Queen of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,216

handle apparently.” Her nose wrinkled in disgust and mine did too but for completely opposite reasons. “For a man who seemed strong in so many ways, it turned out he was weak.”

“He wasn’t weak,” I snapped, acid bleeding through my veins. “Morals aren’t weak.”

She raised a finger, pointing it at me as rage pinched her features and I hated how I suddenly saw some of myself in her face. “Morals are a concept created by the government, by religion and by people who want to control you. The only things that truly count in this world are money and power – and you can’t have one without the other.”

“Coming from a bitch who’s a member of a disgusting club like Royaume D’élite,” I growled. “Where people are controlled, chained and treated like less than animals. Like they mean nothing. Like they are nothing.”

Karen started laughing. “A member?” she scoffed. “I am not a mere member, Tatum. I am one of the Grand Masters. As all ten of us are.” She gestured to Troy and the creeps behind her and my jaw clenched at that revelation. Now they were all marked to die, because the club could be reborn through any of them. And we couldn’t let that happen.

“If you’re so against being controlled, then why do you do it to others?” Blake asked in a voice full of disgust.

“Because there are different classes of people,” Troy answered coldly, and Karen nodded. “The powerful and the weak. We feed the weak to the powerful. We keep order. We define order.”

I glowered at Troy before fixing my so-called mother in my stare. “So my father found out what a monster he’d married, took his children and ran?” I guessed and she bristled.

“He stole you both because he couldn’t hack the real truth of this world. That there is no good and evil. That there is only power or the lack of it. And if you do not claim it, then you will be a slave to society and rules which were placed upon you without your consent! In this country, your life is decided for you before you’re even born. I didn’t want that for my daughters. I was building a new world for us. And your father ruined everything.” Her lower lip trembled with fury and I could see she really believed the bullshit spewing from her mouth.

“Good,” I snarled, hatred burning in my heart. “I’m glad he took us. I’m glad he kept us from you.”

She had the audacity to look hurt by my words before straightening her spine.

“Your five minutes are up,” Troy announced as he checked his watch once more.

Karen turned to him, raising her chin. “I wish to have a conversation with my daughter in private before we move her to the lab.”

My heart splintered with fear at the word ‘lab’ and I looked to my Night Keepers in alarm, having no idea what to do. We were out of time and our fate was closing in on all sides.

Troy nodded to one of the guards behind me, his eyes void of all emotion as he wielded all the power in the room against us. And I knew we were going to be torn apart before he even opened his mouth. “Take her away.”

K aren grabbed hold of Tatum's arm, her pointed fingernails digging into the flesh hard enough to draw a hiss of pain from our girl's lips. She hauled her towards a door in the far corner of the room, a guard shoving her along from behind too and holding his gun ready to fire.

"Where are you taking her?" Blake demanded, moving a step forward and causing my father's goons to raise their weapons in our direction again.

"I'd be more concerned with your own fate if I were you," Father snarled, his lip curled back in distaste as Tatum cursed, trying to rip her arm back out of her mother's hold.

"Let her go!" I commanded, my voice cutting and firm enough to make the bitch pause as she looked my way, but only for half a heartbeat.

As Tatum tried to lurch out of her grip, the armed man behind her backhanded her hard enough to knock her from her feet.

A roar of rage escaped my lips as I lurched forward a step, but it was nothing compared to the animalistic bellow that escaped Kyan.

He lunged forward, ripping his arms from the grip of the man who had been restraining him and slamming his fist into