Page 94 of Riot

“He’ll use Seren any way he can to get back at me for leaving him.” Her words jumble together, frantic and fearful. She’s unravelling in front of my eyes. “I have to leave town. I can’t risk him taking Seren.”

The pain in my chest is so crushing, I’m sure I’m dying.

I’m standing on the ledge, knowing the moment I jump off, there’s nothing to catch me.

I scan every inch of them both, committing them to memory, fearing this might be the last time Ivy looks at me without hate in her eyes.

“He ain’t a threat to you.”

Ivy flinches as if I’ve struck her across the fucking face, and every part of me dies. I count the seconds until that love we were building recoils.

“You don’t believe me.”

She steps back, clutching Seren like she’s afraid I’ll hurt her. That crack in my chest becomes a chasm.

“I do. Fuck, baby, I believe someone is fuckin’ with you, but it’s not your ex.”

“I’m not paranoid.”

“I know. I’m not saying you are.” I scrub a hand over my face, and I give her the last knife to gut me with. “But it can’t be Link, Ivy.”

“Why not?”

“‘Cause he’s fuckin’ dead.” I spit the words out like rapid-fire bullets, and each one finds a target I never intended to hit.

She jolts back, her eyes guarded. “How do you know that?”

And then I deliver the final headshot. “I got rid of his body.”

NINETEEN

IVY

The words diein my throat as the thoughts leave my head.

Link’s dead…

He’s…dead.

And Riot got rid of the body?

I suck in a breath, fail, and try again, this time dragging in a small amount of air. I scan his face, waiting for him to crack a grin, to tell me he’s joking, but his mouth is tight, his shoulders slumped.

The uncertainty in his expression is not something I’m used to, and it tells me everything.

He’s not lying.

Oh…fuck.

I sway, dizzy, and he reaches to steady me. Instinctively, I tear away, and the flash of hurt that creases his face stabs my chest.

“Vee…” The crack of his voice as he says my name almost has me reaching for him, but I don’t.

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not. He’s been dead for months, since before you had Seren.”

What the fuck?I gasp, then gasp again. The world tilts as I stumble back from him, the room suddenly too small.

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