BooksBarbecue
Back When Villains Rise
Chapters (52)
  1. Copyright
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-One
  44. Forty-Two
  45. Forty-Three
  46. Forty-Four
  47. Forty-Five
  48. Acknowledgments
  49. Read More from the Market of Monsters Series
  50. More Books from HMH Teen
  51. About the Author
  52. Connect with HMH on Social Media

And her mother had guessed Kovit’s existence so easily—if she’d bugged Nita’s phone, she’d know Nita was meeting someone.

The thought made ugly, sludgy emotions rise up in her chest. She remembered how proud her mother had said she was when Nita fended off the black market. Was all that a lie too? A trick to get Nita to come home again?

Nita tried to talk herself out of it—she’d suspected her mother of terrible things before, and she’d been wrong. Her mother hadn’t sold her on the black market, Fabricio had. But the idea had wormed its way into her mind, and no matter how she tried to talk herself away from the thought, it only burrowed deeper.

And the story about Nadya was just too close to what Nita was living.

People never really change. They repeat the same patterns over and over in their lives. And this was not a pattern Nita could risk ignoring.

Nita took a shaky breath as things became clear. She’d been fighting the black market. She’d been fighting INHUP. But the truth was, they were actually the same enemy. She’d only been fighting one person this whole time.

Her mother.

Fury burned in Nita’s stomach, anger searing her soul as everything that had happened started piling up, her mother’s list of crimes growing longer and longer. All of this to force Nita back, to return to her mother’s control.

Fuck her. Nita was going to live her own goddam life.

Nita raised her eyes as she came to a decision, her gaze hard and cool as she looked at Zebra-stripes, supposed victim of her mother and weaver of tragic love stories. He might not be evil. He might even be a better person than her or Kovit. She might even be able to use him more if she kept him alive, his quest for justice might be useful to her plans.

He might even be innocent. She didn’t think so—she was reasonably sure that, in this at least, INHUP hadn’t lied to her. Zebra-stripes was probably her father’s killer.

And if he wasn’t, so what?

If Nita released him, he’d just kill her. Keeping him alive and a prisoner was a liability, and she didn’t think she’d get any more useful information out of him.

More and more, Nita was realizing she didn’t give a fuck about what was right or justified. She cared about herself and the people important to her. And him being alive put her and them in danger.

“Thank you for the information.” Nita’s voice was calm, perfectly calm, despite the emotions that ran rampant through her soul. “That’s all I needed.”

He looked at her, eyes tired. “You’re not going to let me go, are you?”