---- Chapter 7 Ivy Farley POV: The dozen red dots on my chest felt like tiny pinpricks of fire. | was surrounded, outmanned, and at the mercy of the man who had just declared me his enemy. | still had my knife to Kaela' s throat. A stalemate. For now. Holden took a slow, deliberate step forward, his hand outstretched, not in aggression, but in a gesture of placation. He wiped a smear of his own blood from his face with the back of his other hand, his eyes never leaving mine. His gaze dropped to the silver locket still lying on the floor between us. That tiny, forgotten piece of our past. A flicker of something-regret, maybe even pain-crossed his face before it was gone, replaced by a mask of cold resolve. "This has gone on long enough, Ivy," he said, his voice dangerously quiet. "Let her go. | promise she will never cross your path again. Just... stop." | stared at him, at the man who was asking me to be reasonable after setting my world on fire. A broken, bitter laugh escaped my lips "Stop?" | echoed. "You want me to stop?" ---- My hand tightened on the knife. But as my thumb brushed against the trigger of the small pistol tucked into my waistband, my wrist, the one he had crushed at the cabin, gave a searing bolt of pain. The wrist he had once kissed better after ' d sprained it falling from a fire escape. The wrist he had promised would always be strong enough to hold his hand. My fingers spasmed. The gun clattered to the floor. My entire arm felt like it was on fire, a useless, throbbing appendage. Holden frowned, his eyes zeroing in on my injured wrist, which was now visibly swollen and bruised. "You need a doctor," he stated, a hint of the old, protective Holden breaking through his icy exterior. Before he could take another step, Leo and two of my own men were there, forming a human shield around me. Their loyalty was absolute. "Don't touch her," Leo growled, his hand on his own weapon. The irony was crushing. My men were protecting me from my own husband. Holden held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, but his eyes were hard. He scooped a terrified, sobbing Kaela up from the floor and held her against his chest. He looked down at me, a king on his throne looking down at a rebellious subject. "You shouldn't have pushed me, Ivy," he said, his voice laced ---- with a disappointment that cut deeper than any blade. "If we are not divorced by sunrise," | said, my voice shaking but firm as | cradled my injured arm, "| will burn this entire city to the ground. And | will start with everything you love." | let Leo help me to my feet, every movement an agony. | bent down, my good hand scooping up the fallen pistol. | wasn't leaving without a weapon. As | straightened up, | aimed the gun directly at Holden. He didn't flinch. He just adjusted his hold on Kaela, shielding her more completely with his body. "Goodbye, Holden," | whispered. | pulled the trigger. But it wasn't Holden who fell. Kaela, in a move of surprising speed and desperation, twisted in his arms, putting herself directly in the bullet's path. She cried out, a sharp, wounded sound, as the bullet tore through her shoulder. Holden' s face contorted in a mask of pure horror and anguish. He looked at the blossoming red stain on Kaela' s white hospital gown, and then he looked at me. The look in his eyes... | had seen it only once before. It was the same look of utter devastation he' d had the moment the doctor told us our son was gone. ---- He was looking at me as if | had just killed his child all over again. "You've gone too far," he breathed, his voice trembling with a barely controlled rage. "You're the one who taught me, Holden," | shot back, my own voice raw with pain. "Never let them see a weakness. Never stop until the threat is eliminated.' Your words, not mine." With a guttural cry of defiance, | used my good hand to wrench my dislocated wrist back into place. The pop was sickening, the pain blinding, but | gritted my teeth against it. | would not show him weakness. Not now. Not ever. | raised the gun again, the barrel shaking slightly, but my aim true.