Page 5 of Ruined

I answered the phone with a drawn-out sigh. “Yes?” I asked.

“Adelaide, you know I’ve tried protecting you from Joey for the last year since you went off the rails, but I can’t do anything this time,” she told me right off the bat, her voice sounding slightly panicked.

“What now?” I demanded to know, my gut twisting.

“You’re with Tristan,” she told me. I grunted. It sure as fuck wasn’t by choice. “Joey ispissed, Adelaide. You can’t come back. Promise me that you’ll protect yourself,” she begged, sounding truly panicked.

I snorted. “Jessie, Joey and I have fallouts all of the time—” I tried reassuring her, but she quickly interrupted me.

“No, Adelaide, this time it’s different.” I clenched my jaw, glaring at the sheets of the bed as I sat down, my heart thumping crazilyin my chest. My throat burned with tears. He couldn’t be doing this. Hepromisedme that I could always keep him with me.

“He’s destroyed your entire fucking room, and he’s got a meeting this afternoon with a hired hitman,” she informed me. I swallowed hard. My life just took a major downward spiral. Joey had officially turned his back on me. I guessed his word didn’t mean shit either. “You need to stay hidden.”

“Thanks, Jessie, but I can take care of myself,” I quietly told her.

I hung up, clenching my jaw to hold in my tears and the hurt burning through my chest. I quickly pulled up my texts and went to Joey’s number, a smirk twisting my lips as I prepared to piss him off even further. I couldn’t help it. I was hurting. Fuckingaching.

And I was self-destructing.

Adelaide:

Can’t wait to see what you’ve got planned, Joe- Joe. Love you!

My phone pinged with a text message a moment later. Tristan hovered over my shoulder as I opened it to read the message.

Joey:

What the fuck are you talking about?

“What the fuck is going on?” Tristan demanded to know. When I didn’t answer him, he gripped my arm and yanked me off the bed, swinging me around to face him. My heart was splitting in my chest, the pain billowing out through the rest of my body. “Fucking answer me, dammit,” He snarled down into my face when I didn’t immediately answer, his eyes narrowed.

I shrugged, moving back from him. My heart and mind started going nuts when he touched me. I hated it. I couldn’t let him affect me like he used to. I wasn’t that same young, foolish, naive girl anymore.

I wanted Joey, but he was giving up on me.

My phone pinged again, this time with a text message from an unknown number.

Unknown:

Wherefore art thou, Adelaide? Tick. Tick. Boom.

“Fuck!” I shouted, gripping Tristan’s wrist in my hand as I pulled him toward the bedroom door.

“Addy, what the fuck?!” Tristan shouted, trying to pull me to a stop.

“We’ve got to get out, Tristan. This place is about to fucking explode!” I barked at him over my shoulder, my heart pounding hard and fast in my chest as adrenaline rushed through my veins.

Something in my gut told me this wasn’t Joey’s doing. He wouldn’t have had time to have a talk with a hitman yet nor to set up any kind of plan.

Someone was after Tristan.

Or me. There was no real way of knowing. I’d pissed off a lot of people in the past three years.

We rushed out of the old, rundown house right before the ground shook with an explosion. The last thing I remembered was Tristan throwing me to the ground and covering his body with mine before everything went dark.

Chapter Three

Adelaide

---