Page 151 of Quinlan

“You people,” I groan, my breaths heaving. Dammit, why do I want him so much when he’s being so stubborn? “You stalked me. You, Rome, and Damien have dug into my life. You know damn well what happened. And even if you don’t, do you really expect me to just nod after what you shared? To be like,oh, okay, cool story. Here’s mine since obviously I only pretended to care until it was my turn to talk.”

He glowers.

So do I. “No. I won’t do it. Give it a day, Liam. Give yourself a day.”

“I expected you to be good, little flame.” His cock is hard against my pussy. Throbbing. I feel him through his pants. “Apparently, we have a problem on our hands.”

A whooshing sound interrupts my attempts to fight Liam off me. My head whips in the direction of the sound and—

“You can’t be serious.”

Damien, still in the clothes from earlier this evening, pushes past the bookshelf—correction—past thesecretbookshelf door.

“Oh, but we are, darling.”

“Very fucking serious.” Rome follows, his gaze menacing.

“Time to talk.” Liam squeezes my chin, turning my face to him. “You’re going to start getting real comfortable around us, real fast. You’re going to trust us. We aren’t asking anymore. Our investigators can’t tell us what’s inside your heart. This is us, little flame. You should know by now how obsessed we are. How relentless we are when it comes to you. And you’re not getting out of this. Not fucking ever. You have exactly one second to talk.”

“Or else?” I dare him. I beg him not to do it.

“We could take turns fucking the pity out of you.” His head tilts. “However, I prefer to… How’d you call it? Yes, give your story the respect it deserves.”

He’s soft for all of a second before his glare catches fire. “Speak, Quinlan. Stop testing me and fucking speak already.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

Quinlan

As if the nightmarewasn’t enough. As if listening to the horrors that Liam had gone through didn’t rip my heart in half.

As if I’m not imagining what horrors Damien must’ve suffered by Rex’s hands.

And Rome…someone’s had to have hurt him too. His obsession with food. Who did this to him?

That has to be what binds them other than their obvious love for one another. Their revenge against the world.

All that pain. It fills the room, weighing so heavily on the four of us that we’re being buried under it.

I’m an open wound. I’m bleeding all over the place.

How am I supposed to sit here and talk about Blake? How could I burden them with more hurt? Because it’ll do it, the story I’ve been keeping to myself since I was five.

It’ll do another thing. They’ll hear about my part in my family’s tragedy. They’ll see what I do every time I look in the mirror. Afailure. The girl who didn’t fight hard enough to save her baby brother.

The one who let him die.

I won’t. I refuse to talk.

“I have a better idea.” My playful tone is fake as fuck. At least it doesn’t sound like pity. At least it doesn’t sound like guilt. “Why don’t you bring the file you have on me? Read me a bedtime story? Maybe then I’ll be in the mood to fill in the gaps.”

Liam’s eyes narrow.

A tsk at my side. Damien does not approve.

Good for him. I won’t disrespect Liam like this. I won’t tell them they’ve been obsessed with the idea of a woman who isn’t me at all.

“Quinlan.” Rome pries Liam’s hand off me, and Liam lets him drag me up on the bed. Rome settles himself against the headboard and pulls me between his legs, my back to his chest. To his soft T-shirt and hard muscles. “What gives you the impression you have a say in this?”

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