Page 106 of Quinlan

Then…silence. Is she looking at the photo? I don’t think she does. Quinlan won’t care for that this early in her captivity. She broke her television. She slammed the door in Damien’s face after he licked her, after he bathed her.

She must be too mad at us to slow down and care about what we looked like as kids. With good reason.

We move closer. Low light sips through the crack in the door. The sound of drawers opening and closing floats into the hallway. One of them jangles—the locked one. A groan follows. More silence.

Damien and I are a foot away from the door. We don’t stay here long.

I push through the door, and both of us stroll into the room, standing side by side. I’m supposed to tell her something likebend over, then spank her. I do no such thing.

The sight before me stops my heart.

Last time it stopped, it was when I realized I’d neglected Anne for too long. She lied about eating for my sake. She wanted me to focus on building BLF from the ground up with my friends. I’d spent long nights there, and I missed the signs. Didn’t hearJoseph waking her up in the middle of the night and forcing her to throw up the dinner I dropped off for her.

I thought I was stealthy. That he didn’t see. I was wrong. Realizing Anne’s gone this long without food hurt like a motherfucker. I couldn’t breathe.

Tonight, my heart stops for another reason entirely.

This… This is sweet.

Quinlan has her back to us, a photo in her hands. The only one we have here. The one I thought she wouldn’t care for. Her fingers slide along the silver frame, her head bowed over it.

Looking at us. At Liam, Damien and me, sitting on the grass in Liam’s backyard. I’m hugging a three-year-old Anne to my chest. Pulling her to me as hard as I can.

Liam and I don’t smile. Our serious expressions had been a part of us as much as the color of our hair. Damien smiled, though. He laughed. As did my little sister. She giggled that day, flashing her teeth to the camera.

Maybe it was Damien that poked his tongue at her a second before. Maybe it was the big lunch and attention Mrs. Frost, Liam’s mom, had showered her with that afternoon.

Maybe both.

Liam’s mom captured the moment around the time Quinlan was born. We weren’t sure where social services would move Damien, what foster home he’d land in, so we needed to have this memory together. Just until we’d have him with us again.

Fortunately, Damien didn’t move very far. He stayed at the same school as us like he promised he would. His next foster family was a great one, a caring one, as were the ones that took in Jagger and Laurel.

That gave him even more reasons to love Quinlan.

And Quinlan’s staring at it, mesmerized by it. She could’ve smashed it like she did with the television, and she didn’t.

She cares. I want to hug her. I want to kiss every inch of her body. Breathe her in.

Fuck her until she cries.

Liam slips in, moving to my side.

My cue to speak up. “Curious, sweetheart?”

She shrieks at the sound of my voice. The photo crashes on the floor. The glass splinters.

We’ll have a new one developed by tomorrow. Her fear was worth it.

Quinlan’s shoulders rise. Fall. She’s gathering courage.

“You.” She whips back to meet our gaze, hands on her hips. “Of course I’m curious. I have a right to know why I’m here.”

“You do.” I prowl forward. Stop behind the desk, where she stands. My hand clasps around her slender neck. I grip it, pulling her toward me. “You could’ve asked, though. Since you haven’t, since you’ve been a nosy little thing on top of missing dinner, you won’t be getting your information.”

Her eyelashes flutter, pulse racing.

“You’re gettingus.” She gasps when I bury my fingers into her hips, my hand bruising her. Thrusting her to my cock. “And, sweetheart?”

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