Traded (Blood Ties Book 5)

Ophelia will go after her, just you wait and see…

I jerked awake with the voice’s words in my head.

Shadows…

Shadows and the faint sound of a moan.

Instantly, I turned my head to look at the bed. The crumpled sheets were still draped where I’d left them, but she was there, her breaths deep and steady, still asleep. Good. I lowered my hand to the gun at my side and leaned my head back until it hit the wall with a soft thud. Let her rest. She needed it. God, did she need it.

She shifted, tossing and turning, and one bare leg escaped the comforter. She was naked underneath the sheets. Beautiful, warm, spent, and naked. Her bruises were now all but faded.

“No,” she whimpered.

The bruises would fade, but the wounds of the memories were left behind. I knew those wounds. I carried those wounds. I’d carry more for her.

Ophelia will go after her, just you wait and see.

My pulse kicked with those words. I gripped the gun and pushed up from the floor before I took a step toward her. Strands of her hair were fanned across the pillow. Her arm was outstretched, her fingers curled. Was she reaching for me? Searching the darkest depths of her mind for someone to keep her safe?

That heavy thud in my chest grew louder as I looked down at her. Need swirled inside me like a gathering storm. I turned away, my steps silent until I was outside her room. Darkness greeted me. I blinked and rubbed my gritty eyes with the back of my hand as I made my way to the spill of light that came from the kitchen. But there was no one in sight.

I winced at the glare and went to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water before I turned around. I swallowed, letting the cold liquid slide down my throat as I leaned back against the counter. Mentally, I sank down into the place where Carven waited, sensing that connection that thrummed like a live wire between us.

He wasn’t here.

He hadn’t been here all night.

I’d felt the moment he left, sensed the distance between us somehow. Only this time, the distance felt different, heavier, hollower. It wasn’t as powerful as it normally was, like he was keeping things from me. No, like he was keeping things from us.

You want me to fucking kiss you?

I saw them in my head, Vivienne still dripping from the shower.

My brother’s rage still echoed in my head. I’d known he resented her, but I hadn’t realized how much. After the other night, I knew now, and the thought of it was eating at me. But not as much as it was eating at her. I headed out of the kitchen and turned along the hall to the lights in London’s study.

But I didn’t need to step inside the room to know he was gone. London was also slipping away from us, consumed by his own need for revenge. There was only me now. I was the one who watched her wrestle demons in her sleep. I was the one who saw the real picture.

The old house creaked and groaned as I stopped in the open doorway of his study and the front door opened. I didn’t need him to tell me whatever happened today had been bad. I saw it in his unflinching gaze as he walked in with blood on his shirt and closed the door behind him.

He’d been shut in here all day. More than once, I’d walked by to hear him roaring at someone on the other end of the phone. The old London was back and it looked like this time he was here to stay. I glanced along the hallway toward the rear of the house, then turned back to the printed sheets splayed out on his desk.

Instinct called me, forced me to step inside.

I headed for the desk and picked up the first page, finding a printed conversation between Hale and that bastard who’d taken Vivienne. Rage pricked the edges of my vision, making me see stars. I glanced at the tiny chip inserted into the reader in front of me. But it was the Mac’s screen I turned to, and found it unlocked. I braced my hands on the desktop and leaned over.

Hale: Daniels has the contract now. Whatever happens after this will be the decider. If he wants to go to war, then it’s war he’ll get.

Ophelia: The bitch. I want her.

Hale: We may need her alive to make him heel, so don’t get carried away.

Ophelia: I don’t have to kill her to hurt her. But you never know what happens when my artist’s muse takes hold. I wonder if London would like a special canvas made out of the whore’s skin?

Hale: If it’s a reaction you’re after, then that just might do it. The man is unpredictable at best. Pity you couldn’t control him.

Ophelia: No one can control him.

Hale: Except for her.

Ophelia: Yes, except for her.

EXCEPT FOR HER.

I could almost hear the contempt in her tone. Hate plunged deep inside me. It wasn’t Hale’s words I stared at…it was hers. The woman who’d tormented us, the woman who’d tortured me. London’s steps followed the sound of a thud from outside. I straightened and took a step backwards before I made my way around the desk to the doorway.

“Colt, everything okay?”

I turned toward the darkened hallway and watched him appear from the shadows…like he was one of them. I gave a nod and waited for him to step inside the room.

“Is she…” he started, then met my stare.

I flinched, then caught my breath, unable to look away.

“Is she okay?” he murmured.

But the man in front of me wasn’t the London I knew. He was…a casing, a shell. The man I knew was gone, buried somewhere under his rage. I glanced at the desk and the papers splayed out on top. Whatever he’d read there had changed him, and not for the better, either. I glanced at the desk once more and took a step to the side.

My heart was thundering as the walls closed in.

And all I could see were those paintings. Charcoal bodies with blue eyes going up in flames.

“Colt…” London stepped closer.

I snapped my gaze to him and moved back.

Ophelia will go after her, just you wait and see…

Those words haunted me as I turned and left London standing there, staring at me. She would…she would…she…would. I headed for the east wing, my steps automatically slowing when I neared her room. But I forced myself to keep walking, headed to my bedroom, and flicked on the light as I stepped inside.

I moved fast as I slipped on a dark hoodie and black boots before I slipped my gun against the small of my back and walked out. One glance at her door and I turned away, left the hallway behind and headed for the rear of the house. I lingered long enough to snatch the keys to the Ranger from the hook and shoved through the back door.

The two guards patrolling snapped their gazes my way. Their eyes widened as one of them made a show of the gun in his hand before the other gave him a soft smack on the shoulder and shook his head. “It’s not him. It’s the deaf one.”

The deaf one…

I kept walking, not giving them a second glance and pressed the remote for the four-wheel drive before I climbed in. The connection burned between me and Carven. I could sense it now as it burned brighter. I started the engine and shoved the vehicle into gear.

Headlights spilled along the side of the house and the front of the driveway as I drove out. I turned the wheel as the bright shine of the familiar oncoming car headed toward me. My brother snapped his gaze my way and scowled as I passed.

A second was all it took for my phone to ring.

But I didn’t answer, just drove on, turned at the end of the street and headed for the city. My brother was on his own path at this moment, one that was taking him away from the only thing that was important.

Keeping her safe.

I gripped the steering wheel, my hands slippery with sweat as I lifted my gaze to the roundabout in my rear-view mirror and veered back onto the right side of the road.

“Don’t you say a goddamn word, Carven,” I muttered, but I still heard his goddamn laughter echoing in my head. I wasn’t shit at roundabouts. They were just…confusing as hell.

I focused on the darkened streets as rain started to smack the windshield. My pulse skipped at the sight as I leaned forward and peered up at the sky, waiting for the white flash and thunder to follow. But they didn’t come and there was just the steady thud of raindrops on the car to fill the silence.

I eased back, focused on the streets, and slowly made my way to the executive house where she was staying. I knew she was there, because parts of the sprawling house in the countryside were closed off and still under investigation from the fire we’d started.

I only wished I’d burned it all down…and her along with it.

Maybe if I had Vivienne wouldn’t have been taken?

Maybe we’d all be safe.

I pulled the Ford into the street across from the two-story house and turned around, parking in the shadows. Soft lights shone on the second floor, hidden behind the curtains. I couldn’t see movement, but I knew she was there.

Movement drew my gaze to the garage door as it lifted and a sleek black Mercedes pulled out. I waited before I followed. The wipers moved back and forth, a damn distraction as we headed into the city. The Mercedes pulled up outside Hungerford’s, an exclusive restaurant in the bustling nightlife, and parked before the driver climbed out.

But there wasn’t just the driver. As I watched, another car pulled up and three more armed men in suits climbed out, swarming around the Mercedes as Ophelia exited. I pulled the Explorer into an alley two streets away and parked, my heart booming in my chest as I climbed out.

The gun wore at the small of my back as I tugged the hoodie down low, stepped out of the darkened alley, and made for the restaurant across the street. Cars passed as I quickly scanned the bodyguards surrounding her as Ophelia climbed the steps and disappeared inside.

Ophelia will go after her, just you wait and see…

I lifted my gaze to the two bodyguards who went inside with her, then shifted to the two outside, knowing there would be no walking away from this for me. I waited for the panic and the fear but none of that came.

Instead, it was her face.

Her eyes closed in ecstasy.

My name on those perfect lips.

Do it…

Do it…

Do…it.

I reached around to the small of my back as I stepped up from the street to the sidewalk. The two bodyguards turned around and started back down the stairs. In my head, I could already see it.

The restaurant in chaos.

People screaming everywhere.

Me standing there shot, bleeding. The gun trembling in my hand as I lifted it to her head.

Beep.

My phone beeped.

Beep.

The damn thing hummed and buzzed, drawing the bouncer’s stare as I stepped closer.

I knew it was my brother calling, but it wasn’t his face I saw.

It was the woman who held my heart in the delicate palm of her hand.

The woman I’d die protecting. The woman I’d make sure was safe.

Ophelia will go after her…

She’ll go after her.

No, she wouldn’t. Not if I could stop it.

Not if I could save the only one who mattered.