The King Quotes

“What game do you play?” He smiles. “I play all of them, baby. I want to know which one you like.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“Intellect may make us human, but this desperate desire for risk keeps us animal.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“It might be a memory, but it’s also a punishment. Is that what I mean to him?”
― Skye Warren, The King

“In this moment what I want is…him. Whether he’s the wild boy or the perfectly handsome Damon Scott, he’s always been kind to me. Playful and brooding, his touch in turns coaxing and commanding. He only turned cruel once he tortured his father. Once he became his father, which was all Jonathan Scott wanted.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“Gabriel Miller is as bold as thunder, rumbling, unmistakable. Damon Scott is lightning, so bright he’ll blind you. They’re both forces of nature but only one will kill you just to touch him. Only one will burn you in a flash.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“Maybe Damon Scott and I are destined to repeat history, each of us too wrapped up in our own pain to help the other swim. I already know I can’t rely on him. Or Daddy.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“There’s something that can pierce the haze of desire. Grief can do it. A grief so hard and tight it’s a fist in my chest.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“I hope one day I’m the man you deserve.” “And until then?” I ask, the knot in my throat so thick and so rough. “Until then I’ll make this right the only way I know how.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“he’s the only person who really understands what I’ve been through. Because he went through his own hell, with the very same devil.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“The important thing is that I won’t be near you. You’re in danger as long as I want you. As long as I follow you, as long as I have people watching you. In danger. You’ll never be safe while I’m here.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“It’s upsetting that he looks so clean and crisp and beautiful standing beside a run-down tenement. Upsetting that he looks so good when he’s clearly a bad man. That his movie star smile hides a terrible broken soul. “You’re not the boy I knew.” “No,” he agrees. “Are you the girl I knew?” “You’ll never find out.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“Nothing could have prepared me for the sight of his dark eyes—black like night. Like inky depths I could never hope to enter. Never hope to escape. He looks so much like his father it steals my breath. Some logical part of me knows they have differences. Jonathan Scott already had silver threading his dark hair when I met him years ago. He was taller, leaner, more severe in every way. It’s my heart that’s somehow breaking, seeing in him the whisper of evil.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“I know exactly what he’s become. There’s a storm inside me. A whirlwind of surprise and fear, threatening to drown me. Why are you back? That’s what I want to ask. From somewhere deep inside, another whisper. Why did you take so long?”
― Skye Warren, The King

“My pride is about controlling my own fate. And that’s what I’m doing here—setting the terms. This is what dignity looks like for me.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“Sometimes the best way to get past something is to go through it.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“Calm down, I tell myself. It’s just a game. But I learned a long time ago that it’s more than that. It’s hunger and it’s pain. Or it can be survival. My hand is strangely steady as I reach for the last card. Even if it bites me I have to know. I lift the card, struggling to breathe. Struggling to see.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“they aren’t sterling silver or even gold. They’re this deep copper color, blackened at the edges. Realization washes over me, as potent and clear as an ocean wave. It’s a penny. A real penny that has been attached to a bracket, melded to make this cufflink that he wears on his body. I pick one up and find it warm. My gaze rises to meet his. “Where is this from?” I already know the answer, but it still makes me shiver to hear him say, “They’re two of the breadcrumbs you left me. So I never forget.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“I understand then what this is. A test of my will. He has to put something on the line, something I would hate to lose. And I almost stop. Because who am I to bet my father’s life? Then again, who was he to bet mine? If I do this, I’ll become just as bad as him. Maybe that’s the point. Making me turn into my father the way he turned into his.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“I accept your terms,” he says softly. “If you win you get freedom from worry. From fear. No one will ever be able to use you against your will again.” Does that mean money? How much money? I’m almost afraid to ask, because the truth is no amount of money will make me stop being afraid. No amount of money will stop the nightmares. It’s not money that will save me—it’s power.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“Get out,” Damon says, eyes on me. Acid rises in my throat. This is it. More than the game is at stake here. We’re at stake. Him. Me. Whatever twisted future we might have, when I’m a woman and he’s a man. “I’ll go,” I whisper. “Not you,” he says sharply. “Everyone else.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“We won’t get in,” I say, my heart squeezing. I knew it would be a bumpy road convincing Damon to let us play, hiding the counting and the signals, but it aches to be stopped so early. That game means college-level math classes and professional addiction therapy for Daddy. It means freedom from ever being bartered again.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“Money isn’t a good reason,” he says. “I should know.” “It’s the only way I can control what happens to me. It’s the only way I can be free.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“not wanting to hear one of the million reasons that would be dumb. Which reason would he pick to tell me? That the man is ten years older than me, gorgeous, wealthy, and could have any woman he wants? Or that he’s a dangerous criminal?”
― Skye Warren, The King

“They didn’t look alike, not in those moments, not before. There was only a kind of helpless self-destruction to both of them. They had not sunk to the bottom of the lake; they had both dived in head first.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“At the time I had been too numb and too cold to even run through the ordinary thoughts—don’t believe him, Penny. It will only be worse when he gambles again. Except he didn’t gamble again. Not in the three weeks I’ve been home. That might not sound like much, but once upon a time it would have been a miracle. Now it’s a curiosity. A concern, even. Who is this man?”
― Skye Warren, The King

“Nothing about this is appetizing, even if I were hungry. Except that Daddy made this for me. A hundred nights he was gone playing card games, leaving me to scrounge for food, to learn to work the stove before I really should have. All I’d wanted was this, a dry hot dog that he would make for me. I force myself to take a bite. Somehow it tastes worse than it looks. Chew. Swallow. Act like a person.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“You have to eat something,” Daddy says, pushing a dry hot dog in front of me. I swear to God everyone wants me to eat, as if food can fix this gaping hole inside me. As if it has anything to do with the way my body has shifted and grown and changed.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“And you’re safe now. You can run back to your little boyfriend. What was his name? Brandon?” “Brennan,” I say, tears stinging my eyes. “Right. I’m sure he would love to fix your intimacy issues and give you a couple babies. You can live happily ever after.” “That’s not what I want,” I say, my voice low. “Oh, my sweet Penny. Where did you get the idea that matters?”
― Skye Warren, The King

“It’s hard to say who actually won that battle. Damon may not be the one strung up by his wrists, his body tortured and raw, but his eyes look dead inside.”
― Skye Warren, The King

“We’re two sides to the same coin. We both love dangerous men. We both will lose ourselves trying to save them.”
― Skye Warren, The King