Page 153 of Quinlan

“Aww, darling, pretending to hate us again?” Damien’s teeth sting worse than before. But it’s not my skin that hurts. My heart is caving in. “Here I was, thinking we were past this.” He sounds serious all of a sudden, stripped of his humor. “I thought you understood how much you mean to us.”

Frustration, hot and scalding, burns through me. Infuriating tears prickle the corners of my eyes. I snap them shut while Rome still holds me. “You can’t make me.”

“Oh, but we will.” Rome tugs my body to his chest, his scruff on my cheek sparking every nerve ending on my body. “We aren’t that man you were talking about earlier. We’ll never be him.”

“Nothing’s sweet about us.” Liam’s hand trails up my thigh. “We won’t be moving to the suburbs with you. Won’t let you keep playing the martyr part. Rex wouldn’t approve, and guess what? We. Don’t. Care.”

I gasp. Every conversation I had, every interaction, they heard all of them.

“You weren’t even looking for that man, were you?” Damien stares at me, smug and possessive.

“No.” What’s the point of denying? What’s the point of anything anymore? “I was busy and—”

“They were boring,” Liam deadpans. “The men who dared to come close. Bland. Unfit. We’re the right men for you. We’ll take your pain away.”

“Carry it with you.” A tiny part of Damien’s harshness thaws. He’s quick to hide his soft side, planting a kiss to my cheek.

A kiss that’s so tender, so unlike him, and that does it.

My guard falls. I’m being yanked into my past.

Chlorine and grief and agony. The helplessness, fuck, I’m so helpless.

A visceral sob rips from my throat. Another.

I let everything go.

Every. Fucking. Thing.

“That’s better.” Rome’s grip on me loosens. “Break for us, sweetheart.”

“We’ll build you up again,” Damien says against my skin. Another sob and a fresh wave of tears rush out of me. “Stitch you back together. The way we should’ve a long time ago. We’re here.”

“I’m not your rag doll,” I hiss. Sounds kind of pathetic when I say it through my tears. I have nothing left, though. Nothing at all.

“You’re ours. That’s the beginning and end of it.” Liam presses two fingers to my center, making it hurt. Making me gasp. “Your soft parts. The hardened ones. The scars around your heart. When you cry in your dreams, little flame, it’s our tears you’re crying.”

“When you come in them.” Damien’s fingers are firm on my chin, making sure my eyes remain on him. Grounding me. “That’s ours too. Even your breaths belong to us.”

There’s no time to linger on his statement. On what it means. I’m too shaken.

He opens his mouth and I’m thirsty for his words. “You’ve always been ours. I’ve been around you for years. Not five. Since you were born. You always belonged here.” He flattens a hand over his chest. Over his heart. “Always.”

After long minutes of poking, of probing—of telling me in their twisted way that I’m safe here—I collapse completely. My heartis torn in half, the pain I’ve been holding on to spilling out. The gash is too big to hold anything back.

“Where were you, then?”

The little girl who had no one to lean on when it truly mattered, she’s the one who’s crying. Who’s screaming. Not me. It can’t be me. I’m a strong woman. I have my shit together.

Silence. Damien snaps his lips shut, hurt flashing behind his eyes.

“You said you have been stalking me since I was born.”

Rome clenches his fingers on me. Liam’s fingers move to my thigh.

“Go on,” Damien grits.

He isn’t mocking me. None of them does.

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