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 the compulsion 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 leg to 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?
Andrade - Yes, boss.
Me - She’s hiding something.
Me - Be alert Caspian, the cunt is up to something and I’ll find out what it is before I break her neck.
Cas - Xaden, she’s pregnant with YOUR kid!
Me - It’s not mine! Don’t ever bring that shit up again!
I lock my screen and pocket my phone. Anger is a default setting and it’s coursing through me like the flow of a heavy current.
It overtakes me and I succumb to it, relish in the way it blanks my mind and causes me to hyperfocus on my sole task.
I can think of nothing aside from getting to Walter House.
That place has been Steven’s trump card.
He knows as long as he keeps those kids locked up no one will make a move against him.
He claimed his role as senator through blackmail and extortion.
It grates on every one of my nerves to admit this, but Walter House was a fucking good idea.
Taking the heirs of your enemies and locking them up in a psych ward, then keeping the location a secret, means all your enemies are at your mercy.
When the others approach I sit up straighter.
Tink climbs in the back beside me. I shoot the bitch a sneer when her leg brushes against mine.
She flinches but says nothing as Carnage and his twin climb into the row in front of us with the others joining them, and the last two ride up front.
When the car moves, I pull my gun out and rest it on the top of my leg. The cunt beside me gasps.
“Xaden, what are you doing?” Her panicked tone draws the attention of the other two in front of us. Carnage just glares at me, the fire in his eyes sparks the beast inside me and I long to rise to the challenge. I grip my gun tighter and urge him with a look to make a move.
Give me one single reason to pull this fucking trigger.
“Carn, let him be. You know the rules,” his twin snarls and shoots me a glare over his shoulder before looking out the window again.
The other fucker takes a minute longer before he finally tears his gaze off me.
I bite back my smirk. To anyone else it would seem like a small victory, but everyone in this car knows that I just won the fucking war by getting that cunt to submit.
I can feel the bitch’s scowl burning a hole into the side of my head. I slowly turn toward her but make sure I keep that other fucker in view. I don’t trust the cunt not to take a cheap shot at me.
“Lesson one, Tink. Never and I mean never think you have any type of sway over me. You are nothing and mean nothing to me.” Pain shines in her eyes and I relish at the sight. “Let me be crystal fucking clear with you, you may make my dick hard but that’s it.”
“Keep lying to yourself.” she grits out.
Without hesitation, I lift the gun in my left hand and press it against her forehead at the same time I pull the butterfly knife from the side of my shoe and hold it out toward Carnage as he spins around.
I look between the both of them with a smirk and ignore the protests of the other three cunts as I speak.
“Half of what you hear and all of what you see, Tink.” The fear drains from her face and her eyes burn with anguish as she stares back at me. I feel fucking euphoric knowing I’m hurting her and there isn’t a damn thing she can do about it. “What do you see, Tink?” I taunt in a cold malicious tone.