Traded (Blood Ties Book 5)

Where the fuck are you? I pushed the car harder, tearing through the city streets as the rain unleashed a torrent while I looked for the goddamn…stubborn, asshole.

I clenched my jaw and gripped the wheel. “It should be goddamn easy, right? Any direction which didn’t have a goddamn roundabout?”

But it wasn’t easy, no matter how many non-roundabout-filled streets I went to, trying to fucking think what might’ve set him off. I’d checked the warehouse. I’d even checked our other house, still damaged after the attack. But the guards we still had patrolling hadn’t seen the moody fucker.

Now I just felt…lost.

Lost and pissed off.

Beep.

“About goddamn time!” I snarled as I snatched the phone from the console and glared at the screen.

Vivienne: Carven, I can’t find Colt.

I stared at the message, then lifted my gaze to the traffic as I wove through the busy downtown streets. She had a phone now, that I knew. But I hadn’t thought she’d…

What? You didn’t think she’d look to you for anything? You don’t deserve it. You don’t deserve—

Beep.

I winced, then looked back down.

London isn’t in his study, either. I’m starting to get a little worried.

Worried, my ass.

There was no way the daughter would message me if she was worried.

She was scared.

Real goddamn scared.

“Fuck!” I jerked the wheel.

Tires howled as they skidded along the street as I swung back the way I’d come. The engine roared as I punched the accelerator and tore past the same alley where I’d met the other Sons. It was one thing to go hunting for the one fucking person who was always by my side, but it was a whole other thing to—

Beep.

I tore my focus from the street.

Are you even getting these? I don’t know if I’m doing this right.

Jesus. “Yeah, yeah, I’m getting them,” I growled.

But I didn’t text back. I didn’t reassure her in the slightest. It was better that way.

Better she didn’t look to me for anything…except this. A muscle twitched at the back of my neck as I tore around the roundabout and accelerated. Yeah, except for this. It took me less time to get back as I took the corners sideways and scanned the assholes who watched the Ares’ streets as I passed.

I kept going, then jerked the wheel and turned into our new street.

Beep.

“What the fuck is it now?” I snatched the phone and read her latest text.

He’s home now, and Carven…he’s…he’s acting strange.

“Strange?” Panic filled me. “What the fuck does that mean?”

The other Sons pushed into my mind. If they were hunting me, then they could be…

“The fuck they are.” I braked hard, and hit the entrance to the driveway.

My headlights splashed over the Ranger my brother had left in. I searched for bullet holes as I pulled up alongside it and climbed out. I was already racing for the rear entrance of the house before the thud came from my driver’s door.

“Gun out,” the asshole guarding the place muttered as I neared.

I jerked a savage glare at the bastard and clenched my fists. I’d never wanted to hurt someone so fucking bad as I did right then. So the motherfucker was tempting fate. But I focused on the house, yanked the handle, and tore through the door. My pulse was out of control, erratic and thundering as I lengthened my stride almost into a run.

London’s study door was open. The light was switched on but the room was empty. I glanced inside and kept going, headed to the east wing and our rooms.

“Colt, please talk to me,” Vivienne’s voice spilled into the hall. “You’re scaring me.”

But the sound didn’t come from her bedroom, where he spent most of his time now. Instead, it came from his room. I strode inside and scanned the room, to find him crouched in the corner. His eyes were wide, his skin pale. There was a blood smear on his cheek and a gun clutched in his hand.

I knew that look. I knew it well.

It was bad.

“Baby…” Vivienne knelt in front of him, gently touching his knee.

“He’s not listening,” I told her as I stepped around the bed. “Because he can’t hear you.”

She jerked her gaze my way. Fresh tears shone in her eyes, shimmering under the lights. “I don’t know what happened. I thought he was asleep, then when I woke up, he was gone.”

I turned my attention back to my brother as she kept talking.

“When I couldn’t find him, I got worried.”

“I’m here now,” I answered as I stared into my brother’s terror-filled eyes.

But the words were as much for her as they were for him. I just couldn’t tell her. Instead, I focused on the only one who mattered right now. “What the fuck have you done?” I asked as I gently reached out and took the gun from his hand.

I’d only seen him like this once, shut down, close to comatose. That’d been the moment we’d come face to face with Hale for the first time. He’s been bad…but I’d been able to bring him around.

Only I didn’t know about tonight.

This time, it felt different.

“Hey, you gonna ignore me?” I pushed the gun behind me, scanned his face for wounds, and caught the deep gouge on the side of his face. It looked like a graze, like someone had shoved his head against a wall. My stomach tightened as I quickly sank into that rage. “Wanna tell me where you were tonight?”

My tone was forceful and dangerous as I glanced at the wet hoodie he was wearing. “Out in the rain, huh?”

“I did something, didn’t I?” Her voice was barely audible.

There was pain in her voice, real pain, and he heard it. His breath caught at the sound and I used that, driving it all the way home. “You gonna sit there and listen to her like that, brother?”

Those wide blue eyes flinched.

“She was so fucking scared, she texted me.”

He turned his head at that and stared at her.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. The woman had to be desperate, right? So next time you feel like disappearing in the middle of the night, you might wanna let me know, huh?”

So I can fucking stop you. But the words never reached my lips. Anguish ripped me on the inside. I would destroy the fucking world just to keep him safe…like he’d done for me all those years.

Through all the beatings.

And all the scars.

I lowered my gaze to the thick scars that cut across his body. A reminder of what they’d done. I had to stop them. I had to stop them all.

“I’m sorry,” Colt croaked, looking at her.

But the daughter never flinched, she just fell forward, right into him. “It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay.”

It didn’t matter that he was sodden. She drew him against her and cupped his jaw to kiss him. His hard lips met hers and the contact transfixed me, unable to look away. He grabbed her arm and pulled her hard against him, but then he broke away.

He seemed to come back to himself then and glanced around the room, before slowly pushing to stand up. I followed, scanning his clothes. “Where did you go tonight?”

Those dark pupils searched mine, but he didn’t answer.

“You’re soaked,” Vivienne exclaimed as she tugged his sweater over his head.

The moment felt off and yet blindingly clear. He was here, and she was with him, helping him, his anchor in the storm, just like I’d been for like…forever. Yet there he was, lifting his goddamn arms like a child for her to drag his sweater off and drop it on the floor.

Goosebumps raced up my arms as she removed his t-shirt as well, which left him standing there with wet damn jeans and a bare chest. Her hands raced over the hard muscles of his arms and I swore I could feel the connection. I flinched and my heart hammered. Somehow she noticed, and glanced my way before she turned her focus back to my brother and stepped closer to him.

The thin fucking nightie molded to her body as she pressed against him. Colt held my stare as the tight peaks of her nipples brushed his arm. He turned her on. No, it was more than turned on. I saw it in the way she looked at him…it was the same way she looked at London.

“Never scare me like that again, understand?” she murmured as she slid her hand along the back of his neck and pulled his mouth to hers.

My breath caught and my lips parted as hers took my brother’s.

Mine…

My cock twitched in response. She broke the kiss and turned to move against me. That same feeling ignited and blazed to life under the featherlight graze of her fingers. So careful…so very careful as her hand snaked around the back of my neck.

“It’s just us,” she whispered as she pulled me down.

Unable to fight at that moment, I let her. The scent of her invaded my lungs and forced me to close my eyes. I reached up and my hand slid around her throat. But she didn’t flinch, nor did she pull away, not even when my grip tightened and our mouths collided. No, the daughter gave in to me.

Thump…thump…thump…thump…thumpthumpthump.

The panicked beat fluttered under my thumb. I opened my mouth as I tasted her and licked her, then dragged my teeth across her plump lips. My cock strained against my fucking jeans, desperate to take her to the bed. I’d bend her over and press her head against the pillow. I’d take her…hard.

Would she scream?

They all screamed…eventually.

That moment was all I saw. Her as she thrashed and her nails tore at the sheets as I ripped her nightie off and showed her what kind of son I was. I broke the kiss, my breaths deep and consuming. Still, that thrumming under my thumb grew to a crescendo. “Are you afraid of me?” I asked, and searched those brown eyes for the truth.

She swallowed and slowly shook her head. Her lower lip was red and marked from my teeth.

“No?” I leaned down until I whispered hoarsely into her ear. “Your body is telling me something different.”

“I’m…I’m just really turned on,” she answered, her voice a whisper.

I closed my eyes. She wouldn’t fight me.

Not this one.

I clenched my jaw, hating how that hunger rose inside me, that savage need to destroy overwhelming.

“You think you want what I have to give, Wildcat, but you don’t know what you’re asking for. Stick with the son that actually gives a shit.”

Pain came in the back of my throat. I tried to swallow, to drive that agony into the empty pit of my chest. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t force it away or pretend it didn’t exist. I couldn’t be mean and hope like hell I made her hate me.

In the end, there was only one thing I could do. I lowered my hand and stepped backwards.

The daughter belongs to me. She belongs to me. She belongsshebelongsshebelongs…

Those words were all I heard now, all that raced inside my head.

“Carven?” she whispered.

But I couldn’t help her, not the way she wanted me to. Instead, I lifted my gaze to my brother and saw the scars and the desperation in his eyes. I was letting him down. I knew that, letting him down when he needed me the most. His brow creased and pain flared for a second before anger came.

That connection between us roared to life. Only it wasn’t with loyalty or love, it was anger…

Which I deserved.

The bright smear of blood on his cheek shone under the lights. The sight of that turned my anguish into white fiery rage. He’d been somewhere tonight, doing things he didn’t want to tell me…because he didn’t trust me.

He…didn’t…trust…me.

I couldn’t fix that. Not yet, anyway. So I turned my attention to the one thing I could fix, the thing that would fuel me, that would give me more than a purpose. But would give me an opportunity to give my brother the thing he deserved most in this world.

I’d give him…her.

Yeah.

I’d give him her.

I turned around and strode for the open door, my boots thudding, mirroring the panicked booming of my heart. But I wasn’t running this time, not like I had before.

Clarity cut through me like a knife and made that dead thing inside my chest clench. My brother didn’t need me to pull him from the darkness anymore. He didn’t need me to strap his hands down or stand guard while he slept. He had what I could never be part of. I was too broken, too savage. But I could damn well make sure he kept the only one who mattered to him.

The other Sons thought they owned her, thought they could take her.

I’d show them just how wrong they were.

I shoved through the back door and made my way back to the Raptor with the engine still warm. The asshole was there, striding around from the corner of the house. He made a show of his gun. He didn’t even make a snide comment. But he didn’t need to. The fact he was in my fucking face was enough.

I snapped my gaze toward him, and that craving for violence rolled through me. He flinched as our gazes collided and stopped, his buddy oblivious at his side.

“What is it?” the second guard asked as he scanned the grounds.

I tore my focus away, rounded the rear of the car, and yanked open the door.

“Nothing,” the asshole muttered as I climbed back in.

Still, that hunger was there, urging me forward as I started the engine and shoved the four-wheel drive into reverse. Movement came from the corner of my eye as I left the garage behind.

Vivienne raced forward, still wearing that barely-there nightie that made my breath catch. My headlights spilled across her body, outlining every fucking curve. I stared a heartbeat too long, then turned my gaze to the face which haunted me.

“Carven!” she called.

Her lips moved with my name, and my foot eased off the accelerator. The four-wheel drive slowed, the desperation an animal inside until I snapped myself back to reality.

She wasn’t meant for me, no matter what I wanted. I had to be smart about this. I had to put her first when it came to me. Especially when it came to me.

The daughter deserved better.

And kinder.

That sure as hell wasn’t what I could give.

It took all my strength to turn away from her, but I did, looking over my shoulder instead until I bounced and braked in front of the house, then shoved the Raptor into gear.

I didn’t see her as I drove away, my gaze moving along the driveway before I left them all behind.

I headed back to the city, to the darkened alley where the rave was coming to an end. I parked the car and sat, watching.

Partygoers spilled out, some stumbling, acting both drunk and high. But it wasn’t them I cared about…

The engine of the Raptor had turned cold as the faint blush of the rising sun kissed the darkened sky. Still, I waited…until that hum inside me sparked and drew my focus as two guys dressed in black jeans and leather jackets stepped out of the crowd and turned left.

I hadn’t noticed them before, but I didn’t need to.

I knew instantly what they were.

They were Sons…

An Ares brother followed. I watched him glance their way before he turned right. I scowled as I divided my focus between them. If he knew who they were, then either he didn’t care, or he was planning on following. The Mafia had no beef with the Sons, just like they had no beef with London. Still, it wouldn’t stop them using us when the need arose.

Not tonight.

I shoved open the door and climbed out.

Tonight was my need.

It was time to go hunting.

This time for Sons.

I’d waited long enough, making sure the Ares asshole was long gone before I followed, keeping to the opposite sides of the streets. Faint sunlight spilled along the tops of the buildings. I followed them for what felt like goddamn hours until my eyes were gritty and my patience had all but run out. Until they disappeared down a darkened alley that looked like it ran toward the homeless shelters.

Loaded carts sat outside the entrance, with an older man asleep next to it, his arm wrapped around a busted wheel. I glanced into the darkness, then followed.

I kept my head down, hands fisted in my pockets as I cut across the street and sank into the dark. The smell hit me, fetid and stale, and the closer I got to the end of the alley, the more rank it became. I turned my focus to movement and caught the Sons as they slipped through the torn gaps of a fence where the back street spilled out to what looked like a forgotten area of the city.

I scanned the busted tents and ripped tarpaulins before I ducked and slipped through a gash in the chainlink fence. The Sons were gone, disappeared into the gloom. So I tuned into that hunger and that connection we shared, hating it even more than I had before.

Son…

The word was a slur and a brand. One I knew I’d never get out of and, as I caught movement up ahead at the entrance to an abandoned warehouse, I knew this was my fate. But it didn’t need to be my brother’s.

He could get away from the name.

He could have something real.

I’d give it to him.

I slowed to watch the darkness and the cracked open door, then reached around and dragged my gun free. My boots crunched on dirt and rocks. I stopped at the open door, peered inside, and scanned the shadows. The place was filled with the homeless. I moved inside as my phone vibrated against my thigh.

My pulse skipped, then raced, and I knew on some level it was her.

I didn’t answer, just slipped further inside, careful as I moved between sleeping bodies. Grunts and snores rang out. The whites of eyes were neon from those who watched me. But they weren’t who I wanted. I kept moving toward the rear of the warehouse until I came to the back wall.

I scowled and turned around to scan the mess of bodies again. My senses were screaming, but they weren’t calling me here. I turned back around to face the far wall and spotted a cracked open door. There was no one lying close to the exit, which left a path of a sort. That’s where I headed as I followed that innate compass inside me and grabbed the handle, peering into the gloom before I moved ahead.

But the moment I stepped inside, something hit me…hard.

I stumbled backwards and slammed against the door with a crack.

“It’s about fucking time you showed,” a deep snarl came from my right. “Been waiting for you, asshole.”

I unleashed a roar as I drove my gun upwards and connected to something with a grunt. Hard breaths sawed through my chest. This was what I’d wanted…this was what I’d craved.

I swung again as movement came all around me. Black on black shifted. Instinct kicked in, only it wasn’t the need to survive that howled inside me. It was the craving to destroy. I swung, connected again, and drove forward, unleashing blows in a savage onslaught.

Crunch.

The sound was music to my fucking ears as I turned to the next asshole and lunged.

Crack! The blow came at the side of my head and knocked me sideways.

I stumbled and my knee grazed the dirt floor, but I used the momentum to drive myself forward toward the darkened blur and hit him hard.

Hands gripped me, the rush of air instant. My heart pounded as I moved, jerked my head sideways, and swung my fist high in the air. A grunt came, low and guttural, which sounded not just pissed off but surprised.

Good.

He should be.

The daughter belongs to me…

She belongs.

She belongs.

She…crack…belongs.

Those words drove me and pushed me harder into the kind of place that scared even me.

With a savage snarl, I drove my head forward to crack against bone with a sickening sound. My smile grew as I swept my foot out and took the bastard to the ground. He hit hard, with a grunt. I was on top of him in an instant, driving the muzzle of my gun under his jaw.

Blood bloomed in my mouth, the tang bitter and metallic. Lucky I enjoyed the taste.

“You wanted me…” I growled as I shoved the muzzle harder against his skin. “Here I am, asshole.”

The rush of his breath was brutal when it pushed against me as he lay on the ground. Movement came from all around me. I didn’t need to hear the clicks to know they aimed at least three weapons at me.

My finger curled around the trigger of my gun.

Looked like we were at a standstill.

“Hand her over, Carven. Don’t make me take out your cozy little family just to get to her.”

Agony plunged deep into my chest at the words. “Come near my family, motherfucker, and I’ll be the one taking you out…you and your girl band.”

“You think I don’t know about you?” the dead man grunted under me. “The self-destructive asshole with a mute brother. I know everything there is to know.”

“Good,” I answered, my focus on the surrounding movement. “Then it won’t come as a surprise when I blow your fucking head off.”

He just laughed. That low chuckle vibrating against my thigh made me fucking uncomfortable. “I say something funny to you?”

“Funny? No.” I caught the motion as he shook his head. “If this was any other circumstance, I might invite you to join our ‘girl band’.”

Invite me? The words stopped me cold.

I flinched at the movement as the one above us lowered his hand, the gesture clearer as the warehouse slowly brightened.

“She’s not worth it,” the asshole underneath me urged. “Why risk your brother’s life…and your own? They’ll come for her eventually. If not us, then there are others out there.”

They’ll come for her.

The. Fuck. They. Will.

Terror filled me at the words. I didn’t know the feeling…and I didn’t like it. Still, it came from that merciless need inside me, that sick, bloodthirsty desire to rip apart the entire world…to protect her.

I turned my attention to the Son underneath me. “You don’t touch a fucking hair on their heads, you got me? Not London, not my brother…” I leaned down to stare into those empty, soulless eyes, and saw my own. “And especially not hers. She doesn’t belong to you, asshole…she belongs to me.”

The words hit me.

But it was too late to pull them back.

Too late to undo the spell.

Because that’s what it was…

No, not a spell…but a compulsion.

She was mine.

The prospect of that was terrifying.

I rose and stared down at him. They pointed their guns at me, even as I lowered mine. They wouldn’t shoot…not now. I took a step backwards, still holding the Son’s gaze.

“Where the fuck are you going?” he demanded.

My lips curled at the question. He expected me to answer, to fall into line like the rest of the Spice Girls here. But I didn’t owe him a goddamn thing. The memory of her standing there in the middle of the driveway filled my mind. I knew where I was going.

The only place I could…home.