Page 202 of The Grand Ruin: Lance & Scarlet-Part One

“It was vague, Mase. But I know something isn’t right. Scarlet’s been going to see Joey because Nina wasn’t. She didn’t answer when I called.”

“What did the message say?!” Mason asks again, and I know I have to tell him something.

Scarlet: Come now he s he has a gun and wants money

Scarlet: It’s Joey. Nina needs u

My hands tighten on the steering wheel, my heart pounding.

If anything happens to her…

“It wasn’t from Scarlet. It was Joey. It didn’t make sense, but he said he had a gun.”

“Why the fuck is Joey texting you from Scarlet’s phone?” He pulls at his hair. “Why aren’t they answering their fucking phones?”

“Call Vinny,” I tell him.

Mason is out of the car before I fully come to a stop. I follow him up the steps to the fourth floor and push past him when he stops outside the door, a distressed cry echoing from inside the apartment, wrapping around my throat and threatening to strangle me.

I just need to see her.

To know that she’s okay.

I just need— “What the fuck.”

“No.” I turn at Mason’s broken cry.

My knees sway as his face pales, his stare fixed on Nina’s lifeless body. Andher. Scarlet. Leant over Nina as she gives her CPR.

“No,” Mason mutters disbelievingly as he stumbles toward them.

I take a step to follow him, but my foot knocks into something hard, and I look down, finding a gun on the ground.

“Fuck.” I pick it up, my hands shaking.

What the fuck happened?

That crying.

That wailing.

It’s not Scarlet.

I scan the room, my eyes searching. And then I see him, shaking and spluttering, a bloodied kitchen knife grasped in his hands like a blanket.

Joey.

“What the fuck did you do?” My wide eyes blaze over him as realisation sets in. “What the fuck have you done?” I roar, my body vibrating with rage and fear.

“I–I–I–They…” His body trembles, maybe just as much as my own.

I look away, catching Mason at Nina’s side, Scarlet still working furiously as her brother begs her.

“Scar.”

She doesn’t flinch.

“Scarlet.”

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