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“Vivienne.”
She kept walking, headed to the Raptor parked in the lot next to the building, and stopped at the passenger side door before she mumbled, “Just unlock the car, London.”
Exhaustion was etched deep in her tone, but there was something else.
Sadness. That’s what it was. My Vivienne was sad.
Agony ripped through my chest. I pressed the button, letting her climb in. I did the same, sliding in behind the wheel, but I didn’t start the engine. Not yet.
“Talk to me,” I tried, turning to her. “Please, kitten.”
I caught the shine of tears in her eyes before she averted her gaze to stare out the window instead. “It’s nothing,” she said, “just drive, please.”
My pulse boomed. My jaw clenched.
She was keeping something from me.
That thought nagged me as I leaned forward, stabbed the button, and started the engine. I cast glances her way as I pulled out of the parking lot. I should look up at the windows on the top floor of the building, focused more on the men I was keeping hostage that very moment. But I couldn’t even think about them.
Not even thoughts of Colt held my attention as I followed the marker on the GPS to a part of the city I’d never been to before. Blue water glinted in front of us, stretching out like a stunning oasis. But I barely looked at the view. Vivienne was my single focus, sitting silent in the seat beside me. Her arms wrapped around her middle like she was trying to hold on.
I’d never seen her snap like that.
Not in all the time I’d known her.
She was a fighter, a protector, and a lover.
She was the glue that kept us from sinking into this maelstrom of hate and rage, the only good thing in our goddamn miserable fucking lives. I ground my teeth and shook my head. Right now, she was changing before my eyes, turning into someone just like us, someone tainted by this goddamn world.
Someone filled with uncontrollable rage.
Just like…
Carven. That’s what this was about. I knew it’d been a bad idea letting her go with the Son.
The red marker on the map blinked, the voice commands telling us we’d arrived at our destination. I turned the wheel and pulled the four-wheel drive into a darkened driveway shrouded with what looked like a damn rainforest on the outskirts of the city. I barely had enough time to scan the towering house nestled against the canopy before she stabbed the seatbelt and was gone.
“For Christ’s sake!” I roared, punching the brakes and skidded to a stop as her feet hit the driveway.
Thud.
The door slammed behind her. She was gone, heading to the mammoth double doors at the front of the house as they opened. Helene stepped out, her focus fixed on her younger sister as I killed the engine, grabbed the large black bag in the back seat and, followed.
Helen shot me a look as I neared. “What happened?”
I just watched Vivienne disappear through the doors behind her. “Hell if I know.”
I stepped inside, barely looking at the place as I searched for her. “Vivienne?”
“Come on.” Helene strode past. “She can’t be far.”
I found her, standing in the darkened living room, staring at pictures of herself, Ryth, and Helene. The pictures were taken at different times and in different places. But standing here, staring at them, you could see they were blood.
“You never came to me.” Her words were barely audible. “All these years, you stayed away.”
“It wasn’t safe,” Helene stated.
“Oh, yeah?” Vivienne swung around, anger sparkling in her eyes. “For who, you?”
