Queen of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,219

sent panic crashing through my chest.

But I didn't flinch. I didn't thrash or scream or beg. I didn't fucking break. And I wouldn't. No matter what he did to try and make me.

I was Saint-motherfucking-Memphis. I was born of the Devil and cast in the shape of hell. I'd never learned to bow, and I refused to bend. The only thing that would carve through my will was death itself. And if that came for me, I'd welcome it. Because my lips would never part on this secret and I would never cave to this beast who held me.

There was a time when Troy Memphis had ruled me with fear and the pathetic need to please him. But now the only one who held dominion over me was a girl with a heart too pure and a soul too good for me. Nothing else in this world could touch me now I was her creature. And I'd endure each and every ring of hell if that was what it took to return me to her side.

T he asshole guard who’d hit me dragged me along behind Karen and pushed me into a room with a symbol on the door that looked like some sort of wheel. Grief slashed through my chest over Kyan and I was starting to spiral as I tried not to fall apart completely. I’d seen that bullet rip into him, seen him fall and heard the crack as his head collided with the ground, seen the way he’d gone so still. Too still. It was the exact way my dad had looked when he’d died. I was in shock, unable to fully process what had happened as I fought not to lose control. Because if I did, I’d never get back to my boys.

Silent tears tracked down my cheeks as my heart was carved up over Kyan, leaving it bloody and raw, the pain too blinding to bear. I had to fight for him. Because he would have brought heaven and hell to ruin if it had been me laying in his place. So I would do that for him. I’d find some lasting shard of strength in my soul to hold onto and I’d finish this war for my inked god. And when it was over, I’d let myself break and suffer in the wake of his absence until there was nothing left of me.

There were raised seats facing a red curtain inside the room and I was shoved down into one while Karen stayed on her feet.

“Thank you, Raul, you can go and dispose of the dead body now,” she said curtly and a noise of utter grief left me before I lost it, lunging at her, wanting to tear her apart with my bare hands in the name of Kyan.

She grabbed a gun from inside her robes and shifted her finger onto the trigger as she aimed it at me, making me pause. “You may be important, girl, but if you fight me, I assure you I will shoot. So sit down.”

The guard left and I gritted my teeth, staring at the gun and calculating the risk of attacking her, trying to pry it from her hand and turning it on her. If she got close enough, careless enough, I might just have a chance. But I couldn’t give away that that was my intention, so I looked her in the eye and dropped back into my chair like I was admitting defeat. But hell if I was. I struggled to calm the shaking of my hands as I thought of Kyan and ached over his loss. I’ll burn the world down for you, my dark sinner, the fire will blaze so bright you’ll see it wherever you are.

“I know this is a lot to take in,” she started.

“I can handle it,” I said bitterly. “You’re my mother? Sure, maybe you are. Do you think that earns you something with me? Because it doesn’t. As far as I’m concerned, I have no mother.”

“I did not abandon you, Adriana,” she snipped, and I grimaced at that name. “But if you think I care what you think of me, you’re mistaken. I gave you a chance a long time ago, both you and your sister. But I saw what you’d become.”

“A chance?” I scoffed. “When was that then?”

“I found you eventually. It took years of searching, but I tracked your father down and followed you all to a mall in Atlanta. When he left you