Page 35 of Regal Queen

"Good. Now, there's one last thing we need to discuss, and then I'll let you retire for the night.” Luca paused, his fingers once more stroking Penny’s skin. Instead of relaxing into him, she played with her large diamond wedding ring, twisting it around her finger absentmindedly, not looking at us. “It’s about your mother.”

His gaze fell on me at these last words and my stomach plunged.

This was going to be bad. I knew it, could feel the drudgery burrowing deep into my bones and the longer he hesitated, the more my nerves spiked.

“This may..." he shifted Penny, and his hand settled on top of the laptop on his desk, "complicate things." A shoulder came up, and I suddenly wanted to puch him in the face for feigning nonchalance, though I wasn't even certain why I wanted to do it. "Or it could make your decisions even easier."

Holding Penny tight, he leaned forward. When he opened the lid to his laptop, Penny's lips tugged downward, avoiding my gaze. I gripped the edge of my chair tightly as he turned the laptop towards us. On the screen was a video, frozen in time, and my heart lunched at what I saw there on the screen.

It was my mother.

The woman who'd betrayed us and yet, for some stupid reason, I still feel my anxiety wretch up at the sight of her.

She hadn't been the best mom, but she had done her best to look out for me over the years, despite her betrayal in the end. She'd also made certain we didn't return to that trailer home in Naked City, and had given me two more brothers.

Somewhere in my cold heart, I still loved her.

And now, she sat on a chair, her hands held loose at her side. She looked calm, but the frozen look of fear in her eyes told me everything I needed to know.

She may have left with the devil but she didn't want to be there now.

She was afraid.

Luca’s finger hovered over the spacebar and I met his eyes, trying to maintain my composure.

I nodded, and his hand came down, unleashing a world of pain on me.

"Coulter." Her voice was infused with a world of regret. Her eyes had been focused on the screen but they glanced somewhere off screen, hesitant. "You need to bring Rose back."

There was the harsh sound of a rough voice and my mom cleared her throat, focusing on the screen again. "He says he'll do whatever it takes to get to her back, including killing every single one of you. But, he'll also accept her dead body."

Bourbon cursed and Rose's shifted in her seat, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen. Something bad was coming next and I was frozen like a deer in headlights. My mom licked her lips and her eyes shifted towards off the screen again.

There were more low voices then, suddenly, she sat back, her eyes tracking movement until a man entered the screen, standing next to her. I couldn’t see his face, he was cut off at the chest, but I didn't need to see his face to know that it was Dimitri.

In his hand, was a gun.

“No.” I wanted to shut out what was coming next, to stop time, to slam my fist into the laptop over and over. But I couldn’t stop the inevitable, couldn’t stop my life from exploding all over.

My mom suddenly lurched forward, falling to her knees to grab the camera.

“Nero made me do this. I swear, Coulter, I would never betray you like this." Time suddenly slowed, but no matter how much I wanted it, Dimitri's hand raising the gun towards her head couldn't be stopped. Her next words were frantic, as if in a rush to get them out. "Take care of your—”

The gun went off, and I watched as my mother's head flew to the side, matter splattering before she disappeared before the sight. I cried out, yelling and jumping to my feet. I grabbed the computer, jerking it to me as Dimitri’s face came into view.

"You have two days to return her. If you do so willingly, you will have my favor and you will live. After that, I come for everyone.”

Then the screen went black and I threw the computer across the room, screaming out the raging anger inside me.

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