Traded (Blood Ties Book 5)

The guards glanced at me, then looked away as I headed for the hallway. Their focus shifted back to the ones who mattered, the ones they saw and heard. I was nothing, silent, invisible, and not a threat.

I kept my head down and walked slowly, catching movement up ahead. Theo Ares strode along the hallway, his black tuxedo jacket hooked around his finger and slung over one shoulder. Not even he saw me. But I sure as hell saw him.

Bloodshot eyes.

A faint dusting of white powder on his top lip.

He lifted his gaze the moment he sensed me, that raw stare narrowing in. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

I said nothing, just stepped to the side to pass, until the asshole grabbed my shirt, fisted it, and shoved me against the wall. “I said, what the fuck are you doing here?”

His focus narrowed as he searched my eyes, then shifted to my hair. I said nothing, just stood there. Not a threat, remember?

“You,” he slurred, leaning closer.

I smothered the urge to wince and turn away. He stank of sweat and sex and god knew what else he’d gotten up to last night.

“You’re the mute, right?”

I scowled.

“Yeah, the fucking mute Son.” He shoved me, releasing his hold as he looked back to the hallway.

The faint sounds of London and Dante drifted in from the sitting room.

“Figures,” he muttered, his lip curling. “It’s all bullshit anyway. Fucking bullshit, the lot of it.”

His eyes glazed for a second before he suddenly saw me again. “Want a drink? Of course you do, we all fucking do. Come on.”

He gave a jerk of his head and stepped away, heading toward the other side of the massive house. I followed, because that’s what ghosts do. We wound up at a darkened den. Amber lights glowed as he stepped inside and switched on the lights.

“I’ll get a fire started.”

I said nothing, just hovered near the armrest of the black leather sofa, taking in the doorway at the far end of the room. A desk sat behind us. I glanced at Theo, crouched over the fireplace, before I turned to that desk and the paperwork spread across the surface, trying to narrow in on the words printed on top.

“As it we don’t have enough fucking trouble? Goddamn Wolf up our ass. They’re gonna go to war, you get that, right? Fucking Wolves. Motherfucking bastards.”

I turned back as he tipped, falling face first into the goddamn fireplace as he reached to light it. But the paperwork called. The fucking paperwork that could give us the information we—

Theo unleashed a moan and tried to push upwards.

Sonofabich…

I tore my gaze from the desk and strode forward, grabbed the stoned, drunk asshole, and hauled him to his feet. Anger ignited in his eyes before I bent, grabbed the starter, and set the shit alight. Feeble flames grew bolder as they licked the kindling before the warmth grew.

“Fuck, it’s cold,” Theo muttered as I rose. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt it this cold before.”

He stared at me, those brown eyes boring into mine. “You don’t speak, do you? You don’t fucking speak, so you can’t tell.”

He licked his lips, seeming to like that.

They all did.

People said shit around me. Shit they shouldn’t normally say.

I just stared at him.

“There’s going to be a war. You get that, right? There is going to be a motherfucking war and I want no part of it. I want no part of…this.” He waved his hand through the air. “I want no part of it. Silas can have it all. He can have every fucking foul bit of it.”

Footsteps came from the door at the end of the room. Softer. Lighter. He swung his gaze, narrowing in as his sister stepped into the room. In an instant, he changed to the lion…no, not the lion…the goddamn hyena.

“You?” he snarled as she kept walking, cutting through the room on her way out.

But he wasn’t having that. Drunk and high, he stumbled toward her, blocking her way. “There she is…mom’s little Angel.”

She jerked her gaze to his golden, blazing eyes. Anger grew bolder and hotter by the second, mirroring the fire. She was pretty…real fucking pretty. Expensive, too. You only had to look at her to know she was out of your league. She had that look. Defiant, but not like our Wildcat. No, she was a fighter, like us, whereas this one…this one was the woman you never turned your back on. She was poison, this one, beautiful poison. Her golden hair shimmered as she moved. I was sure it’d smell like honey if you came close. Instinct made me take a slow step backwards as she tried to step around him, her black thigh-high dress swishing as she moved.

“You’ve got coke under your nose, Theo,” she whispered. But it wasn’t just quiet, was she? She stepped closer until she met his stare. “Way to go, you should be so proud. I know mom and dad are.”

His lips curled into a sneer. That was no sibling rivalry…that was hate. He pushed forward, to tower over her. “They aren’t your mom and dad, are they?” He stabbed his finger into her shoulder hard enough to drive her backwards with every hard jab. “Never forget that.”

She jutted her chin upwards. “How can I? When you remind me all the time?”

She glanced my way and for a second, I was hit with a wave of…kinship, familiarity almost. I looked away and broke the contact, my cheeks burning. Theo didn’t move as she stepped around him and walked out of the room.

I just stood there as he lowered his gaze to the floor and listened to the sound of her heels as she left.

“Goddam her,” he muttered before he turned around and left, exiting through the door she’d come in…leaving me behind as though I had never been there in the first place.

I turned to the desk as the fire crackled and popped. This was why I was here, right? The one they talked over. The one they ignored. The goddamn ghost. I moved closer, pushing aside the papers. Land development contracts. Contractors, warehouses. I took snapshots of what I needed before a muffled voice caught my attention.

“You understand what’s happening here, right? What do you mean? They aren’t our problem and we can’t be caught in the middle of this.” The soft feminine voice spilled through the doorway.

I narrowed in on the one-sided conversation. It wasn’t the young woman. No…it was the wife.

My steps were silent as I hovered inside the doorway.

“Ophelia will go after her. You just wait and see. She won’t stop until she takes the daughter from London. It won’t matter how many men he has watching her. It won’t matter a goddamn thing. She won’t stop, not until she ruins him. We can’t be around them if she notices us. Yes, thank you. Yes, I feel a little better now. I just worry. I know you understand.”

My stomach clenched. My pulse was pounding.

Who was she…who the fuck was she, and what did she know?

“I have to go,” the wife murmured. “I want us to distance ourselves as much as possible. They’re on their own. Dante will see to that…no, he isn’t aware of what we are doing. If he found out.” Her words turned throaty. “If he found out, he’d kill me. He’d kill us all.”