by Nashoda Rose
“What about the other members?” Deck asked.
I gave them what I had on them. There were two others, but they were founding members like my father and I suspected weren’t fully on board with the direction my mother had taken Vault. But it was the one other member who remained anonymous who was going to be a problem. Our link to him was Dorsey. In order to give Dorsey something he wanted, we needed that something to draw him to us.
“So, we need the drug,” Deck said.
I nodded. “I have Mother’s files. She claimed she had the only copy of the formula. Knowing her, she did. Mother wouldn’t want anyone else to have the power over her.”
Vic said, “And Dorsey will want control of the drug now that your mother is dead.”
“Yes.”
“And the farm? I hate to ask what that is,” Deck said.
“It’s where Chess and I grew up.” Both Vic and Deck stiffened. “Children, like Tristan and Tanner, kidnapped from their homes and… conditioned to do Vault’s dirty work.”
“Jesus Christ,” Deck ran his hand back and forth over the top of his head.
“And you don’t have any idea where it is?” Vic asked.
“No. Once you’re eighteen, you’re removed from the farm, and you never go back. The only one who ever escaped is Tristan.”
“If he escaped, then he knows where it is,” Deck said.
“Unfortunately, no. He escaped and we were moved within a day. We were blindfolded and drugged, so I can’t be sure where the fuck we were taken. Our only lead is the third member, who is unknown. I think I’d recognize him, as he’d been at both locations of the farm, but way more often when I was sixteen at the new location. That’s why I suspect he oversees it.”
I looked from Vic to Deck. “We find the farm, we find him. But first we need to get to New York.”
Deck nodded. “London’s father.”
The sound of her soft padded sock-covered feet walking down the hallway toward the kitchen hit me and my heart rate sped.
She appeared around the corner, stopping where the ceramic tile in the kitchen met the hardwood in the hallway. Dressed simply in the black yoga pants and a T-shirt Georgie had brought for her, fuck, she looked sexy as hell with her hair wet and messy and flushed cheeks from the heated bath.
The guys were now discussing Connor and what to do with him. I didn’t give a shit about him, but there was an advantage with having him on our side. That was if we could get into his messed-up head.
My lip twitched when she caught my gaze on her and I held out my hand. She walked toward me and as soon as she was close enough, I snagged her hand and pulled her back against me. Her ass pressed into my cock and I made a low grunt then kissed just below her ear.
“Better,” I whispered, breathing in the fresh scent of soap and… London.
“Thanks for the clothes.”
“Georgie brought them.”
“Where’s your sister and Tristan?”
“Sleeping. Chess is on Central European time zone and exhausted. Tristan won’t let her go five steps without him. Never would’ve suspected the cocky playboy and CEO of Mason Developments would be so fuckin’ possessive over a girl.”
She placed her hand over mine. “I’m glad your sister’s safe.”
Vic raised his voice and drew my attention away from London. “He’ll kill any of us the first chance he gets. He’s a maniac.”
“Then we need to find out everything we can about this drug,” Deck said.
Deck looked at me.
“Don’t know any more than you do. It was kept confidential. Connor was their guinea pig, but Mother said it’s almost stable. Chess says it’s not.”
“Doesn’t sound like Connor’s rage is from an ‘almost stable’ drug,” Deck said.
Vic threw his bottle of water into the sink. “So, he stays like that? Chained to a wall in a basement until he dies? He’s better off dead.”
London shifted in my arms. “It could be withdrawal from the drug.” I let go of her hand and slid my palm down until it rested on her hip. “If his body needs it, like an addict’s, that might be why he’s out of control. When he….” She paused and glanced at me before continuing, “Connor was the one who took me from Kai’s house.” Fuck. He was the reason my girl had been in Vault. “He was calm. Controlled. Almost too controlled. I remember thinking he was like a machine.”
Deck crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Okay, he’s in withdrawal. Where does that leave us?”
“If I can look at the formula, maybe I can help,” she said. “Or not. It’s possible he needs the drug or—”
Deck grunted and slammed his fist into the fridge.
She didn’t have to say it. If Connor didn’t get the drug, it was possible he’d die.
“The lab,” Vic stated.
“They’ll be watching his lab by now,” I said. “And London’s father.”
“But we need to get to my dad,” London said, looking up at me.
Fuck, I had to tell her. Soon. She had to know her dad was dying of cancer, but she’d been through so much already and telling her now didn’t seem like the time. I didn’t know if there would ever be a time.
“We need the drug for two reasons,” I said. “Dorsey will want the formula. We have something he wants, then he may give us what we want in return. And if London is right, it may be the only thing to keep Connor alive. We need to find a way into the lab.”
“I can use the old tunnels,” London said. “They were used to go from one building to the other in the winter months, but they started to collapse and so they were deemed unsafe and were closed off a decade ago.”
“How closed off?” I asked.
“They locked the doors to the stairs, but I don’t know what else they did, if anything. I don’t even know if they are even passable anymore. They could’ve collapsed. But if they aren’t, I can get into my dad’s lab from there without anyone seeing me. If the drug is there, I can find it. I need someone to come with me who can hack into his computer and get the files for the formula.” She paused. “And my father. If he’s there, we can get him out.”
This was my London. She’d been through hell and yet was volunteering to go back into a potentially dangerous situation. But she didn’t know the first thing about combat. She was a fuckin’ scientist, and I wanted her to stay that way, not become what I was. “You’re not going.”
She tensed in my arms. “I’m the only one who can get into the lab. I have fingerprint access.”
“No.”
“Yes. And you have no say in what I do.”
Vic cleared his throat and from the corner of my eye, I saw his lip twitch.
“Oh, baby, you are way off base if you think that.” She tried to get off my lap, but I tightened my hold. “If Vault is watching the place already, which I suspect they are, they won’t hesitate at killing you,” I shot back.
Vic said, “She won’t go alone. Tyler can go with her. He’ll hack the computer.”
“Tyler and Josh will be gone for days,” Deck said. “By the looks of Connor, he doesn’t have days.”
There was no chance I’d let her go in without me and I was good with computers, but I knew one person who was better. “Chaos.”
All eyes went to Deck. The man had been protecting Georgie all her life and he wouldn’t like the idea of her going in. But Connor was his best friend, and Georgie’s brother.
Deck shook his head. “That’s not an option.”
“And this isn’t your decision. You forget who’s running this operation,” I said.
“And you forget you’re outnumbered,” Deck retorted.
I smiled. “True. But the difference between you and me is that I don’t give a fuck if Connor dies and you do. So, I suggest if you want him to live, Chaos goes in.”
But what I said sat uneasy with me because I knew Chaos would be destroyed all over again if her brother died. I’d seen her devastation when she was sixteen; although at the time, I
didn’t care. “We get the drug, the files and then we have something Dorsey wants.”
London stiffened. “And my dad?”
Deck met my eyes. There was no love lost between us, but we walked the same path now, although we’d always be on opposite sides of the fence. “It needs to be dealt with,” he said.
I knew what he was talking about and it was ironic that he was the one who was being cold about her father’s life. I shouldn’t care, but I did because London would never forgive me if I killed him. The reality was, her father was a liability because he knew the drug and that meant he could more than likely reproduce it without the files, but Westbrook was also on borrowed time.
“I know.” But as soon as I said the words, they felt wrong. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t willing to take out a liability and I wouldn’t allow Deck or his men to either.
“What does?” London asked.
Deck was quick to answer. “The situation. Connor is in bad shape. We’ll leave as soon as Tristan can get his pilots here. A few hours maybe—”
Connor’s roar had Deck and Vic running to the basement door. Then there was more of Connor’s shouting and what sounded like a body crashing against the wooden stairs.
“We need to get the drug, Kai.” She was still looking at where Vic and Deck disappeared. Connor had kidnapped her, more than likely the one who shot her, and put her in hell, and still she cared. She cared what happened to him.
I didn’t know how a man like me who never cared about anything was lucky enough to have someone as special as London. I wanted to forget everything and be inside her again. I wanted us to find lightness in all this darkness.
“I’m going to fuck you now. You good with that?” I didn’t wait for an answer as I stood, taking her with me.
KAI KICKED THE door closed and before I could take another breath, he had me back against it and his mouth on me.
I quivered under his lips and my belly whirled as he kissed me. He locked my wrists together above my head against the door while his thigh shoved my legs apart and pressed into my sex, sending tweaks of need through me.
I never thought I’d be doing this. Kissing a man as dangerous as Kai.
I never thought I’d love so fiercely that it ruined me. Because no matter how I looked at it, that was what he did to me. Kai ruined me. For other men. For life without him.
I’d hated him.
Feared him.
Desired him.
Needed him.
And loved him.
I’d fallen for him before I was Raven, not loved, but I saw something in him. It was the good in him. The need to protect. The desire to care and yet he couldn’t.
Being with him was like breathing in too fast and becoming lightheaded. There were no restrictions as to who I was. Then or now. Kai let me be me and he knew exactly who I was. Sometimes, I think he knew me better than I knew myself. Maybe he did because he pulled me from a place within myself where I’d been slowly dying.
I moaned when his lips left mine then smiled as I ran my fingers through his hair. “Kai.” I whispered his name like I’d done for countless weeks after seeing him through the barred cell. I’d been angry, helpless, exposed, but I was never hopeless.
Never.
And Kai wouldn’t allow it. He gave me the words to hold onto, the cruel words to remind me to never let Vault see the hope. Kill it. Destroy it and survive.
That was when I shut down, not to die, but to survive.
“I love you,” I said.
He tilted his head to kiss me again except this time it was a gentle caress. A velvet touch from his lips reaching deep inside me and taking what I’d already freely given him.
He growled, picked me up and tossed me on the bed then hovered over me, a predator about to devour his prey and I wanted to be devoured.
Kai had found me three times.
He’d found me and brought me back each time. He would always come for me and I wanted to be strong enough to be there for him.
The mattress sagged under his weight as he knelt on it then straddled me. I sighed as he trailed kisses down my neck and toyed with my nipples through my shirt.
I cupped his neck and pulled him in closer. “Show me what you can’t say,” I whispered.
Kai may never tell me he loved me and I accepted that. I didn’t need the words. I just needed him to continue to be the man he was with me.
He stiffened, eyes narrowing as he sat on top of me. Then the corner of his mouth twitched and that playful light reached his eyes. “You brave enough, baby?”
I reached between us and stroked his cock through his pants. “Always.”
He laughed then he showed me how much he loved me.
I woke sore but sated between my legs. I’d been brave, but there was no need to be because Kai had been gentle as he made love to me several times over the last few hours. If I ever had a doubt that Kai loved me as much as he could love anyone, it would’ve been erased last night.
He’d given me the parts of him that I guessed few, if any, had ever seen. The soft, vulnerable parts of Kai. It was why he’d found me. Why he risked everything to get me away from Vault. Why he trusted Deck and his men, and Tristan when he trusted no one.
I reached over to kiss him, but he was gone, the mattress cold where he’d lain with me curled in his arms. I sat up, the sheet clutched to my chest as the bedroom door opened. My heart skipped a beat as my gaze locked on him. God, he always looked so encompassing whenever he walked in a room.
“Tristan says the plane’s nearly at Pearson airport and Connor isn’t doing so well. He’s going to kill himself with all the damage he’s doing.”
I scrambled to my feet and quickly grabbed my neatly folded clothes off the chair. Kai had obviously picked them up because last night they’d been scattered all over the room.
I pulled on the yoga pants. “I thought you didn’t care what happens to him.”
He shrugged. “He’d be better off with a bullet in his head, but”—he slowly walked toward me and when he reached me, he slid his hand in my hair and curved his grip into my neck—“he’s Georgie’s brother.”
I frowned as I watched the conflicting emotions in his eyes. He never called her Georgie. He always said Chaos and I think it had been to distance himself from her. But all that was changing.
“Fuck, if I could go back and change how shit went down…. I watched her grieve his death knowing Vault had him.”
I remained quiet because this wasn’t about me or Georgie or anyone else. This was Kai trying to come to terms with what he’d done for Vault. Forced. Trained. Conditioned. Whatever it may have been, Kai was fighting what he’d done. But there was no going back.
He lowered his head and pressed his lips to mine, his fingers tightening on my neck before he pulled back. “I know why Vault wants us like machines, London. It’s because of this. What I feel for you. What I’d do for you.” He sighed and whispered, “Anything.”
And he had. Kai had kept himself from caring and suddenly, he was surrounded by people who cared about one another and was realizing that this stemmed further than just him protecting me. It was about him breaking free from Vault and letting in what they’d tried to eradicate from him.
He pulled back and slid his hand down my arm until our fingers linked. “Go grab something to eat. I have to help with Connor.”
I nodded, watching as he grabbed his bag then left the room.
I slipped into the rest of my clothes, went to the bathroom, and brushed my teeth. As I came out of the bedroom, Georgie came out of hers, pink strands wild and covering half her face, but I still saw the red-rimmed, blood-shot eyes. She briefly looked at me then turned and ran for the basement door.
“Georgie.” Shit. This wasn’t going to be good.
I PACED THE bedroom where Deck had ordered me to stay. I wasn’t very good at following orders, but he used that tone. The one that made me think twice about disobeying him, not because he’d ever hurt me, but
because he’d be disappointed in me and that was worse.
I’d lived for years disappointing him, and pretended not to give a crap, but I no longer had to. He was mine. Deck. My brother’s best friend. My brother who I thought was dead then found out he was alive, but wasn’t the brother he used to be. The brother who teased me about how perfect I used to dress and how neat I kept my room. The brother who made a grave for my hamster when he died. The brother who protected me in school against bullies who made fun of how I dressed and looked. I was so different, but now, so was he.
And Deck wouldn’t let me see him.
I knew he was trying to protect me, but my brother and I had always been close. He’d been my best friend. God, I still had the stuffed rabbit he’d given to me when I was a kid. And I had his journal. A journal that Deck had given me. I’d never read it at the time. Hadn’t ever planned on it either, until I discovered Connor was alive. Until shit went down with Tanner. Until Kai told us about Vault.
Then I read it, with Deck. And cried. And it nearly destroyed me because inside the pages was my brother. One I’d lost and wasn’t sure I’d ever get back.
I jerked when I heard a deafening roar and then several loud curses came up from the basement.
“Connor.” A tear slid down my cheek and I wiped it away with the back of my hand. Pain lacerated my soul at hearing his voice again and yet, it wasn’t his voice. It was laced with anger and rage, something Connor never had in him. He’d been calm and easygoing, flirted with all the girls, a cocky playboy who was quick to laugh and hard to anger.
“Christ. Connor. Fuck.” I heard Deck shout.
It was his ragged tone as if Deck was about to break that had me running from the bedroom and scrambling for the basement.
“Georgie,” I heard London call.
I didn’t stop as I flung open the basement door and scrambled down the wooden steps toward my brother.