Page 41 of Broken Queen
Bloom looked at me, then turned back to Zira. “He’s loyal?”
“To the core,” she said, punctuating each word.
His brow arched at me. “What do you think about this?”
“‘Bout what?” I asked.
“Zira killing Toben, obviously.”
I ran a hand through my hair. It was damp with sweat and sour adrenaline. I wasn’t like anyone her father had interacted with before, and honestly, I didn’t give a fuck what Zira did, so long as we got to enjoy it together. She was like my other half, giving me goals to focus on when I had nothing to aim for. And I gave her a true taste of chaos.
“I stand by my queen,” I said.
“All right,” Bloom said, as if that was enough. He signaled to the soldiers, who retreated to their SUVs. “What did you say your name was?”
Zira nodded at me, telling me it was fine to say my real name. Her daddy was so absorbed in his own world that he had no idea that I had been working on his estate this entire time. Before Spiky endured death by castration. Even before Bloom’s son-in-law disappeared. Long before the most recent Masquerade, when I set my sights on Bloom’s daughter.
“Hazard Boucher,” I said.
Bloom shook my hand. “Let’s get you started on your membership, then. Welcome to the Marked Blooms Syndicate, Hazard.”
CHAPTER 12
Zira
My mind was racing like I was going mad. I could hardly eat or sleep, because for the first time in my life, I had someone who was listening, who seemed to actually care. Someone who was on my side. And I wasn’t sure what to do about it. My insides were twisting with nerves, like worms wriggling to get out of the earth, because I knew that sooner or later, Hazard was going to show his true colors. He couldn’t be on my side all the time. It never worked out that way.
Especially once he found out that I was keeping the truth about his sister’s killer a secret from him.
And yet, despite his new membership in the Marked Blooms Syndicate, Hazard kept on finishing the renovations for my father’s gym. My father’s head was so far up his own ass that he still didn’t notice that Hazard, the newest member, and Chris Cox, the contractor, were the same person.
Hazard was a member. I wasn’t even a member.
I tried not to let it get to me. I liked Hazard. A lot. He brought a side out of me that I might have kept tucked away forever, if it weren’t for him. And with him as a member, I could use him to help me get my own membership. I would do whatever it took.
And if I had to, I would kill him too.
Late the next night, around midnight, I stood outside of his new motel room. After I spoke with the motel owner, Hazard had been moved to another room, ‘for renovation purposes,’ and some of our other contractors began cleaning up our murderous mess. I knocked on his new door, holding my breath. Hazard had told me he was going to stay inside tonight, and I wasn’t sure I believed him. He was the kind of person who would lie or change his mind on a whim. So I had to check and keep him in line.
He opened the door, light beaming from the inside, steam swirling in the room like a cloud. His chest was bare with short curls of reddish hair on his chest. My eyes went down to the hair near his navel, a deeper red, almost brown, trailing down to his cock, kept hidden behind a towel.
“So the queen left her throne to see her favorite servant,” he winked.
I cocked my head to the side. “I don’t have a throne yet.”
“But you will.”
He waved me inside, and with a tremor running down my back with anticipation, I entered. Inside, there was a thin desk. Generic sunset paintings hung against the textured wood wallpaper. Orange floral furniture. A black exposed beam splitting the room in half, just like the other unit. My mother had grown up working in places like this before she married my father, but it was so far out of my reality that it was like being in a time warp, peering into my mother’s past. The bed springs creaked as I sat down. Hazard leaned against the dresser.
“You want to talk about it?” he asked.
“Talk about what?” I asked.
“Why you’re here.”
I swallowed hard. There was a point to this, and yet, it seemed out of reach again. Like Hazard was closer than I was, and I had no choice but to ask him for help.
“Get me on the board,” I demanded.
