Page 86 of Gemini Queen
She sucks in her breath and whirls toward me. Protest gathers like a storm in her turbulent face.
I raise a hand for patience and forge ahead. “I know your father used his bankroll and his mafia connections to bury the truth. According to the insurance records, his casino’s destruction was a freak weather event. An act of God.”
“An act of God,” she repeats bitterly, swiping at her eyes with a mittened hand. “What a fucking joke. That’s what my dad always calls the Gemini. He says we’re gods. The truth is, we’remonsters. Especially the women. Gemini witchcraft is too powerful to be controlled. Now you want me to summon it? My mom was psycho way before she lost it that night.”
The truth of the burden this girl has been carrying trembles between us in the silence. The truth of what happened that night is a secret she’s been running from her entire adult life. To free my queen’s power, I must free her from her guilt.
And for that, I must exhume this buried truth.
“Your mother,” I murmur. “Tell me about her. She studied here before my time.”
“Mom?” Her brows draw together. She stares out to sea with a bittersweet smile. “She was more like a sister than a mom. A kid sister. Always dragging me off to some wild party or guerilla fashion show or unlicensed club where no one batted an eye to see a kid like me pounding shots with her mom.”
A shadow darkens her eyes to indigo. “That’s what we were doing that night at the casino. Every dealer and bartender under that roof knew who we were. If Belladonna Gemini wants to sneak her tipsy daughter into some mafia don’s high-stakes poker game in a private room on a lark, who’s gonna say no?”
I would.
I would have said no.
I would have protected her.
Instead, her entire clan apparently abandoned her to her unstable parent’s poor judgment. Mick Gemini must have been worse than useless.
Her startled face turns toward me. Clearly, she’s sensing all those fiercely protective instincts I’m struggling to contain. Somehow I contrive to unclench my fists and unlock my jaw.
“Your father,” I manage to say without shouting, “should obviously have intervened.”
“Oh, he tried at first, believe me. But eventually, he just gave up.” Zara’s lips tilt in a wobbly smile. “My mom… I loved her and all, but I mean it, she was psycho. Totally gorgeous, so she always got tons of attention. And she liked it really rough.” Her voice lowers. “Like, brutal, you know? She’d go where she could find that, and I’d just do my own thing, find some game to play or whatever, while she got what she needed. And she liked… having a lot of guys at once.”
She slides me a sidelong look, because of course I know Zarina—no, Zara, the name she prefers—is polyamorous. That’s how Ronin and I captured our fugitive queen in the first place.
By paying her opportunistic lovers to betray her.
“Many of our queens are polyamorous,” I say lightly, letting her know I pass no judgment. “From a genetic perspective, the arrangement is beneficial.”
It’s also damnably arousing. The thought of her and Neo getting Ronin off in the gazebo nearly set my trousers alight. That incendiary visual has been playing through my imagination on rewind since the moment Ronin confided in me—precisely as my mischievous mate knew it would.
Christ, I’m getting hard again now just thinking about it.
Fortunately, the voluminous folds of my caped greatcoat are capable of concealing a vast array of indiscretions.
I shift my stance to ease the pressure against my zipper and clear my throat. “Is this what happened that night? Did Belladonna lose control of her game?”
Zara presses her lips together and shakes her head. “She was fine at first. Just, you know, flat on her back on the poker table same as always, while they all took turns. I was behind the bar experimenting with martini recipes. Until… the don, the mafia guy who owned that game… decided he wanted me to join in.”
Despite my determination to manage my own reactions in a way that keeps her talking, my chest rumbles in a growl of outrage. “You were fifteen. You should never have been in that room in the first place.”
“Yeah, well…” She shrugs stiffly, but her voice sounds strangled. “Mom was busy, so I tried to joke my way out of it, but the guy wasn’t taking no for an answer. Told him how old I was, but he didn’t care. Then he got handsy, so I used my fists. But there were… a lotta guys in that room, you know? And he’s the one calling the shots. Two or three guys, I can hold my own, but not when there’s like twenty of them all sexed up.”
A cold white rage blooms in my chest and my wolf claws at my skin. Dear God, in that moment I want to murder Belladonna Gemini myself.
I can barely bring myself to voice the question. “Were you… did they…?”
“Rape me?” She pivots to face me, her face hard and guarded. “No. When I started screaming, Mom finally realized what was going down. She was yelling for them to stop, but no one gave a shit. So she did what she always did whenever she couldn’t get her way. She summoned the lightning.”
“Merciful God,” I whisper.
“Yeah, not so much.” Zara hugs her waist and hunches over the wall. The cruel wind whips curly tendrils from her ponytail to lash around her face. “Mom’s witchcraft was scary powerful. But her control was always shitty. Drunk and horny and pissed, she just about took the roof off that place. I realized pretty quick what was happening. That she’d lostallcontrol. That people all over the casino were getting hurt. Even tourist kids just sightseeing with their parents.”
