I SAT WITH one leg crooked over the other, my elbow resting on the padded armrest, thumb lightly stroking back and forth over my lower lip. From across the room, I watched her. It had been hours. It was dark now, but now that she was here, time had no meaning. It was about the present.
London’s breathing gradually quickened and she turned over then curled up into a ball, her breath caught in her throat before it changed to deep, ragged inhales as if she were trapped in a nightmare. I didn’t bother waking her. Instead, I did what I was good at—watched. Assessed. Planned.
Eight hours we’d spent driving to my house. A house Vault didn’t know existed. If they found out my loyalty was compromised, they’d find this place. But for now, it was the safest place I knew to take her.
I’d have to check in with Brice in the city at some point, but Tanner had his eyes on Chaos. The anniversary date was drawing near for Chaos’s brother’s ‘death’ and I’d have to meet her in the fuckin’ shed.
I did it. I cut Chaos. And I hated it, but it was something she thought she needed. I refused the first time she asked me and she went to Tanner instead. When I saw what he’d done to her back, I beat the shit out of him, had my blade to his throat ready to kill him. But he belonged to Vault and killing him because he hurt Chaos would speak volumes about me. Volumes that had to be buried.
London kicked the crisp white sheet off and it twisted into a pile at the end of the bed. My eyes trailed up the outline of her body and all I felt was disgust. This wasn’t the girl I stalked for years. It wasn’t the girl I made a deal with and had her silky legs wrapped around me. It wasn’t even the girl I’d left in Mexico.
This was Raven.
A girl trained to pleasure men. Ironic that I’d been trained, too, but in a much different way. Vault didn’t use sex to break you. Children were molded, sculpted into stone. Conditioned.
And now with the drug, London’s father had given them more power. A drug to help them mold men. Men who were already trained killers like Connor.
There was no margin of error allowed. No room for mistakes and yet, I’d made plenty of mistakes in the last few years.
Things weren’t so simple anymore.
London had made them complicated.
Her body tensed and fingers curled around the plush pillow beneath her cheek. She was finally waking and what I had to do to her would begin.
She darted upright, her eyes wide and frantic. I waited while she searched the room, trying to figure out where she was and what happened.
Her gaze hit me and I raised my brows, the corners of my lips curving upwards as her mind caught up with what her eyes were seeing.
“Kai—” She abruptly cut herself off, her eyes quickly scanning the room as if searching for someone else. I saw the confusion, the conflict over whether to trust who she thought I was or protect herself and be who she was trained to be, who she considered to be the safe option. Well, that safe option was going to be ripped away.
Her brows scrunched together, lips parted with a slight tremble and her eyes… haunted and uncertain.
Then she chose.
She crawled off the bed and slipped to her knees. A submissive position. One London would never do, but Raven would. She had to. It had been her survival.
I’d always come for her, but I’d always walked away too.
Her loft. Mexico. The auction. And then at the warehouse when I killed Jacob and she begged me not to leave her.
I’d left her with nothing of me to trust.
I sighed, uncrossing my legs. Fuck, this was going to be hell for both of us. “Come here.”
She came to her feet to do my bidding and walked toward me then knelt. But she didn’t stop there. Her hands went to my crotch.
Fuck.
I grabbed her wrist and I wasn’t gentle about it as I yanked her hand away, disgust tearing through me. I twisted it slightly so she was forced to shuffle back to alleviate the pressure and only then did I let her go. I knew nothing about therapy, talking bullshit in a room with art hanging on the walls that were supposed to have some underlying meaning other than blobs of colors.
What I did know was how to kill. Break. Destroy. And do it with a smile. That was what I was going to do to Raven. Kill her. And she was going to resist. She was going to hate me taking away her safety.
She ran from home because she was unable to live in that world again. She knew how to be a slave. She knew how to be Raven and being Raven allowed her to avoid facing what happened.
“Never do that again. I have rules and you break any of them I will make you lie in a bathtub of ice water until you’re so fuckin’ cold you can barely breathe.” The threat had to be real. Something I could do if she did it again, because I wouldn’t lie to her.