Page 158 of Memories Like Fangs
Until her grief turned into action.
I felt it before I saw it, like a clock restarting after a power outage. Her breaths evened, her sobs paused, and her shoulders lifted in that way they always did when she was trying to fix something. She pulled back enough to see my face, wiping the last of my tears away. I recognized the expression on her face instantly: that gentle, clear focus that meant her brain was in problem-solving mode. Her eyebrows knitted together, her lips pursed, and her gaze sharpened with purpose. Of course, Mama couldn’t sit in emotion for long without getting fidgety and needing to figure out how to make things better. She was where I got it from.
“We’ll have to have a hearing. The Hunter Council will need to be informed of this incident. It’s protocol.”
“I missed you so much, too, Mama,” I teased, kissing her cheek. “But, yeah, I figured we would.”
Mama poured herself another full glass of whiskey. She looked at me pointedly while she took a full swig of the brown elixir. After a heavy swallow, she said with her hazel eyes blazingwith a ferocity that mirrored my own. “Your father will also have to be there, too.”
My stomach plummeted through the house and straight into the cellar to flatten next to Cooper’s body. “¡Puta madre!For fuck’s sake, Mama, no!Why?”
“Quinn, language?—”
I rolled my eyes hard enough to see my brain. “Oh,pleasespare me, Ma. Father has said far worse things in a fucking church in EnglishandSpanish in front ofnuns. Now, why do we have to call him? We didn’t have to call him for Zaria.”
“Zaria wasn’t one of ours, Quinn. Diegohasto be at this.”
My anger bloomed in me, making me start to pace and my hands to shake. “Fan-fucking-tastic. He can answer for his own crimes then, too.”
“Quinn—”
“No, Mama! He’s the reason for all of this. Hell, he’s the cause ofallof this!” My chest heaved, and I couldn’t stop. The words came out like lava down an erupting volcano, wild and bitter and sharp enough to cut even my own tongue. “If he hadn’t been so hell bent on hunting dragons for the fame and the fortune, then maybe Byrd’s mom would still be alive. Maybe the triplets’ dad would have died from some other act of stupidity, but Cooper wouldn’t have tried to go after my mate because of it. Thatpinche cabrónstarted a domino effect. And, for what? Something to brag about? Some story to puff his chest out and strut around with pride? Even more fucking money?”
“Your father is…complicated—” she said gently.Toogently.
I stared at her like she’d lost her godsdamn mind. I wasn’t too unconvinced that she hadn’t. “Are you making excuses for him, Mama? Seriously?¡No me vengas con esa mamada!Don’t give me that shit. I don’t give afuckabout his traumatized childhood or whatever the hell made him this way. That doesn’tmatter anymore. Not with everything he has done. Not with everything he’scaused.”
“I’mnotexcusing his behavior,” Mama said, firmer this time. “But, he needs to be put on trial?—”
I cut her off with a humorless laugh. “Oh, come the fuck on, Mama. A trial?! You think Dad’s going toletthat happen? He’sneverfollowed the rules. He doesn’t evenpretendto do it now.”
Mama crossed her arms, the tension in her jaw a visible twitch. “Then, what would you have us do, Quinn? What’s your plan?”
I didn’t hesitate, stopping my pace to look at her directly as I answered. “You knowexactlyhow, Mama.”
There was a sharp intake of breath behind Mama. I turned my head just enough to catch Cody and Cole stiffen and Nat cover her mouth from her gasp.
“No,” Mama’s eyes widened with realization. “No, you arenotchallenging him. It’s too dangerous. I forbid it.”
“But, Mama, it’s the only way?—”
“He is afucking rogue, Quinn!” she shouted, louder than I’d ever heard her. “No one knows your father like I do, and evenIdon’t understand half of what goes through his stupid head. He’s not a man anymore. He’s a killer. A perfect hunter. Fueled by rage, heletsit control him. That’s all he is now.”
She stepped toward me, her voice gentler but her eyes blazing into a bright gold. “You… you’renothim. You have his fire, yes, as we are all seeing right now, but you have my heart, too. You have people who love you. Byrd. Your cousins. Your aunts.Me. You have afuture. He doesn’t. He’scut himself off. He’s made himself a weapon with no one left to protect. That makes him desperate. That makes himdangerousbeyond all measure. And he hasnothing left to lose?—”
“You’re wrong, Mama.” My voice dropped to a whisper, low and final. I held her gaze as I continued. “He still hashis lifeleftto lose. If he refuses to yield, Iwillend him. He needs topayfor what he’s done. All the suffering. All the loss. He doesn’t get to walk around free while we carry the cost ofhisviolence.”
Her hands were shaking now, but her voice didn’t tremble. “I refuse to let you die in the name of revenge, Quinn January Garcia.”
“I’m not planning on it.”
“No one ever does,” she said, voice cracking just enough for the grief to bleed through. “This is a fool’s errand.”
“So what then? He gets to live and get away with it?”
“That’snotwhat I’m saying.”
“Then, whatareyou saying?”
