Caleb gripped my chin, tilting my gaze to his. “You understand what I’m saying, princess?”
His breaths were hard, heaving. Still, there was power in his eyes. A well of untapped carnal need…all for me, and I wanted more.
My body trembled. My pussy throbbed with its own heartbeat. I was mindless and numb, but still felt everything. “Yes.” I finally grasped how he loved me. “I understand.”
He leaned forward and kissed me softly before he tilted my head, staring down at my throat. I didn’t need a mirror to know he’d left marks behind. His hands…his hunger. I couldn’t seem to catch my breath at the thought, and in the wake of that desire, the memory of Vivienne came back to me. The way she’d looked at that man who was old enough to be her father…it was exactly like this.
She liked it. The control. The degradation.
I stared at Caleb, feeling that heady sense of power once more, as the front door opened and closed with a thud.
“You need to see this,” Nick called out. The sound of a television filtered in.
“What the fuck?” Tobias muttered and rolled out of bed, pulling up his sweats as he walked around the end of it. He bent and snatched his t-shirt from the floor, the muscles along his back flexing with the movement before he turned his head and cast a ravenous glance my way.
My breath caught with that primal power in his eyes. He’d liked what we’d just done together. He’d liked it a lot.
Caleb followed, grabbing my sweats, t-shirt, and bra from the floor before he turned back to me. That dark carnal need was just as dangerous now as it was before.
He moved closer, bending to hold open my sweats for me. “Princess.” His cock swayed as he bent, and my gaze was riveted by his body as he moved. God, my brothers were going to kill me. I slid one foot in, then the other, took my bra and t-shirt from his hold, and froze…as the sound of my mother’s voice cut through the air.
“We’re terrified for her safety. We just want Ryth to come home.”
Caleb jerked his gaze toward the door, then moved fast, grabbed his own clothes from the floor, and rushed through the door. I followed, stepped around the mess on the floor, and rushed into the living room, seeing my mother on the TV.
She stood next to Creed, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief, and stared directly into the camera. “We fear she’s being held hostage by her stepbrothers. They’re dangerous, very dangerous. We’ve had reports they’ve assaulted one of my husband’s employees and set fire to our family home. We don’t know what they’ll do next, and we’re afraid for my daughter’s safety. We’re so upset it’s come down to this, but we just want her found. Please, if anyone has seen my baby, we’ve set up a dedicated number through the Hale Order Ministry.”
“That fucking bitch!” Tobias barked and jerked his gaze to Nick. “That motherfucking bitch!”
Nick just stared at the screen. “They’re setting the goddamn city on us, like fucking hounds.”
Tobias stepped closer, but it wasn’t my mom he looked at, it was Creed.
“Every fucking cop, every fucking mercenary,” Nick muttered, turning away until he saw me.
But I couldn’t tear my gaze from the man standing behind them…a man I’d know anywhere. The Principal. “It’s them,” I murmured, and met Nick’s stare. “It’s the goddamn Order behind all this.”
A phone rang, drawing my focus. We all turned to Caleb, lowering our gazes to the pocket of his sweats.
“You didn’t get rid of your goddamn phone?” Nick jerked his gaze to Caleb’s.
“No,” he answered, staring at his caller ID. “Don’t worry, they can’t track us.” He pressed decline, sending the call to voicemail. Barely a few seconds later, his phone dinged with a message. He glanced my way and took a step backwards.
“Who is it?” Tobias snapped.
Caleb turned around. “No one.”
But T wasn’t hearing it. He stepped forward and grabbed Caleb’s arm, stopping his brother cold. Caleb just looked down. “Take your fucking hand off me, Tobias.”
There was a tense second where I thought T was going to push him, until he slowly let go. Caleb’s phone rang again, the shrill sound making me flinch.
“Who is it?” Nick demanded. “C, who the fuck keeps calling?”
“Killion,” Caleb answered carefully.
He didn’t move, didn’t look my way. But I knew he wanted to. My breaths deepened as the name conjured memories of that room. I could still hear his rasping breath in my ear, still feel his hands all over me, pinching my nipple before dropping between my legs.
“Why is he fucking calling, C? And why the hell haven’t you gotten rid of your goddamn phone?”
Caleb just shook his head, turning to glance my way before answering. “Because he thinks I’m fucking broken, that’s why.”
“Broken?” Tobias’ snarl was frightening. “Why the fuck would he think you’re broken, brother?”
Caleb didn’t answer, not for a long time, until he did. “Because he had someone killed. Someone I knew…someone who was a friend.”
A friend…
I swallowed hard. “Because of me, right?” I whispered.
Nick shot me a glare. “No, Ryth. Not because of you.” He strode toward me and forced my gaze to his. “None of this is your fault. I need you to remember that.”
Not my fault? Maybe not. Still, it didn’t change the fact that if I hadn’t walked through their door with my mom that night, that guy would still be alive—I lowered my gaze to the bulge of the bandage under Nick’s shirt— and Nick wouldn’t be hurt.
“What’s so damn important on that phone, Caleb?” Nick asked even as he lifted his finger to my chin, forcing my gaze to his. “Better be damn good.”
“Contracts,” he answered. “Disguised by sick fucking deals, where they trade women for silence.”
“Silence?” Nick’s gaze darkened as he turned to his brother. “For what?”
Caleb just held his stare. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
“And you haven’t yet, which means there’s nothing there, not enough, at least.” Tobias strode toward the TV and hit the button, killing the image of my supposedly weeping mother.
“They killed a man,” I whispered. “They killed him.”
“And burned everything to the ground.” Nick glanced at Tobias. “I went back to those mercenaries, trying to find more information on the hit they have out on Ryth’s father, and it’s all gone.”
His words stopped me cold. “There’re mercenaries after my father?”
“Yeah,” Nick nodded. “So this is about more than just you, princess. It all comes back to that fucking place.”
Hale Order.
“Whose name is on the contract?” Nick asked.
Caleb lifted his phone. “London St. James.”
St. James…Vivienne. “I know that name.”
All my brothers swung my way. Heat rushed to my cheeks, and the room came into focus. All I could see was his grip around her jaw as he snarled, Fifteen days. I’m going to enjoy stretching you out, Vivienne.
My mouth turned dry. “The man who owns Vivienne.”
“Owns?” Caleb murmured.
Darkness glinted in his eyes with the word. Even in the wake of terror, what we’d just done together, he wanted more. Control. Dominance. Owned…I now knew what that meant to Vivienne. My pulse raced as I answered. “That’s what she called it. She’s his ward. Contracted by the Order.”
“As a payment to keep quiet.” Caleb pulled up the details on his phone, handing it first to Nick who passed it to Caleb, then Tobias and finally to me. Hereby awarded Vivienne Brooks as his own personal ward for the purpose of preventing an unauthorised disclosure of Confidential Information as defined below.
I scanned what the ‘as below’ meant, but all it read to me was a whole lot of nothing. “Before we ran, she told me she overheard this bastard who owned her on the phone. She said they were talking about taking a man from prison.”
“Your dad…” Nick raked his fingers through his hair. “Jesus, they have him. They have your dad.”
I swallowed hard as my heart gave a squeeze. If they did, then there’s no way he’d be alive now. Maybe that’s why they were after me. Did they think he’d told me something? Something which was confidential…
I handed Caleb’s phone back, wanting to never look at it again.
“Then we find this London St. James and we make him talk.” Tobias glanced at the others. “Then we find Ryth’s dad and we get the fuck out of the city.”
“And go where?” Caleb met his stare. “Where do you propose we go?” He lifted his phone. “If you think these guys are just going to let us go, then you’re fucking delusional.”
“Then we go after them.” Nick’s words were chilling. “And we start at the festering heart of this.”
Festering heart?
“Who?” Tobias snapped.
Nick held his brother’s stare and answered. “Haelstrom Hale.”
