My Bloodline (Featherstone Academy Series Book 1)

by KC Kean

  I’m gonna need it.

  (Roman)

  For fucks sake, how do I convince these guys to let me be the one to go? Selfish, I know but I don’t care.

  “I feel like we just achieved a huge milestone convincing her to compromise, so we can’t mess this up. Well done Oscar, for a change your mouth didn’t make the situation worse,” says Kai, making Oscar grin like a Cheshire cat.

  “That means I get to go then right?” Oscar nods.

  “No it fucking doesn’t. I need to go so I can make it up to her,” I add.

  The others stare at me with a frown, considering my words and deciding whether or not to agree with me. This is my moment to come clean with them, I can feel it coursing through my blood and it starts my heartbeat off at a thundering pace.

  “There are also other things I haven’t talked about with everyone including Luna, and I need the chance to do that. It involves her, and I’m worried if it gets too late there will be no coming back from it,” I confess.

  “Talk about what?” Parker asks.

  “Parker, I swear I will explain everything to you guys, but I need to talk to Luna first,” I plead.

  I know we are all invested here, and I know even if it’s by omission or not I could ruin all of this and we’ve barely begun.

  They stare me down.

  “Fine, you go,” Oscar agrees, “But I swear to god whatever it is you better make it perfectly clear that we don’t know shit, because if you sink this ship I’m not going down with you.”

  All I can do is nod.

  “And make her video chat us when you get there, I miss her face already.”

  Fuck me Oscar is the most pussy whipped for sure, although we’re really not far behind him.

  Not wanting to waste any more time I head for the door, as Kai places an envelope in my hand.

  “It contains a tracker. It’ll give us a solid two hours on her, it’s super discreet but you need to make sure she doesn’t find it, understood?” he whispers.

  Fuck yeah I understand, this is why he’s the best tech guy around. I pat him on the back and head out. With the two-hour drive ahead of me she’ll have plenty of time to nap whilst I figure out how the fuck I broach the fact that we knew each other as children.

  My palms sweat thinking about it. If what Rafe said is true it’s going to look like I’ve kept it a secret on purpose, but I followed his advice to keep her from breaking down. Now a lot is happening around us and from the snippets my dad has given me, it’s only going to get worse. I don’t want this weight between us, and I want to be there to support her through it.

  Together we are stronger, no matter the past. I just need her to see that.

  Arriving in Washington I drive past the hotel finding somewhere to park. Ten minutes later and I’m knocking on her door. It takes her a minute to answer, and when she does, she’s in her training gear. God, every time I see her she gets prettier. I think it’s because every time I’m around her she gives me another little piece of herself. Reminding me of when we were young, and I followed her every word then too. I might be a cranky asshole most of the time but if she asks me to jump, I’m going to do it.

  “Huh, I thought for sure Oscar would have convinced you all that he was the one to get me to compromise so he was the one who got to come. He’d have nagged so much you’d have sent him just to shut him up,” she says as she leans against the door jab.

  “You’d be right. He did do that, except I thought I’d get more peace and quiet being here with you.” I can’t help the grin.

  She’s learning our dynamic. Pulling her towards me I crash my lips to hers loving the feel of her against me.

  Pushing her inside I shut the door behind me. Taking in this place, I raise my eyebrow at her surprised.

  “Don’t look at me like that. I’ve never stayed anywhere like this before. Did you know the Four Season’s is the only hotel in Washington with no connection to Featherstone?” I shake my head, surprised that she researched so deeply before coming here, I’m impressed.

  “Then when I was booking a room I found out the Royal Suite comes with its own private fitness room and I just couldn’t say no to that level of luxury,” she winks, forcing a chuckle past my lips.

  “How girly and materialistic of you,” I joke, making her whack me as she leads the way.

  “So, you can be my food buddy if you like? I have time to eat, then I need to get the last of my equipment set up, which shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. Then I’ll need to head out around ten to be on the safe side,” she calls over her shoulder.

  I hate that she has to do this, but whether we like it or not this is our world.

  “So I’m here to provide company whilst you eat, huh?”

  “Well you wanted to be here remember?”

  “Don’t try and sass me Princess, otherwise you don’t get any dick for dessert,” I fake pout at her, hands on hips too.

  It actually fucking works too.

  “You wouldn’t dare,” she says, but she’s lacking the usual confidence in her voice.

  “Try me,” I offer.

  I just issued a challenge, I can see it written on her face. She somehow manages to stand taller and her grin is all kinds of fucked up, but I love it. She whips her sports bra off, and she knows she’s got me. I can’t say no to them babies all fancy with their jewels.

  “You win,” I murmur.

  “I’m glad you said that, now come christen the mattress with me handsome,” she purrs and I’m like a fucking puppy following after her.

  We’ll talk later.

  I need a taste of my girl first.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  (Roman)

  She left for a few hours to get her surveillance set up leaving me to browse around. Her tech set up is impressive. I can tell what came from Kai, but even without it she knows what she’s doing here. She was fucking made for this world she just doesn’t know it or seem to want it.

  It’s close to ten and I know she’s going to be leaving soon and I still haven’t figured out where to put this god damn tracking device. I send a text to Kai.

  Roman: Can you distract her for a while? I can’t place the tracker.

  He doesn’t respond but within twenty seconds Luna’s phone is going off with a video chat waiting with the guys on the other end. She rolls her eyes as she answers.

  “Are you calling to annoy me before I need to leave?”

  No greeting or pleasantries, just Luna. Perfection.

  As they hold her in conversation, I head out of the conference room she’s been holed up in, so I can figure out where to put this thing. This is why these guys are like my brothers. No questions asked were always willing to go to bat for one another.

  I find her boots and place it in the slight arch on the bottom. The tracker is ultra slim, almost like a screen protector just a lot smaller. I stick it on and hope that’s it. I head to the kitchen and grab a bottle of water downing half as I make my way back to her, as if this is what I left for.

  They’re still chatting away, but I can see her glancing continuously at the time. As much as we don’t want her to have to deal with any of this, she does, they’ve done what I needed them to do now she needs to focus.

  Standing behind her I rest my chin on her shoulder glancing at the phone.

  “You fuckers done harassing my Princess?” I say as I kiss her cheek.

  I see her blush slightly. She’s not used to all this attention, but she likes it.

  “Screw you Roman, I should have been the one to go,” Oscar pouts, but no one takes him on.

  “She needs to focus now,” I order, “Say goodbye.”

  They’ve barely gotten their words out when I’m snatching the phone and ending the call.

  “Acehole.”

  She glares but there’s no real anger in her voice. I love her little nickname for us when we annoy her, so I can’t help but smirk at her.

  “What’s left to do?”

&nbs
p; “Nothing, everything’s ready to go I just need to actually leave now,” she says, as I wrap my arms around her bringing my lips to the top of her head.

  I’ve never been one for showing affection with small gestures and touches, but she brings out the side of me I once remember as a child. With that in mind.

  “Hey, when you get back or in the morning, I want to talk to you about some stuff,” I murmur.

  “What about?”

  “It’s not important right now you have all this to deal with and I want you to focus on that, but afterwards, please. It’s important afterwards.”

  She looks me in the eyes with concern, but I offer her nothing, I’m not joking when I say I want her to focus. She must be able to see that I mean it because she nods and moves along.

  “You don’t need to wait up, I’m not sure how long it’ll really take.”

  “Screw that I’ll be sitting watching these monitors until your sweet butt is back here, understood?”

  She doesn’t answer because it’s not a question.

  She throws on her boots and a black hoodie. Grabbing her small backpack carrying everything she needs.

  “I’m not going to lie Luna, it doesn’t feel right to me staying here whilst you do this, but I’m trying my hardest to respect your wishes.”

  “I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you are going against your own internal instincts to give me the room I need to do what needs to be done,” she responds with a smile. “Now kiss me so I can go and get back.”

  She barely lets me give her more than a peck before she’s moving towards the door. She smiles then she’s gone, and I’m left feeling a little lost.

  I dial up Kai as I head back to the conference room.

  “Hey, she just left I stuck it to her boot.”

  “Yeah it signaled on my laptop when you activated it. I’ll send a copy of my screen to Luna’s laptop until she comes into focus on everything else,” he says as he ends the call, and does exactly what he just said.

  She’s moving slowly. She must be walking, fuck I should have offered to drive her or something now I feel like even more of a dick.

  Kai: I can feel your stress from here. She’ll be walking to blend in and keep in the shadows.

  His text calms me a little but I still don’t like it.

  About twenty minutes later I see her come on to the feed from the cameras she set up outside the building, she also has access to them on her phone so she can see as much as possible. She goes to the staff entrance and pulls out an access card. Where the hell did she get that from? Clearly because this isn’t my assignment, I’ve not actually considered how any of this will go down.

  I’m a fucking idiot.

  A couple of digits on the keypad too and the green light above the door flashes and she’s in. Simple as that. I flick to the monitors showing inside the building and I don’t see her anywhere, not even a shadow. Then one of the cameras flickers for a moment then returns to normal.

  What the hell.

  My phone is ringing, and I answer without glancing.

  “Are you seeing this?”

  Kai calls down the line.

  “I didn’t even know she had this kind of tech.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She’s literally keeping to the shadows like a ninja, but when she can’t she’s jamming the surveillance feed where she is, allowing her to still get by unseen,” he whisper shouts in awe of what he’s seeing.

  Fuck me she really is good.

  “I know she said the files were in the admin office which is on the twelfth floor, so she’ll likely take the staff stairwells,” I say.

  He stays on the phone, yet we say nothing at all just watching the surveillance screens for absolutely nothing except the occasional flicker here or there. To anyone else this would be some crazy shit but fuck me, it’s hot.

  Suddenly the camera in the admin office cuts out, for all of twenty seconds then it’s back on again, like nothing happened.

  “She’s amazing,” declares Kai down the phone, “You better treat her good when she gets back, she deserves nothing less.”

  “Yeah,” I respond as I cut the phone off.

  Not needing any further acknowledgment of how amazing she is. I just need to talk to her first then she’ll hopefully give me a chance to make her feel like the goddess she is.

  She’s not out of the building yet when there’s a knock on the door. Why the fuck is someone knocking at the door? I walk to the entry hall and glance at the intercom which has been blacked out.

  Shit.

  Something isn’t right here.

  I quickly throw a text into the group chat then set it to silence. A knock sounds again as I’m pulling the handgun I’m glad I brought out of my coat pocket.

  “I know you’re in there Rivera. It’s best you answer the fucking door now before I change my mind and grab her first instead.”

  Holy shit.

  Rico.

  I don’t have a chance to send a follow up message before the door is being opened by a maid who is instantly shot before my eyes. Raising my gun, I steady myself.

  Fuck.

  Don’t come back Luna.

  (Luna)

  As I step away from DCM Tech, I slowly release the tension from my shoulders. Getting out of there unnoticed with a meter-long tube is a little more difficult than it was on the way in. Checking I’ve not got any of my devices still running, I hide in a nearby alley and put all my stuff away.

  Fuck the adrenalin is going to take some time to wear off. Maybe it was a good thing Roman came down after all. I just want to know what it is we need to talk about first, it has my mind in overdrive worrying.

  I walk back the exact way I came running through what I needed to do before I could sleep. I’d scanned the main overview already before I actually swiped all the papers, but I need to take copies of the rest when I got back to the room. Then I can ship it back to me in the morning.

  I would never usually take a copy of documents I’d stolen before, but this time I wanted to know the why behind all of this, and I’d get a better picture once we’d all collated the information. Kai had already hacked into all of DCM’s system which is how he gave me the passages I’d been digitally using.

  I knew Parker was close to completing the tech he was required to make. Oscar said he’s done everything except destroy the safe house and Roman had a good surveillance feed on the agent but hadn’t sealed a deal yet with DCM tech. Although he still hadn’t explained in more detail what the deal was for.

  This was all just a mind fuck and clearly part of a bigger plan, which I refused to be blind too.

  Seeing the hotel come into view I pick up my pace, ready to let Roman work me over, and pull me back from my veins exploding with this rush I was still riding. I take the stairs and pull my phone out of my backpack, remembering it’d been on silent whilst I was out.

  Holy shit.

  There were messages and missed calls from all of the guys, even worse than this morning.

  Fuck sake.

  We need some ground rules because this is getting out of hand. Getting to my floor I decide to get in first and talk to them all at the same time, because this is ridiculous. I thought there was an understanding after earlier but clearly I was wrong. Glancing at the messages as I near my door, I stop my next step.

  Roman: PINEAPPLE

  Kai: Where?

  Oscar: What’s going on?

  Oscar: Roman what is going on?

  Parker: Where’s Luna?

  Kai: We’re on our way.

  Parker: Luna. Do not go back to the hotel.

  Parker: Luna?

  Oscar: Answer the fucking phone baby girl.

  Oscar: Stay away from that hotel Luna.

  What the hell is going on. I hear something smash from the other side of my door in front of me and I know whatever I’m about to walk into isn’t going to be good. I can’t walk away though, not with Roman inside. Dropping the
blueprints, I pull my gun from my hoodie pocket and check my blade in my boot. Taking a deep breath, I lift my room card and the click is loud, whoever is here, knows I am too. I push the door with my foot and step back with my gun raised.

  “Don’t be shy little Moon, if you want Roman to live longer than the next five seconds I suggest you show your face,” someone growls from the other side.

  I can’t place the voice, but I know this isn’t good.

  Keeping my gun raised I step into the room and my insides are screaming.

  Parker's father.

  Flanked by four men with Roman tied to a chair.

  I’m going to fucking kill him.

  “What’s going on here?” I ask casually like my heart isn’t pounding in my ears.

  “Well, you refused to meet me at the party on Saturday, and as hot as Rafe likes to think he is nobody, and I mean nobody says no to me. That would include you Miss Steele now wouldn’t it?”

  The sneer on his face is menacing, and the look in his eyes is crazed. He’s definitely got drugs running through his veins, which makes him even more unpredictable.

  “Well now you have my attention, so say what it is you want to say and fuck off.”

  I try to keep my voice even, but I don’t think it’s a complete success.

  “Ah, ah, ah Chica. You do not make the rules around here. Understand? I have so many questions for you so we will be here a while, take a seat,” he demands.

  No fucking way.

  “How long have you been here?” I ask, not moving an inch.

  “I’ve waited rather patiently for you for the past half an hour, now sit,” he growls, but I still refuse to move.

  “You have about ten minutes before this quickly turns against you. I’m going to be polite and offer you to ask me five questions, then you can either leave or be forced out. It’s your choice.”

  He thinks I’m calling his bluff. Let him fucking come at me.

  “Is that so little moon?”

  “It is, so would you like to start with question number one?”

  I offer, but he just cackles like this is all a joke.

  “Fuck Chica. You have some balls I’ll give you that,” he leers at me. “Fine. I’ll play along.”