Chapter Fifty-Nine

It had been three days, and Luke was still sitting on his couch drinking beer in his sweats at ten a.m. He'd missed A-shift because the chief had put him on leave. Probably it was the appropriate thing to do.

Getting back to work would have been the best thing for him, but not for the people that the Redemption Fire Department treated and saved. As every single firefighter had drilled into their heads, the job wasn't about them.

He took another sip of the beer. His phone rang and he looked at the face. Once again it wasn’t Ivy. This time it was his mother. She was on his case to give her precious baby boy a proper burial.

Mario was getting shipped off to rehab and Luke had once again offered to pay for part of it. But there had been no money left for Carlos. Honestly, Luke couldn’t give two shits about a proper burial. But he’d answered the phone.

“You have to do this.”

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