Tristan hung his head and said quietly, “I’m sorry, Nina. I’m sorry I ever waited for you that night in the alley behind the Anderson Gallery. If I hadn’t…”

His voice trailed off and he closed his eyes. I couldn’t let him think that I regretted one moment of our time together. He deserved better than that. “If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have met you and fallen in love with the most incredible man in the world.”

“How touching. Now if we’re done with the staging of Romeo and Juliet, it’s time for this to end. You’ll be dead, and in a few years, I’ll be the head of Stone Worldwide. In the meantime, one of my friends on the board will make sure my company thrives in my absence.”

A large, bald man who looked nearly the size of Gage stood behind Tristan and violently yanked his head up, and Karl aimed his gun directly at him. I scrambled for anything to delay—to give Gage time to stop him—and blurted out, “Wait! Tell us how you got Rogers to turn on Tristan. He loved him like a son. He wouldn’t hurt him unless you did something horrible to him.”

Karl smiled, his gun still aimed at Tristan. “Ah, Rogers. I have to tell you, son, you certainly do have some very loyal people around you. Your girlfriend’s right. Rogers didn’t come easily. You were his world. He loved you more than your father did. It took me forever to figure out the angle to take with him. Nothing worked. Money didn’t matter. Threats didn’t work. But you know what did? When you fell in love with her, Rogers couldn’t take it. He was jealous. Go figure. Out of all the emotions to manipulate, I only had to wait for jealousy to rear its ugly head. Once it was obvious that you were going to marry her and wouldn’t need him anymore, he was putty in my hands.”

Tristan’s frown deepened as Karl detailed why the one person he’d always trusted betrayed him. It tore my heart apart to know I’d been the reason he’d lost Rogers.

“And then you killed him. Why, if he was helping you?” I asked.

“It seems those paternal feelings he’d always had never left after all. He was weak, and when you told him to get out of your life, I knew I couldn’t trust him to handle things anymore.”

I watched as Tristan hung his head and said sadly, barely above a whisper, “You made sure you took everyone from me.”

Karl smirked. “Not yet, son. Not yet.”

Just when I was sure he’d given up, Tristan looked over at West and said, “Obviously not everyone around me is loyal.”

Karl turned to look at West and smiled. “Oh, West? He was easy. Right, West? Not everyone thinks a man your age should have everything his heart desires.”

West mumbled something about Tristan being a spoiled rich boy, and then out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gage’s arm move. In a flash, I heard a gun go off and the man behind me released my arms. I dropped to the floor and covered my head as two more shots rang out. It all happened so fast. Somebody yelled “Get him!” and I heard the most terrifying sound I’d ever heard in my life. A body fell to the floor and a man’s voice moaned until another shot exploded and everything fell silent.

I opened my eyes and saw Karl and West on the floor in front of me and blood everywhere. Gage stood over another man in the corner of the room who looked like he’d only been grazed by a bullet. Frantically, I searched the room for Tristan and saw him slumped over in the chair he’d been tied up in. Blood covered the side of his face, and he looked unconscious.

Running over, I knelt in front of him and looked up to see a bullet had hit his right shoulder and his left eye was bleeding. “Gage! Tristan’s been shot! He needs help!”

Behind me, Gage called for help while I gently lifted Tristan’s head. He didn’t respond to my touch, and the real fear that I’d lost him settled into my brain. Shaking my head, I let the tears roll down my cheeks as I pleaded for him to stay with me. “Tristan, don’t leave me. I can’t do this without you. Don’t leave me here all alone. Please, Tristan! Open your eyes. Open your eyes and let me know you’re going to be okay.”

His eyes remained closed as I sat there praying he’d survive. I heard the ambulance in the distance as it raced up the canal toward us, piercing the night with its shrill emergency cry. “The paramedics are coming. Just hang on for me, Tristan. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me, baby.”

Gage pulled me away as the paramedics entered the room, and I watched as they took him away, barking out directions about how to get to the hospital. In mere minutes, he was gone and I was left standing there sobbing, hoping against hope that I hadn’t lost him this time.




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