Forbidden (Blood Ties Book 7)

Shrill, terrified, screams tore along the hallway. I winced at the piercing sound as a Daughter was wrestled through the doorway and shoved into the meeting room.

She stumbled, then fell to her hands and knees in front of me. Her hair was down, covering her face.

“There.” Coulter sucked in hard breaths, his eyes blazing.

There was a red handprint blazing on his cheek. Looked like he’d picked himself a fighter…

She slowly lifted her head. Her busted lip was a damn mess and the remnant left by his fist was already swelling on her cheek. If this was what her face looked like, I’d hate to think what the rest of her was like.

Flickers of Helene pushed in. Her power. Her rage. The icy sting of wrath moved through me at the thought of her like this. If anyone raised a hand to her, they wouldn’t have a goddamn hand for long.

Coulter stabbed his finger at her and fixed a deadly glare on the woman cowering in front of me. “Do your fucking job. I want that bitch…I want her broken.” He met my stare. “I want to see it all. Every. Fucking. Thing. I want to see all your processes. How they’re trained.” He looked at my brother. “And what we can expect when they’re done.”

Hate moved through me. I slowly bent down, brushed her filthy, greasy hair from her face, and tilted her gaze to mine. She flinched, her brown eyes shining with terror. I searched the amber of her stare. But inside, I was panicking. The Daughter’s face faded until all I saw was Helene’s. The thought of touching someone else made my goddamn skin crawl.

I hadn’t felt that before.

But I felt it now, and as that sickening feeling took hold, I realized I was trapped.

Caught between survival and…what was this…love?

No.

Not love.

I let her face go and rose, facing the bastard. “No.”

There was a tic in his jaw. “No?”

“That’s right, no.” I took a step closer, meeting his stare. “You might be used to cowering, back-alley prostitutes, Coulter, but that’s not what we produce here. The Daughters of The Order are highly skilled and carefully trained. They are worth every million-dollar price tag that comes with it. Those men might fuck them within an inch of their lives, but these women will smile and pant while they’re doing it. So, to expand on my answer, no, I won’t ‘break this bitch’. Instead, I’ll expect her wounds to be treated, and her body scrubbed. Then, I’ll expect her to have food and water and when she faces me again, she won’t cower like a fucking dog.”

He stilled.

My pulse was booming, filling my head with the thrashing sound.

Take the goddamn answer.

He turned to her, watching as she curled her shoulders, desperate to get away. “Fine,” he said carefully, then met my stare. “You want to bathe and feed them, then have it your way. But when that’s done, I want to see a start. You have many more of these women coming and I want as many sold and shipped as possible.”

He took a step closer until we almost touched. “But if you think for one minute, I’m not onto you, then you’d be wrong. You’re hiding something, Cruz. You and your fucking brothers.” His gaze flicked to Kane. “And I intend to find out what that is. So play your games…I love a good challenge.”

He stepped away, giving a nod to the rest of his men in the room. Every single one of them left, leaving my brother and Walker behind.

It felt like someone had kicked me in the balls. My stomach tightened as I looked at Walker, giving him a nod. “Take her and get her cleaned up. I want all of them checked and processed as soon as possible.”

“Will you be overseeing any?” he asked.

The last time I’d done that was with Ryth Castlemaine. And look how that had turned out. Not only did her goddamn father and stepbrothers almost destroy the place getting her out, but it had almost cost my fucking life. I shook my head. “No. I won’t be.”

One nod was all he gave. He stepped behind me, grasped the beaten woman’s arm, and gently pulled her to a stand. “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

She tried to fight him, pulling away from his grasp. But it was useless, causing him to grab her roughly and haul her toward the door. “Don’t make this harder than it already is,” he warned.

Until they left and it was only the two of us.

I turned to my brother, watching his stony expression search mine, hating the fact the place was probably bugged and yet there was no avoiding this. He took a step closer, stopping at my side. “She’s in your head, brother. Careful there.”

I wrenched a glare toward him. “And she’s not in yours? I see the way you look at her, brother.” I turned on him, driving my chest against his. “How about you just focus on getting us out of this fucking mess and less about the woman in your goddamn bed?”

There was that wince. His light green eyes darkened in an instant. He didn’t like the fact she was mine. Not at all. That almost made me smile…until I really thought about her.

I saw the moment he realized what had just hit me like a blow.

She was alone…with our brother.

He turned at the same moment I did. Both of us took a slow step toward the door, only he was half a step ahead, and pushed me backwards as he stepped through.

Sonofabitch.

I cast a hate-filled stare his way as he lengthened his stride. By the time we hit the locked doors, we were almost running.

His heavy steps thundered. I fixed my gaze on the connecting door to the apartment straight ahead and surged forward. But the sonofabitch wouldn’t back off. Instead, he shoved me, barging me out of the way as he slammed his card against the scanner and yanked open the door.

We charged through the doorway, shoving and pushing, then stumbled inside, casting stabbing glares at each other.

“I…I know you!” the panicked growl came from in front of us.

I jerked my gaze upward to where our brother had Helene’s shirt in his grip as he pinned her against the doorjamb outside his bedroom. Her back was against the frame, her eyes wide and fixed on the swollen mess that was Thomas’ face.

“Don’t fucking lie to me!” He pushed close, staring her in the eyes. “Tell me!”

Kane glanced my way, then held out his hand. “Easy, Thom…easy. What the hell is going on here?”

He didn’t turn away from her, just pushed her harder against the doorjamb with a trembling fist.

I grabbed his fist, dragging him away. “Thomas, stop!”

But my brother was like a goddamn bloodhound, peering at her through the slits of his eyes. I pulled him away, forcing his gaze to mine. “What the fuck has gotten into you?”

He just shook his head, glancing her way before he inhaled. “Nothing. Nothing’s gotten into me.”

Something clearly had and whatever it was, it had made Helene tremble.

I narrowed in on the shuddering of her body. She turned those dark eyes my way with a soft shake of her head.

“What am I supposed to make of this, Helene?” I asked, leaving my brother behind as I took a step toward her. “First you step in front of my car, then I find out you’re my brother’s client.” I glanced at Thomas over my shoulder. “Want to tell me the truth?”

She jerked a panicked glance toward the door that led outside.

I moved just before she did, lunged to grab her as she made a run for it, and grabbed her around the waist. “Easy now…”

She kicked and fought, slamming her head backwards. I was so fucking in tune with her, almost like I saw her every move now before it even happened. I wrenched my face out of the way, and hauled her backwards through the living room to throw her onto the brown leather sofa.

She bounced and scurried forward. Fuck, she was fast, lunging.

“You will stay!” I roared, grabbing her and pushing her back.

She just glared at me with that murderous stare. My body thrummed. Heat rushed through me as I stood over her. Jesus, she affected me more than any other woman I’d met before, and as Kane stepped closer, watching the two of us, I realized she affected him, too.

“You’ll stay,” I gasped and stabbed the air. “And this time, you’ll tell us the goddamn truth. How the fuck do you know my brother?”

She jerked that glare toward Thomas. He moved closer, standing beside me. “It’s her voice. Her voice…I—” He scowled, searching his memory.

“I don’t know you,” she spat.

Lie.

I knew it before she said a word. It was more than a tell, more than a twitch of her temple. She was under my skin and inside my head. I leaned down and placed my hands on either side of her on the sofa. “You’re lying, Helene. You’re lying and you’re about to get caught.”

“One way…” Thomas said, his voice distant. “One way to put out a fire.” In an instant, he came rushing back into the present, his gaze narrowing in on her. “That’s what she said, one way to put out a fire.”

Her eyes widened. She shook her head. “No…no, you couldn’t possibly have—”

There…she said it.

“You were in the church with that bastard St. James.”

Cold rushed through me as she met my gaze.

“And the warehouse,” he added. “She was at the goddamn warehouse. I saw her.”

“You’re a l-liar,” she stuttered.

I reached down and wound my hand around her throat. “I don’t think so, Helene. The only one we’ve proven is a liar so far is you.” I gripped her throat tighter, not enough to cut off her air. But enough for her to know…her life was on the line. “How about we start with the truth this time? Who the fuck are you?”

I felt the panicked flutter of her pulse under my hand as she held my stare and answered. “Helene King.”