The Bonds We Break by Becca Steele

TWENTY-ONE

The sound of my phone woke me. Without opening my eyes, I fumbled for it, swiping the screen to answer. “Hello?”

“Cassius.”

I was instantly awake at the sound of Austin’s voice. “What’s up?”

His low, angry tone came through the speaker. “It seems we were misinformed. Ivanov is still in the country. He was staying with one of the contacts of the Volkovs, but last night he disappeared.”

“Fuck. You think he’s on his way here?”

“I don’t know. Probably not, but can you—”

“I’m on my way to Jessa’s right now,” I assured him, already out of bed and pulling on my clothes. There was no way I was leaving her alone if he was still around.

“Good. It’s just my luck I’m in fucking Edinburgh visiting suppliers, but I’ll make some more enquiries my end, see if I can find out anything else. Keep me updated.”

“Will do.” Disconnecting the call, I ran downstairs, stopping only to shove my feet into my trainers and grab my car keys. The feeling I’d had, the fucking premonition I’d ignored, was now a warning siren blaring in my head. Something was wrong. Badly wrong.

I made it to Jessa’s in record time, parking on the double yellow lines and slamming my hand on the buzzer over and over again. There was no answer.

“Fuck!” I shouted, yanking my phone from my pocket and hitting West’s number. As soon as it started ringing, I scanned the names next to the other door buzzers, then pressed the buzzer for James Granville.

“Cass.” Weston answered at the same time as James’ “hello” came from the intercom.

“Hang on, West.” I spoke into the intercom. “James, it’s Cassius. I’m here to see Jessa, but she’s not answering. Can you let me up?”

She has to be asleep. Her car’s still here.

Even as I told myself that, I knew I was already too late.

James buzzed me into the building, and I gave West a rundown of the situation as I headed up the stairs to Jessa’s apartment.

“I’m pulling up the security footage now,” he told me as I hammered on Jessa’s door to no reply. There was silence for a few minutes, and then I heard his sharp intake of breath. “Fuck. It’s Littlefinger—I’d know that fucker anywhere. He just got out of a white van…” There was a clicking sound. “Okay, zoomed in. The van says ‘Rosie’s Blooms.’ I’m sending you the phone number on the van and the number plate too.”

I held my breath as he continued to relay everything he was seeing on the screen.

“He’s carrying some flowers to the building. I can’t see him now without switching cameras to the one that faces the building, but let’s watch the rest of this one—shit. He’s got Jessa. He’s…dragging her to the van… Now he’s driving away.”

I’d heard enough.

Littlefinger had my girl, and I was going to make very fucking sure he regretted it.

* * *

After a quick call to the flower shop, which just had a recorded message saying that it was open at 10:00 a.m., I had West and Lena scouring the feeds of the surrounding roads, trying to see if we could pin down Littlefinger’s destination. Thank fuck there was so much CCTV around, and since we had a timestamp for the video outside her apartment, we could check the live feeds for the surrounding roads. Running back to my car, I called Austin to let him know what was going on. There was no answer, so I left a voicemail, then for lack of any other options, input the flower shop address into my satnav and started up my SUV.

The shop had a south London address, and every single one of my instincts told me that this was where I needed to be.

Hitting the accelerator, I set off.

When I pulled up outside the shop, it was just opening up, an older woman with grey curls and glasses setting out a flower display in front of the large window.

“Morning.” I flashed her a grin, calling on all my skills to appear my usual charming self, even though I was ready to rip someone’s head off.

“Morning, dear.” She returned my smile. “How can I help you today?”

Getting straight to the point, I brought up the subject of the van, coming up with some bollocks story about how it had dented my sister’s car, reading out the number plate and asking if it was registered to the shop. Frowning, she nodded slowly.

“That’s our spare van. We use it at the weekends and busy times of the year, but it’s kept in the car park down there normally.” She pointed at a tiny road that ran between two tall buildings. “Are you sure that this was the van that hit your sister’s car? It’s not due to be used today.”

Thinking fast, I shook my head. “It all happened so quickly. My sister might have written the number plate down wrong. Is it a plain white van?”

A look of relief came over her face. “Oh, ours is white, but it has our logo on the sides. Large flowers—you can’t miss them.”

I widened my smile. “Phew. In that case, we have the wrong van. I’m sorry to bother you. Thank you for your time.”

“Good luck in finding the culprit, dear.” She tutted. “Drivers today! Too many people in a hurry, that’s the problem.”

“True.” With a smile and a nod, I left her, getting back into my SUV. I continued down the road so I could find somewhere to turn around, calling West again using my Bluetooth connection to give him the latest update. The bloody Bluetooth wouldn’t connect to begin with, but after I punched my dashboard a couple of times, it decided to work.

“Cass?” West answered as I was executing a perfect three-point turn in a side street.

“Did you know that Bluetooth was named after a Viking king?”

“What the fuck are you on about?”

Focus. “Never mind. So the van belongs to the flower people, but they said it’s not supposed to be in use today. It’s kept in a car park—I’m heading there now, but can you pull up any feeds around the place?”

“I’ll see what I can do. There might not be any, so leave your phone on. I’ve got your tracker up on the screen so I can see where you are.”

Back out on the main road, I headed back past the flower shop again and indicated to turn down the road that the woman had pointed out.

“Stupid fucking side streets. I’d better not scrape my car,” I muttered, wincing as I squeezed between the buildings.

“Cass? I’ve located the car park, and guess what. It’s right behind the hotel Littlefinger was staying in.”

“I thought I recognised the area.”

“Cass?” Caiden’s voice was suddenly on the line. “If you see the van, don’t go running into shit. We’re on our way if it’s confirmed that he’s there, so wait for us. Z’s contacting Creed, too, since he’s closer than we are.”

“Yeah,” I said distractedly, reaching the end of the lane. It opened into a private parking area surrounded by a chain-link fence and a barrier entry. Right in front of me, parked directly opposite where I’d stopped, was the van. “It’s here.”

“On our way. Don’t move until we get there.” Caiden ended the call.

Fuck that. I wasn’t about to hang around, not when Jessa was in danger. Continuing past the car park and out onto the other side, I drove down the street until I found an open parking space. Once I was parked, I called Austin again, and this time he answered, sounding out of breath.

“Any news?”

“I’ve found the van. I know she’s here somewhere.”

He let out a string of swear words. “I’m on my way to the airport, getting the first flight home. I’ve left a message for Creed, and I’ll keep trying him until I get an answer.” His voice cracked. “Don’t let anything happen to her.”

“I won’t,” I promised, hoping he could hear the conviction in my tone.

After removing my sunglasses, I exited the car, and slid my phone into my pocket, making sure the tracking was still on. I forced myself to wait for a minute. My boys weren’t with me, but that didn’t mean I was helpless. I was Cassius motherfucking Drummond, and I’d make sure that Littlefinger would regret the day he stepped foot in Alstone.

Still, it would be helpful to have a gun right about now. Or a knife. Or even a slingshot. Fuck, I’d take a fountain pen at this point.

Then I remembered the folding mini shovel that was kept in my glovebox with the emergency supplies. It was supposed to be there if I ever needed to dig the car out of mud or snow or something—I’d never even looked at it before now. But if shovels were good enough to take out zombies in The Walking Dead, then maybe they’d be good enough for me.

I hoped.

Grabbing the shovel, I unfolded it and clasped it in my hand, attempting to look natural in case anyone wondered what I was doing. Rummaging in the boot, I found a wrench and the forgotten bolt cutters that had been lying in the car ever since the last time I’d used them, when we were taking down an illegal dog-fighting ring.

Now I was fucking ready. Who needed a gun or knives when you had rusty bolt cutters, a wrench, and a small shovel?

As inconspicuously as I could, I made my way to the car park and ducked under the barrier. There were two cameras, but I had to take my chances. First of all, I peered inside the van, which was empty except for a few bunches of flowers. That ruled that out. Clenching my jaw, I scanned the buildings around me, my eyes coming to rest on a dilapidated, taped-up four-storey building on the far left that looked like it was partway through demolition. One side of it was torn away, covered in plastic sheeting that flapped in the breeze. My gaze passed over it as I continued to scan the area, then slid back to it.

Pulling out my phone again, I ducked down behind the van, out of view of the cameras, and called Weston back to let him know what I’d found.

“We’re on our way with the drone, so we can try for a heat signal in the building then—it might pick something up. From what I can tell, the building was a car park and storage facility, but it’s being pulled down.”

“Yeah, I got that,” I told him. “Do you think she could be in any of the other buildings?”

“They’re all legit businesses, from what I can tell, except for the brown building with the black windows—that one’s apartments.”

“Hmm.” I thought about it. “My gut feeling is the demolition building, but I guess the apartments are possible.”

“There’s the hotel he was staying in, too,” he reminded me.

“Yeah, but getting Jessa inside it without attracting attention might be difficult.”

“Good point.”

“Okay. I’m gonna try the demo building while I’m waiting for you.”

“Don’t do anything without us. Cade will fucking kill you, and so will I if anything happens to you,” my best mate warned me, his tone hard.

“It’s okay.” A grim smile twisted across my lips as I tapped my shovel with the tip of the bolt cutters. “I have my zombie killers with me.”

“What?”

“Yeah, bye.” I ended the call because we had no time to waste, and if I stopped to think about everything that could go wrong, my head wouldn’t be clear enough to face whatever waited for me. Squaring my shoulders resolutely, I headed for the demolition building.