WICKED PARADISE | JENLISA

EIGHT

JENNIE
***

PAIN.

There were different levels of it. Different methods of it. Different versions of different reasons full of different deliveries.

But this pain?

The pain Lisa had just punctured me with?

I couldn’t breathe around it. I couldn’t see beyond it. I’d honestly never felt such catastrophic, claustrophobic…

Pain.

Not because I believed she didn’t love me. Not because she’d dishonoured me by trying to make me swallow a lie. But because she was resolute, resigned…deadened to her decision and already suffering the accompanying agony.

She can’t do this.

She can’t end us.

It was unthinkable.

Stumbling forward, I clutched the doorframe as Lisa marched naked with Pika on her head to answer the door. For anyone else, the image would be comical. For Lisa, it made her all the more royal. All the more regal and untouchable.

Keeping her hand between her legs, she swung open the door, her back straight, her body locked.

A guard I’d seen lurking around the gardens during my weeks here bowed her head in respect. “Your clothes, courtesy of Mr. Moor.”

Lisa took the bundle. “Tell him thanks. His inability to keep his nose out of other people’s business has proven to be convenient.”

The guard nodded. “He also advised that the men are at their posts. We’re ready.” Pulling something from his waistband, he placed it on top of Lisa’s clothing. His eyes didn’t stray from his boss’s face; the fact that she was nude didn’t seem to faze him. “Your weapon, miss.”

Weapon?

My heart skipped, adding worry to my pain.

Why had the entire island suddenly turned black with foreboding?

I stumbled from the walk-in wardrobe as Lisa closed the door and strode toward my bed. I followed her, dazed and soul sore, hating the dread covering my heart in sticky tar.

My eyes locked on the weapon.

A gun.

Black and lethal, despicable and menacing.

The sight of the morbid gun on my pristine white sheets petrified me.

The truth of the matter swarmed into comprehension.

Her brother was coming here. Her brother was going to try to kill her. Her brother was the reason for all of this awful pain.

“Lisa…” I moved toward her, my eyes drinking her in as she tugged on a black pair of boxers, black slacks, and a black shirt. A uniform intended to camouflage her in the dark. A solider ready for bloodshed.

I ignored her lies about us being over. I pretended what she’d said in the wardrobe never happened, and I tried a different tactic. “If you want me to leave…come with me.”

She sighed heavily as if my attempt at compromise was too hard for her to handle. “Enough, Jinx.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezed her eyes shut, and groaned low in her chest. “Enough.”

“You don’t get to shut me out just because you’ve made a decision. That’s not how a relationship works.”

“A relationship…?” Her eyebrows tugged low over her tortured gaze. “We don’t have a relationship. I told you…we’re over.”