Forbidden (Blood Ties #7)

Why?

I lowered my gaze to that gun as that hunger to understand took hold once more. Without them, I was just as lost as I’d always been. I pushed the drawer closed and took a step backwards. My gaze moved to the bed one last time before I turned toward the door.

I couldn’t make myself enter the second room. I froze with my hand on the handle, fear gripping me tight. Riven’s controlling fist was still wrapped around my throat, his sick need still roaring through my blood. I shouldn’t want him. I shouldn’t crave him.

But I did and I hated myself more now than ever. I clenched my grip around the handle and forced myself to turn it before I stepped inside. The light from outside refused to enter, leaving the murky gloom to control the space.

“Okay, you sonofabitch,” I whispered as I rounded the side of the bed and headed for his nightstand.

Only his gun was on the top, and so was a single photo in a brushed steel frame. I picked it up, staring at two older kids, a boy and a girl who looked like his younger sister. He had his arm around her protectively and those same dark eyes which haunted me looked almostnormal.

The room seemed to tremble, or maybe it was just me. This…this was important. In the space of a breath, it felt like I’d stepped outside my body and was now looking in.

His sister.

Somehow, she was involved with all this.

I needed to understand how.

Maybe, just maybe, if she was somehow tied up with Hale, Riven might be willing to work together with me.

Then what?

Are you going to become friends?

Have you forgotten what he did to your sisters?

Have you forgotten what he did toyou?

I placed the photo back down on the dresser. No, I hadn’t forgotten at all. I couldn’t forget. Notever.I’d carry that knowledge like a festering wound for the rest of my life. But pain didn’t give me the answers I needed. Pain only weighed me down, until I was so heavy I couldn’t move.

I needed to move now and turned my attention to the dresser. I yanked open the top drawer to find another gun sitting on a stack of papers. But it was the three burner cells that drew my attention. Now, that was something I could use.

Excitement hummed in my veins as I grabbed one and lifted it out. One press of the button and the screen came alive. It had service…I glanced over my shoulder, then pressed the number I’d memorized, the same one I’d called before.

It was answered on the second ring. The frantic fumbling of sheets sounded in the background as my sister answered. “Yes?”

“It’s me.”

“Helene?”

I smiled. She almost soundedrelieved.“Yeah,” I answered, as a thrum of fear worked its way inside. “I don’t have a lot of time. But something is going down. Someone is taking over The Order. Someone called Harmon.”

“What?” she queried, her voice sharp as sleep was forgotten.

“Harmon,” I repeated in a hurry. “The same asshole London took hostage, I think. I need you to tell him that is the man he needs to focus on. I don’t have much time. But his men…his men are—”

“Stop,” she pleaded. “Just stop. I need you to tell me where you are. I need…I need you to tell me you’re safe.”

I swallowed hard and closed my eyes. “I’m safe.”

“You’re lying.” There was pain in her voice. The kind of pain you couldn’t fake. “You’re lying and you’re in trouble.”

I didn’t answer, not because I didn’t want to, but the words just wouldn’t come, trapped behind the lump in my throat. “I don’t want to scare you, but it almost sounds like you care, sister.”

Silence followed, then, “I do care. I care very much and so does Ryth. Come back, Helene. Come back and…”

She stopped, not knowing what would follow. But I did. I saw it all. Ifeltit all.