Traded (Blood Ties Book 5)

Betrayal. I tasted it in the air before I even got there. The sickening, rancid tang ran down the back of my throat as I swallowed. My boots were silent. But my pulse was a goddamn freight train thundering in my head. Carven flanked me on one side, Colt on the other as we skirted the long drive and headed for the dark brown expansive Tudor mansion at the end.

The tracker had come to life barely ten minutes ago…

It was only a minute.

But it was all we’d needed.

I glanced at Carven and gave a nod, unleashing the son like a bloodthirsty beast. He gave a chilling smile and rushed forward, leaving Colt with me as we neared the van parked in front of the house. I scanned the grounds as Carven disappeared, then looked inside the rear door of the van…

My steps stuttered as I took in the long metal box they’d shoved her in. It was barely big enough to hold anything, let alone a person. But they’d shoved her in there, sliding that steel cover over her face, nearly suffocating her. Jesus…the hell she must’ve endured…

I ground my teeth as hate burned inside me.

I wasn’t the only one who flinched with anguish at the sight.

I glanced at Colt as he turned away, those dark blue eyes were black with primal rage as he lifted his gaze to movement.

Carven appeared from around the corner, his face splattered with blood and a knife in his hand, dripping. I froze, my gaze fixed on the two eyeballs that hung from the optic nerves gripped in his hand. I met his stare, my brow rising. “Isn’t that excessive?”

It wasn’t rage I saw in those blazing blue eyes…it was revenge. “He looked at her, didn’t he?”

Jesus.

This wasn’t just any kill for us.

This was personal…

I lifted my hand and motioned toward the doorway before pushing forward. But before I could even give the signal, Colt was already moving, charging ahead. I’d trained them to attack and to obey. I gritted my teeth and raced after the son. It looked like he was done following commands, especially where Vivienne was concerned.

The movement wiped the smile from Carven’s face as his twin disappeared through the towering wooden door and slipped inside.

“Sonofabitch,” he hissed before lunging after Colt.

We were barely a few steps behind, but even that was too much, especially when three guards moved out from an expansive living room and into the hall in front of him.

“Carven,” I managed.

But I didn’t need to. They’d bred these sons to be silent, terrifying savages—and that’s exactly what they were, rushing forward in chilling silence. Carven tossed the knife in his hand up in the air, flipping it end over end, before he clenched his fist around the hilt and drove the blade into a guard’s chest.

I lifted my weapon, found Colt as I rushed forward, and took aim at the third asshole charging toward them.

Pft!

The suppressor smothered the sound, leaving nothing more than the rush of air and the bite of gunpowder in its wake. The bastard dropped where his last step landed. The bloom of blood at the front of his head was nothing compared to the blowout on the other side. Carven unleashed a snarl, ripped his blade free, then grabbed the bastard around the throat and drove him against the wall with a thud.

Blood was everywhere, streaming from the bastard’s chest and his throat as Carven lifted the weapon, but a piercing scream unleashed from deeper in the house.

“That’s mine!”

I froze.

We all froze.

Vivienne…

The bastard against the wall gasped, then shoved forward, eyes blazing as he fought for his life. But Carven wasn’t looking at him anymore. In fact, he barely registered the mercenary at all when he cocked his hand and drove the knife straight into the bastard’s belly. Two terrifying upward jerks, and he turned that chilling glare back to the dead man in his grasp. “You don’t get to survive this…none of you do.”

Blood spewed from the gash as Carven sliced him all the way from navel to collarbone before he stepped away, leaving the guard’s body to slump to the floor. The son stepped over the body as Colt rushed forward. I lunged too, swinging the muzzle of my rifle upwards as he rushed toward the sound.

“NO!” Vivienne screamed from a room further along the hall.

That sound punched all the way through my heart.

But as brutal as the sound was to me…it was destroying to Colt. The son didn’t stop as we raced toward the heavy wooden door where her screams came from. He didn’t even slow, just dropped his shoulder as he charged, and slammed his body against the ornate barrier.

CRACK! The door shuddered and gave way under the force, leaving it to bounce against the wall with a resounding boom as we rushed inside.

Eight men…I scanned the room, searching for weapons, finding the kill angles.

Eight men…and three of us.

Colt moved right as we entered, vaulting clear over a large brown sofa. The son didn’t roar. He didn’t even utter a damn sound. He let the sickening thump of his fists as he attacked with savage ferocity do all the screaming for him. His blows were brutal, driving into the guard’s face over and over again until there was a gut-wrenching crunch.

The body dropped to the floor before Colt took a slow step forward, his chest rising and falling with consuming breaths.

But my focus wasn’t on him…it was on the others.

The six men crowding around the desk at the far end of the room.

Before movement came between them.

Thin arms.

Long legs.

Thrashing.

Vivienne…

Colt drove his fist into a male’s face before the guard fell to the floor.

I lifted my rifle as Carven hurled his knife through the air, hitting the center of a guard’s chest as he turned at the intrusion. In the span of a slow-booming heartbeat, the room was filled with a vacuum of violence. One that sucked all the sound away with it.

There was nothing.

Nothing but a tsunami of merciless rage.

One they’d created when they’d taken her.

I lifted my rifle and took aim, my reflexes taking over as I squeezed the trigger, taking out one…two…three of them, before I advanced. I felt nothing but emptiness as I narrowed in on the bastard standing at the end of the desk…and between her thighs. Daniels was a dead man…and I didn’t give a fuck about the consequences.

His pants were open, his zipper all the way down. But it was those fucking hands around her thighs that sickened me…touching what wasn’t his to touch.

Thump! Thump! THUMP! Colt unleashed a roar. CRUNCH! Then he lifted his gaze, his focus on the desk before he lunged. Vivienne unleashed a cry and kicked out with frenzied movements. I was already striding forward, swallowing the icy sting of rage. The burn was all I felt as I risked a glance at her and froze.

Fuck…

Her face was a fucking mess. One cheek was red and blazing, darkening with an agonizing-looking bruise that was going to be a bitch tomorrow. Her lips were bloody and split. But that was nothing compared to her eyes. One was badly swollen, with only a blank stare visible, the other was swollen closed. She slipped and fell as she tried desperately to escape. But Colt was there, lunging through the air to catch her before she hit the floor.

Then she was in the son’s arms.

She was safe.

I swung my gaze back to the piece of fucking shit who’d done that and lifted my gun. The small red light from my scope found the center of his forehead. I could almost see the blowout and the crimson mist blooming with one…gentle…squeeze…

“No!” Daniels roared, lifting his hands up to cover his face, and dropped to his knees. “Wait…WAIT! You need me…you FUCKING NEED ME!”

I stepped forward, carving my way through the violence.

Screams punctured the air as Carven drove another attacker to the floor beside me and wrenched his blade into the air. I’d never seen him so frenzied as he stabbed and stabbed…and stabbed.

I’d never seen him…so…terrifying. Not even when he fought for me. But he was now. Consumed with bloodlust and vengeance and when he was done, he turned that chilling gaze to her…

Vivienne.

I caught his flinch in the corner of my eye as I advanced, sucking in hard breaths. I didn’t speak, because there was nothing left to say.

“You d-don’t know what I know,” the slimy motherfucker cried as I pressed the muzzle of the sniper rifle to his forehead. “I do…I DO!”

In the corner of my eye, Colt slipped his tactical vest free and pulled off his black t-shirt before he slipped it over Vivienne, covering her as best as he could.

“There is nothing you could tell me that’d spare you from this,” I answered coldly.

But there was that tiny voice inside my head that whispered, what if…

“You need me,” the bastard blubbered, his eyes filled with tears as he looked from the sons to me. He shook his head, as though it finally hit him just what she meant to us, then lowered his stare, cowering. “I didn’t know—”

He barely got the words out before Vivienne lunged, tearing from Colt’s arms. His t-shirt flapped as she lifted her hand and slapped Daniels’s cheek with a crack!

“You bastard!” She hit him again and again, leaving him to cover his head with his hands. “You…fucking…BASTARD!”

I just stepped back, leaving her to do her worst.

“I didn’t know,” the slimy fuck muttered over and over.

Until Vivienne stopped sucking in hard breaths as she towered over him. She looked so fierce, even beaten to hell, she was a goddamn force, looking down at him.

“You didn’t know?” The words were hollow and strange.” I lowered my gun and squeezed the trigger. Pft! The bullet found its mark in the back of his hand.

Shrill, blood-curdling screams erupted from the filthy piece of shit as he gripped his wrist, staring at the neat bullet wound through his hand. His skin turned gray, his eyes wide and bloodshot as I took a slow step closer, until I met that horrified stare. “Now you do,” I finished. “Now you know the lengths we will go to to protect her.”

Daniels jerked his gaze from Vivienne to me. Red welts were rising on his pasty-as-fuck cheeks. “Y-you d-don’t know what he’s p-planned,” he stuttered. “I do. I can help you. I can tell you everything.”

I shook my head until Vivienne looked my way. All I saw was her swollen, darkening eyes and the bloody strands of her hair. “Wildcat,” I answered and handed the sniper rifle her way.

She knew.

Even as tortured and terrified as she was, she knew what I was saying…the choice is yours.

She reached out with a trembling hand, three fingernails broken and bleeding. All I saw was that metal fucking coffin in the back of that van, and I knew instantly how they’d been broken. She gripped the weapon and turned back.

“No,” Daniels’s eyes widened as he stared at her. “No!”

She lifted the rifle, gripped the barrel, and with a savage scream, she brought the butt down hard against the side of his head with a loud crack! Daniels flew sideways as Colt stepped closer, watching as she stumbled then righted herself.

But the motherfucker didn’t slump. Dazed, he swayed on his knees, bracing his uninjured hand against the floor.

“Didn’t knock him out, pet,” I muttered, staring down at him. “Maybe try one more time?”

She found me through the slit of her barely open eye and gave a slow nod before lifting the weapon high once more.

“Wait!” Daniels shrieked as my damn phone rang in my pocket.

She drove the rifle down, hitting him again, only this time even harder. He slumped to the floor hard, knocked out cold, as I reached into my pocket and pulled my phone free.

Daniels never moved, but the sonofabitch was alive, and he had Vivienne to thank for that. I never took my eyes off her as she looked my way. “If he knows what Hale is planning, then we’re going to need him.”

I gave her a smile, then glanced at the caller ID, unleashed a snarl, and answered. “This better be good.”

“We have a problem,” Mickie growled. “I wouldn’t have called, but…the damn place is a mess.”

“What do you mean, a damn mess?”

“The emergency sprinkler system went off and flooded the entire east wing. We’ve had to close the whole wing down…and that means moving bodies. So you’re going to get here…and fast.”

“Fuck!” I barked, glaring at Daniels, my mind racing. It couldn’t be a coincidence that this happened on the same goddamn night they tried to take her. Because I didn’t believe in them. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“You’re going to need to make it soon, London—”

I clenched my jaw, forcing the words through gritted teeth. “Don’t push me, Mickie. Not tonight, understand?”

He went quiet on the other end of the line. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Keep everything contained until I get there.” By everything, I meant everyone.

The east wing housed not just Jack Castlemaine, but also Dominic Petrov, one of Killion’s security detail. He came in handy when I needed access to setting up not only cameras for spying on the scumbag, but he was the one who had helped to protect Ryth.

I ended the call and turned to the mess of dead bodies. “Take Vivienne back to the warehouse,” I ordered, turning to her. “She doesn’t leave your sight, understand me?” I swung back to the sons, knowing the words weren’t needed.

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m coming with you.”

I winced, thinking of the mess waiting for me. It wasn’t somewhere I wanted her, not like this. “Vivienne, I don’t—”

Even bleeding and busted, there was defiance in her stare. “Don’t you think I’ve proven my loyalty by now?”

A pang tore across my chest. “It’s not a question of your loyalty.”

She held my stare. I knew in an instant there was no budging her. My mind raced, hunting down all the implications of her coming face to face with Ryth’s father, I then slowly nodded. “If you insist.”

“I do.”

A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth as I stared at the t-shirt barely reaching her thighs. “Colt, find her something to wear. Carven,” I glanced at him. “Tear the place apart. I want to know everything this rapist piece of shit knows.”

One nod and he glanced at Viv. Something passed between them, a look, one that had the son scowling as he turned and followed his brother out of the study. The air was different when they left, quieter, strained.

“Vivienne.”

She shook her head. “Don’t.” She shifted that busted up, beautiful face my way. “I don’t need words. I need action. I need you to fucking end this once and for all.”

My pulse pounded, and the desperation crawled out of the hole where it lived. “I will. I promise.”

She gave a nod and turned away, looking at the dead bodies that littered the room. “Good. Because these men cannot live, not in this world.”

That was all that drove me.

All that kept me awake at night.

All that had me hunting, trying to protect those I loved.

Footsteps resounded from out in the hall. I knew Colt’s gait, even if the son was more frantic than I’d ever heard him. He strode back into the room carrying a handful of red lace lingerie.

“This was all I could find.” He looked sickened, lifting the cheap, disgusting garments.

Vivienne just stared at what was in his hand, then slowly reached out, taking the lingerie. “I’d rather walk naked down the fucking streets than wear red for him.”

Colt looked away, following her gaze to Daniels, still slumped on the floor. “There’s nothing else.”

“If I don’t have pants, then neither should he.” Vivienne stared at where Daniels’s pants were open under his gut. “Or a cock, for that matter.”

She glanced my way. “Now, where did Carven disappear to?” she murmured and a tiny smirk tugged the corner of her mouth before she winced with the sting.