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Julia was shaking so badly that she was rocking his body as he looked over his shoulder and saw Dev standing several feet froun in hand

"You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that" Dev lowered the gun "Good thing I heard you all shouting"

Lucian coughed out a harsh laugh Hell, he’d just knocked Dev on his ass and his brother just saved Julia’s life andkilled their cousin

Lucian’s

Suddenly, Julia jerked back fro into his shirt "Lucian, your sister--"

Dev shouted out a warning that ending in a grunt A second later, his knees buckled and he fell forward, the gun slipping frorasp He went down and didn’t move

Where Dev once was, Maddie stood, still as a wraith in the white nightgown Julia had dressed her in earlier "You have no idea how long I’ve waited to do that"

Chapter 31

Lucian was slow to rise "Maddie? What did youwhat did you do?"

"He’ll live For now" His sister knelt down, dropping whatever it was she used to knock out Dev with She picked up the gun "Is he dead? Is Daniel dead?"

When Lucian didn’t answer, she yelled, "Move! Move away fro behind him, he felt Julia’s hand fold around his He pulled her to her feet They stepped clear of Daniel

"Damn it," Maddie cried as she reached his side She knelt down, placing her hand on his chest "Daniel Babe"

Lucian was in shock, absolute shock "Maddie, you’re walking--you’re talking I don’t--"

"You don’t understand I know I’m sorry I really am" She picked up Daniel’s limp hand and pressed a kiss to it "I didn’t want you to see any of this You weren’t supposed to It wasn’t supposed to go down this way"

Lucian was thunderstruck "What wasn’t supposed to go down this way? What in the hell, Maddie? What’s going on?"

His sister straightened and she let her head fall back as she sighed "I should’ve known Daniel would get hiether this entire time, like I’ve made him do for years, this would’ve worked out, but no Theto screw everything up"

"Youyou’ve been with him this whole entire time?" Lucian asked, shocked into stillness

"Yes," she said, lowering her head Wind picked up the long, blond strands, tossing the was fine Weere finally left alone and I was happy, but we just--we ran out of ave way to repulsion as what his sister was saying began to click into place "What do you mean?"

Julia’s hands pushed into Lucian’s back "They were together They were--"

"We were in love!" Maddie shouted "I know you all probably think it’s wrong, but I don’t care We loved one another! And all we ever wanted was to be together"

Lucian’s stomach roiled

"That’s all" Maddie shook her head "But you know Daniel He’s soso weak sometimes All he had to do was trust ain That’s all he had to do And now look at him?"

He didn’t need to look at Daniel "God, Maddie, what have you done?"

"It’s not my fault!" she yelled "He messed up and I knew he’d messed up when he showed up here I kneould only be a matter of time before he screwed up and it would all be over, so I had to fix this We can still fix this"