Queen of Quarantine

by Caroline Peckham

  "My father has upped his tactics," I growled, flashing the notification towards the others before opening up the story on Tatum.

  At the top of the page was a photograph which had been taken of her in her forest green Everlake Prep uniform, posing and smiling for the camera and looking like a typical prom queen type. The image was flat, emotionless and though of course she was breath-taking in it, it didn't capture her soul the way it should have. I looked beneath it and read the article aloud for everyone to hear.

  "Tatum Roscoe, Daughter of Donovan Rivers (the man responsible for releasing the Hades Virus into the world) is now wanted in questioning in relation to the events that led up to the virus being set loose. It has come to the attention of the investigating officers that young Mrs Roscoe (formerly Rivers) was likely brain washed by her father and helped him in carrying out the atrocities which have led to the deaths of millions of people worldwide. The young lady in question also married into a well-known crime family mere days after her eighteenth birthday and it is our belief that the O'Briens may be helping to conceal her location from the authorities-"

  "Grandpa's gonna love that," Kyan muttered but I just read on.

  "We are asking members of the public to stay vigilant and call the number below if she is spotted. However, Mrs Roscoe was well trained in tactical defence by her (possibly unhinged) prepper father and we do not want anyone to attempt to approach her if she is seen. The local and national authorities are on high alert and are hunting for her as we speak. We have every belief that she will be detained in due time."

  I stopped reading and looked at Tatum with frustration burning through me, but it was nothing on the venom flaring in her eyes.

  "I want everyone who set my father up to take the fall for this to die," she snarled furiously. "Every. Last. Lying. Scheming. One of them."

  "Your wish is our command, princess," Nash agreed and the rest of us nodded.

  Another Black Hawk helicopter roared overhead and I leaned towards my window, watching its progress across the sky before I lost sight of it beyond the overpass. A chill ran down my spine and I dropped my gaze to my phone again, opening up the other news story with a sense of dread filling me as I read it aloud.

  "Sequoia is going to be the first state in the country to implement the much debated 'test and divide' system in hopes that it may just be the answer to stopping the Hades Virus in its tracks. Areas of the state have been emptied out and sectioned off to make way for the division camps where members of the public (particularly those living in highly populated areas such as cities) will be sent after being tested for the Hades Virus. There are to be three camps. One: The Infected. Members of the public found to be infected with the Hades Virus will be relocated to this location where the best of medical care will be on offer and we can isolate the infectious people to protect others. Two: The Uninfected. Members of the public who test negative will be sent to camps where security will be tight to make absolutely certain that the Hades Virus is kept away from you. You will be safe here as we erect an uncrossable boundary to protect you from contamination. Three: The Survivors. In this camp, we will ask any members of the public who have had the Hades Virus and recovered (so currently have antibodies in their blood) to help us in the creation of a vaccine. You will be kept safe and isolated just like the uninfected population, but there will be incentives given to anyone who chooses to help our work by donating blood."

  "Fuck that," Kyan growled and I had to agree.

  "Let's take a detour," I suggested, not liking the presence of the army here at all.

  The article had gone on to make certain those camps sounded amazing, but there was no fucking way I was going to allow some asshole in a uniform to relocate me anywhere if I got a say in it.

  I turned the car around and started driving back through the outskirts of the city, taking a path that led uphill towards the suburbs where the edge of the mountain range started. It didn't take long before I was pulling onto a street with a lookout point that I remembered from driving up this way once before and as I drove through the trees toward it, my suspicions were confirmed.

  Tatum sucked in a sharp breath as she half climbed between mine and Kyan's seats to get a better look at the view and I frowned as I watched the army erecting barricades in a ring around this part of the city. I could make out more army vehicles and helicopters in the distance too, no doubt cordoning off another section. This test and divide bullshit clearly wasn’t going to be implemented on a voluntary basis.

  "Shit. How the fuck are we supposed to get out of here now?" Blake hissed as he stuck his head around the side of my chair beside the window.

  "We're not," I replied darkly, my gaze scanning back and forth as I took in as much information as I could. The barricades surrounded us in every direction and it was clear no one was being allowed to leave. By bringing us here to hide, I’d inadvertently walked us right into a trap that had been ready to spring. "Not like this anyway."

  "So what are we-" Monroe began but I cut him off as I started up the engine again and backed away from the view.

  "We'll head back to the safe house," I informed him, locking down the inclination to panic over this and trying to think it through logically. There was a way out here. I just wasn’t seeing it yet. But it would come to me. It had to. "And then we will have to try and figure out another plan."

  Tatum reached forward and took my hand, squeezing my fingers tightly as I drove and I held onto her, needing her close right now. Because for the first time in a long time, I was struggling to see a way out of this mess. And if this was a problem I couldn't fix, then I had no idea what the fuck we were going to do.

  “S hit. This is bad.” I paced back and forth in the little apartment in the movie theatre, determined to figure this out but unsure how.

  Saint was sat on the end of one of the beds, his fingers steepled together as he worked over a plan. He was as still as a statue, utterly rigid, a single crease formed in his tight brow as I could practically see the cogs turning inside of his brain. If anyone could come up with some kind of miracle escape plan to get us out of here before the army turned up and arrested me, dragged me back to a freaking lab and had me tested on like a lab rat until they killed me, then it was him. But he hadn’t offered a single idea yet, and if he was stumped, we were definitely screwed. So, so screwed. I was trying to have faith in him, but fuck, these might have been the worst odds we’d faced yet and as much as we all liked to believe Saint had superpowers, he really was only human and he couldn’t fly us out of here like superman even if he wished he could.

  “It’s really bad isn’t it?” I pushed when none of my men replied to my initial outburst. “Like, no way out of it bad-”

  “We’ll figure it out, princess,” Nash snarled like demanding it from the universe would be enough, but we all knew it wasn’t.

  Saint still said nothing. Did nothing. Just sat there thinking with tension pouring from him so tangibly I could taste it in the air. Blake looked just as concerned as I was and I chewed my lip to stop myself from saying anything else that wouldn’t help us, but shit, this was really freaking worrying.

  “There’s only one option,” Kyan said at last, his expression dark and I stopped pacing, staring at him where he was leaning against the wall, realising what he was going to say.

  “Kyan, you already owe your family too much. I can’t stand to think what they’ll make you do if you ask them for more help,” I said, shaking my head in refusal. He’d been trying to avoid those people for as long as I’d known him and yet one way or another, he just kept getting tangled up with them again. And it was often my fault. I loved that he was willing to do anything to help me, but I hated him having to pay a price on my behalf.

  “They’re the only choice we can make. They’ll be able to get us out of here,” Kyan growled. “And I can face whatever the payment is.”

  “No,” I insisted. “There has to be another way.”

  Blake and Monroe shared
a look, their expressions saying they were unsure about it too. But that wasn’t enough. I needed them to stand up and say it outright. We couldn’t let Kyan pay the price for this. It was our mess. And we needed to figure it out together.

  “There isn’t,” Saint announced, rising from the bed and folding his arms, looking like he hated saying those words while speaking them all the same. “Kyan, call your family. I’ve weighed the options, there is nothing else we can do.”

  “Saint,” I growled. “I’m not letting Kyan pay for this.”

  “It’s not up to you, baby,” Kyan said in a hard voice that sent a tremor of anger through me.

  “You don’t get to make decisions like that for the whole group. Nash and Blake won’t agree.” I looked to them, but they seemed even more doubtful now.

  “Are you sure it’s the only way?” Monroe asked gravely and both Saint and Kyan nodded.

  “Then we have to,” Blake said in low voice, his eyes on me. “Anything to get Tatum out of the city and that vaccine into the right hands.”

  “Don’t make this about me,” I growled, fury pulsing through me.

  “It is about you,” Saint said sharply. “And we have all vowed to protect you. None of us take that lightly. I would bleed in Kyan’s place to ensure you are not caught by my father, but I cannot. So this is the way it must be.”

  I shook my head, refusing this fate, but I could see the decision in all of their eyes. They didn’t like this any more than I did, but they were still going to do it. Kyan would once again have to give a piece of himself to the people he’d been desperate to escape for so long and it cut into me like a blade tipped with poison, the initial slice just giving way to more and more agony. I didn’t want that for him. I didn’t want him to be forced into a life or position that he’d been so adamant he didn’t want. I couldn’t bear the idea of him sacrificing his dreams and hopes for me. The price was too fucking high. I turned away from them, unable to stand there and just take it as they outvoted me and left me with no fucking say in the matter, marching to the door and heading out. I ran down the staircase, full of raging energy that wouldn’t dissipate.

  I needed some space. I was so goddamn angry. They couldn’t just discount my opinion like it meant nothing. How could they just outvote me like that? They called me their queen, but when it came down to it, my demands meant shit. They put me above all else and dismissed my feelings on the matter because they decided their lives held less value than mine. But fuck that. This relationship wasn’t equal and I wasn’t going to stand for it. I knew they wanted to protect me, but what about me protecting them? I couldn’t let Kyan give more than he already had to his family. The more he owed them, the deeper their claws got into his skin. And eventually they might get so far beneath his flesh that he wouldn’t ever be able to get free of them. The O’Briens were like a splinter, inching its way deeper and deeper into him and I feared the man he’d be forced to become if that sliver of rot made it to his heart.

  I marched across the foyer and through a set of double doors, finding myself in a wide, carpeted stairway and heading up, the urge to punch something rushing through me. At the top of the stairs, I found a little bar with couches and a long window at the far end of it that looked down over the street. I moved to sit beside the pane in a large armchair, gazing down at the road below as my pulse beat fiercely in my ears.

  My breaths came heavily as I tried to get my anger under control, but it wouldn’t ease. Was this how my life was going to be with them? All four of them ganging up on me every time they made a decision which was ‘in my best interest’? It was fucking infuriating. I wasn’t going to be the priority in our tribe. Didn’t they understand that I wanted to take care of them just as much as they wanted to take care of me? And by taking that decision away from me they were essentially trapping me all over again.

  The door opened but I didn’t look around to see who had followed me. Whoever it was had made a poor life choice because they were about to get the brunt of my rage if they expected me to come around to agreeing to this. “Go away,” I said icily.

  “No,” Monroe spoke and goosebumps raised along my arms and neck, but I didn’t turn to face him.

  “Yes,” I demanded.

  “I don’t want to argue,” he said placatingly.

  “Well that sucks for you, because I do. So if you’re gonna stay then you’d better glove up.”

  “Funny you should say that.” The pink and black boxing gloves he’d gifted me dropped into my lap and I finally turned to look at him, finding him strapping on his own.

  “I came for a fight, princess, just not the kind you’re looking for.” He smirked and the sight angered me further.

  “I’m not playing games, Nash,” I growled.

  “Come and show me how much you’re not playing games,” he taunted, his words designed to poke at me. And dammit, it was working.

  “Fuck you,” I snapped.

  He moved in front of me, jabbing his boxing glove against my cheek and I bared my teeth.

  “Fuck. Off,” I snarled and he did it again. “Nash! I’m not in the mood.” I aimed my boot at his dick and he jumped backwards with a chuckle. A freaking chuckle.

  I threw my gloves at him and he just grinned, kicking them back at me. “Fight me.”

  I stood up, moving to walk past him, but he grabbed me around the waist and threw me back down onto my seat, drawing an honest to shit growl from my throat. “Why are you being such an asshole?”

  I got up again, shoving him in the chest to get by but he threw me back down into my seat with more force and my heart thundered up into my throat. That’s it.

  I stood up, ignoring the gloves and throwing a furious fist into his gut. He absorbed the blow with a curse then threw one back into my kidney and another to my chest, forcing me to defend myself as he didn’t hold back. I went at him like a savage, throwing hard punches, but my rage was clouding my skill and he managed to uproot my legs with a sweep of his own so I hit the floor on my back.

  “Again,” he demanded, and I lunged up at him in a rage.

  “Stop acting like you’re my fucking teacher,” I snapped, throwing fists at his sides, his arms, his head. He blocked eighty percent of them then shoved me hard, making me fall down onto the couch again.

  He barked a laugh and I went fully feral, diving at him and not bothering with kickboxing customs, using teeth and claws in an effort to make my point. I bit into his right bicep and he snarled, locking me in a choke hold and keeping my head under his arm. I kicked and punched and fought, but he just started applying pressure to my neck until I was struggling for air.

  “Ass - hole,” I forced out.

  “You’re better than this, Tatum,” he taunted. “Fight me off. Your anger is making you sloppy.”

  I slammed my booted foot down on top of his and he winced, his grip easing just enough for me to wriggle free and throw two solid punches against his back. He wheeled around and I drove a roundhouse kick into his chest, making him stumble away again. Then I launched myself at him, wrapping my legs around his waist as I used my entire bodyweight to try and knock him to the ground. It didn’t work. He threw me off of him onto the couch again and I bounced on the cushions, glaring up at him through a mess of golden hair.

  Nash peeled off his gloves, tossing them aside. “Well, if you’re gonna fight dirty, then so am I.” He was still smirking like a prime dickwad and I really wanted to make him stop.

  “Nash, I am not in the fucking mood,” I snarled, shoving to my feet again.

  “You’re not? But you seem so approachable right now.” He grinned tauntingly and I shrieked, diving at him, aiming a savage kick at his legs.

  He staggered back before coming at me with a punch that winded me followed by another shove that made my ass hit the floor. I gave up any pretence of being civilised and went for his legs, sinking my teeth into his calf.

  “You little beast,” he half laughed, half choked on a groan of pain as he leaned do
wn to get me off of him. But when I didn’t let go, he wrapped his hand in my hair and pulled hard, yanking my head back to look up at him. “Bad girl,” he growled, those words having a sinful effect on me and as I licked my lips, I was sure he knew it. I wasn’t giving into that urge though. Fuck my libido. She was a whore whenever things got tense between my boys. But the way to solve this issue was not to pull my panties down and get my kicks. Even though she was making a decent effort at convincing me it might help me relieve some of this stress. If it was up to her, I’d be straddling Nash’s face right now and putting his tongue to better use than taunting me. Which was exactly why she wasn’t in the driver’s seat right now. The bitch had no shame.

  His grip in my hair tightened to the point of pain and I liked that even more. But I was not going to let him distract me. I was, however, going to use it to make him let go.

  I ran my hand up his leg, over the hard muscle of his thigh and onto his cock which swelled beneath my palm, growing rigid within his sweatpants as I rubbed him.

  His throat bobbed and his fingers loosened in my hair which was a fatal freaking move. I reached up and grabbed his hand, twisting his fingers sharply and he swore as I got out from under him and went for a knee to the balls. He hooked his arm under my knee to stop me, his other hand landing on my back as he leaned down in my face, tilting me backwards. “You’re not fighting fair, feral girl.”

  “You know what’s not fair, Nash?” I hissed. “The four of you teaming up on me whenever you think you’re making a decision for my benefit. I’m not a pet.”

  “No? Then why are you acting like an animal?” he asked, letting go of me and I squeaked as I fell and hit the carpet on my back.

  The door swung open and I turned my head as Saint stepped in. “We need eyes on the street. I got an update on my phone that says the army are knocking on doors. We need to be ready if they show up in this neighbourhood.”