Page 150 of Monsters Wear Crowns
I let the silence stretch. Let him feel the weight of it. Then I crouched down, leveling my gaze with his. “Don’t fucking talk to me like that.” I said softly.
He gave a breathless chuckle, blood bubbling between his teeth. “You think killing me is gonna change anything?” He spit to the side, red splattering against the floor. “Moreau’s already inside their heads. Already got some of your people doubting you. They’ve watched you turn into afuckingmonster.” His swollen eye flickered up to mine. “And she felt the fangs and the goddamn claws of your monster.”
Heat pulsed under my skin, my pulse a slow, simmering burn. I unsheathed my knife, ready to carve his sins into his fucking skin.
“You know,” he rasped, spitting crimson onto the floor. “I filmed it.”
I stilled.What? This fucker was about to suffer.
His one good eye flicked up to meet mine, a slow, deliberate smirk curling his split lip.
“What,” I said, voice flat.
“You werebrutal,” he breathed, leaning forward as much as the restraints allowed. “The way she cried, the way shebegged. I showed my boss, and he–” he let out a low chuckle, shaking his head. “Fuck, man. Helovedit. He can’t wait for her to visit him again.”
I didn’t think I took a breath. My fingers tightened around the handle of my knife, knuckles aching, vision tunneling.
“He said he wants to taste her. And that I could join in.Someonewould need to hold her,” he murmured, voice almost reverent. “And he was so close, Vaughan. His fingers were right there–”
I slammed my fist into his face so hard the chair tipped back. His head whipped to the side again, a fresh spray of bloodarcing through the air before he let out a strangled laugh.
“Ah, that hit a nerve,” he crooned, voice garbled through a mouthful of red. He grinned, all teeth, all pain. “She wanted it, you know. Don’t think for a second that she didn’t. She almost opened her pretty thighs. But at the last moment? She remembered you.” He spat more blood onto the ground. “That crazy bitch actually walked away from Nicolas Moreau. Although, she left with a wet fucking pussy.”
Something snapped inside of me.
I lunged.
The chair crashed back down as my hands fisted in his shirt, dragging his limp weight upright. “You’relying,” I growled, voice shaking with barely contained fury.She never told me that she ached for it. That she almost let it happen.
“Am I?” His bloody grin widened, his eye gleaming with something close to victory. “Tell me, Rafe, can you really trust her after what you did? After the way she looked at you?”
My grip tightened. The words slithered into my head, poisoning every thought, every memory of her. The look on her face when I hurt her. The way she sobbed.The way she left.
I saw red.
I slammed the knife into his thigh, twisting. His scream was sharp and guttural, but I barely heard it over the roar in my ears. “She’s MINE,” I snarled.
“Shewasyours,” he rasped, shaking through the pain. “Not anymore. She’s homealonenow, and Moreau wants her.”
I twisted the knife deeper. His body spasmed against the chair, a choked gasp leaving his lips, but even through it, his smile remained. That smile made me want to carve his goddamn face off. I ripped the knife free, stood up, and turned away before I did something that would make him pass out too soon.
My hands were shaking.
I exhaled through my nose, flexing my fingers, staring down at the blood dripping from my hands, from my arms, from the inkedflowers and coiled serpent winding around my bicep.
Adela.
I needed her here.Now. I pulled my phone from my pocket, smearing red across the screen as I shot off a quick text.
Rafe:Kieran’s on his way. I need you for a bit.
Then I looked up at the ceiling and called, “Kieran!”
Footsteps descended the stairs a moment later. I turned as Kieran appeared, his sharp gaze flicking from my face to the man bleeding out in the chair.
I ignored his barely concealed irritation. “Go get Adela,” I said simply.
His jaw tensed. “Rafe–”
