The Order…
“Who the fuck are you?” The asshole in front of me narrowed his gaze.
I flinched, my head shaking on its own. “Doesn’t matter.”
“I think it does.” His brother took a step closer. “I think it matters very much.”
The gun in my hand wavered, suddenly feeling too heavy. My pulse raced as I lowered it. I wasn’t here to shoot them…I just wanted… “He won’t let her go.” I held the twin’s stare as he took another step closer. “You’re after her, that’s it, isn’t it? We won’t let her go, not now.” His voice was nothing more than a savage growl. “We own her, you get that? You can’t have her, because we own her.”
Own her…
The words resounded inside me. I didn’t just see London St. James in the eyes of his sons now, I saw myself. Own her… That’s what I wanted, right? It was the same hunger, the same insatiable longing that rode me. Every second spent with Killion wasn’t about me saving her. It was about me controlling her, taking her, fucking her. My body trembled with the compulsion. Ryth burned inside me like a drug, one I’d tasted in the walk-in pantry in my family home with my mouth while I’d fucked her with my fingers. One I wanted to taste again.
It was more than love…
Darker than desire.
This was a sick compulsion.
An obsession I couldn’t avoid.
Because I didn’t want to.
“You get that?” I flinched at the voice, jerking my gaze back to the twin in front of me as he reached out, grabbed my shirt, and warned, “Vivienne belongs to us.”
I tore myself out of his grasp. “Get the fuck off me.”
“Who the fuck are you?” he repeated.
I didn’t stand around and answer, just stumbled backwards before I turned and hurried for the door. I was outside in an instant, sucking in hard breaths as my fingers twitched and my legs shook. I barely made it to the car before my knees buckled. I clawed the door handle, yanked it open, and slumped behind the wheel.
My hands were trembling as I shoved the key into the ignition and started the car.
Beep…
I thrust my hand into my pocket and yanked my phone free, seeing a notification blinking. I pressed the button, illuminating the screen. There was a message from Killion…
My fingers shook as I punched in the code and opened the message. It was a video, but the screen was dark, too dark for me to see what it was. So I hit play…
“Hold her down!” The roar boomed through the speaker. I jerked, my gaze fixed on the screen…darkness crowding in as I heard Ryth unleash a moan, then in an instant the video brightened. Ryth bucked, screaming, as they strapped her down on a stainless steel table. The buzz of a tattoo gun followed. I watched helplessly as they yanked her pants down and set to work, marking her skin.
A hiss tore free from her throat, deep, harsh, and hateful. I clenched my grip around the cell until it shuddered in my grasp. She howled, thrashing under their holds. “NICK!” she shrieked for my brother. “TOBIAS!”
My heart clenched tight. I knew it was coming, but still I wasn’t prepared.
“CALEB!”
She howled for me. She howled for me…I closed my eyes as agony ripped through my chest. “No…no…no.”
Beep.
I yanked open my eyes and fixed my gaze on the screen as I exited the video and killed the sound of that tattoo gun as it hummed. A voice message waited from Killion. I didn’t want to listen, but I was incapable of ignoring his call…not when there was more than my life on the line—there was Ryth’s, too.
I clenched my fist, then pressed the button, listening to Killion’s coarse tone echo through the speaker. “I’ve decided to change my mind, Caleb. I want the ruined bitch after all.” His tone grew deeper, fighting through the thud of familiar music in the background. “I’ve been promised her,” he said, and I could almost see the smirk on his face. “The contract is signed, and we’re coming for her. It’s only a matter of time, Caleb, and the little Castlemaine cunt is mine…I’m going to enjoy shouting your name when she gags on my cock.”
I closed my eyes as I rocked back against the seat. Inside my head, I was screaming, tearing myself apart with desperation. I’ll kill him… I’ll fucking kill him. My hand shook as the recording ended, but instead of deleting the message, I pressed the button again, replaying his threat once more. But it wasn’t his voice I narrowed in on, it was the music in the background. The same familiar beat I’d heard before. The Hale Club.
A twitch came in the corner of my mouth. The hell club…
He was there, goading and threatening me. I lifted my gaze to the St. James house and couldn’t stop the desperation unraveling inside me. The gun pressed against my back and it was all I could think about, driving the muzzle into Killion’s face and pulling the goddamn trigger.
I wanted it more than I’d ever wanted anything before.
I shoved the car into gear and punched the accelerator, stabbing Nick’s new number into my phone as I drove.
He answered on the third ring. “Where the fuck are you, C?”
“I’m going to the Hale Club, Nick. Killion’s there…Killion…” I want the ruined bitch after all. The bastard’s voice resounded in my head. I couldn’t shake it, couldn’t get out from under the crushing weight of this rage. “Killion is there, and I’m going to kill him.”
“What the fuck are you talking about, Caleb?” he barked. “You go there, and you’ll be killed. Can’t you get that?”
I did. Maybe deep down, I’d always known it’d come to this. Me against him…
“Come back. Come back and we’ll talk about this,” Nick pleaded, but I could hear the anger in his tone.
“No, I don’t think so, not this time.” My words dulled, sinking all the way to that murderous thrum that resounded in my chest. “Tell Ryth…tell her…I love her.”
“Caleb…”
I lowered the phone.
“Caleb—’
And pressed the button, ending my brother’s scream.
I was okay now, quiet, still. My gaze was fixed on the road ahead as I made my way through the residential streets and back toward the city. I knew what I needed to do now. I knew how I was going to reach absolution…for her anyway…
One kill at a time.
