Forbidden (Blood Ties #7)

FOURTEEN

Riven

The double doorsclosed behind me with aclack.Thelocks engaged, right before panic descended. I stumbled to the wall, bracing myself as the hallway blurred. My breaths were hard, strangled fucking things that I forced out until the harsh, heaving rasp was all I heard.

What the fuck was I thinking?

She shouldn’t be here.

Not in this place.

Not with me.

I closed my eyes. I wasn’t me when I was here.

I was…someone else.

Someone dangerous.

Dangerous for her.

Goosebumps raced along my spine, until I remembered the cameras watching. Without lifting my gaze, I dropped my hand and straightened my shoulders, then kept on walking, forcing myself to focus.

I needed to keep her quiet.

Just until I could get this shipment of Daughters done…and out of here.

Because they were the only thing that mattered.

The only thing that’d lead me to Hale.

My cell vibrated. Jaw muscles bulged as I lifted the damn thing and saw the caller ID.Kane.“Not now,” I snarled, slipping the phone back into my pocket, and headed back along the hall to my office.

White painted doors.

The nametheycalled me printed in black block letters.

The Principal.

I hated that fucking name.

Hated this entire business.

Still, I never let that show as I slipped the key into the lock and stepped inside. One quick scan of my office and I moved around my desk and eased into my seat. This room was bugged. That I knew, with hidden cameras and microphones. There were few places here hidden from prying eyes. One of those places had occupied my focus for the last two weeks, from the moment Hale’s body had been pulled from that river. A body I now knew wasn’t his.

I needed to return to that office, to keep looking for any hint of where he’d disappeared to…later.

Right now, I had a truckload of Daughters headed my way.

I reached forward, clutched the mouse, and logged into my computer, bringing up the tracking information sent to my email.

19 assets en route.

Assets.

I winced at the word. Something living, breathing…created for no purpose other than our whims, reduced to one simple termasset.That’s all these women were to men like Hale. And I was the one who made them that way.

My hand shook as I grabbed the mouse and clicked the link, opening up the GPS map. A red light blinked, moving closer to the compound not more than an hour away. An hour. That’s all I had.