Queen of Quarantine Read online

  "Is everyone in position?" Saint's cool, level voice came through the earpiece as I looked towards the innocuous building we’d surrounded.

  Unlike me with my emotions untethered and the constant edge I balanced on, Saint had lost every scrap of emotion since it had happened. He was a cold, hard machine of a man with one single goal only and I had no doubt that he would achieve it.

  "I'm at the rear entrance," Monroe confirmed, his voice gruff and low. "It's locked up tight by the looks of things."

  "Fire escape looks the same," Blake confirmed.

  "On it," I growled, rolling the ski mask I had perched on top of my head down to obscure my features.

  I didn't really give a shit about being seen and I'd told Saint as much, but he'd insisted we keep our identities hidden, not wanting his asshole of a father to realise that we were the ones on the hunt. We'd covered up our break ins to the other four labs and hospitals owned by Serenity Pharmaceuticals under the guise of stealing medicines. We’d also paid off contacts via my family to break into other similar places around the city to make it seem like a widespread series of attacks based on a need for antibiotics and the like in the face of the Hades Virus. Saint didn't want it getting out that we were the ones orchestrating it until it was too late and we'd rescued our girl.

  I'd argued at first, having no reservations at all over the idea of letting Troy Memphis know that a member of the biggest and most ruthless crime family in the state was hunting him like the dog he was, but Saint had disagreed. He wanted us to use the element of surprise and keep our plan smart. If he hadn't pointed out the fact that his father could easily move Tatum out of the state or even out of the country at the slightest hint of a rescue attempt, then I'd have been more inclined to argue my point. As it was, I trusted Saint to know the best way to go up against his crazy fuck of a father, and if he was sure that this was it then I wasn't going to argue.

  But my temper was running very thin. I wasn't coping. I knew for a fact that I was unravelling fast. On the days that I was forced to spend waiting for Saint to come up with our next target to hit, I was drinking heavily and chain smoking and basically falling into a pattern of self-destruction which I had no reason to fight against. But tonight wasn't like the others where I roared my agony and the loss of my girl to the sky and drowned my sorrows in a bottle of Jack until I passed out, murmuring apologies to the girl I was failing. No, tonight was one of the few nights where I could actually do something to help her.

  In fact, I felt certain I was about to find her at last and pull her into the safety of my arms, never to let go again.

  There wasn't a drop of liquor in my system. There wasn't a single, errant, distracting thought in my mind. I was embodying the monster I'd been raised to be. Every fucked up, horrific moment of my childhood had been specifically designed to mould me into the perfect kind of beast to get this job done. I was lethal, bloodthirsty and entirely focused on one goal.

  I was getting my girl back. Come hell or high water she would be returned to my arms by the time the sun rose, and I'd worship her for the rest of my days like only a demon knew how.

  I tugged the pair of black gloves on, concealing the last of my flesh within the dark fabric and flexing my fingers to make sure I could still use my hands properly inside them.

  I slipped down a side alley to the right of the building, using the dark spots between streetlamps to creep closer to the research centre in the shadows.

  The place was well guarded but only against people who didn't know what they were doing. I had no intention of heading in via the front door where the guards were waiting. I wasn’t a fucking amateur. I’d been trained in the art of criminal behaviour since I was a boy and I was a damn good study.

  I crept quickly down the narrow alley, inhaling the scent of smoke on the air and glancing up at a vent which was churning it out from the third floor. The scent was slightly clinical, and I frowned towards the rising smoke for a moment before continuing on with the plan.

  I had no time to hesitate, no moments to spare. My girl was inside this building. I could feel it in the depths of my darkened soul. My heart was thumping to a deep and sultry rhythm which could only be in answer to hers. She was close. She had to be.

  I paused in the shadows as I looked up at the smooth wall beside me, spotting the air conditioning vent just where Saint had said it would be after he’d managed to get his hands on the blueprints to this place. Two floors up and bolted down as tight as fuck. Not that that would stop me.

  When I was fourteen, my uncle Niall had started taking me with him when he went on jobs that required a bit of stealth. That fucker was the grand master of breaking and entering. He even had a reputation in some circles which claimed he could walk through walls. Everyone knew if Niall O'Brien wanted you dead, there was no escape. You'd wake up in the night with him looming over your bed - a garrotte or axe or sledgehammer in hand depending on his mood - and you'd leave this life bloody and screaming for a mercy which would never come.

  Suffice to say, after having a teacher like him, I could break into this place no bother.

  "The guards should be finishing up their patrol in seventeen seconds," Saint's voice informed me via the speaker in my ear.

  "Most people don’t actually stick to your anal as fuck routines, you know," Blake muttered over the comm too and I almost smirked as Saint bit back at him. Almost. But there wasn't enough good left in me for smiles while my girl was gone.

  It took a bit of doing to scramble up to the vent, but I made quick work of breaking in once I was there.

  I grunted as I hauled myself into the shaft, my shoulders brushing up against the cool metal as I forced my broad frame into the tight space.

  "I'm in," I murmured, pushing my tools back into my pocket and starting to wriggle forward on my stomach.

  "No theatrics," Saint growled, a command more than a warning and I growled right back at him like the animal I was.

  "Stick to the research part of this plan," I muttered. "And leave the heavy lifting to the career criminal."

  "There's a delivery truck approaching the rear entrance," Monroe interrupted us and I could practically see his stern teacher face as his jaw ticked over our bickering.

  I tuned them out as the others kept watch on the building, all of them moving towards the emergency escape as they waited for me.

  I didn't have to take the vents very far, pausing at the first grate which looked down into one of the white corridors inside the building. The lights were low due to the late hour, but the place wouldn't be entirely deserted even in the dead of night. They had workers here around the clock, desperately trying to create the vaccine the world was waiting for. And we had a damn good idea on what - or rather who - they were using to create it.

  But fuck that. Fuck the world if the price of saving it was her. She was worth more than every other fucker on this miserable planet and I wasn't ever going to apologise for believing that. She was it for me. It might have been selfish and greedy, but I didn't care because my love for her was those things and more. If the creation of this vaccine required a sacrifice, then let it be anyone at all besides her. Let it be everyone besides her. Because without her, as far as I was concerned there was no world. At least not one I had any desire to exist in.

  I yanked the grate covering the vent free and dropped down into the darkened corridor as silent as a wraith.

  There was a distant bleeping which continued in a repetitive tone from somewhere further down the corridor, but aside from that this floor seemed silent.

  A CCTV camera looked down at me from the far end of the hallway but I ignored it - Saint had already taken care of the surveillance systems for us and I was concealed all in black anyway.

  My fingers twitched with the desire to start hunting the rooms on this level of the building for any sign of my girl and I gritted my jaw against my need to do that. I had to stick to the plan. I blew out a frustrated breath as I forced myself to turn away and headed for
the door that led to the emergency escape stairs at the rear of the building.

  I slipped inside the darkened stairway, the dim, red lighting just letting me see the stone steps as I headed down them at a fast pace.

  My footsteps were silent as I descended, my breathing controlled, just the way Niall had taught me. Even with my girl's life on the line, I wasn't going to get sloppy. Especially with her life on the line. The skills I'd earned in blood and bone were worth every moment of suffering on my part if they equalled her life now and I wouldn't let her down.

  The acrid scent of cigarette smoke twisted into my nostrils as I made it to the top of the final flight of stairs and I fell still as I noticed a faint blue light mixing with the red coming from somewhere below me.

  A half-hearted snort of laugher came next and my pulse leapt as I realised there was someone down there, taking a smoke break and checking out their TikTok feed if I had to guess.

  The smart choice would have been for me to hold my ground, wait for him to finish up and fuck off.

  But I never had been praised for making smart choices.

  My blood was pumping with heat and the desire for violence and I was helpless to resist its call.

  With a shiver of anticipation, I continued down the stairs.

  I moved silently, my back to the wall and my bulk hidden in the shadows as I closed in on my prey.

  When I finally spotted them standing at the foot of the stairs right by the emergency exit, my heart leapt. Not one asshole. Two.

  All the better to feed the demon in me.

  A grim smile captured my lips as I thought of my girl being held here by these thugs and before I could even consider second guessing my choice, I pounced.

  My fist collided with the closest guy's face hard enough to send his skull crashing into the wall beside him and he crumpled to the ground with a cry of pain, the cigarette and cell phone falling to the floor.

  The second guard had time to wrench his pistol from his waistband, but my hand closed around his on the butt of the gun before he could even aim it my way.

  I used my momentum to slam the gun into his face, locking his fingers in place so he couldn't reach the trigger and spilling blood which made him yell as something most definitely cracked. But before he could get another sound out, I was whirling him around, wrenching the gun from his grip and throwing him face first into the wall.

  He staggered away from it, his back to me for the briefest moment, giving me the opportunity I needed to throw an arm around his neck and lock it in place by grasping my wrist in my other hand and exerting enough pressure to cut off his airway.

  The guy kicked and flailed, clawing at my arm as he struggled for a breath I wouldn't allow him to take and I just smiled as I thought of my girl, of laying his body at her feet and showing her what depths I'd fall to just to ensure she was safe.

  Movement in the shadows to my left drew my attention to the asshole I'd first hit as he scrambled for the radio at his belt and I grunted a curse as I dragged the guy I was strangling towards him and threw a boot into the side of his head.

  He fell still just as the fucker I was holding gave in to oblivion too and I dropped his unconscious body on top of his friend, panting with exertion and smiling like a demon.

  I wanted more. Wanted to spill their blood across the ground and paint myself in it. But I forced my attention back to the door instead, ignoring Saint's demands to know what was going on as he hissed them through my earpiece and I pushed it open.

  Blake slipped inside first, his features fully concealed by a ski mask too, and he had the addition of a military grade gas mask as well, but I knew my brothers by aura alone. There was something tangible about this connection between the four of us and I didn't need to ask to know which of them was close to me at any given moment.

  "Shit," he murmured, looking down at the two guys I'd taken out as Monroe and finally Saint moved inside too, closing the door behind them.

  "Are they dead?" Monroe asked, the lack of emotion in his voice saying he didn't much care either way.

  "Not yet," I replied just as Saint threw a solid punch into my gut and got up in my face.

  He really did look like a devil with nothing but his eyes on show beneath that mask, the red emergency lighting glowing in his pupils as he glared at me.

  "What did I tell you about keeping a low profile?" he snarled.

  "I didn't cut their throats," I pointed out. "I didn't fill them with holes like I ached to. So maybe you should stop freaking out over a few pricks getting their asses handed to them and focus on what's important."

  Saint scoffed angrily then dropped down without another word, pulling a coil of fine, black rope from his pocket and quickly hog tying the two of them before slapping a piece of black tape over their mouths in case they came to.

  “Where the fuck is your gas mask?” he growled at me.

  “Must have forgotten it in the truck.” I shrugged, watching the way his eyes flared with rage and kinda hoping he’d punch me again. The beast in me was desperate for blood and pain tonight and that little tussle with the unconscious men at our feet hadn’t even whetted my appetite.

  Saint took a moment to decide whether or not he wanted to have this argument. We’d had it every single time we’d come out hunting for our girl and he hadn’t won yet, so he had to know it was a waste of time. I’d already caught the Hades Virus and survived; it might have fucking sucked and made me as sick as a dog, but it came with the perk of me being immune now. Though Saint liked to get his panties in a twist over the possibility of my immunity not being all that great. But like I’d told him – I didn’t give a shit and I wasn’t wearing that fucking mask. It reminded me too much of the skull mask I’d had to wear at Royaume D’élite and the things I’d done there. Now that we’d had to put our vendetta against them to one side, I had no desire to live in those memories.

  Saint seemed to realise there was no point arguing this with me, especially as I couldn’t exactly go and get the thing now anyway, so he dropped it with a sharp exhale of irritation.

  "If you fuck up our chances of rescuing her, I'll personally put a bullet in your skull, you neanderthal," he hissed as he straightened.

  "Don't worry your little cotton socks about that, sweetheart," I said, stepping forward and putting out the cigarette that was still burning on the ground with my heel. "If we fail to rescue her, I'll be doing that myself."

  Saint looked deep into my eyes, reading the truth of that statement for himself and grunting his approval. There was no me without Tatum anymore. Shit, I didn’t think any of us wanted to consider an existence without her in it. So it hadn't been hard to realise that I'd rather eat a bullet than linger on in this life without her.

  It wasn't suicidal. Just practical.

  Besides, I had no intention of following through on that promise because we were going to get her the fuck back. Tonight.

  "Your hot-headed behaviour could fuck this whole thing up," Saint warned. "You need to remember that the entire world doesn't revolve around you and your emotions." He said that last word like it was dirty and I snarled at him as I stepped closer, letting him see every dark corner of my soul lurking within my eyes.

  "Fuck the world. I don't care. Without her in it, there isn't anything else worth saving anyway. I don't give a shit if it's right or noble or ethical. My love for her isn't any of those things. It's dark, twisted, dangerous and unstoppable. So if saving her means letting the rest of the world burn then pass me the fucking matches and I'll get the gasoline. Because there isn't a thing in this universe that I'm not willing to sacrifice to get my girl back."

  "Wrong," Saint snarled, his dark eyes pinning me in his gaze like he seriously thought he had any chance of stopping me now.

  "I don't care what you have to say on the matter. I'm going to-"

  "You called her your girl again," he growled, cutting me off with a look so toxic it was practically burning me where I stood. "She's not yours. She's ours."
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  "Too fucking right she is," Blake agreed, every piece of light that usually shone in him utterly replaced with dark instead as the monsters in us rose to the surface of our skin and scented blood on the air.

  There would be death in payment for her being taken from us.

  "Then why the fuck are we still standing here?" Monroe demanded, his fury written in every inch of his posture as his muscles flexed with tension. "Let's go and burn the world down for her then."

  The rest of us agreed without words as we followed him back up the darkened stairs with the intention of doing just that. I’d tear this place apart brick by brick if I had to, but one thing was for sure, I wasn’t leaving here without Tatum Rivers by my side.

  Just a little longer, baby. Your monsters are coming for you. And we won't stop until you're safe in our arms once more.

  M onroe strode up the stairs with all the grace of a buffalo in stilettos and I snarled irritably as I shoved past him and took the lead. Honestly, it was like he was trying to make noise with those stomping footfalls of his.

  "Fucking megalomaniac," Monroe muttered beneath his breath but I didn't call him out on it.

  The way I saw it, he was correct and that wasn't an insult. Power was all that mattered in this life and if he hadn’t figured that out yet then he needed to pay more attention. Well, power and my siren. But my feelings for her defied all logic and I had given up on trying to analyse them. I just had to accept that I was hopelessly enthralled by her and embrace it because I certainly wasn’t going to attempt to give her up. My addiction to her might be my downfall, but if I was going to burn for any reason then I would happily do so for her.

  "Try to keep your steps silent," I hissed back at Monroe. "If Kyan can manage it then there's no reason you can't."

  Kyan chuckled darkly which really seemed more like an automatic response to my words than a real laugh, but I knew why he wasn't feeling any actual joy and I wasn't going to point it out.

  "Fifth floor?" Blake confirmed as we hurried up the dark stairwell and he moved to walk on my left. The gas mask he wore warped the tone of his voice a little, but these things were the best money could buy and I doubted any of the others even noticed the difference. But I had a musician's ear - much to my father's disgust - and the alteration in pitch was quite disconcerting.