The adrenaline crash did not come all at once. It crept up on me in the back of the armored SUV, sinking into my bones like freezing water as we sped away from the blood-soaked marble floors of the Diamond Room.
I had done it. I had looked my father in the eyes, severed the only familial tie I had ever known, and publicly handed him over to the wolves. In front of the entire criminal underworld, I had worn the Viper's diamonds and declared myself his queen.
But as the neon lights of the city blurred past the bulletproof glass, the reality of what I had just done hit me. My hands, resting in my lap against the emerald silk of my robe, began to shake violently. The tremors spread up my arms, seizing my chest until my breaths came in short, jagged gasps.
Kaelen noticed instantly.
He d
