The Bonds We Break by Becca Steele

TWENTY

The morning started like any other. I didn’t suspect anything, and why would I? Movies and books teach us that the bad men come at night, wrapped in darkness and hidden in the shadows.

It didn’t happen that way for me.

The sun shone brightly, a light breeze in the air carrying the tang of salt from the sea. Curled up on my sofa, I sipped my mug of tea while I browsed social media. Cassius’ social media, to be exact. My finger traced over his latest image, posted last night, captionless except for a single fire emoji.

It was me.

My stomach flipped, a smile spreading across my face. He must’ve taken it the previous night without me noticing because I was silhouetted in the doorway of his house, right as I was leaving. My body was completely in shadow, so no one would have known it was me. Except…he’d tagged me in the image.

My social media had been locked down since everything that had happened at the docks, but there were enough people that knew us both. I told myself not to read the comments, but I couldn’t help myself. Thankfully, they were mostly speculation, since no one else knew about our exclusive fuck buddy agreement, and although I knew we’d been seen kissing at the beach party, we’d actually hung out separately for most of it.

There was no reason for me to get my hopes up anyway, despite the image, and yet, my smile remained, thoughts of Cassius occupying every corner of my mind.

To stop my wayward thoughts, I opened up my messages to a group chat I’d been added to on the day of the party. This one consisted of Winter, Kinslee, Lena, Lena’s friend Raine, and me. The emotions that had come over me when I’d been included… I cleared my throat to get rid of the sudden lump that formed. It was something so simple, yet the fact that they’d chosen to include me filled me with happiness and belonging.

From what I could work out, Raine designed clothing and had made Lena some trousers that the other girls were raving about. Even though I’d only just been added to the chat, they’d made sure to explain everything to me, sending a million pictures and descriptions and tagging me in almost every message. I tapped out a reply to the latest string of messages, which had come through last night when I was with Cassius, before resting my head on the back of my sofa and finishing up my tea with a smile on my face.

A loud buzzing sound interrupted the peaceful quiet inside my flat, and I answered the intercom with a bounce in my step.

“Flower delivery,” a gruff voice said through the speaker.

Glancing out of the open window, I saw a white delivery van idling at the kerb, large flowers painted along the side along with the company name and phone number. “Thanks, I’ll be down in a second.” Smiling, I took the stairs two at a time, keys in hand, leaving my phone in my apartment. At the building door, I was greeted by a huge bunch of flowers in every colour of the rainbow clasped in the delivery guy’s arms.

The first flowers that I’d ever been sent, and they were beautiful.

My smile widened. Surely there was only one person who would have sent them…

The delivery guy thrust the blooms at me, then shoved an electronic pad in my face for me to sign. I couldn’t even see, not with the masses of flowers obscuring my vision, so I carefully placed them on the apartment front steps before turning back to the guy to sign the pad.

Fuck.

A scream tore from my throat, instantly cut off by the hand that clamped over my mouth and nose. My struggles were ineffectual as another hand came around my neck, crushing my windpipe.

My vision swam, spots dancing in front of my eyes.

The last thing I saw before everything went black was the cruel, twisting smile of Petr Ivanov.

* * *

When I came to, I was disorientated for a moment, blinking slowly, before everything came back to me in a rush. Panic engulfed me, my vision darkening again as my heart rate shot up, and I struggled to catch my breath. Instinctively, I opened my mouth to scream, but all that came out was a hoarse scraping noise. I struggled, unable to move, desperately working to get air into my lungs.

A laugh came from over to my left. The sudden sound sliced through my panic, shocking my brain into action, and for the first time since I’d regained consciousness, I focused on my breathing, actively working to slow it, counting in my head. Once it was a little more under control, I turned my head to see Petr Ivanov, sitting on a metal chair, watching me. He laughed again when our eyes met but remained where he was, his pose casual, his arms resting on his thighs. One hand played with a black object that I couldn’t make out from my position, and in the other, he held a phone.

I have to get out of here.

Slowly, I turned my head away from Petr, listening hard in case he moved, and scanned my surroundings, growing more desperate as I took in the bare room. I was in what looked like some kind of empty storage facility, with a dirty floor and walls and high, cracked windows. There was only one door that I could see, and it was tightly closed. I’d been tied to a chair, my ankles immobile and my wrists bound behind my back.

I had nothing on me. I hadn’t even brought my phone with me, and I had no idea what had happened to my keys—probably dropped back at my apartment building. My clothes were completely impractical, too—a thin green summer dress and gold flip-flops. It had been a warm morning, but in here it was already cool with a breeze blowing from somewhere behind me. I shivered, pulling at the restraints that bound me so tightly, but they didn’t even budge.

Hot, frustrated tears filled my eyes, and I yanked at the ropes again, only succeeding in making the rough, scratchy material dig into my skin, rubbing it raw in places. Stifling a whimper, I bit down on my lip, refusing to let Petr have the satisfaction of getting a reaction out of me.

“Wh-what do you want?” I managed to scrape out, meeting his hard, flinty gaze again.

Pocketing the phone, he stood, crossing the short distance and coming to a stop in front of me. He stared down at me, his mouth twisted into a sneer. I held his gaze, refusing to be cowed, even though fear was choking me, thick and heavy, as I sat helplessly bound before him.

His eyes narrowed as he looked at me with pure hatred in his gaze. My breath caught in my throat as he lifted his hand, revealing the black object, which I could now see was a metallic oblong. He pressed something on it, and a silver blade flicked out of the end, the serrated edge gleaming in the dim light that penetrated the grimy, cracked windows.

“You ruined my life. Now, I ruin yours.”