BLOOD PRINCESS: GODS OF CHAOS MC (BOOK 17)

by Honey Palomino

Life could be worse. I knew that shit for a fact, because indeed, my life had been much, much worse before I joined up with the Gods.

  But somewhere, somehow, I’d done something right, because hooking up with these guys was the best thing that ever happened to me, so I’m not complaining.

  A man like me doesn’t see a lot of opportunities come his way. I knew what I had now was like winning the lottery. The Gods had welcomed me, and the rest of the members of my old club, into their family and given us a home, a job, a new lease on life — a purpose.

  I thought about my old man — broken and broke at the end of his life, after having worked so fucking hard as long as he could as a farmer. He and my mom grew every vegetable and flower you can think of and it still wasn’t enough. In the end, the bank got the farm, Mom died, and he was left with nothing to show for the life he’d led. He died in his trailer at an RV park in his sleep, alone and penniless and angry.

  I’d always promised myself I wouldn’t turn out like him.

  I’d promised myself I’d have love in my life.

  I’d promised myself I’d live a life I could be proud of.

  I’d promised myself I’d die with a peaceful heart.

  So far, so good.

  There’s only one thing missing and I know the last piece will fall into place someday. There’s a woman out there for me, I just know it. I haven’t found her yet, but I can feel her. Deep inside my soul, as if I just haven’t found the right key to let her out yet.

  In the meantime, I planned on continuing to do good work. Living each day with a good conscience and good intentions.

  Elizabeth left me alone in the enormous room and I walked out onto the flower lined balcony. Standing near the large stone railing, I looked down onto a sprawling garden below with a statue of a lady in the middle.

  Clara stood there with a younger girl. I figured it was the other princess and watched them for a moment. Clara put an arm around her, holding the girl close and comforting her.

  I couldn’t help but wonder what Clara’s story was.

  She was beautiful and young herself. Did she have a life outside of caring for the twins? Her eyes were fraught with worry when she greeted us and I found myself wondering what she looked like when she smiled. Was she even more beautiful when the worry had faded from her eyes?

  Her gaze shot up and she saw me watching them. I held her gaze steadily and flashed her a warm smile, waving slightly. The faintest smile haunted her lips before she turned away and turned her focus back on comforting the princess.

  I couldn’t help but wonder who was comforting her.

  Chapter 9

  RIOT

  Joe didn’t intimidate me.

  I’d dealt with all kinds of people in my life, and if there was one thing I knew about people is that trauma changed them. There was no going back to being the same person once you’d gone through hell.

  Diana had shared all the research she’d done on Joe and his family, so I knew what I was stepping into.

  Fiercely protective, he’d taken unusual measures to keep his family safe. The possibility that some of those steps may contribute to the difficulties we might now face in finding his daughter was not something he needed pointed out to him. He knew that quite well, and I suspected he might be kicking himself now for some of the decisions he’d made.

  Still, I had no judgement of him.

  All I wanted to do was find out exactly what we were dealing with and handle the situation using those facts. There was no sense in pointing out the man’s mistakes.

  Instead, this initial meeting was to listen and learn.

  His study was an entire library in itself, dark and cold, despite the fire raging in the fireplace and the heat bearing down outside. He paced impatiently behind his enormous desk as we all gathered on nearby couches, with Eva and Clara joining us.

  “Sir, I have a lot of questions for you all, and I’d like to just get right down to them to avoid wasting time, if that’s okay with you?”

  “Yes, please,” he nodded, curtly.

  “What time was it you first noticed that Willa was missing?”

  “I usually wake the girls up at eight for breakfast,” Clara said. “When I went into her room, she was gone.”

  I took notes, nodding, as I continued questioning them.

  “Are there cameras on the property?”

  Clara glanced over at Joe and he shook his head.

  “I’m sure you’ve done your research,” Joe said, his loud deep voice booming through the cavernous room. “My daughters were abducted ten years ago. At that time, I removed anything from the premises that could aid someone who may want to do it again. The previous criminals used the cameras I had to monitor the girls’ activities and were able to determine the best way to get in. So, no, there are no cameras now. I also fired most of my staff, retaining only my most trusted aides. I’m afraid I’ve set my daughters up for danger by doing so, however.”

  He was obviously suffering from regret and I didn’t want to add to it.

  “Tell me about Willa,” I said. “Is she the type of girl that would leave on her own?”

  He looked shocked at the question, but it was Eva who spoke up first.

  “She would never leave me,” Eva said. “We’re two peas in a pod. And if for some reason she did leave on her own, she wouldn’t have done so without telling me.”

  I nodded, forming the next question gently. “Why wouldn’t she leave without you?”

  “Because I take care of her,” she replied. “She doesn’t know how to really get along without me.”

  I cocked my head to the side, struck by the certainty of her answer.

  “Does Willa have a disability?”

  “No, she’s just — she’s special. Willa isn’t like most girls her age. Not because she’s a princess. Not because we don’t go out into the world. But because of what happened to her. She never really grew up.”

  “I see,” I nodded, my mind racing. “Was she officially diagnosed with an illness?”

  “PTSD, which would explain her emotional development issues,” Clara answered. “I have a PhD in Childhood Development. Willa definitely has some developmental issues. But we’ve done extensive testing and can’t find a physical ailment. She doesn’t have a physical disability, per se. I’m under the opinion that what Willa is suffering from is a social disability and a mental illness as a result of the trauma went through when they were abducted.”

  Joe ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

  “What Clara is saying is that she thinks Willa is screwed up because of the isolation I’ve forced them under, as well as what happened.”

  Silence fell over the room as we watched him pace in front of us before stopping.

  “Look, I’m not perfect. I screwed up. I’m all alone, the girls’ mother died shortly after they were born and I screwed up royally before. Maybe I overcompensated, I probably did. But I was determined to keep them safe. Most likely, all my efforts contributed to Willa’s issues, and I will own that. But she seemed to be okay, at least she was safe and happy, if a little slow or behind. She just seemed a little younger than Eva, mentally, and that was all. I was okay with her being that way, as long as she was alive and happy and well, just like I promised their mother that I would keep them!”

  He was trembling now, standing in front of us full of raw emotion and pain. I saw that he blamed himself. The man needed a damned hug, but I knew I wasn’t the one he needed it from. And a man like that doesn’t just accept hugs from anyone.

  What he needed from me was to find his daughter.

  “Okay, let’s move on. What about the internet? Does Willa have access to the web?”

  “No,” he said. “I’ve banished that from the premises also.”

  “What’s your security team like?”

  “I have two men — Sullivan and Andrew. They’ve been with me for thirty years. They didn’t see anything, and have searched the property for any breaches but found n
othing.”

  “And Willa’s room has been searched?”

  “I’ve looked through everything,” Eva said.

  “Me, too,” Clara agreed.

  “Do the girls have cell phones?” I asked.

  Joe looked at me like I’d asked if the girls had two heads.

  “Of course not.”

  “And your staff? All phones and devices are accounted for?”

  “Of course,” he repeated.

  “Actually, um,” Clara hesitated. “I lost my phone a few weeks ago. I’ve been so busy and haven’t had time to replace it yet. But I lost it in the city, and there were no pictures of the girls on there or anything that would have tied me to them.”

  “I’m going to need access to your account, Clara,” I said.

  “Sure,” she nodded.

  “Okay,” I continued. “Here’s what I think is the best approach here. For the rest of this afternoon, we’ll look around the castle and grounds ourselves, just to make sure we didn’t miss anything. I’ll look through Willa’s room myself. Then, I’d like to look for any video surveillance belonging to any businesses around the castle. We may be able to see something that would at least give us a direction to look in. The island is small, but it’s big enough that anyone could easily hide. Then tomorrow, I’m going to send my guys out into the city. They’ll be discrete and look for Willa while also listening for any information they might stumble upon. I’ll need recent photos of her, please. And if there’s anything at all I need to know, please don’t hesitate to tell me. The smallest thing could be a clue that could lead her to us.”

  I made a pointed look at Eva now, hoping she wasn’t holding anything back. She seemed like an intelligent, thoughtful girl and I planned on taking a few minutes to talk to her alone after this meeting.

  I looked over at Joe and he seemed to have relaxed just a bit. I hoped I was portraying to him the confidence I felt.

  I planned to upturn every rock until I found Princess Willa.

  I’d never failed before and I didn’t plan on failing now.

  Chapter 10

  EVA

  I couldn’t believe my father was allowing these men to help, let alone had let them into the palace in the first place.

  They were the complete opposite of him.

  They were rough around the edges and they looked totally crazy with all those tattoos and all that hair. While they looked mean and scary, they’d actually been anything but that. They were polite and professional and actually sounded quite capable.

  When Riot asked me to show him to Willa’s room, I led him to the wing of the palace that held our suites. We had identical suites of rooms right next to each other, each consisting of our main sleeping quarters with a private terrace, a sitting room, a dressing room with a large closet, our own powder rooms and a study for each of us.

  It was excessive and I knew it, but it was the only place we were allowed to live. There’s a good sized guest house in the back of the property that looks out over the pool and we’d begged our father to allow us to live in it for years. He’d always refused, and insisted we stay close, and his own suite was not far from ours.

  Still, our suites were lovely, and Elizabeth, and the housekeeper, Beverly, made sure to keep it fresh and clean for us. Between the two of them, and Clara, and our cook, Addy, they all took excellent care of us. We were like a little family, and the women had raised us just as much, if not more, than our father.

  I opened the door to Willa’s suite and stepped aside, allowing Riot to enter ahead of me. I tried to imagine what this space might look like to a stranger’s eyes, but it was impossible. I grew up here. Taken my first steps across this carpet. I’d rarely spent a night away from the castle my entire life. And Willa and I spent most nights together, staying up as late as we could, sometimes in her room, and sometimes in my mine, it didn’t matter really, as long as we were together.

  These last few days without her had felt as if I’d lost a limb. I didn’t know how to walk through this world without my twin. I fought back tears as Riot walked around Willa’s room. She would absolutely die if she knew someone like him was walking around her pink, ruffly room.

  “So, Eva, what do you think happened?” He asked, opening a jewelry box on her nightstand. It had a little ballerina figure inside that began spinning when he opened the lid. The sound of the Chopin song playing was one I’d heard a million times before, as Willa loved to open it every night before bed. I couldn’t believe she would leave such a thing behind. “You know Willa better than anyone, right?”

  “That’s true,” I said. The truth was, I was wondering about that myself. How could I have missed this? There’s no way she would have just left on her own. None of this makes sense. But the fact that I had no feeling or intuition about what had happened bothered me immensely. “I don’t really know, to tell you the truth. And it’s bothering me. I thought I knew Willa so well. We’re practically the same person, you know?”

  Tears welled up in my eyes and I shook my head, trying to will them away.

  “Can you think of anyone she may have gone with? Anywhere she may have gone on her own?”

  “No,” I insisted. “I wish I could. But when our father said we were isolated, he meant it. We don’t have any friends. We may as well be locked in a dungeon!”

  He smiled softly, looking around at the opulence surrounding him, the flower-lined terrace, the sprawling gardens below. “It’s a beautiful dungeon, at least.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh a little. I knew my statement sounded absurd, but I really did feel like that sometime.

  “A pretty little prison for the pretty little princesses,” I muttered.

  Riot smiled again as he started walking around again. He walked into her bathroom and looked around, then walked back out. I watched as he pulled open the top drawer of her chest of drawers, rifling through her flimsy undergarments. I blushed, again thinking of how Willa would be mortified to know someone was going through her things.

  I turned away, embarrassed for her. I so wished I could make this all stop, make her appear and make all this go away.

  “If she was hurt somewhere, surely I would feel it, wouldn’t I?” I asked.

  Riot closed the drawer and looked at me. “I bet you would.”

  “I don’t feel anything like that,” I said.

  “Well, that’s good, isn’t it?”

  “I suppose,” I said, fingering the medallion hanging around my neck nervously.

  “What’s that?” Riot asked.

  “What?”

  “Your necklace.”

  “Oh,” I said, holding it up for him to see as he closed the distance between us. “Willa and I have twin medallions. Our mother had them made for us before we were born. They’re identical, with our family’s royal crest on the front and inscribed on the back.”

  “Have you seen Willa’s since she’s been missing?”

  “No, of course not,” I replied. “We never take them off.”

  “I see,” he said, peering into my eyes. “Eva, I don’t want you to worry, okay? I’m going to find your sister. And, in the meantime, I want you to think really hard. If there’s anything at all you can think of that I need to know, even if it’s something that may seem insignificant to you, I want you to tell me, okay? You don’t have to keep any secrets from me. You can tell me anything.”

  “Okay, I will,” I said. “Thank you.”

  “We’re going to find her,” he assured me.

  “I hope you’re right,” I said, my fingers still nervously rubbing the medallion. “It really feels like she’s okay to me.”

  “I’m really glad to hear that,” he said, his smile leaving me feeling just a little bit of comfort for the first time all day.

  Chapter 11

  WILLA

  “It hurts, Dragon!”

  “Just be still!” He insisted. “It’s almost in!”

  “I really don’t know about this,” I said, tears stinging
my eyes. “I didn’t know it would hurt so much!”

  “It’s just going to hurt for a minute. You’re going to love it, I promise,” he said. “Trust me!”

  I tried to stop squirming, staring up at the ceiling.

  “Is it in?” I asked, just wanting the whole thing to be over now.

  “Not yet! Almost there, though.”

  The pain was unbearable and for the hundredth time since leaving home, I was doubting my decision. Maybe I was in too deep. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all. I tried to concentrate on my breathing, but the pain made it hard to breathe at all. My stomach quivered as Dragon worked over me, the smell of his body so close to mine making me feel all kinds of weird feelings I’d never experienced. I didn’t even know what to call them.

  A flash of blinding pain shot through my brain and I cried out.

  “Shhh!!” He hissed. “Be still!”

  I forced myself not to move. He said it would be over soon and I had to trust him. I slammed my eyes shut, trying to keep the tears at bay, along with my fear and pain.

  A few seconds later, he shifted his weight off me and stood up with a victorious pump of his fist.

  “Done!”

  “It’s done?” I asked, incredulously.

  “Check it out,” he smirked, holding up a mirror.

  The girl reflected back to me was a stranger.

  I reached up and touched the shiny silver loop that Dragon had pierced through my nostril, my skin red and irritated and hot, but the loop was securely hanging there.

  “Wow,” I whispered. “I love it!”

  I twirled around and threw my arms around him, hugging him.

  “You look amazing,” he said. “I told you that you’d love it.”

  “You were right!” I said, turning back to the mirror.

  We’d spent the day giving me a complete makeover.

  First, we’d cut off my long blonde hair, and dyed it — purple and green, which was incredibly fun. Using some sticky hair goo, we formed little spikes coming out of my head in all directions.