Consumed (Blood Ties Book 9)

The room was a vacuum of silence. Fear laced with hope as we all stared at the heavy steel doors in the Salvatore house. There was no laughing or chatting, not even from the new influx of men who’d arrived to crowd the room. These men didn’t pace, nor did they rage. They didn’t need to. The sharp snap of racking slides and loading fresh magazines was the only call to war we needed.

The Baldeons and the Bernardis I recognized as two of the main Mafia families. The other men who came in were either mercenaries or allies of the Salvatores or the Rossis. But there was a couple who stood at the edge of the gathering that I didn’t know, a striking older man everyone nodded to when they entered and a stunning raven-haired woman next to him.

She glanced my way and gave me a hint of a smile. One that said friend and not foe. I nodded back, knowing we needed as many allies as we could get.

“Where are they?” Vivienne groaned, shifting her weight from one swollen foot to the other. She should be sitting down and resting, not standing there, panicked and desperate, staring at an empty doorway as we waited for those we loved to return. “They should be back by now.”

“Easy,” I urged. “We have no idea what waited for them.”

It was just supposed to be a scouting mission, but by the look in Lazarus’ eyes, we’d all known it was much more than that.

Ryth just clutched Ali to her chest as he slept. How he could in this madness I had no idea. Still, she swayed her body from side to side, rocking him in her arms, and waited.

I grasped Vivienne’s hand and placed my other on Ryth’s shoulder, connecting with them as my focus shifted to Anna, who’d spent her time hunched over her laptop, gathering as much data on this new map she’d found as she could.

But it was Kat who stood in the middle of the room in utter silence, her empty eyes fixed on the steel door in front of us. It was her silence we all felt, her vacuum of grief sucking us all in.

Her raven-haired daughter clung to her leg, looking up at her with those big dark eyes, ones which looked just like her father’s in the worst way possible. But Kat didn’t acknowledge her. She barely noticed the baby in her arms. Just that door. That motherfucking door.

“They’re coming in now.” The crack of the two-way made all three of us flinch.

I held my breath as the creak of the front door sounded and grunts and moans of agony tore through the air. Ryth was the first to move. Hugging her son to her chest, she raced forward.

Like a crashing wave of desperation, we all followed, tearing through the house. I paced my steps with Vivienne, catching sight of Lazarus and Finley stumbling in with blood all over them.

“Oh fuck.” Vivienne croaked. “Oh fuck! London? LONDON!”

London came in behind them, along with Riven and Hunter who looked like hell. There was blood all over one side of Hunter’s face and he was limping badly. Riven looked just as bad, his shirt soaked with blood and stuck to his body, moving in a way that couldn’t be good. But it was Thomas who called to me. Sweet, perfect, Thomas, who was now carrying a cross like a weapon, his face also splattered with blood.

Vivienne stumbled forward, wrapping herself around her lover as best she could with her belly in the way. “Where are they?” She glanced behind them. “Where’re Carven and Colt?”

I took Riven’s weight as she shook her head, screaming. “No…NO!”

“They’re not dead, Vivienne…” London gripped her chin, forcing her gaze to his. “Did you hear me? They’re NOT dead.”

“What the hell happened?” I turned to Riven as Tobias and Nick lurched in arm-in-arm, looking shell-shocked. Caleb sucked in hard breaths, as numb as his brothers.

The agony in Riven’s stare said all I needed to know. Whatever had happened must have been very bad. He gave a shake of his head. “Hale wasn’t there, but the Sons were. Waiting for us.”

“Waiting for you?” My pulse sped as my mind was filled with terror.

“Yeah.”

No wonder they’d barely survived. I let him lean on my shoulder as we stumbled back inside that room.

Lazarus crossed the room, heading straight for his wife. He wrapped his arms around her. She held him, still in silence. Both of them shell-shocked and empty.

“So then where are they, London?” Vivienne’s voice broke. “Where are my men?”

Desperation was a fist around my heart, squeezing and clenching as I helped Riven into the room. One of Finley’s men was ready, pulling out his medical kit and giving instructions, motioning for Riven to sit while he triaged everyone’s injuries.

But it was Viv that worried me the most. I glanced over my shoulder at her, watching as she shook her head. Her face was pasty, her once red lips now almost gray. London winced as he left her side and made his way to the medic, who checked his shoulder and side, but his focus was on her.

This couldn’t be good for the babies, not this much stress. She needed the Sons. She needed Colt.

I left Riven with the medic and headed for her. “Vivienne, baby. Look at me.”

“I can’t leave them out there.” Fresh tears shone in her eyes. “I won’t. Not again…not after last time.”

When she’d almost lost them to this goddamn war. She shook her head and took a step backwards before turning to leave.

“Vivienne!” London yelled as she walked through the door. “Goddamnit!” He pulled away from the medic, leaving his shirt to fall into place.

“I’m not finished.” Finley’s medic called.

“It doesn’t matter,” he muttered, limping after her. “Nothing does, apart from her.”

We all watched them leave. But it was the faint roar of an engine which had me running. I left Riven and the others behind, racing to the front door to find dust kicking up in the early morning sunlight as the Mustang tore away, leaving London behind.

“What the fuck?” Nick snarled, striding past to make his way down the stairs. “She took my goddamn car!”

I won’t leave them…not after last time.

We all knew where she was going. She was going back there, to that same alley where they’d all almost died. The Explorer roared to life in an instant. I was already sprinting, with Riven and Thomas fast behind me, yanking open the back doors and lunging inside.

“Move it!” London roared, shoving the four-wheel drive into gear.

My men followed, Riven in the passenger’s seat, with Thomas beside me. I barely had time to grasp the seatbelt before I was slammed backwards against the seat as we headed after her.

“Goddamn woman!” London groaned. “She’s going to be the fucking death of me.”

He wrenched his panicked stare to Riven, who never said a word. But he didn’t need to. The moment London jerked the wheel, heading along the straight stretch of road, we caught sight of her in the distance.

“I didn’t know she could drive a stick,” Riven murmured.

London just shot him a sorrow-filled glare. “She can’t…not well, at least.”

I winced.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“Poor Nick,” Riven finished.

I couldn’t care less about Nick or his damn car. I just wanted my sister safe. But she had other ideas. London gunned the Explorer, pushing the four-wheel drive harder as we headed toward the city.

“How does she know where to go?” I asked.

London met my gaze in the rear-view mirror. “It was on Nick’s GPS.”

“Shit.” I eased back as up ahead, the Mustang turned left.

“She’ll be okay,” Thomas murmured, drawing my gaze. “God is on our side.”

“It didn’t look like it,” I answered. “Not by all the bullet holes and knife wounds.”

“But we all came back, didn’t we?” My mind raced as he shifted his gaze to the road ahead. “We all came back.”

They did. For that, I was so very thankful.

“She’s fighting for those she loves, just like we were.”

“Fighting is one thing, putting herself in danger is another,” London growled. “She is my fucking world. If anything happened to her…”

“It won’t.” I shook my head and reached out to grasp Thomas’ hand. “It won’t.”