Consumed (Blood Ties Book 9)

The woman was insane if she thought this was going to work. My friends marrying Daughters of The Order? Number one, they wouldn’t know how to handle them. Not without this blowing up in all our faces. And two, who the hell wanted to be married to a stranger after what these women had been through? I know I wouldn’t. I’d want to be as far from men like me as possible.

No normal woman would want that.

But they weren’t normal women, were they?

They were trained for men like me. Created to be used and cast away.

But if they were treated right, if they were honored and protected…who knew what kind of future that would give life to. I pulled the Explorer into the driveway and headed along the back, catching sight of the guard we had patrolling the grounds.

“I think this could work, London,” Vivienne murmured for the tenth time.

I turned the key, killing the engine before I turned to her. “Why don’t we just think on it and we can discuss it in the morning?”

She stifled a yawn, but she didn’t fool me. I brushed the back of my knuckles along her cheek. “Tomorrow, Pet. We’ve done enough for today.”

“It is tomorrow,” she retorted and climbed out of the car. “I want to explore this, London. I want us to draw up some names, potential suitors.”

I unleashed a groan and climbed out, locked the doors, and followed her into the house. But the moment she was inside, she went quiet, yawning loudly. I turned around, picked her up gently, and carried her to the bedroom. “Sleep first, then we’ll discuss it later, deal?”

Her eyes closed as she dropped her head against my shoulder. “Deal.”

The woman was so goodhearted she didn’t know when enough was enough. But I did, so I took her to our bedroom and eased her onto the bed before I carefully pulled the bedding down. “The twins will be awake before we know it. Colt and I will take first shift, then it’s all yours.”

She nodded as she kicked off her shoes and slid under the sheets. “Just a nap,” she murmured.

“Yes, Pet. Just a nap.”

Whatever it took to get her to rest. Her eyes were closed before her head hit the pillow. By the time I reached the door, she was out cold, her soft, heavy breaths staying with me as I pulled the door closed and headed for the one place that’d occupied my attention in the days since the attack at the warehouse.

I stepped into my study and eased into the chair before I hit the mouse and logged in. Tiny blue lights flickered on the USB as it booted up. The USB Ryth had given me.

That thing…that thing was dangerous in the wrong hands.

Not only did it have names.

It had everything.

I’d been consumed by the data, sifting through all the different folders of Hale’s entire operation, and I’d barely scratched the surface. The screen lit up as I scrolled through the names of those who’d sent money to Hale. It was all there, dates, amounts, even secret offshore bank accounts. Everything for me to plan an attack. With the right person behind it, we could launch a financial attack and bleed them all dry.

Lucky for me, I knew the best of the best.

Both Harper Renolt and Anna Salvatore were more than excited to start, and so was I.

Footage.

My fingers stopped the mouse at the folder and my heart pounded. I’d purposely stayed away from that section, scared of what I might find. If I saw my Vivienne forced to be with another man, I might just become that savage bastard once more.

But eventually I’d have to open that file…and take my chances with what I found inside.

Click.

The mouse clicked before I knew it, opening up folders and folders, all listened not by names at first but by years. I sat there, stunned. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

I started with the current year, but didn’t see a name I knew, and moved out. The thought of spying on these women revolted me. They’d suffered enough, let alone a stranger watching them perform intimate and degrading acts. I clicked out and moved to the next one, then the next…this one would’ve been around the time of Vivienne and Ryth.

E…

Evans…Content protected by Nôv/el(D)rama.Org.

Only Vivienne’s name wasn’t there.

Castlemaine.

Fuck, there was Ryth.

There was no way in hell I was clicking that. I scrolled upwards.

Ares.

My pulse boomed. Ares? I checked the date. That wasn’t right. They’d adopted Angela when she was a child. Part of me didn’t want to, but I had to know. I opened the folder and stared at the two names.

Angelica and Meredith.

Meredith Ares?

“What the fuck?”

I was too far gone now, no longer able to backtrack. I opened up the folder and clicked on the latest file, freezing at the date. It was the date of her death. The video waited, daring me to press play. That bastard in me rose to the surface. I needed to know.

Click.

“You want your husband to know about us?” The deep growl came from behind the camera.

Tears silently slid down Meredith’s face as she slowly shook her head.

“Then take off your blouse, Meredith. It’s either you or your daughter, and both of us don’t want that, do we?”

I leaned closer. Who the fuck was that guy?

His voice was so fucking familiar and yet…I couldn’t quite place it.

On the camera, Meredith Ares lifted her hand. Her fingers shook as she unbuttoned her blouse. “How many more times must we do this? You’ve got what you wanted. I’ve told you everything I know of my husband’s dealings. You have enough to wipe us all out.” Her voice turned thick as she lifted her head, her pain so fucking clear. “I’m begging you, please don’t make me do this.”

“Clothes…off. I want you to lay back and spread your legs. I want us to record just how perfect your cunt is before I fuck you so hard I destroy it. Then when you’re full of my cum, you can get dressed, get your Daughter, and go home. I’m sure her training will be done by then. It sounds like Angelica is quite the natural when it comes to giving head.”

“Holy…fucking shit.”

This…this was the kind of thing that destroyed worlds.

And families.

There was no way I could sit on this. I pulled out my cell, scrolled, and pressed the number I was told to never call again…and prayed it answered.

“St. James.” His voice was slurred. “I told you to never call me again.”

“You’ll want this call.” I said carefully knowing I was staring at a ticking bomb. “I have information about your mother.”

Bedsheets shifted, and in an instant he was lucid. “What kind of information?”

I stared at the woman on the screen as she undressed and laid down on the bed, naked. “The kind of information that could rock your world.”

Silas Ares

“THE KIND of information that could rock your world.” The low growl filled my ear.

I glanced over my shoulder to the shadowed figure under the sheets and rose. Faint memories came back to me. Some fucking club where I was smashed off my face. A woman who was very available. I didn’t even remember her name.

Still, I rose and made my way out of the bedroom, closing the door behind me. “Speak.”

There was a heartbeat of silence. London St. James wasn’t used to others talking to him like that. But right now, I didn’t give a fuck.

“You didn’t want to be involved in the war with Hale and I Order.” He said as I walked along the hallway where our bedrooms were located. Theo’s door was open and his bed still made. “I think that was a mistake.”

“Oh yeah?” This fucking guy was starting to piss me the hell off. “How’s that?”

My gaze moved to the bedroom further along the hall. My sister…Angelica. The word ‘sister’ stuck in the back of my throat like a bone.

“Because I have in my possession a recording…of your mother…on the date of her death…having sex with a man who’s not your father.”

I froze outside Angelica’s door.

My pulse thundered.

My world darkened.

“You want to say that again?”

Fucking bullshit.

Fucking BULLSHIT. This motherfucker was going to say anything. He was going to say⁠—

“I’m watching the recording right now. It’s her, your mother and another man…and not only that…your sister, Angelica she was there…she knows everything.”

She knows everything?

That brutal burn of rage plummeted inside me, carving all the way through pain and loss as I snarled. “Does she just. Send me the recording, London…no more lies. No more secrets. I want the truth…and I want it now.”