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“What surprise?” I asked. The knots in my stomach were twisting up tighter and tighter. If I had to take much more of this, I was likely going to puke.

“Why,yoursurprise, my dear.” Adrian smiled at me and this one was a scary one, because it looked like a genuine one, and those were rare. “I’ve been waiting for the perfect time to share it with you, but the timing has never been right. Now, your Quinton has forced my hand, and I fear it might be too soon, and you won’t appreciate the gift.”

“Gift,” Quinton snarled. “Are you out of your fucking mind? Take your gift and get the fuck out of my house. Right this minute. I am not even joking with you, Adrian. You bring him here, and then you talk about fuckinggiftinghim to Ariel. Unbelievable.”

Quinton shook his head angrily as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“This shit is too much, even for you.”

“Quinton,” I said in a high voice. “What’s going on. You’re starting to scare me.”

In fact, I was moving past scared and straight towards terrified..

You couldn’t gift a person to another person. And what person did Adrian want to give to me? The only one who came to mind had my throat closing up tightly, and my hand reaching up towards the scar on my cheek.

No. Quinton couldn’t mean…

“What are you talking about?” I asked in a shrill voice as I stood up abruptly from my chair. My body swayed slightly, and I immediately sat back down.

Adrian frowned down at me.

“Calm down, child.” Adrian ordered.

Calm down? I would calm down when they told me what in the heck was going on, and, even then, I would only calm down if it didn’t turn out how I thought it was going to turn out.

“Where is he?” I whispered.

“Outside with the twins,” Quinton growled. “I don’t want that motherfucker in my house. I’m pissed he’s been coming here every time Adrian has.”

“I told you,” Adrian snapped. “He’s a gift for Ariel. He wants to make amends with her. We have gone through the trouble of making sure he isn’t capable of harming her any more. In fact, he isn’t capable of harming anyone. We’ve seen to that much. Something you should have done yourself when you found out he had a special interest in her.”

My stomach churned.

This couldn’t be happening.

“He didn’t have a special interest in me,” I whispered. “He was just a bully. A normal bully before…”

I trailed off, not wanting to throw Quinton under the bus here for what he’d done. If the Council didn’t know Quinton had messed with Chucky before he’d gone off the deep end, then it wouldn’t be me who told them.

“Oh, my child,” Adrian murmured. “You are so very wrong about that. We’ve had quite a bit of time to get to know the young man since his release from jail. He’s been staying at the motel with us while we’ve been deciding what to do with him. We’ve had him under… how shall I put this? House arrest, if you will, unless he’s left with one of us. Daniel has been putting him under and combing through his memories. Daniel is very talented. As I’m sure you remember, Quinton.”

Quinton flinched, and my heart skipped a beat. What was that about?

Quinton’s entire body grew rigid and he looked on the verge of snapping.

“Oh, I remember,” Quinton ground out between clenched teeth. “How could I ever forget?”

“Your father was a great man,” Adrian murmured in a quiet, respectful voice. “We had always hoped he would join our ranks and become a Council member.”

I sighed. As much as I wanted to hear more about Quinton’s father, I wanted to get back to the topic at hand. I needed to know what was going on.

Quinton must have felt the same way, because he snapped, “What the fuck are you doing with the football player? Drop his ass off back in a jail cell where he belongs.”

And, just like that, my worst nightmare was confirmed. Adrian had come here today with Chucky acting as his driver. And, as if that wasn’t enough, Chucky was outside, right this moment, with my Salt and Pepper twins.

Quinton was right. Adrian had gone too far with this.

“No,” Adrian arched an eyebrow arrogantly as he glared at Quinton. “You do not get to tell me what to do. Something you seem to be forgetting more and more every day. It is getting on my last nerve. You do not want to push me any further, young Alexander. You will not like the outcome if you do.”