Shock roots me in place.
“Get your pet. She knows where Walter House is and she'll lead you there.” He pauses as he listens to Cas’s reply. “Toren was there, that’s where she was that whole time.”
My teeth grind together as I shift into drive. If he's bringing his people, then I'm sure as hell bringing mine.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
XADEN
She hasn't spoken a single word since I ordered her to drive. As we cross the bridge into Hollow Hills, I straighten in my seat. There's no goddamn way Steven concealed this place in the next fucking town! Right beneath our noses the entire time.
The thought vanishes when she veers onto a side street and continues until she stops before a house and shifts into park. I turn to face her. I'm about to speak but the little bitch cuts me off.
“Stay here.” She bolts from the car but makes certain to take the fucking keys with her, leaving me stranded. Like hell. I launch myself out of the car and charge after her. She strides into the house like it belongs to her and attempts to slam the door, but I jam my boot in the doorframe, blocking it. She whirls around, staring at me with a look of terror. “You need to get back in the car,” she hisses.
Her desperate need to be rid of me only intensifies my rage. I force the door open, making her stumble back against the wall. I step inside and trap her in place with my palms pressed on either side of her head.
“What the hell are you hiding, Tink?” I snarl through gritted teeth. Her eyes flood with panic, and immediately thecompulsion to extract answers through force consumes me. My fingers itch to curl around her throat and choke the truth out of her.
“What the fuck are you doing in my house?” At the sound of that cunts voice her eyes plead with me to not do anything rash, the instant my face blanks and I shut down all my emotions she grips the front of my shirt in a bid to hold me in place but it’s fucking futile. I spin around and face Carnage De Santis. The motherfucker stands there staunch, with his hands in his pockets and a promise of death shining in his eyes.
I admire his courage to stand there and face me like a man, it’s been a long fucking time since I have had a decent opponent. Carnage doesn’t acknowledge his brothers’ presence as they enter the room and remain behind him, showing me they trust him to handle shit on his own. I’m not intimidated or worried, I can handle my own too and if this fucker wants to go a few rounds with me over this bitch then I’m down.
“Carn, not now please,” Toren implores as she cuts around me and faces him. I grit my teeth when the fucker shifts his focus to her, acting like I’m not a threat. “I need you guys to come with us.”
“Us?” he claps back, sounding like a wounded bitch. I press against Toren’s back and grip her waist possessively in one hand while holding his gaze over the top of her head. His upper lip lifts and I fight back my own smirk, knowing that I’m getting under his skin and I fucking love it. When the little bitch tries to step out of my grasp, I tighten my hold in warning, which she ignores by jerking forward, then whirling around to face me.
“I don’t give a fuck if you want to prove you have a bigger dick than Carnage, but you are not using me to do it.” My nostrils flare. “He isn’t a threat to you, Xaden?—”
“You all are a fucking threat!” I shout. She stands there staring at me like I’m a stranger and the reality is, I am to her.She thinks she knows me and what I am capable of, but I had proven earlier I will always make her second guess her actions. I shot her fucking lover in the head and mere hours later she was sprawled out on my hood, begging for my cock.
Her features tighten and I love the sight of the fire swirling in those eyes. “Only because you made us one. If you want me to take you to Walter House, then you need to get over the fact they are coming with us. All your men are going and if you think for a single fucking second that I didn’t learn from my past mistakes, you’re fucking stupid.”
“Call me stupid again, Tink, and see what the fuck I do to you,” I sneer.
“Threaten her again and it will be you we bury next to her friend.” I flick my gaze up to Carnage and study him for a second. The way he stands apart from his siblings and doesn’t draw his gun—I know the fucker is strapped—shows me he knows he can handle himself without using it and I long to go a few rounds with him in the ring to really see what he’s made of.
“Which friend would that be? The one her brother killed or the one I did?” Toren’s sharp inhale has a smile tugging at the corner of my lips, the pain blooming in her eyes sends a shiver down my spine.
When he takes a warning step forward, she places her hand on his chest, halting his movements. The sight of her hand on him has me wanting to tear him apart and slice his fucking lips from his face.
“Stop. We need to go now. If my father finds out what we are doing, he’ll have everyone moved.” Her words wash over me for a second as I study her. Her face is blank of all emotion and I can’t read her thoughts, she’s blocking me out and it’s fucking pissing me off.
“How do you know what he is doing?” I press. She darts her tongue out to moisten her lips and shifts her weight from one legto the other, making my irritation spike. The little bitch is hiding something.
“Let’s roll. We don’t have time for this foreplay bullshit you two are playing,” Carnage’s twin says. Toren releases a breath and nods, then turns to me and grips my arm and tries to lead me outside, but I yank my arm free and bare my teeth at her.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I hiss, then stalk out of there and feel utterly fucking exposed. I’m on my own with none of my guys with me. I’m forced to watch my own back and hold my own against an unknown enemy. I’ve heard about the Denver Kings and what they can do, but I also know that their reputation is what it is because of The Butcher, not them.
“Xaden, they aren’t going to hurt you.” I whirl around and glare down at the bitch who thinks she means something to me and mimic her angry stare with one of my own.
“They mean nothing to me, like you.” Pain blossoms in her eyes before she quickly masks it. “They are here because you promised them something. I don’t know how you did it, but I will find out and let’s be real, Tink, if I find out that you have tried to fuck me over in any way…” I close the space between us and grip the back of her neck in a punishing hold that makes her wince. “I will destroy you and break everything you have left until you are nothing but a broken little fairy with no home, no family and have nothing worth living for.” I release her with a shove and stalk to the car. I climb in the very back so it’s those cunts that have their backs to me and I can keep them all in my line of sight. None of these fuckers will get the drop on me.
I pull my phone and text Cas and Andrade—he’s stepped up and proven to be loyal to me and not my father. He’s been scouring through old emails and any correspondence my father had with Steven. I won’t be blindsided again by any fucking Kellar, even the one claiming she’s growing the spawn of the fucking devil inside her gut.
Me - She’s bringing the Denver Kings with her, have the men ready.
Cas - How the fuck does she have that type of pull?
