Page 97 of Bonds of Obsession

“Please,” she begs, still struggling. “Please just let me go. You… you don’t understand…”

“I do, vicious. But it’s too late. There’s nothing we can do. We can’t save it.”

There’s nothing I want more than to give her some hope. If I thought we could make it five minutes in there, I’d be the first one charging in next to her.

“Fuck that!” She twists in our grip, tears cutting clean tracks through the fine layer of sweat and soot already clinging to her skin. “Everything I have left of him is in there! Everything!”

“I know,” I murmur against her hair, my chest aching at the raw pain in her voice. “I swear, I get it.”

I step to the side as Killian practically lifts her off her feet to put some more distance between us and the burning house. “Think about what your old man would want,” he says. His expression is hard as a fucking rock, but his tone is gentler than I’ve ever heard it. “He’d want you to stay alive more than he’d want you to save his shit.”

“He’s right,” Nico adds. “Your father would never forgive us if we let you go in there, mia cara.”

Quinn’s shoulders shake as another sob tears through her. “I can’t just stand here,” she whispers, the fight draining from her body. “I can’t just watch it all burn.”

She finally stops struggling, but her whole body is still trembling with emotion. And from the look on her face, the confusion and pain is quickly being replaced by pure, white-hot rage. “Ambrose,” she spits the name we’ve all come to hate with a shared passion. “That fucking bastard did this. It had to be him.”

My jaw clenches as I realize she’s probably right. That piece of shit isn’t going to be satisfied until he’s taken everything from her. “I swear to god,” I grit out through clenched teeth, “I’m going to rip his fucking throat out.”

“You’ll have to get in line,” Killian growls. “I’ve got plans for that motherfucker myself.”

Before any of us can say more, Quinn’s phone rings. She yanks it from her pocket, nearly dropping it as she swipes to answer.

“You son of a bitch!” she snarls into the phone, but her face changes immediately. I’m close enough to hear the panicked voice on the other end, and it’s definitely not Ambrose.

The color drains from her face as she listens. Her hand grips my forearm so tight I can feel her nails breaking the skin. “I’mon my way,” she says, ending the call. Her eyes meet mine, wide with a fresh round of fear. “Blood and Ink—he hit that too. Some of my people are trapped inside.”

Blood rushes in my ears as the implications sink in. This isn’t just about destroying Quinn’s home. Ambrose is trying to burn down her whole fucking world.

“That sick fuck,” Nico says, already moving toward the car. “He’s gonna fucking pay.”

I remember the sound of Ambrose’s laughter as he tortured me, and I can only imagine he’s laughing the same way now. And yeah, we are gonna make him fucking pay.

There’s no time for that now though. Quinn and her gang are our only priority in this moment.

“We need to move,” I say, guiding Quinn toward the car. “Now.”

We leave Quinn’s house to burn as Nico floors it toward Blood and Ink. Quinn is pressed against me in the backseat, her body thrumming with tension. I can feel her fighting to keep her shit together, to be the leader her people are going to need as soon as they see her.

“Call everyone,” she orders into her phone, her voice steady despite the tremor I can feel running through her. “Get whoever’s nearby to Blood and Ink. Now.”

The burning in my chest intensifies as we take a corner too fast, but I keep my mouth shut. This isn’t about me or my fucking injuries. We round the last bend, and my stomach drops.

Blood and Ink looks like a fucking torch, with flames already pouring from the broken windows. The fire hasn’t taken hold as completely as it did at Quinn’s place, but it’s only a matter of time.

“Fuck,” Killian mutters from the front seat. A crowd of Quinn’s people mill around outside, some trying to fight theflames with extinguishers that aren’t doing shit against a blaze this size.

“He really wants to burn it all down,” Nico says, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. “Fucking psychopath.”

Quinn is out of the car before we’ve fully stopped, and this time I don’t try to grab her. I know that look in her eyes. She’s not running toward danger blindly now—she has a purpose. Her people need her.

I follow her out, ignoring the sting in my lungs as smoke starts to fill them. The heat hits like a wall, making my skin prickle and sweat instantly bead on my forehead. Shouts and the crackle of flames fill the air as we approach the burning building.

“Jasper and Damon are still inside!” someone shouts over the roar of the flames. “They went down to the basement to grab some guns, and something collapsed?—”

“Fuck!” Quinn starts forward, but I catch her arm. Not to stop her this time, just to make her think for a second.

“If you go running in there half-cocked, you’ll get yourself killed,” I shout. “We need a plan.”

---