Traded (Blood Ties Book 5)

Ophelia will go after her.

Just you wait and see…

We did…didn’t we? We waited and we saw. Now we were dealing with the aftermath.

Gunshots cracked inside my head and the tormenting sound of Vivienne’s screams followed.

I’ll protect you.

I’ll protect—

“It’s okay,” I whispered, and stared into her eyes as London thrust deep inside her. “I’ll protect you.”

She jolted with his impact and moaned with pleasure, unable to hear a word I said.

But I did…

And that’s all that mattered.

“Then marry me,” she groaned.

“What did you say?” London asked.

But I was already slipping away, unable to bring myself back, even when heartache roared into the room.

Movement came, blurring everything out of focus.

Because I was back there with the crack of the gunfire and the screams of rage.

In my head, I stared at the dark blur as she scurried along the pavement outside the restaurant. Cold plunged into my chest at the memory, the ice gnawing until it consumed me. Ophelia will go after, just you wait and see.

I turned away, unable to stay in that room a second longer. I was already gone from here, plunging back into that darkness. Sounds came from the far end of the house.

I tracked the movement and sensed Guild moving away as I stopped at London’s study. Keys for the Explorer glinted on the corner of the desk, drawing my focus. I snatched them and made my way back outside. No one saw me climb into the vehicle and start the engine. No one saw me quietly back out of the drive.

I’ll protect you.

I’ll protect—

I sucked in hard breaths as I lost myself again. Streets blurred and headlights blazed. But I kept going and made my way through roundabouts and across the city until the bright lights of the bars blurred in my rear-view mirror. I turned then, slipped down a familiar street, and scanned the curb.

There was no driver waiting outside now, no party for her to go to. It seemed that tonight, Ophelia was all out of excitement. I flinched as movement came from behind the curtains. I switched off the engine, yanked the handle, and climbed out.

My body was exhausted, my mind numb as I slowly made my way across the street to the side of her house. I knew the layout of the townhouse, knew the combination of her locks. I knew everything. Except what was on that chip.

But that didn’t matter.

Not when I stopped at the high brick wall, grabbed the top, and heaved myself over.

“I need you!” Her shrill scream was far too clear as it came from a cracked open door above me on the second floor. “He’s going to come after me, don’t you get that? He’ll find out. He’ll—”

Her voice went quiet as I rounded the bottom of the stairs and began to climb.

“Okay. You’re right. They’re all dead. No one can trace them back to me. It was just a coincidence I was there. Just a—okay, okay, yes. Just come and get me and I’ll spend the night, and Haelstrom…thank you.”

My gut clenched with the words.

Thank you?

THANK YOU?

I gripped the steel banister as I swayed.

She thanked him for protecting her.

All vipers.

All snakes.

I opened my eyes and kept climbing, catching the light spill from the cracked open door. She didn’t know she’d left it ajar as she ran for her life—I caught the movement as she paced, her phone still clutched in her hand—but soon she would.

The door hinges were silent as I pushed the door and stepped inside.

Her back was to me, her gaze fixed on the window. She took a step, brushing the curtains aside to stare into the night. Did she see my car parked in the dark alley? Did she feel me breathing down her neck?

I took another step inside and scanned the counter, finding partially folded white cloth coverings and an open tool box. Newly hung artwork decorated the gray concrete walls. Charcoal and blue beckoned at the edge of my vision, just like the ones we’d burned.

I didn’t look…I didn’t dare.

I wasn’t here for them…

I was here for her.

Steel dragged along the counter as I gripped the hammer and pulled it free. She turned then. Her eyes widened as they fixed on mine. That cruel fucking mouth pursed tight.

“You,” she said, then gave a chuff as she glanced at the hammer in my hand. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“You shouldn’t have touched her.” I stepped closer. “You should’ve stayed away.”

I wasn’t me…I wasn’t here.

I was someone else, someone empty. “You…should’ve just…RUINED ME INSTEAD!”

She jumped at the roar. But then that fucking mouth curled. “You think you can escape me?” She stepped forward, completely ignoring the weapon in my hand. “You think you can ever escape me?”

I sucked in hard breaths as she moved closer. “You can’t, don’t you get that? No more than I can escape you. He never told you the truth, did he? All he gave you were lies and silence. You swallowed it all down, every single drop of it.”

“You shut the fuck up.”

“Lies, lies, lies.”

“I said shut the fuck up!”

She slithered closer. “London and his whore daughter and his bastard sons.”

I swung my fist. “I SAID SHUT UP!”

The hammer hit her in the side of the face with a crack. She jerked sideways, then stumbled until she hit the wall. Her hand went to her cheek, then she looked at her fingers. Her chest was rising and falling with her panted breaths. “You…you bastard.” She lifted her gaze and I saw blood on her cheek. “You fucking bastard.”

She shoved against the wall, but stumbled before she straightened. I saw it then, saw that serpent behind her eyes. It blinked and fixed on me.

“I’ll fucking ruin her,” the serpent spat. “I’ll drag that cunt into the club and I’ll stand by and watch every man there have his turn. And then I’ll put her out onto the streets. I’ll shoot her veins with so much heroin she’ll forget her own fucking name. She’ll wear red until that’s all she knows. All she’ll remember is bright blue eyes. Bright blue eyes and the memory of what she once had.”

I charged forward, grabbed her by the throat, and shoved her backwards. “I fucking HATE YOU!”

Her head hit the wall with a crunch. The whites of her eyes shone for an instant as they rolled backwards and then closed. My gut clenched as a sickening chuckle spilled from her slips.

“You don’t get it.” She opened her eyes. “You were mine before you were anyone’s. Mine to have, mine to torment, mine to destroy if I wanted to. You were mine when you were conceived and you were mine when I gave birth to you.”

I stiffened.

Her gaze burned into mine. “My flesh. My blood.”

“No.” I shook my head, my hand falling to my side as I stepped away. “No.”

“He never told you because he wanted you for himself. He was so fucking weak and pathetic when it came to the both of you.”

“You’re a liar. That’s what you do…you lie.”

She yanked up her blouse, exposed her abdomen, and shoved down her slacks. All I saw was the white slash of a scar across her belly. “You came from me, implanted from one of the founders of The Order. He gave up his rights to you, but I never did. I never did!”

“You beat us,” I croaked as pain ripped a jagged blade through me. “You beat us and you tormented us!”

I focused in on her. It all came rushing back now. Every boot to my back, every fist to my face. “You beat and starved and ruined us.”

She jutted her chin high in the air. “I made you the man you are today.”

“YOU BROKE ME!” I roared. “YOU BROKE US! YOU TURNED US INTO NOTHING…YOU…YOU—”

I had my hand around her throat before I knew it. Corded muscles clenched tight along my arm. “But I won’t let you ruin her. I won’t let you destroy her. She’ll be happy. She’ll marry London and she’ll be happy.”

That same sick gurgling sound vibrated against my grip.

She didn’t fight, just stood there with those knowing eyes boring into mine. I gripped the hammer with my other hand. The tool felt heavy in my grip.

“He can’t. Marry. Her.” The words were just hisses of air. “Because…he’s married to me.”

The words were a kick in my gut. I shoved her away, until she slid along the wall.

“No.” The room blurred with the shake of my head.

She stumbled and fell. Her gaze moved to the window and the darkness outside.

I couldn’t think. I couldn’t…I clenched my fist and punched the side of my head. Pain throbbed deep.

“That was the condition when he took you. He married me. He obeyed me. But all this time he was looking for a way out. He thought he found it in her…he was wrong.”

“No.” I clenched my eyes closed. “No…”

I sensed movement, but I couldn’t react. I couldn’t do a damn thing as that numbness crawled along my spine.

“You always were pathetic, Colt.”

“Shut up.”

“Pathetic and soft. You think daddy—“

I snapped open my eyes. Only, she’d managed to stand, and she was close…too close, her gaze fixed on the open door. There was only one way out of this now. Only one way for those I loved to be safe. I clenched my grip and swung.

She threw her hands up to protect her face. But it didn’t matter. Steel hit her palm and drove it into her nose. Bone crunched. Her screams followed, shrill screams as I yanked my arm back and swung once more, impacting the side of her face.

There was only that numbness now.

Swing.

Hit.

Swing.

Hit.

Swing…

I blinked and she was on the floor in front of me.

Her face was bloody, her hair a mangled, blood-matted mess.

“I’ll protect you.” My grip slipped with the blood, so I had to clench tighter as I lifted the hammer high above my head. “I’ll protect you all.”

I swung down, driving the steel through the air as hard as I could.

Crunch.

Embedded deep into bone. There was only the hiss of air now.

Only the white of her eyes and inside her skull.

I sucked in deep breaths as I slowly rose. Warmth cooled against my skin as bright lights flared along the street. The sound of a car grew louder until, through the gap in the curtain, I watched it turn into the drive.

Just come and get me…

Her words surfaced as reality slammed into me. I looked down at my hands smeared with blood…then glanced at the broken thing in front of me.

I did that…

I…did.

I did.

I—did…

My hand trembled as I reached for my phone. Blood and flecks of white brain matter smeared across the screen as the engine outside died. I stabbed the numbers, praying…

“Colt,” London answered.

The thud of car doors sounded. “I did something,” I whispered, staring at the ruin in front of me. “London…I…I killed her.”

“You killed her?”

“The fucking bitch who tried to kill you. I killed…Ophelia.”

Silence. Then a hard breath.

“Hale’s here. He’s just pulled up in the drive.”

The boom…boom…boom…sounded. I thought it was my heart.

But it wasn’t. It was London…running.

“Stay right there,” he roared. “Do you hear me, Colt? STAY RIGHT THERE. I’M ON MY WAY.”

I jerked my head up at the sound of boots thudding. My stomach sank. “Tell her…tell her I lo—”