Page 59 of Regal Queen

Fifteen

Cuba,Torian had said. Why the hell were they going go Cuba? I waited for the elevator door, then suddenly realized that I was standing by myself. I turned, staring them down with a glare.

This was the first time anyone close to me had ever rebelled, and I didn’t fucking appreciate it.

All over Rose. How the hell had she gotten to them like that?

"What the hell is everyone doing?” I grit out, trying to keep a calm over myself, when really I wanted to smash every god damn thing into the wall. “Let’s go.”

Luca stopped tapping on his phone, not looking at me but tilting his head all the same. Both Dante and Torian only stared at me, not moving. Coulter’s eyes didn't lift from the ground. He was staring at it like he wasn't really seeing it, like his thoughts were else where, and a flash of regret entered me.

His mother had just been brutally murdered in front of his eyes.

Dante pushed himself to his feet, sighing. "I need a drink. Anyone else?"

Coulter snapped out of his daze and looked up. “Something strong.”

Luca sprung to his feet, walking so close to me that he brushed my arm. The touch wasn't threatening, but rather, grounding. He was trying to get me to snap out of it.

He was right, I needed to lower my intensity by about a million but I couldn't seem to help it. Not when it came to Rose. She needed to be by my side.

And what the hell was she doing with Knight anyways? Did they have something going on? I was going to seriously murder the bastard.

I stalked over to Coulter, looming down at him. "You don't seem to be all that concerned about them.”

He relaxed against the back of the sofa, giving me that cocky look I'd seen so many times from him. "You think I should be?”

"Maybe you really don't care about her, or him, as much as I thought you did."

He flashed his teeth in a predatory grin. "I'm not worried about either of the two.”

His look was so knowing, so much like Nero's that it pissed me the hell off. I wished I could wipe the smug from his face just because of the reminder of the father I hated.

However, that look only meant one thing. He knew something I didn't.

"What?" I grunted, giving in, and collapsing on the sofa next to him, grumbling. "Just spit it out, ya bastard."

He chuckled. "For once, I know something you don't."

"Yeah, yeah." I reached out, grabbing the whiskey from Dante’s hand that was meant for Coulter, wiping that stupid smug look off Coulter's face.

As Coulter watched Dante sit on the sofa across from us, without going back to the kitchen to get another drink for him, he gave me a dirty look. "I don't like it that Dante's taken to you."

I gave him my own cocky grin. "Get used to it, brother."

He frowned as I took a long gulp of the drink, and the alcohol burned off some of my anger. Grunting, I passed the glass over to him. He gave it a suspicious look but took it all the same. I watched as he took a sip, clenching my jaw and forcing myself to be patient while he decided when and how he was going to enlighten me.

After a long pause, while both Luca and Torian finished getting their own drinks, then settling near us, he finally turned towards me.

"First. You said you want to go after her, which is fine, but what are you going to do once you get to her?"

I frowned, not liking where this was going, and stood up. I couldn’t stay still.

I began to pace, my thoughts churning, wondering why the hell he was asking this question. "I'm going to find out what the hell she was doing at the Paradiso. And why Cuba? Is she going to try and find Dimitri on her own?” I stilled, frozen with the thought, the blood draining from my face. "What if Dimitri is in Cuba? What if she's going there to confront him?"

Coulter shook his head, a look so certain and sure of himself that I wanted to stride the few steps to him and throttle his neck. Force him to tell me what he knew.

"No,” he said confidently, "Dimitri isn't there."

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