Perversion (Perversion Trilogy #1)(45)

“But, she’s almost eighteen now, and Marco’s governed her by family rules,” Belly adds.

I know where he’s going with this because I know Marco’s fucked up laws. Girls of age are fair game for all members of Los Muertos. Unless he wants her for himself, which he’s shown he does.

“I’m going to be sick,” I say, and it’s not because of the whiskey.

“As you should,” Belly says adding insult to the most painful injury I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve been fucking shot. Twice.

I swallow hard and ball my fists as I speak her reality out loud. “Her time’s run out.”





Twenty-Two





The first thing I do when I get back to the compound is tell Gabby about the bus tickets and Grim.

“Oh, shit,” she says. “Let’s go. Let’s do it.”

She starts packing our backpacks and hides them in the air vents. “I’m going to make a run for supplies. I’ll meet you back here in an hour.”

While she’s gone, I rinse the color from my hair and let it dry naturally. My need to be truthful to myself outweighs the need to blend in or to match the ID I’m about to use perfectly. My bouncy blonde curls spring back to life.

“There you are,” I say, reaching out to touch the mirror.

I open my notebook to retrieve the bus tickets. They aren’t stuffed between the pages where I left them. I check again. They’re still not there. The last time I saw them was at the park. I dropped the notebook when Memo threatened me. I managed to shove it back into my bag before the bullets rang out and Grim carried me off but…Memo.

Leo bursts through the door with a wild look on her face. “Marco wants you to come down to the courtyard. He has a…surprise for you.” She can’t even look me in the eye.

Marco has a surprise for me.

Dread immediately fills my entire being.

I want to run and hide, but there’s no hiding when it comes to Marco. I nod, and she leads me out into the courtyard where Marco is waiting, surrounded by angry, tattooed girls and women I recognize as other members of Los Muertos.

“I like the new look,” Marco says. “Missed that crazy hair of yours.”

“What’s all this?” I ask, but I already know. I’ve seen it before from my window.

“This is where you prove your fucking loyalty like you should have done years ago,” Marco says, roughly grabbing my arm.

“Why?” I ask, “I’ve been loyal. I’ve—" Marco’s shuts me up by holding up a pair of bus tickets.

MY bus tickets.

Shit.

Memo chuckles from behind Marco and blows me a kiss.

“I was going to make you my queen, and THIS is how you repay me?” Marco asks loudly for all to hear, his chest rising and falling with his anger. “But don’t worry. You’ll still get a chance to be my queen. IF you survive your initiation.” He lowers his voice; pulling me close he whispers in my ear. “You were in the palace, bitch. Welcome to gen-pop.”

He shoves me into the circle. I stumble and hunch my shoulders, trying to make myself as invisible as possible, but it’s no use.

The first girl comes at me, and I manage to block a few of her blows and deliver a few of my own. Marco is cheering with his soldiers from the sidelines. Their laughter piercing through the circle like an arrow. I can fight them off one by one without problem. I’m strong, athletic, and I’ve been in a scrap or two.

But there’s no way I can win when the group crowds me in on all sides. I raise my arms to cover my face as they begin brutally beating me. One blow after another until a faint whistle enters my blood-filled ears. The crowd parts, and Marco picks me up by what’s left of my shirt.

“Go get the next one,” he barks to someone.

“No, not Gabby. No,” I rasp as blood trickles from my lip.

“Awe, that’s so sweet that you’re worried about her, Blanquita. But naw, she gets special exception because she’s blood. Family. You got special exception, too. Then, you went and fucked it all up by lying to me. Time to show me some loyalty, bitch. Now, let’s see how you handle your walk of shame.”

I would’ve laughed if I was capable or if I didn’t fear Marco’s retaliation.

I’m dizzier than I’ve ever been as I’m placed in the open bed of a truck. Marco barks orders in Spanish to whoever is driving to take me to the devil’s den.

Then, we’re off. Every bump in the road is another punch to my ribcage as I collide with the ribbed metal of the truck bed. When we finally stop, it’s like I’ve been beaten all over again.

I’m unceremoniously lifted and dumped out onto a concrete sidewalk by a man I recognize as Gil. “If you survive the night and find your way back to the compound by morning, Marco won’t kill you. If you die out here…well, then you die.” Gil laughs, amused by his own sick joke. “Oh, and I almost forgot. Marco wants me to remind you that if you so much as think of running, Gabby will go through the same initiation with three times as many against her. And if they don’t kill her, he will.”

He reaches into his back pocket and takes out a can of spray paint, but it’s not the walls he tags. It’s me. I cough through the fumes as he covers me in yellow paint, spraying me from head to toe.