Page 49 of Crown of Lies

I scramble to pull my clothes on, hissing when my shirt touches my freshly-inked skin. Jesus, we didn’t even put a bandage on it before we started fucking. I have bigger problems to deal with at the moment though.

And it sure as hell doesn’t help that my rough, desperate fuck with Atlas has left me feeling exposed and vulnerable—not just physically, but emotionally too. Letting him tattoo my skin with his mark, letting him inside me both literally and metaphorically? Those were all stupid, irresponsible choices. And now, with Emmett here, I feel naked in more ways than one.

Emmett’s eyes burn into me as he zips up his jacket. I can see the disappointment and anger radiating off him in waves. He doesn’t say a word, just turns and walks out of the tattoo parlor, leaving me standing there with Atlas.

I finish dressing, doing my best to school my features. Still, my trembling hands keep betraying me. I feel raw and exposed, like my secrets are written all over my skin. I run a hand through my hair, trying one more time to compose myself, and then I turn and hurry after Emmett.

He’s already halfway down the block, his long strides eating up the pavement. I call out to him, but he doesn’t slow down.

“Emmett, wait!” I yell, breaking into a run.

He finally stops, whirling around to face me. His eyes are blazing, his jaw clenched tight.

“What the fuck, Quinn?” he spits out. “What the actual fuck?”

The anger in his eyes is palpable, and I can see the distrust lurking beneath it.

“Emmett, I—” I start, but he cuts me off.

“Do you have any idea what you’re risking?” he hisses, taking a step closer. “This isn’t just about you, Quinn. It’s about all of us. The whole gang.”

I swallow hard, the weight of his words settling on my shoulders. “I know, I?—”

“No, you don’t know,” he snaps. “If Nico finds out that you’re cheating on him with one of his seconds in command, we’re all fucked. You’re putting everything we’ve worked for in jeopardy.”

His words sting, and he makes a good point about the gang—even if he doesn’t exactly have all the facts as far as Nico is concerned. But there’s something else, an edge to his voice that’s unfamiliar, almost as if his anger is coming from a place of wounded pride rather than concern for our organization.

“The alliance isn’t in danger,” I insist. “You’ll just have to trust me on that.”

“Trust you?” Emmett’s jaw clenches. “Did you tell Nico to trust you before you threw yourself at Atlas?”

The accusation hits me hard. There’s no way I’d let Emmett—or any other member of my gang, for that matter—talk to me like this under normal circumstances. But nothing about what I’m doing here is normal. “It’s not like that, and?—”

“Oh yeah?” Emmett interrupts again, his voice dripping with the kind of venom I’m only used to hearing from people outside the gang. “What’s it like then?”

I grimace, my stomach churning. I don’t want to admit the reality of the situation to him, but I feel backed into a corner. Maybe if he knows the truth, or at least the partial truth, he’ll understand that I’m really not about to blow up our deal with the Princes.

“The Princes… Nico, Killian, and Atlas… they’ve shared me,” I say, the words tasting bitter on my tongue.

Emmett’s eyes widen, shock replacing the anger on his face. He takes a step back, as if my words have physically pushed him away.

“What?” he whispers, making me cringe just as much as if he’d yelled.

I watch as his expression hardens, his initial shock morphing into something colder, more guarded.

“I don’t like any of this, Quinn,” he says, his voice low and tight. “Not one bit.”

I open my mouth to try to explain myself a little better, but he holds up a hand and shakes his head.

“That story about Silas? I don’t buy it,” he continues. “Something isn’t adding up here. I don’t know if they’re keeping something from you, or what, but this whole situation stinks.”

I know how bad it has to look from the outside, and it doesn’t help that I’ve been caught out and I’m struggling to defend myself. I want to explain that I know what I’m doing, but the doubt in his eyes makes me hesitate.

“I’ve always thought this alliance was a bad idea,” Emmett presses on, his voice rising. “And now you’re fucking all three of the men who were once our enemies? How the hell is that not going to cloud your judgment?”

He’s not wrong. Not completely, anyway. This situation is complicated, and I can’t deny that my feelings were definitely tangled up in it all at one point not too long ago.

But things have changed since then, and I don’t have the time, the patience, or the bandwidth to try to explain it all in the kind of detail that he’s clearly going to need.

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