Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
SILAS
“Don’t mom.” She moaned. “Don’t tell them.”
I jerked my gaze toward her. “What the Hell did you say?”
Carven was fucking dangerous, but in this moment I didn’t care. I pushed past him, heading for her, then stopped staring at her. She had that glazed goddamn stare once more. Where she was here in body, but not in her head. I knew she saw him…the bastard responsible for my parents murder.
Sweat beaded across her forehead as she unleashed a moan and rocked forwards.
“Don’t.” She shook her head, then slammed her fists against the side of her head with a thud. “Don’t tell them anything!”
I stood over her, watching her beat herself senseless. I shouldn’t care…I didn’t care. A pang of agony tore across my chest with the thought, until Gabe strode forward and dropped to his knees beside her.
“Hey.” He grabbed her fist as she swung once more. “Stop, Angel. Please!”
She looked up as he pulled her against him and that unfocused stare fixed on me. Terror found her at that moment. Her eyes widened as she shook her head. “Don’t make me do this. They’ll never understand. They’ll never.”
My gut clenched with her pleas.
She saw him in me.
Whoever this bastard was.
Never understand what?
“We need to get her to the shrink.” Carven murmured.
I turned as he strode toward my brother. Fear punched through me. I’d seen this bastard take on two men three times his size…and leave their dead bodies behind. Killing machines, someone once called him and his brother. Cold, detached killing machines.
Seeing them then and now here, I was inclined to agree.
But he never even noticed Gabe sitting there, just knelt, slid one hand under my sister’s knees and wrapped the other around her back before rising with her in his arms.
I was moving before I knew it, striding forward to bend down and grab his arm, stilling him cold. “Don’t.”
Carven slowly shifted his gaze, first to my hand clenched around his arm, then to meet my stare. “If you don’t move your fucking hand I’ll tear it from your goddamn body. You have no idea what shit you’ve waded into here.”
My pulse boomed with fear and it had little to do with the threat of maiming me…but of what this goddamn place was.
My hold eased, then fell away. He carried her with the utmost respect as he headed for the doorway.
“Where the Hell is he taking her?” Gabe scurried to stand, jerking that panicked glare my way.
“Hell if I know.” I made for the door and headed after him, leaving my brothers to follow.
We made it back out of the front door where my car was parked. But Carven didn’t even look that way, just headed for the far end of the building and around the ruins of what looked like the aftermath of an explosion.
I followed until I saw the black Explorer. The locks disengaged with a thud. He was shifting Angelica in his arms, yanking open the rear door before he gently eased her inside.
“Owned. I’m owned.” She murmured.
Carven froze with her words, before he gently eased her legs inside and closed the door.
“Wait.” Gabe charged forward as Carven started to turn. “I’m going with you.”
“Gabe.” I snarled through clenched teeth.
But my little brother didn’t hesitate, just yanked open the passenger’s door and climbed inside.
I glared at Carven.
Motherfucker.
“I don’t think this is a good idea.” Jude muttered as I turned.
“And what part of any of this is?” I strode to my car, yanked open the door and climbed inside.
My damn hands were shaking as dust kicked up in a cloud in my rearview mirror as Jude climbed in. I started the engine, backed out and accelerated, catching up to the four-wheel drive before he made it out of the gate.
“What shrink is he talking about? And can we even trust him? I thought dad said London St. James was a man he didn’t like?”
I clenched my fist around the wheel and pushed the accelerator harder as the Explorer picked up pace, taking us back toward the city.
“This isn’t good.” Jude murmured in the start next to me.
I didn’t look his way. Just kept on driving as we headed onto the on-ramp and headed toward home. But we weren’t going home, instead we tore past our street and pulled into a cul-de-sac about four streets down, leaving the Explorer to pull up outside the house.
The front door opened and London St. James strode out, glancing my way instantly.
Don’t trust him. My father’s words resonated in my head. That man and his sons are dangerous.
He looked every bit as dangerous now as he rounded the car and opened the rear door. My gut clenched in warning as he leaned inside.
Don’t you dare touch her. I clenched my jaw and stabbed the button, killing the engine before climbing out. It was barely seconds, still it was long enough for London to pull my sister from the car and head inside.
“Hey!” I called out.
But St. James never stopped, just strode inside, leaving Carven to cut me a glare and follow along with Gabe.
Sonovabitch. I slammed the car door behind me and headed for the house, taking the two steps before I entered the open door and headed inside the one house I never expected to step a foot inside.
“London?” A female called out.
“In here.” He answered, striding along the hall.
From the left a woman came rushing toward me, casting me a glare before following London to what looked like a study. Gabe stood against the desk, his eyes wide as he watched them.
“Is she conscious?” The woman asked as London lowered her to the sofa in the middle of the room.
“Owned. Daughter.” Angelica murmured. “No, please mom. Don’t tell them.”
I stepped inside watching the woman bend down, brush her hair away and lift her gaze to London. “We need Kane.”
“I already called him.” London took a step backwards, leaving the woman who was his wife to tend to her. “He’s on his way. Do you know her?”
She shook her head, then jerked a glare at me. “What did you do?”
“Nothing.” I snarled.
“Don’t fucking lie.” Gabe croaked. His stare shell-shocked as he looked my way.
“What did you do to her?” London’s wife snarled and rounded the sofa.
“Vivienne.” He warned.
But she came for me, striding across the study to stop in front of me. “What the fuck did you do?”
I looked at her. At her rage and her beauty, I saw something unattainable—loyalty.
“I’d be careful if I were you.” Carven warned as he pushed past and stepped into the study. “This one’s likely to tear you a new ass.”
“She can tr—” I started as Colt followed his brother inside, meeting my stare as he went.
“When did this start?”
I looked back at her.
“Time, day. Was it today?”
I shook my head.
“Then when?”
I tried to think. “Yesterday, the day before…I don’t remember.” I answered.
But I knew exactly when it was. The night of the attack, when she dropped to her knees in front of all of us.
“She could be broken, do you get that?”
I stared through the woman, watching in the corner of my eye as Carven neared my sister.
“What’s happened to her?” Gabe asked. “Why is she like this?”
“Because, her mind has been manipulated to obey.” Vivienne snapped.
Jude jerked his gaze toward her. “You mean like mind control?”
“ Exactly like mind control.” She stared at him, then Gabe. “You have no idea what she is, do you?”
What she is.
Not, who she was.
Vivienne swung that deadly glare my way.
“She’s our sister.”
If looks could kill I’d be a dead man. “Really?” She muttered. “I’m just loving your sense of loyalty here.”
What the fuck? How in the world is this woman judging me?
Beep.
London grabbed his cell, reading the message. “They’re here.”
Who’s here?
Murmured voices came from the front of the house barely a second later.
I stepped backwards into the middle of the hallway and turned watching a woman and four guys head toward me.
She looked just like the one staring daggers at me inside the study.
But this one stopped in front of me, searched my eyes silently, then slowly shifted that piercing stare to the study.
“Where is she?” The male behind her pushed through, dressed in a goddamn suit looking all fucking business.
Only then did it hit me. They were serious, weren’t they? I jerked my gaze to the sofa as the guy in the suit rounded the end and knelt down in front of her. They were serious and this was real.
My fists clenched as this asshole reached for her, murmuring. “Angelica, my name is Doctor Kane Cruz. Can you hear me?”
I wanted to step inside that room. I wanted to round the end of the sofa and stand in between him and her. Who the fuck was this guy touching my sister? Back the fuck off her. Jealousy hit me like a ton of bricks. I took a step, moving inside the doorway as he kept speaking.
“My friends tell me you were in the Order.”
“Order.” She whispered.
“That’s right.” He urged. “We’re going to do our best to get you out of there, okay?”
I stepped closer, watching him gently lift the lids of her eyes and reach for her wrist, checking her pulse.
“I’m going to ask you to do something for me, do you think you can do that?”
There was a tiny nod of her head.
“Good. I’m going to help you to sit upright, and then I’m going to ask you to close your eyes for me and listen to the sound of my voice. Can you do that? I know you feel trapped right now. But we’re going to get you out of that place. Can you do that? Can you follow my voice?”
Another small nod. I caught my breath, watching this so-called doctor lean close, grip her arms and help her to sit. I didn’t like that. Not one goddamn bit.
“I want you to listen to the sound of my voice, find it, Angelica. Can you do that?”
She slowly nodded.
“Look around,” he said. “Tell me where you are.”
“In that room.” She whispered. “With him.”
“Can you describe him? Can you tell me what he looks like?”
She waited for a second, then shook her head. “I can’t…I can’t see his face.”
“That’s okay. Can you see the door?”
A shiver raced across my skin. Drawn by the sound of the doctor’s voice and her tiny whispers I stepped around the edge of the sofa. Her brow pinched as she slowly shook her head. The doctor glanced at London, then spoke.
“So can you tell me where you are?”
“My…my bedroom.”
It was the doctor’s turn to scowl. “And what are you feeling right now? Can you tell me the words running through your head?”
“Desperate,” she whispered. “Need them to want me…to use me…to tell me things. Things he wants to know.”
I flinched, that savage, hateful feeling rippling from deep inside me.
“What the fuck?” The mutter came from one of the men standing at the rear of the room. “That’s not part of the programming.”
“No,” the doctor standing in front of my sister said. “It’s not.” He moved closer, searching her closed eyes. “Now this is very important, Angelica. I want to know what you need them to tell you.”
“Everything.”
The word was a gut punch. Rage unleashed, making me jerk my gaze to my brothers. “I fucking told you, didn’t I? She’s a goddamn mole living right under our fucking roof.”
“No.” Vivienne shook her head and stepped forward, barely a second later the other one who had to be her sister did. “Not a mole…”
“Programmed,” the doctor lifted his gaze to me. “Her thoughts have been altered.”
“By who?” I forced the words through clenched teeth.
“Now that is a very good question.” London murmured and pushed off the edge of the desk where he stood beside his wife. “It’s not like you don’t have a whole list of enemies just desperate to take out the Ares family.”
I clenched my jaw and breathed deep.
“But the real question remains, who had access to the Order to program your sister in the first place…and why?”
I stared at the side of her face and the way her brow was pinched, like she was fighting whatever demons were inside her…
but she wasn’t was she? No, because she wanted this.
She wanted our ruin, it was what she’d been programmed to want.
I dragged my gaze down to the sweater I put on her, my hand clenched remembering the warmth and softness of her breast against my palm.
The nipple puckering under the brush of my fingers.
The more I thought of it, the more I wanted it.
I wanted her writhing under my hand. I wanted her tortured.
“Can you fix her?” I asked, not even caring about the answer.
“I can try,” the shrink answered. “But in doing so I could put her mind at risk. She’s in a very fragile state right now, any kind of force could do more damage than good.”
I gave a slow nod then strode forward, stopping in front of her and bent down. One heave and I lifted her from the sofa and into my arms.
“What the Hell are you doing?” The doctor snapped.
“Handing it the only way I know how.” I growled and lifted my gaze to London. “Privately.”
Vivienne stepped sideways, trying to cut me off until London reached out. “Let them go. He knows where we are if he needs us.”
But his woman spun around, anger burning in her stare. “And what about what she wants?”
He knew.
And none of it mattered.
My sister was Hell bent on our family’s destruction and we were going to get answers as to why.
“Jude, Gabe.” I called as I strode for the doorway with our sister in my arms.
I got the answers I needed to start. The only thing I didn’t know was…where it was going to lead us.
“Owned.” Angelica whispered in my arms.
“Yes.” I murmured and strode out of the front door of London St. James mansion. “You most certainly are and I think it’s about time you understood the full ramifications of that.”