Page 56 of Broken Queen
“Don’t lie to me, Zira. I know you. I know when you’re playing games. Because we’re alike, more than you want to admit. That’s why we make sense.”
I shook my head, even though he was right. We were so alike that he knew exactly how to fuck with me in a way I needed. His cock stabbed between my velvet walls and tears welled in my eyes. I reached for his throat again, but he kept fucking me. It was so intimate to be like this; neither of us holding back, both of us giving absolutely everything we had to give, and it scared the hell out of me. He could see inside of me to those truths, and one day, he would find out what he wanted to know about his sister. He was right. Even if I didn’t kill her, I was involved.
But as I choked him and he thrust inside of me, I couldn’t make myself say the truth. If I did, Hazard would kill my father before I had the chance to secure my legacy, and I’d been screwed over one too many times to risk letting him screw me over again.
Hazard flipped me over, forcing my face and chest against the brittle carpet, slamming into me from behind. Each thrust unloaded his frustration, forcing me to take every inch of him. He grabbed my neck, leaning on the carpet too, lying down on top of me. As our foreheads touched, our eyes glued to each other, I could see, even then, that he still wanted me. Even if I lied. Even if I played games with him. And he hated it.
He pulled my hair, yanking until my head tossed back, then he slapped my ass so hard that my body jiggled, and that force pushed me over the edge, making me come. He pulled out and erupted all over my back, marking me.
Our breaths came out uneven, like we both knew that this wasn’t where we were supposed to go, but we couldn’t help it. I stood cautiously, straightening my dress. And as if he had gotten something out of his system, he pulled up his jeans and his lips pulled back into a forced expression, one I had never seen before. A half-smile. It was like he knew he had me pinned between his fingers, and he didn’t want to worship me anymore.
He wanted to break me.
I rubbed my hands together, trying to stay civilized this time. “Are you going to tell me where Ernest is now?”
Hazard’s brown eyes glowered. “Don’t worry, little bloom,” he winked. “I made a promise to you, didn’t I?”
Those words tightened my chest. He had made a promise, but he knew I was lying about his sister’s death, and so he was lying to me about Ernest.
“We’ll kill him together,” I said carefully.
“In the guillotine, just like we planned,” he said.
I nodded slowly. “Like we planned.”
I left the motel as quickly as I could without seeming like I was running away, but I was. I didn’t know what I would do if Hazard turned against me, but I knew he had broken his promise.
Ernest was dead.
On a whim, I went to my father’s study in the Bloom Estate. He sat behind his desk with reading glasses on the edge of his nose as he stared at his computer. His chair squeaked as he rolled back, looking up at me.
The crown and scepter had been replaced by another set, but my father had never said a word about their disappearance. It was as if the set Hazard had stolen for me meant nothing.
I gulped hard, but I had to do this.
“Why did you pick him?” I asked.
My father tilted his head. “Who?”
I rolled my eyes. “Hazard has been a member for a few days, and you’re making him a board member?”
My father cleared his throat, his eyes tracing me from my head to my toes. Chills ran down my spine, but I suppressed them. I needed to get this out.
“That man loves you, my child. He respects you,” he said.
I sniffled; respect? How could he possibly respect me if he had broken a promise?
And love? People like us didn’t love anything.
My father continued, “I’d rather he be in danger than put you in the spotlight.”
“But I want to be in the spotlight. I don’t care if I die.”
“Zira, this is?—”
“Hazard killed Logan, Simon, and Ernest.”
My father pressed his thumb against his lips, his eyes still on me. He raised a brow.
