Traded (Blood Ties Book 5)

No…

NO!

No more!

NO FUCKING MORE!

I snapped awake and kicked out, driving myself back in the driver’s seat of the four-wheel drive. Horns blared from passing cars, their headlights blinding me. In the white sparks, I saw her. The dark, predatory eyes. A cruel slash of a mouth. Menacing, that’s the stain she’d left behind. One that was growing now, festering and diseased.

The bitch. I want her.

Those fucking words came back to me.

The ones printed out from the conversation between Ophelia and Hale.

The ones I’d found on London’s desk.

Fear was a clenched fist around my throat as the rest of the world faded away. She would. I knew that. She’d take Vivienne, just like she tried to take everything else. Ophelia didn’t want to just hurt us…she wanted to destroy us.

My throat ached, clenched tight around the scream trapped in my chest. I winced as I slowly came back to reality. All my screams were there, every roar I’d swallowed, every tear unshed.

Violent and vengeful.

Like a bomb set to explode.

Lights glittered from the cocktail lounge across the street. I stared as the thrashing sound of my pulse quieted while I watched those from the bar spilling out onto the sidewalk, still clutching flutes of expensive champagne.

But I didn’t linger on them, just shifted my gaze to the dark sedan parked out in front of the bar. Her sedan.

She was still in there, smiling and plotting.

I winced. That’s what she was doing. She was scheming right now, spreading lies and whispering filth, giving orders to take from me the only thing I wanted.

The bitch. I want her.

Pain cut through my palm. I looked down to see my white knuckles clenched tight. A bead of blood slipped along the lines of my fist and fell, hit my black jeans and disappeared. I eased my hold and slowly unfurled my fingers.

The small chip glistened with blood.

A chip which held every vile piece of information about her.

I wanted to know it all, and yet…I was frozen with fear, unable to move forward and too terrified to go back. I worked the edge from my flesh and stared at it. Stared until my mind conjured fragments of my past and morphed them into a fantasy of the future.

A future where Vivienne was back there…with the men who wanted to use her…and hurt her. They’d hurt her so bad she’d be scarred, just like I was scarred.

A shriek of amusement rang out and made me flinch. Heavy breaths consumed me as I turned my head. But the bar blurred. I blinked, trying to soothe the sting and closed my eyes, just for a second. God, I was so tired…so fucking tired.

Still, I was snatched from the car and pulled back to the restaurant.

The restaurant where I’d almost ended it all.

I could still feel the thud…thud…thud…of my boots, still feel the movement as I reached around to the gun at my back. Her two bodyguards were standing outside, but my movement triggered them. One turned and his gaze narrowed on me as I stepped up onto the sidewalk. The wide glass doors to the restaurant were right in front of me.

That’s when I looked…

Past the guards, to the real danger.

To her.

She turned at that moment as she talked to someone near the front. For a second, the mask she wore slipped and the predator was there. That icy stare. That look of disgust. Her lips curled before someone called her name and she snapped the pretense back into place.

But that one look was enough.

Enough to make my steps falter…and my pulse race.

Rain beat down as I stumbled forward and my hand slipped from the waistband of my sodden jeans.

“You fucking drunk?” one of the bodyguards muttered.

I kept going as I reeled from the panic inside. The thud of my boots faded. The awful roar of my pulse was just background noise, smothered under the sounds of my brother’s screams at ten years old. Shrill screams. Terrifying screams. The ones I held onto as her men kicked and punched and unleashed their cruelty and rage onto my body.

That was all I heard as I stumbled forward until I hit the darkened alley.

Acid burned along the back of my throat.

Faint groans of disgust came from her bodyguards as I lurched forward, grabbed the edge of a building, and expelled the scant contents of my stomach. I retched and heaved as I tried desperately to dislodge the horror of the past along with them.

Still, it stayed with me, even as saliva dripped from my lips onto the ground.

“That’s fucking disgusting.”

I closed my eyes.

“Goddamn bum.”

Rage flickered and my hand slipped. I fell forward and hit my cheek against the bricks. Pain radiated through my face. Pain that stayed with me now. I looked down to the thing I hated and needed all at the same time.

I could use it.

Use it to keep us safe.

My fingers were numb, and slipped as I pulled the door handle. I scanned the faces and found the same two bodyguards from the other night.

I had to be careful.

No doubt after what had happened, they’d notice me.

I scanned the crowded footpath, found the service alley that ran down the side of the building, and strode forward. Desperation drove me forward. I clutched the chip in my hand and lowered my head as I stepped onto the sidewalk. From the corner of my eye, I watched her men scan everyone.

They didn’t see me as I slipped past into the shadows.

My boots crunched on bits of gravel, but it couldn’t be heard over the traffic noise as I made my way to the back of the bar and the service entrance. The place was packed, so busy no one saw me as I opened the security door and slipped inside. The roar swallowed me instantly, laughter so loud it was almost deafening.

I moved amongst them like a ghost.

I’d never know what it meant to be that happy.

Not like they were.

But I was safe.

And loved.

And I had Vivienne…

I would not lose her, not now. I lifted my gaze and found Ophelia instantly as she stood amongst a group with her back to me. I gripped the chip, the one I’d bargain for Vivienne’s safety. But the moment I saw her, I froze. She lifted her glass and sipped the champagne. Diamonds glinted from her fingers clutched around the stem.

Do it…

Do…it.

The blood rushed from my face as she tilted her head back and throaty laughter spilled from her lips. I saw her smile, and it was a smile I’d seen before, one that said she always got what she wanted. She turned to her fake London and her eyes glinted cruelly. She’d never made any sacrifice that wasn’t in her favor. Never bargained. Never made a move. If she wanted it, she took it, and damn the consequences.

My pulse leaped as that realization hit home. There could be no ‘deal’ with her, could there? Only her sick greed and thirst for fucking brutality existed.

Please, not Carven! My own screams were faint as they resounded from the child I’d once been. Hurt me! Take ME!

My throat thickened and an ache throbbed. I remembered how I’d begged her not to hurt him, but it had never really been Carven that she’d wanted, had it?

The charcoal paintings surfaced in my mind. The wide, blue eyes from the child she wanted to hurt more than anyone lingered.

It was me…it had always been me.

My pain was sweeter, and she’d used the threat of hurting my brother to taste it. She’d used Carven then…just like she was using Vivienne now.

And I’d almost played right into her hands…again.

Adrenaline rushed, tearing through my veins like a drug. My breaths raced…

The bitch. I want her.

She was biting once more, sinking her fucking fangs into my vein to drink my torment. She turned back to her party, laughing and grinning as I watched.

“No…” The words spilled free as I stared at her. “You can’t have her. She’s mine.”

The world faded as I lowered my hand and slipped the chip into my pocket. There could be no bargaining, I knew that now. There would be no deals, no pleas. I didn’t know why I’d ever thought there could be. I scowled as she reached out and grasped the arm of the man next to her, a man with dark hair and a strong physique. A man who looked amazingly like…London.

The man is unpredictable at best. Hale’s words from the transcript rose. Pity you couldn’t control him.

No one can control him. Ophelia had answered.

Except for her.

Yes, except for her.

I took my hand from my pocket and reached around to pull the gun out as I stepped forward.

Motion came in the corner of my eye as someone stepped backwards right into my path. I slammed into him as I started to lift my gun. There was a flare of anger.

“Watch where you’re fuck—” he started, then stopped.

But I wasn’t even looking at him. I was watching her as she turned and strode away, her hold still around the man’s arm.

“Colt?”

I flinched at my name and turned my head, to see a familiar stare as Theo Ares grinned at me. He swayed a little, drunk like he’d been before, only this time there wasn’t the rim of cocaine beneath his nose.

“Didn’t see you there,” he murmured, scowling.

Then his eyes flared with concern, sobering him as some friends laughed and called to him. But he didn’t respond. Instead, he carefully lowered his gaze to the gun in my hand. “You here for me, Son?”

No one else knew what I was…

Not his friends, or the others partying around me.

But he did.

And it terrified him.

I stared into his eyes, my chest heaving with heavy breaths. “No.”

Relief visibly swept through him as he gave me a nervous smile. “If you’re not here for me, then who are you here for?”

I looked past him, to where she was striding out of the bar and heading for her waiting car. Theo followed my gaze and flinched the moment he realized.

“You go after her and you’re dead, you get that, right?” He turned back, and the knowing was a stony stare. “There’s no going back.”

“There never was,” I answered. “Not from the moment they tried to take her.”

I turned, slipped the gun back into my waistband, and strode away.

“Colt,” Theo called behind me.

But I didn’t stop, just kept going, and headed back the way I’d come until I shoved through the back door and into the alley. My breaths were savage. Still the acid didn’t come as I lengthened my stride, then pushed into a slow run. By the time I tore out of the service alley, the dark sedan was gone…and so was Ophelia.

Anger tore through me.

The kind that came from all the terror I’d swallowed my entire life. There was no fear now…nothing but a bestial need to rip the world apart. I saw them…their smiles and their masks. They all wore them, wore them until they lost themselves. I closed my eyes, trembling as I clenched my fists.

I couldn’t stop the white-hot rage from spilling out and unleashing a terrifying roar. The sound filled the alley and spread out. Laughter halted. They all stopped, turned, and stared. Music was all there was now as the smiles turned to fear.

The thud of footsteps came behind me.

“Colt?” Theo asked behind me.

I spun around and met that tormented stare. But it was the Explorer across the street he stared at. “Carven…is he here?”

That rage turned dangerous. I clenched my jaw and my fists followed. Carven was the one they were scared of, the one who was dangerous…the one out of control. I was the mute, right? The forgotten one, the one they never noticed at all.

I turned around and strode across the street as they all stared. Heat rose to my cheeks as I yanked open the door and climbed behind the wheel. A stab of the button and the engine came to life. I shoved the four-wheel into gear, punched the accelerator, and tore away from the bar…and the one chance I’d had to keep her safe.