Soul Enslaved (Sons of Wrath Book 3) (52 page)

“You know …” He leaned against the window frame, looking up toward the sky. “There is nothing particularly impressive about night herself. She carries a darkness, into which only some are brave enough to gaze. But if you dare to look closely, the stars that burrow in her shadows’ll amaze you.”

As expected, her brows pinched to a frown when Gavin glanced back, and he smirked at the predictability. “Sometimes, I expect the worst to come flying out of your mouth, Gavin, and often, I find myself swept away by your words.”

“Well, I’d say that’s one glass wall shattered.”

Laughter caught both of their attention, and Gavin swung around, crouching low as he crawled across the shit on the floor to peer over the banister.

Crashing through the front door was Jeven—a seemingly drunken Jeven—entwined in a blonde whose skirt already littered the floor, her black thong twisted in the pimp’s fingers.

The two stumbled and fell. Moans and the sloshy sounds of kissing carried through the dark house.

A tearing noise echoed, followed by a gasp. “’The fuck d’you do that for? What am I supposed to wear home?”

“You’re not going home.” Jeven growled.

The woman giggled, and Gavin crept along the hallway, careful not to press too much weight on the boards.

“You want me to live here with you?”

“No. After I fuck you most of the night, I plan to strangle you and dump your body riverside.”

Another laugh pierced the air. “Strangle me. Right.” She let out a moan, as he continued his assault. “You’re so fucked up right now, you probably couldn’t strangle your own dick.”

Down the staircase, Gavin padded, and the wood groaned.

A momentary silence made him pause.

“Hey … where the fuck’re my dogs?” Jeven’s voice carried a slight slur.

“You’ve got dogs? Awww. Are they cute,” she said in a childlike voice.

“Shut up. I’m serious. Something’s not right.”

“Yeah, my pussy’s getting dry. Fuck me, if you’re going to fuck me.” The female let out an obnoxious laugh that bounced off the walls.

A smacking sound cracked through the air.

“Hey, asshole. That hurt!”

“When I tell you to shut up,
shut up
.” Jeven warned.

“What do you think you are, my pimp? Get the fuck off me.”

Gagging, and what sounded like struggling limbs beating the floor, allowed Gavin to continue his descent. Not wasting any more time, he charged toward the grappling bodies, gripped the blond male by his throat, unlatching him from the woman, and pinned him to the wall.

“Where the fuck is
she
?” Gavin gritted out.

“Who’s … she?”

Gavin tightened his grip and drew back a fist. “Talk!”

Jeven attempted a smile, which immediately met its demise when Gavin smashed his cheek. “I suspect … she’s long gone by now. Maybe … on her way to Russia.” His words hardly carried with the throttling of his neck.

“I won’t ask the same question twice.” Another crack against his face sent a golden tooth flying out of the pimp’s mouth.

“Don’t even think of it, bitch.”

Gavin threw a glance over his shoulder, catching sight of Sabelle with her dagger propped beneath the chin of the blonde female, who clutched a pipe. Heavy metal hit the floor, and Gavin turned his attention back to Jeven.

“I don’t … know.” Jeven’s sneer taunted Gavin’s fist.

Another punch, and the second golden tooth took flight.

“Ah, fuck!” Jeven slurped blood as it dribbled down his chin and out his damaged nose. “I don’t …”

Gavin slouched his shoulders with a huff and drew back his fist yet again.

“No, wait!” The sounds of blood filtering through Jeven’s broken face as he sucked in a breath turned Gavin’s stomach. “The woman … I don’t know … her name. She—everyone … calls her … Madame.”

Gavin had heard the name before. The lycan spoke of her. The one who’d supposedly taken Cash’s book. “Madame. And just where the fuck do I find this Madame?”

“I don’t … know.” He flinched, lifting his hands to shield his face.

“You better give me something to work with, or I’ll finish knocking every goddamn tooth out of your mouth.”

“All … all I can tell you is … she’s got dark red hair. Looks brown, like. And a tattoo. On her wrist. Think it’s a Raptorzhus. Her servosx is a bigwig in the underworld.”

Red hair. Tattoo. Servosx. The details crashed around inside Gavin’s skull, knocking into one another as he put them together.

Fuck. All the clues pointed to one person. One feisty bitch that Gavin had hoped was locked somewhere deep in the bowels of Obsidius. “What’s your business with her?” Gavin snarled.

“Money. Lots of it.” Jeven’s gaze flitted beyond Gavin. “Vengeance. For being … stabbed in the … fucking back.” He lifted his chin. “All those … years, Sabelle, eh? Traitorous … bitch.” His lips peeled back, revealing two gaping holes where his eyeteeth used to be. “I’ll bet Cash … was happy to … deal, wasn’t he? Bet you … didn’t know … he’s been after your … sister’s pussy … since I first claimed … it as my own.”

“She doesn’t belong to you.” Fury laced Sabelle’s voice. “Never has. Never will. And neither do I.”

Gavin drew his dagger and held the tip level with Jeven’s eyeball.

The pimp’s lip quivered, but he lifted his chin in defiance. “Go ahead. Kill me. Fucking stab … my eyeballs … out. I die … and she falls … right into Cash’s … arms. Or worse. She tell you … our secret?” He sneered. “Her ass … can rot … in prison.”

Gavin flipped the blade to the dull hilt and clocked the bastard across his cheek, feeling a small bit of joy when he released the pimp’s body and watched it slide to the floor into a heap of
knocked the hell out
.

As he twisted, Sabelle released the trembling female, who immediately crouched into an attack mode.

“You—you two stay the fuck away from me.” She tiptoed backward until she reached the door and made a run for it, naked from the waist down, into the night.

“Let’s go.” Gavin waved Sabelle to follow.

“Do you know who she is?”

He tugged his phone and opened an app—one he’d opened at least a thousand times before.

“What is it?” Sabelle stood beside him.

“Security app. Allows me to look through the library of videos for
Sanctuary
.”

She peered over his arm, while he scrolled through old, dated videos. “They have that?”

He couldn’t answer her questions thanks to the churning going on inside his gut. The video loaded, and he watched as the high roller tables filled in. A slender woman with dark hair stood beside a large man, whose back was conveniently to the camera.

“Who is she?”

“Jessica.”

“The one you—”

“Yeah.”

Sliding his fingers across the phone screen, Gavin zoomed in on the black ink. “Fucking gods.”

“The tattoo.” Gavin caught a flicker of contemplation in Sabelle’s eyes. “And … she’s Optevyl?”

“It would seem. I vaguely recall seeing her tattoo, but I didn’t think much of it until I was in Obsidius and saw the same tattoo on another inmate.” He frowned. “They’re a dying breed, the Optevyl.”

“Then, she … probably bought the … Black Book. And … that’s why Griffin was taken by surprise.” She looked up at Gavin, sadness overlapping horror. “He must’ve thought it was me at first.” She ran a hand through her hair. “And now ... Denya.” Her eyebrows came together in an angry snarl. “Because of you.”

“Sabelle … if I’d known she was behind this—” Gavin rubbed his jaw. “I saw her get taken away. The court found her guilty. She was sent to Obsidius the same day I was.”

“That’s why he wanted you.” She gripped two handfuls of hair. “He wanted me to release you. For her.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know his name. He offered me money. A million dollars. Freedom. All I had to do was walk away from you.” Tears shone in her eyes. “What if I had? How many have been hurt because of this …
obsession
she has with you?”

Gavin lurched forward, gripping her elbow. “What’s his name? Who offered this?”

“Don’t touch me!” She swiped her arm from his. “I don’t know his name. He gave me a card. Told me to release you from enslavement. That he could give me everything I wanted without all the … consequences.”

“And you didn’t? You went through with the plan, instead? A million dollars and freedom in the palm of your hands, and you … chose
not
to turn me over?”

“Don’t flatter yourself. Don’t think that I wouldn’t put my children before you. That I would put them in this kind of danger, risk my sister’s life, for you. It’s a game, Gavin. Men are nothing but pieces in a game, and the objective is not to be shit on by them. He simply didn’t give me reason to trust him, is all.” He’d be inclined to believe her angry words, except that a tear slid down her cheek.

“And yet, at least a dozen other women would’ve taken the chance. Would’ve played the card and walked away.”

“A dozen other women aren’t me.”

Gavin backed her into the wall. “Look at me.” He lifted her chin. “Look me in the eye and tell me. Would you have taken the money? Would you have turned me in? Under any circumstances?”

“There are more pressing issues at hand here.”

“Just answer this one question.”

With a defiant tilt of her chin, her jaw flexed. “No.”

Gavin licked his lips, wanting to kiss her.
Needing
to kiss her. The timing was shit, and she’d probably fight him, but goddamn it, a starving man didn’t just pass up a meal. If Gavin knew one thing about Sabelle, it was that she craved freedom more than anything. The idea that she could walk away from it so easily touched a very dark part of his soul. One so dangerously possessive of her that it threatened to steal away his cool façade and sense of reason.

“Take me to my children. And then I want you to stay away from me. I can’t risk losing more than I’ve already lost. If being with you means everyone I love is going to be at risk or disappear, then … this is where we separate.”

Like a stab to his chest, her words nearly robbed him of breath. “What about Denya?”

“This woman …” Sabelle’s eyes shifted in a crazy spasm. “Perhaps if I leave, if I walk away from you, she’ll return my sister.”

“I will find Denya.” Gavin gripped her shoulders. “I will bring her back to you.”

“No. You’re the reason she’s gone!” She heaved a punch to his chest, and while it didn’t physically hurt, the ire behind it sliced his heart right open, just as her words pierced his soul, letting bleed the very light she’d stowed there. “This is why! This is why I keep my walls, Gavin! I’ve been fucked my whole life, and walls keep out the raping bastards who want to fuck my life some more!” She pressed herself into him. “You’re going to tell me where to find this woman so I can get my sister back!”

“Sabelle …” He spoke in his usual calm tone. Under any other circumstances, it commanded some level of sedation. Damned if he could get his voice to do anything at that moment. “This woman is dangerous. Unpredictable. She also has ties to the Orcosian Court. You don’t want any part of that.” He squeezed her arms. “I wish I could tell you that she’d take you on your offer and bring Denya back, but you can’t rely on psychotic. She wants something from me. I have no idea what that is, but I’ll find out. I’ll give her whatever she wants, to leave you out of this. Listen to me, I love you.” He gritted his teeth. “I will walk through hell’s fire to bring Denya back. You hear me? Lie, cheat, kill. Whatever it takes. For you. Let me deal with her lunacy.”

“You’ll do whatever it takes to get her back?”

“Anything.”

Her saddened eyes met his. “Please, take me to get my kids.”

Hands falling to his side, Gavin took a step back. “As you wish.”

***

Odd thing, illusions. Zayne couldn’t tell if what he saw happened to be real, or imagined, but it stormed toward him, through the dark hallway, just the same.

“Brother. Let’s go.” Ferno’s words, always short and succinct, carried no emotion. No remorse for Shey, standing somewhere behind Zayne.

Zayne still hadn’t looked back at her. “Why are you here?”

“To fish your ass out of here and bring you back.” He gave a sharp wave to follow.

“Don’t go with him, Zayne.” The voice forced Zayne to clamp his eyes.

“I’ll knock you out and carry you over my shoulder if I have to.” Ferno took another step toward him.

Reopening his eyes, Zayne growled. “Not if I kill you first.”

A flicker of confusion danced across Ferno’s ruined face. “’The fuck’s wrong with you?”

“Oh, I think you know.” Zayne nonchalantly tugged his blade from his holster. “In fact, I think it has you smug and proud to know you’ve stolen everything from me.”

Ferno’s eyes narrowed. “You high on shit?”

“Don’t you see her?”

“Who?”

“Shey.”

Ferno’s eyes softened to sadness, though Zayne had a pretty good idea that, somewhere inside, the bastard was smiling. “Shey’s … gone.” Ferno’s neck bobbed with a harsh swallow.

“Because of you.”

“You want to kill me?” Hands thrown to the side, Ferno took another step closer. “Go ahead. Do it.”

Zayne smiled. “Fighting me won’t be as easy as fighting her. The difference between me and her—she never
wanted
to hurt you.”

His ruined lip flattened, nostrils flared. “Get on with it, then.”

With a flip of his wrist, Zayne hurled the blade across the short space. As it nailed Ferno in the side of his neck, blood pouring from a recently-healed scar, Zayne jogged forward and hammered his fist in his brother’s tight stomach. Another punch doubled him over and forced a grunt. Gripping his brother’s neck, fingers digging into the fresh cut, Zayne squeezed, his jaw grinding so hard, he could’ve spit teeth.

Ferno fell to his knees, never once fighting back, but still, the fury blazed through Zayne’s veins. Where it came from, he didn’t know, but it felt good. He felt alive.

Zayne shook his brother, the hands covering his doing little against his grip. “I never told you …” A watery film blurred Ferno’s form. “She was pregnant.”

The words felt good, crossing that sacred threshold of right and wrong. Because it would kill Ferno to know that truth, and for reasons he couldn’t imagine, Zayne reveled in the pain.