Forbidden (Blood Ties #7)

“Want to tell me where we’re headed?”

He started the engine, then pressed the button for the garage door. “A place I’d hoped you’d never see. But it’s this…it’s this or…” he wrestled with the words.

I swallowed hard, glancing at the gun still in his hand. It was this or a bullet to the brain. “Then I guess we’d better get going.”

His dark eyes barely glinted. There was no excitement now, no desire, no fight even. Just a stony stillness. One I didn’t like at all. He put the car into reverse and backed out of the drive, leaving the garage door to close behind us.

It felt strange leaving what should have been my prison, only it hadn’t felt like a prison. It’d felt like a battleground, one where I’d held my own. Blood had been spilled there, rage and desire living, throbbing things we’d created. It wasus—I glanced toward him as he accelerated, leaving the house behind—it was us.

Still, my mind raced as we headed out of the city. What the hell did Riven think he was going to achieve by keeping me locked in a place like that? My pulse raced. I knew those cells, and I’d seen firsthand what they’d done to the Daughters there.

Daughters like Ryth and Vivienne.

But this…this felt different.He felt different.

He wasn’t the monster I’d been expecting. No, he was a different breed. One cloaked in secrets.

His problems were not my problem.

I needed to remember that.

His hands were clenched around the wheel. His focus was fixed on the road, but still, I could see he was lost in the panicked, racing thoughts inside his head.

I turned back, staring into the faint spill of sunlight in the distance as we came closer to the compound on the outskirts of the city. All I cared about was getting to Hale and anyone who stood in my way of that was dead.

“I’m going to lock you in this place.”

I flinched at the sudden sound of his voice.

He glanced my way. “But I need you to know it’s not what you think.”

“Not what I think,” I repeated as we turned the last bend in the road and the steel fence glinted in the distance. “And what is that, exactly?”

The four-wheel drive slowed.

Goosebumps raced over me as I stared at the shrouded outline of hell.

Because that’s what this place was…hell.

He never answered, just turned the wheel and braked hard. A guard stepped out of nowhere, hidden by the hut at the front of the gates. Gates that’d been rammed by Ryth’s stepbrothers to rescue her. I could still see the gouges in the steel.

The window rolled down, and the guard advanced. “There’s only me here.” Riven met the guard’s stare. “Isn’t that right, Connor?”

The guard never even looked my way, just gave a careful nod. “Absolutely, Mr. Cruz.”

The gates rolled open, letting us take the long drive to this place of nightmares. The closer we came, the colder the car felt. Only no one had touched the temperature. It was all me…and him.

“There are things I need to do here, people I need to take care of. But you won’t be part of that. Still, I need you to be quiet and not make a scene.” Headlights spilled against the brick as he pulled around to the rear of the building. “Can you do that, Helene? Can you stay quiet, stay safe, until I can deal with these people?”

The structure was perfect and sound…until it wasn’t. The glaring lights cut over the blown-out brick wall at the far side, the one closest to the towering trees of the forest. I glanced into the dark gloom, remembering the moment I’d followed Vivienne and the others into that hell.

I was alone.

Alone, stepping into the stench of blood and terror.

Fear chattered my teeth, chilling me to the bone. I turned away from the forest to the blown out far wall of the building as we parked. My pulse was thundering, theboom…boom…boomalmost smothering his words.

“I just need…” he killed the engine, leaving us staring at the shattered bricks. The remnant from a bomb.My bomb.