Forbidden (Blood Ties #7)

No.

Not love.

I let her face go and rose, facing the bastard. “No.”

There was a tic in his jaw. “No?”

“That’s right, no.” I took a step closer, meeting his stare. “You might be used to cowering, back-alley prostitutes, Coulter, but that’s not what we produce here. The Daughters of The Order are highly skilled and carefully trained. They are worth every million-dollar price tag that comes with it. Those men might fuck them within an inch of their lives, but these women will smile and pant while they’re doing it. So, to expand on my answer, no, I won’t‘break this bitch’.Instead, I’ll expect her wounds to be treated, and her body scrubbed. Then, I’ll expect her to have food and water and when she faces me again, she won’t cower like afucking dog.”

He stilled.

My pulse was booming, filling my head with the thrashing sound.

Take the goddamn answer.

He turned to her, watching as she curled her shoulders, desperate to get away. “Fine,” he said carefully, then met my stare. “You want to bathe and feed them, then have it your way. But when that’s done, I want to see a start. You have many more of these women coming and I want as many sold and shipped as possible.”

He took a step closer until we almost touched. “But if you think for one minute, I’m not onto you, then you’d be wrong. You’re hiding something, Cruz. You and your fucking brothers.” His gaze flicked to Kane. “And I intend to find out what that is. So play your games…I love a good challenge.”

He stepped away, giving a nod to the rest of his men in the room. Every single one of them left, leaving my brother and Walker behind.

It felt like someone had kicked me in the balls. My stomach tightened as I looked at Walker, giving him a nod. “Take her and get her cleaned up. I want all of them checked and processed as soon as possible.”

“Will you be overseeing any?” he asked.

The last time I’d done that was with Ryth Castlemaine. And look how that had turned out. Not only did her goddamn father and stepbrothers almost destroy the place getting her out, but it had almost cost my fucking life. I shook my head. “No. I won’t be.”

One nod was all he gave. He stepped behind me, grasped the beaten woman’s arm, and gently pulled her to a stand. “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

She tried to fight him, pulling away from his grasp. But it was useless, causing him to grab her roughly and haul her toward the door. “Don’t make this harder than it already is,” he warned.

Until they left and it was only the two of us.

I turned to my brother, watching his stony expression search mine, hating the fact the place was probably bugged and yet there was no avoiding this. He took a step closer, stopping at my side. “She’s in your head, brother. Careful there.”

I wrenched a glare toward him. “And she’s not in yours? I see the way you look at her,brother.”I turned on him, driving my chest against his. “How about you just focus on getting us out of this fucking mess and less about the woman in your goddamn bed?”

There was that wince. His light green eyes darkened in an instant. He didn’t like the fact she was mine. Not at all. That almost made me smile…until I really thought about her.

I saw the moment he realized what had just hit me like a blow.

She was alone…with our brother.

He turned at the same moment I did. Both of us took a slow step toward the door, only he was half a step ahead, and pushed me backwards as he stepped through.

Sonofabitch.

I cast a hate-filled stare his way as he lengthened his stride. By the time we hit the locked doors, we were almost running.

His heavy steps thundered. I fixed my gaze on the connecting door to the apartment straight ahead and surged forward. But the sonofabitch wouldn’t back off. Instead, he shoved me, barging me out of the way as he slammed his card against the scanner and yanked open the door.

We charged through the doorway, shoving and pushing, then stumbled inside, casting stabbing glares at each other.

“I…I know you!” the panicked growl came from in front of us.

I jerked my gaze upward to where our brother had Helene’s shirt in his grip as he pinned her against the doorjamb outside his bedroom. Her back was against the frame, her eyes wide and fixed on the swollen mess that was Thomas’ face.

“Don’tfuckinglie to me!” He pushed close, staring her in the eyes. “Tell me!”