Page 250 of Quinlan

Except it won’t. My parents haven’t threatened to kill themselves, have they?

I feel sorry for the girl I used to be for all of a second.

Getting out of here alive is my priority. I’m being kidnapped for real this time.

Damien knew this was coming. My sweet, psychotic, and smart man.

Rex will hurt me to get to him.

His brown eyes look at me like he hates me. Sadistic psychopath. “You chose the wrong team, Quinlan. You fool. They’re worthless.”

“Their friends are fucking worthless too,” the driver pitches in, her voice venomous.

Why? If she’s being paid to kidnap me, why would she care?

Because she isn’t being paid to be here.

My eyes squint, and I glare at her from where Rex holds me in place. I have no idea who she is. I’ve never seen her in Maeve’s. She could be a cop, although that doesn’t make sense, either. To risk it all for Rex? I don’t think so.

She hates them. She saidhis friends. It means Rome, and…

Motherfucker.

“Aria?” I growl, trying hard not to lose it.

I can’t afford to lose it. I have to keep my head. Have to think. And I do.

A plan forms in my head. Clear steps that’d get me out of this mess, if I put myself into it.

I will. Oh, I will. They’ll never see it coming.

“That was fast. The whiney asshole tattled about me?” Her eyes cut to the rearview mirror. “Yes, I can tell he did. Such a fucking baby. Over twenty years later, and he’s the same loser he’s been when I babysat him.”

Rex chuckles. My nostrils flare, my nails digging into his wrist.

My first instinct is to scream at her. Tell her that these men aremine. That no one talks about what’s mine. Much less the people who hurt them.

But then they’ll go on the defense. They’ll be on high alert, making it that much harder for me to trick them.

Breathe. Breathe, Quinlan.

Fine. Deep inhale through gritted my teeth, and I’m back in the game. I stay still, leading Rex to believe that I’m his captive. That I can’t run away.

“How did you meet her?” I ask him.

“I told you, kid, I owe you shit.”

“His cop buddies,” Aria volunteers the information. She presses the brakes at a red light, slinging her arm over the back of the seat to turn to me. To gloat at me. The dumb bitch. “They made it so easy for him too.”

“Aria, shut up,” Rex barks.

“You’re not in charge here,” she hisses. “I’ve been waiting for this, and you’ll let me have it. You’ll let me rub it in Liam’s little bitch’s face. You’re very protective of the prick, aren’t you? That means he loves you too and so, no, Rex, I won’t shut up. I’ll say whatever the hell I want. I—”

“Shut the hell up,” he barks. “Stop feeding her information.”

“No, you shut up.” A short, black metal rod appears in her hand. She snatched it from the passenger seat, the dumb bitch. I’m over here, unbound, and she basically gives me a weapon to use on her. “Anyway, your brother worked his connections a couple of weeks ago. He’d been searching for Damien’s weak spots. First, it was his foster siblings, but Jagger, the other one, what’s her face?”

“Laurel,” I hiss her name before Rex can. They don’t have the right to repeat it.

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