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Then he’d allowed that man to… whatever, I wasn’t even going to go back there.

I had no issue with men having sex with men. Take Jules and Damien for example. They were smoking hot together. This, whatever this was, hadn’t been hot to me. I bet if Damien tied down our lover and did him dirty, it would get me off in a really big way.

Marcus didn’t have that effect on me. Neither did the beast who’d fucked him.

Just the fact that Marcus thought about sleeping with me after he’d been with that child abuser Vivian was very disturbing to me, as well as the fact that I had looked at him like a father figure and had assumed he looked at me as if I were one of his children.

Had he never seen me that way?

It was obvious that he had not, and if I hadn’t shut down my brain and emotions, I would be more devastated than I already was by his actions.

“Look at me, motherfucker,” Rain snapped, and I realized that while I’d been looking at Marcus and thinking about heartbreak, he’d been looking right back at me with longing in his eyes. “Don’t you fucking look at my daughter. I want your eyes on me.” He gritted each word out between clenched teeth.

In typical Rain form, he’d known I was there even if I hadn’t made a sound, and he was doing everything to look out for me.

I appreciated my dad, and I loved it when he went all out for me. But… there were things I actually needed to know, questions that required answers, and I knew only I could get those answers. I didn’t figure they’d be given freely to Rain.

“Why?” I asked in a voice that croaked as I walked deeper into the room. I cleared my throat and stopped a good three feet away from Marcus. I refused to allow myself to get any closer to him. He’d never be allowed to get within touching distance of me again. Not ever. “Why would you do this to me? I loved you like you were family.”

My voice cracked, and I could get no more words out even if I wanted to. I realized I didn’t want to, because at the end of the day, nothing he said would change the things he’d said and did. You couldn’t fix this, there was never any coming back from it.

Anything he had to say wouldn’t make the hurt he’d already caused go away. So what did this really matter?

“You took Vivian away from me. Your coven took you away from me. I’ve been left on the sidelines with nothing, forced to watch everyone else as they got everything I wanted. Well, it’s bullshit and I’m done with it. Adrian promised me—”

I was right, this wasn’t helping anything at all. It was only making me feel worse.

I cut him off because I couldn’t hear any more, I couldn’t stomach it. “Adrian’s dead, so that ship has sailed for you.” I shrugged. “Sorry, not sorry.”

He smiled, and it wasn’t nice. In fact, it was downright mean. “I don’t think you understand how those markings work. Once he—”

Again, I cut him off. My voice came out smug and immediately wiped the smile right off his face. “See, that’s where you’re wrong. I figured out how they worked after we both drowned down there. He died again after we got out of the hole. I bashed his brains in with a rock. He’s definitely dead.”

A look of horror crossed his face, and a dark part of me rejoiced at that expression.

“What did you just say?” Rain rasped in a shocked voice.

Shit, I’d forgotten he was here.

“You drowned?” Trenton whispered at the same time his brother snarled, “What the fuck?”

Shit, I’d forgotten they were standing behind me as well.

“Baby,” Quinton called out from behind me. “You’ve really got a thing for nailing people with rocks. You might want to check that.”

Wonderful. I bet the gang was all here now.

Rain grabbed me by my shoulders and shoved me backwards. Arms wrapped around my chest. I was expecting them to be covered in flame tattoos, but they weren’t. They were covered in silver swirls, and I looked over my shoulder and met bright, silver glowing eyes—Trenton.

His arms tightened around me. “Don’t you even think about trying to fight me. I’m tired of you running off and getting yourself into trouble. I’ve fucking had it with your bullshit. We’re going home and your ass is coming with us. I’m not going to let you go so you can disappear again only to find out later you’re talking about things like fucking drowning and beating people to death. That shit is not going to fly anymore.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head away so I didn’t have to see his anger anymore. I didn’t like knowing he was angry with me, and I really didn’t like how upset with me he was. I didn’t think he’d ever been upset with me before, and it really didn’t feel good now.

Simon stepped up beside us and took hold of my hand. He laced our fingers together and glared at his brother. “Don’t be an asshole. She’s had a rough night, and we don’t need to make it any worse. You can be mean to her tomorrow. Hell, I’ll even join you.”

Great, something to look forward to. I couldn’t wait.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh drew my attention, and I caught Rain cocking his arm back again. He swung his fist forward, and it slammed into Marcus’s face again with a thud.