The scars of betrayal

**Ivery Clark POV** 

The gun felt heavier than it should have. Cold metal kissed my palm, and I stared down at it like it was some otherworldly object — something from a nightmare I couldn’t escape. 

My heart pounded so hard I thought it might burst, every beat a deafening thrum in my ears. 

This couldn’t be happening.

“Go on, Ivery.” Alrigo’s voice, low and smooth, was cruelly calm—a knife hidden in silk. His eyes bore into me, cold and unrelenting. 

“You’re either with me or against me, Ivery. Make your choice.”

Tears welled in my eyes, blurring the edges of the gun that still rested, accusatory and damning, in my trembling hand. “Please, Alrigo…” 

“Do you hear yourself?” I whispered, tears streaming down my face now. “This isn’t loyalty—this is cruelty! You want to destroy me, Alrigo? Is this what you call trust?”

“Trust?” he echoed bitterly, his lips pulling into a cruel smile. “If trust could’ve saved me, I wouldn’t wear scars, ma bella. If I trusted everyone who claimed innocence, I’d be rotting in a ditch. This is the world you walked into, Ivery. There are no halfway sides. It’s predators and prey. Choose.”

“Oh, but I do.” His voice was soft now, deadly soft, like the whisper of death in the dark. He leaned in close enough that I could feel his breath. “Prove your loyalty. Choose. Me or him.”

“No…”

I turned my head toward Rowan, barely able to keep myself upright as the floor felt like it was crumbling beneath me. He was staring at me—not with fear, not with hatred, but with something worse: resignation. 

The kind only a brother who had already decided what was to come could wear.

“Alrigo, I don't know how she got involved with you, but she doesn’t deserve this.” Rowan hissed, his voice cracking with desperation. “I was sent to kill you. I came for your throat. Not her. Do what you want with me. Don't you even dare harm her." 

But Alrigo didn’t even care, instead moved closer, every step carrying the weight of his dangerous power. "Time is ticking, ma bella."

He grabbed me by the wrist then, not to hurt me, but to force the weight of the weapon into my grip, holding my trembling hand steady. The room contracted around me; the air seemed thick and hot, like I was drowning in it.

“I can’t…” The words barely escaped, my vision blurred by grief and horror.

"No, please. I can't!" 

Alrigo stepped back as if I’d confirmed his worst suspicion, that flicker of something—hurt—crossing his features before it disappeared under ice.

“Just as I thought,” he said, his voice so cold it sent a shiver racing down my spine.

“You’re not so innocent after all, are you? I thought you might surprise me, but weakness—I hope you know what your weakness will cost you, Ivery,” he said darkly, his expression set like stone. 

“Alrigo, please…” I begged, but it was futile. I could see it—feel it—the way he was sealing himself off from me, locking me out with iron gates of distrust.

With his back to me, he lifted one gloved hand and barked a quiet command to his men, sending a wave of terror coursing through my veins. "Kill him." 

“Stop! Alrigo, please—he’s all I have!” I cried, dropping the gun as though it burned. My legs buckled, but I forced myself to hold onto him, to fight. “Please! Don’t do this!”

Rowan’s face twisted with rage as he shouted over his shoulder, “Ivery! Run! Get out of here now—forget about me!”

He fixed a glare on Alrigo. “Don’t beg him, Ivery. He’s a cold-hearted bastard, and you know it. If he wants to kill me, let him do it while he’s at it. It’s what men like him do—destroy anything in their path.”

“Rowan!” I snapped, my voice sharper than I’d intended, but my brother’s recklessness churned my stomach. “Just stop.”

But Alrigo chuckled, the sound low and cruel as he stepped closer, his hands casually sliding into his pockets. 

He loomed above Rowan, a predator towering over his prey, exuding authority that made the hairs on my neck stand. “The traitor has teeth,” he mused darkly, his tone almost bored. “How quaint. And yet, you’re not in a position to swear at me, are you? One order from me, and my men will drag your body back to your gang in pieces.”

Rowan snarled, tugging against his restraints, but his anger only fed the dark energy swirling around Alrigo. “You think you’re untouchable?” Rowan spat. “Ivery should run from you too. This—whatever this is—it won’t end well. You’re nothing but a ticking time bomb, just like the rest of your damned empire!”

“Enough, Rowan! Please, don’t make it worse,” I begged, turning to Alrigo with wide, tear-filled eyes. “Please, Alrigo… spare him.”

His cold gaze flicked from Rowan to me, studying me like I was some pitiful creature pleading before its executioner. 

“Begging suits you very well…” he remarked, a cruel smirk dancing on his lips. “But words are cheap, Ivery. Why should I show mercy to a man who was here to slit my throat?"

I dropped to my knees before Alrigo, the gravel beneath biting into my skin, but I didn’t care. Nothing mattered except the man standing before me—his presence as sharp and foreboding as the edge of a blade.

His expression was unreadable, a mask of indifference that somehow felt colder than fury. Behind me, Rowan's ragged breaths filled the air, but I didn’t dare turn around. My focus was on Alrigo.

“Please,” I whispered, barely able to hear my voice over the pounding in my ears. “Please don’t kill him. I’ll do anything—anything—for you.”

The words tasted like desperation, and they burned coming out, but they were all I had left.

Alrigo’s head tilted slightly, his lips curling into a slow, cruel smirk, and for a moment, the silence between us felt heavier than all the violence that had preceded it.

“Anything?” he repeated, his voice low, smooth, and dripping with something dark.

He crouched before me, bringing his face level with mine, though the shift in his posture only made him more predatory, more dangerous. His fingers reached out, brushing a loose strand of hair from my face in a gesture so intimate it sent a cold shiver racing down my spine.

“Anything I say,” he murmured, his voice like poisoned silk, “you’ll do without question?”

I swallowed hard, my body trembling under the weight of his gaze.