Page 75 of Princess of Vengeance

“Bullshit,” Killian cuts her off. “That’s fucking bullshit, and you know it.”

“You think this makes you weak?” I ask her, taking her hand in mine. “Surviving what you’ve survived? Continuing to fight every fucking day?”

“Most people would’ve broken completely after what you went through,” Atlas says, and I can tell from the far-away look in his eyes that he’s thinking about the torture he’s endured and how fucking hard it was. “But here you are, still standing and still fucking fighting.”

“Pushing through all that trauma and all that terrible shit from your past isn’t weakness, mia cara,” I tell her, squeezing her hand. “It’s the definition of fucking strength.”

Killian nods. “You made a deal with the devil to save us. You married him to keep us alive. Even now, you’re risking everything to meet us here.” He shakes his head. “If that’s weakness, then that fucking word doesn’t mean what it used to.”

She looks up at me like she’s finally starting to believe us, then I see another thought cloud her pretty face.

“I don’t want to go back to him.” The pain and honesty in her voice tears at my fucking heart. “I hate sleeping under the same roof, knowing he’s just down the hallway waiting for a chance to… to do whatever he fucking wants.”

“Then don’t go back.” I shake my head, trying and failing to keep some of the anger from my voice. “We’ll find another fucking way. We can disappear tonight and leave this shit-hole city behind. We’ll start over somewhere new.”

I know we’ve tossed that out there as a possibility more than a few times already, but I fucking mean it this time. We’ll make contacts in other cities and find places we can hide until we’re ready to build something new. I’ll take this woman to the ends of the earth and guard her with everything I have if it means she doesn’t have to spend another night away from us.

“We can protect you,” Atlas adds, because of course my brothers are on the same page. “Even if we have to cut through an army to do it.”

Killian nods. “I’d enjoy that, to be perfectly fucking honest.”

Quinn shakes her head, and I can see the determination returning. The breakdown we all witnessed earlier is passing. Mia cara—our vicious, our siren—is coming back to herself.

“I can’t run,” she says. “I won’t. My plan is starting to work, and I need to see it through.”

She sits up straighter and brushes her hair back from her face. She really is getting back to her old self now. Thank fucking god. She’s going to need every ounce of intelligence and defiance and street smarts to survive the hell she has to go back to.

“I’ve been talking to Imogen,” she continues. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say we’re friends, but she’s softening toward me. And she told me something interesting.” She quickly looks around to each of us before continuing—as if we’d be focused on anything or anyone else right now. “Every single member of the Dark Lotus Syndicate got their membership the same way—as blood money for someone Malcolm had killed.”

“What the fuck?” The question slips out even though I understood perfectly well what she just said.

“That was pretty much my same reaction,” she nods. “But yeah, Malcolm eliminates someone close to a person he wants to recruit, then offers them power as compensation. It ends up being a twisted fucking blood debt that keeps them all chained directly to him.”

Atlas frowns. “So it’s not an equal partnership like Ambrose thought. Like you were made to believe.”

“Nope. It’s a fucking prison sentence, and they all know it.”

As the pieces of information fall into place, an unavoidable question pops into my head. “So wait… if everyone has to losesomeone close to become a member, who did your dad lose? How did he get the marker that he passed down to you?”

“That’s the worst part.” Her voice falters slightly before she clears her throat and forces herself to continue. “The reason my dad got his marker was because of my mom.”

“What?” Atlas frowns and shifts closer as she explains.

“My father did a job for Malcolm years ago. The targets retaliated by killing my mother. It was Malcolm’s fucking fault, and then he had the balls to offer my father membership as compensation.”

“Jesus Christ.” I shove a hand through my hair, my stomach turning.

“That motherfucking piece of shit,” Killian snarls like he’s ready to hunt Malcolm down right this second.

“All these years, I never knew the truth,” Quinn says. “But it was him. It’s always been him.”

I pull her against my chest, feeling the rage and grief radiating from her body. “I’m so fucking sorry. We’ll make him pay.”

“That’s right.” She nods and pulls back to look at each of us in turn. “I have ammunition now. The others hate him too—they’re just afraid to show it. If I can get some time with each of them, I think I can convince them to stand together with me.”

“You think you can turn the Syndicate against him?” Atlas asks.

“I think I fucking can.”

---