Forbidden (Blood Ties #7)

How the fuck had we gotten here?

I hung back, listening to Daughters cry out as one by one they were separated and forced into cells. They should be used to it after coming from the orphanages. But they never were. They still fought and cried, and planned to escape. None of them made it…

Not until that Banks bitch…and London’s whore.

Fuck him.

Fuck all of them who weren’t blood.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Doors to each cell were closed and locked. I risked a glance at Coulter as he watched his men before I turned and walked away. My head was thundering. My panic was out of control. I needed a tether for this madness…a connection for my tainted soul.

I neededher….

I slammed my card against the scanner and pushed through the door. Step by step, desperation grew inside me, until it was all I could do to stop from running.Boom. Boom. Boom.My pulse was a beast roaring in my head as I shoved aside the next set of doors, then turned.

The wing where I’d put her rose in the distance. I hurried, driving my card against the scanner and pushed through.Get to her. Get to her. Just fucking…get to her.

My hands clenched. My jaw was a fucking vise as I lifted my gaze to the locked door at the end of the hall.Please be there. Please, I need…I need you.

I slammed my card against the scanner, then bore down on the handle.

Thud.

I stopped.

Thud.

Staring at her as she rose from the bed and took a tentative step closer before she stopped, then scowled. “Riven?”

In a rush, I went to her, grabbed her around the waist, and pulled her against me. “Fuck…I…” I closed my eyes, breathing in the scent of her hair.

Her hands fluttered against my shoulders. Still, she didn’t pull away. That was something.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

I couldn’t speak, not for a long while. All I could do was hold her, pulling her all the way down in the filth of this place with me. I was destroying her, risking not just her life but now mine. Fear lifted its head. The kind of fear that made me feel unhinged. Just like I was when I was around her.

I opened my eyes and pulled away. “Nothing.”

“It doesn’t look like nothing.” She searched my gaze. “Something happened, didn’t it?”

She saw more than I wanted her to.

More than she should…for her sake.

“There’s been a change around here. Those other men I spoke about…they’re not leaving.”

She jerked her gaze toward the door. “They’re staying?”

I gave a careful nod.

“Then you’ll need to be careful.” She met my gaze. “And ruthless.”