Page 270 of Quinlan

He could tell we were following him. The fact that we heard just about everything is news. Everything other than his plotting with Aria.

Goddamn it.

“You’re going to play doctor, dummy?” The derogatory nickname he’d given me. It doesn’t hurt me. His confidence is fake. He knows we have him by the balls. “I looked you up. Neither of you are doctors. Your little foster siblings wouldn’t have the first idea, either.”

“Aww.” The knife I had in him slips out like butter, the handle warm and slippery in my palm. I gather some gore from his cheek on the blade—the shit that used to be in his eye. And he opens up his mouth for me to feed him with it. “Swallow, motherfucker. That’s it. I hope you enjoy your last meal.”

“Bon appétit,” Quinlan says with a sweet, all wrong French accent.

Then she gives me the filthiest French kiss. Tongue and all.

“And for your question. The Internet is filled with answers to everything these days,” Rome booms behind me, ignoring my depravity. “We’re fast learners.”

“Or we’ll hire a doctor, then kill them when we’re done with you,” Liam adds.

Quinlan doesn’t protest. She knows we won’t kill an innocent.

Rex, in his pathetic state, believes we’d do just about anything.

“Fine. Fuck.” Dampness hits my chin. I look to the right and there’s blood on Quinlan’s chin too. Rex’s. I wipe it from her pretty face. “I did it for Dad.”

My arm wraps around Quinlan’s waist all on its own. I straighten the both of us, and two other hands come to rest on her back. To comfort her.

“The three of you were fucked up.” Rex blinks, grunting against the pain.

The eyelashes where I sliced his eye are coated in blood and gore. He’s a mean one, always has been. Doesn’t cry. Doesn’t beg for mercy even as his skin turns ashen gray.

“Dad told me about how he and your mom lied to the police. Said he’d regret it as soon as they were by themselves.” The words are slurred. He’s losing consciousness. I tug at the skin of his cheek, and he groans, the pain waking him up. “When it was you and them. I was already there. You were crying for Blake. Kept saying you were sorry. You could’ve taken it. I loved you, but I couldn’t afford them going to prison. Couldn’t take care of a kid on my own. Being a foster dad was the worst year of my life.”

“Yours?” I hear the incredulous question coming out of me. Echoed from around me. Times three.

“You were such a goddamn hassle. I told her. The three of you.”

Nothing and no one gets in my way. We pulled the truth out of him, and I can’t hold back. Blinded by rage, I carve into his stomach.

I’m not being loving or gentle like I was the day I marked Quinlan. I’m vicious and cruel. I bark a harsh, inhuman laugh as Rex’s skin breaks.

His guts appear when I open his stomach up, and I laugh at that too.

“I couldn’t take you on, Quinlan,” he whispers, fighting to say the words that’ll set him free.

“So you let me think Blake’s death was all my fault?”

While I slash into Rex, while I pay him back for every crime he’s ever committed, Quinlan moves closer, lands a punch to his jaw. I don’t care that more blood lands on my shirt. I’m so goddamn proud of her.

He’s breathing hard. She continues anyway. “You let me think I could save him and I didn’t?”

“A-An investment.”

At that, I stop. My head snaps up. There it is. The truth. The horrible, gut-wrenching truth that I wish with all my heart was a lie.

“A what?” Her voice falters.

“Investment. I made sure you felt guilty so I could have a chance at a better future,” Rex huffs. “I helped them out with food and small things. They weren’t getting better. I couldn’t be there every day to take care of them. Fuck, I hate taking care of people. That’s where your guilt came in handy. Kept you in line, didn’t it? It did. There. You got what your explanation. Can you just end this and kill me?”

White-hot fury takes over. I’m reduced to this primitive creature, not even a beast. Not a monster. I don’t know what the fuck I am. All I know is that I have to put Rex down.

Every other second that he’s breathing the same air as Quinlan is a goddamn crime.

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