The Bonds We Break by Becca Steele

FIVE

When my phone buzzed with a message, I was in the student union bar with a gorgeous redhead in my lap and her blonde friend perched on the arm of the chair next to us. Things were looking up. There had been no new information on Littlefinger, and other than Z’s cryptic comment about him going rogue, no one seemed to think he was a serious threat. I didn’t, either. So what if he was in London? There was no way he’d show his face in Alstone. Everyone that he’d been connected to here was either dead or gone, and unless he was completely fucking insane, he wouldn’t even try coming near us.

I downed the rest of my drink, shifting the girl on my lap so I could dig my phone out of my pocket. Handing her my empty glass, I skimmed my fingers up her thigh while I unlocked my phone with my other hand.

The message alert showed Jessa’s name, and I groaned internally. What now? I almost didn’t read it, but I knew that I probably should, just in case. There was a photo of what looked like a load of junk and a message that just said He’s here for me.

Frowning, I enlarged the photo. What the fuck? Where had this come from?

I sat still for a moment, thinking, before I sighed. Leaning forwards, I spoke in the redhead’s ear, making sure that my tone conveyed just how regretful I was. “K—” Shit, I’d forgotten her name. “Babe, I’m gonna have to take a rain check. Something’s come up.”

She turned her head, pouting, and I stuck my bottom lip out, widening my eyes. The look never failed to get me sympathy, and it was no different this time, either. Her pout disappeared, and she gave me a sympathetic smile. “It’s okay. These things happen. I’ll give you my number. Text me when you’re free.”

While she input her number into my phone and then passed my phone to her friend to do the same, I glanced around the bar, seeing if I could spot West. He’d arrived with me, but he’d disappeared off to somewhere with his friend Rumi, avoiding the single girls who’d always flocked around us both before he got together with my sister. The bonus of this situation was that there were more girls for me to choose from now he was no longer available, although right now the bar was fairly quiet since the semester was over and a lot of the students had gone home for the summer.

It didn’t take me long to spot him, playing pool with Rumi, and I huffed out a relieved breath. Once I’d retrieved my phone from the girls, I shifted the redhead from my thighs and stood. I did the gentlemanly thing and gave both her and her friend a kiss before I left, leaving them smiling after me as I walked away with a final wink at them.

“Look.” Stopping by the pool table, I spoke to my best mate in a low voice, shielding my phone from anyone else’s view.

He stared at the screen, then at me, unimpressed. “What. You want a round of applause for getting yet another girl’s number?”

“Huh?” My gaze flew down, where my phone was showing my newest contacts. “No, shit…hang on…” When I navigated to the message, I enlarged the photo and shoved my phone in his face. He studied it intently, his brows pulled together.

“This is to do with Littlefinger?”

“I think so, yeah, but I don’t know what it means. I’m gonna step outside and try and get hold of Jessa, find out what’s going on.”

“Keep me updated.”

With an affirmative nod, I left him there, heading outside. Hitting Jessa’s number, I lifted my phone to my ear.

“Sorry. I panicked.” Her voice was breathless with the undercurrent of fear that gave me an unwanted flashback to the night at the docks.

“Do you wanna explain what this picture’s all about? Where did it come from?”

“I-it was in my mailbox. Or it was supposed to be anyway. It got put in James Granville’s by mistake, but it was in an envelope addressed to me. I think it’s from him.”

“Wait a second. He knows where you live?”

I heard her shaky intake of breath before she replied. “Yeah. He took me from my apartment building that night.”

That was all I needed to hear. For some reason, I’d never thought about the fact that Littlefinger would know where Jessa lived. But yeah, he knew, and he’d sent her a message. I had a sick feeling that it was supposed to unnerve her, to tell her that he knew exactly where she was and that she wasn’t safe. It meant that either he was back in Alstone or someone else was helping him out. Either way, I wasn’t happy with the thought of Jessa staying in that apartment building.

It wasn’t my responsibility to take charge here, but at the same time, I was culpable in a way. If it hadn’t been for our investigations, none of this would have happened to her—and my best friends and I were the ones there that night. I wasn’t happy with sending Jessa to her dad’s house, either—from what I knew of him, he lived alone and wasn’t at home much, and the thought of her being all on her own in that huge house didn’t sit right with me. Who was to say she’d be any safer there?

“Pack a bag. You’re coming to stay with me until we get this shit sorted out. Be there soon,” I told her, ending the call before she could disagree with me. Swiping across the screen, I ordered an Uber, then tapped out a quick text to West to let him know I was leaving.

Twenty minutes later, I was inside Jessa’s flat, eyeing her as she stood on her rug, hugging her arms to herself and staring at me with wide, fearful eyes. She’d changed since she’d left my place earlier, and she was barefoot, in simple navy Nike jogging bottoms and a sleeveless black top, her face free of makeup.

Her eyes lowered, and her voice was small. “Do you really want me to stay with you?”

That was a question with a complicated answer, so I countered it with a question of my own. “Do you want to stay here?”

She immediately shook her head, chewing her lip. Her gaze had that haunted look again, and I hated it.

“Good. Bag packed?”

“Almost.”

“We can come back for anything you forget. Or I can, if you like.” With a shrug, I picked up the suitcase standing by the front door. Jessa took one last glance around, then picked up her handbag from the coffee table and hefted her laptop bag over her other shoulder. After sliding her shoes on and flicking off the lights, she followed me out of the door.

When we arrived back at my house after a silent journey, she finally spoke as we unloaded her stuff from her Mercedes.

“I hope I wasn’t dragging you away from anything important tonight.”

I shot her a smirk, closing her car boot and picking up her case. “Nah. I could’ve had a girl…two girls, in fact, but I got their numbers, so it’s all good. I can pick up where we left off later.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry, my little cockblocker. I sacrificed my pleasure for the greater good.”

An amused, or possibly disgusted, noise came from her throat, and that haunted look lessened. “I was feeling bad about it until you just said that.”

Laughing with a weird sense of relief, I opened the front door and directed her inside. “If you’re feeling bad, you can always take their place.”

“I’m not feeling that bad, but I’ll keep it in mind,” she said dryly as she followed me up the stairs. We ended up on the upstairs landing, and I pointed out the bedrooms. I was pretty sure she knew where mine and Caiden’s were, at the very least, but it had been a long time since she’d been in this part of the house.

I hadn’t been home since I’d made my suggestion that she could stay, so I was prepared for the guest room to be a mess. But when I opened the door, it was actually clear, even though it had been a bit of a junk room before. Come to think of it, Winter had mentioned something about clearing out the spare rooms when Lena was due to move in, so I guess I had her to thank.

“You can sleep here. There’s a lock on the door, and you get a bathroom. Towels are in there.” That was a guess, but if the room was ready to sleep in, I was assuming the bathroom would be stocked.

“Okay. Thanks.” She dropped her bags to the floor and walked over to the bed, taking a seat on the edge. Her eyes met mine, her gaze cautious. “Do the others know I’m staying?”

“Not yet, but I’ll tell them.” They’d probably have something to say about it, but my plan was to hide Jessa up in the guest room and get everyone to do shots, then spring the news on them when they were drunk.

One raised brow was the only reaction I got. “I’ll try and get some rest,” she said softly, and I took the hint.

“See you tomorrow.” I left her to it and headed downstairs to see who was around. West was still out, and so was Lena, but Cade and Z were in the lounge on our new PS5, while Winter was curled up reading.

“Shots, anyone?”

Winter glanced up from her Kindle and pointed towards the full mugs on the coffee table. “I just made drinks. Do you want me to make you one?”

“No, thanks. I’ll get my own.” Guess that plan wasn’t going to work. Maybe it was better to just come out and tell them. Wandering into the kitchen, I grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap, staring unseeingly at the window.

“Hi.”

A reflection appeared in the window next to me, and I jumped a fucking mile, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass as it slipped out of my hand and dropped into the sink.

“Fuck!”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you jump. I just came down for a glass of water.” Jessa was staring at me, and even though I was only looking at her reflection, I could see she was struggling not to laugh, biting down on her lip.

Glaring at her reflection, I reached into the sink with both hands to scoop up the broken glass.

I should’ve fucking looked.

Both of my thumbs somehow managed to jab into the jagged broken edges.

“Fuck! Fuckfuckfuck!”

At my shout of pain, there was a stampede as Caiden, Zayde, and Winter all came bursting into the room. Nice to know they cared, I guess.

“What’s Jessa doing here?”

I panicked at Cade’s dangerously low tone and spun around to face them, brandishing my injured hands. “My thumbs! Look at my thumbs!”

Everyone’s focus swung to me, and then they all started speaking at once, apart from Jessa, who looked like she was losing the battle to hide her laughter.

“Stop dripping blood all over the floor. It’s unhygienic.”

“It’s only a scratch.”

“Are you okay?”

Shooting an amused Jessa a death glare, I turned my attention to Winter, who was the only one showing any kind of sympathy. “It hurts.”

She shook her head. “You’re so dramatic sometimes.”

Maybe not as sympathetic as I’d originally thought. I wasn’t even lying—the cuts fucking stung.

She stepped a bit closer, her genuine concern for me overriding everything else. Lifting my hands, she examined my thumbs, biting her lip before a thoughtful expression came over her face. “The cuts aren’t deep, but we should get them cleaned up. Jessa?” She turned to Jessa. All traces of amusement were instantly wiped from her face, and she eyed Winter with caution. Winter glanced over at me, then back to Jessa. “In the upstairs main bathroom, there’s a first aid kit on the top shelf of the tall white cabinet. Please could you get it?”

Jessa nodded once, practically flying out of the room. As soon as she was gone, Caiden spoke up again. “Explain.”

Winter directed my hands under the tap, cleaning the cuts with lukewarm water. I thought about ignoring my nosy friends, but I couldn’t avoid them for much longer. “Jessa’s staying over,” I said finally, aware of three sets of eyes on me. “More Littlefinger shit. It seems like we have more to worry about than we thought.” I gave them a rundown of the situation, and by the end of it, everyone looked even more unhappy.

“I don’t like anything about this.” Caiden paced up and down, doing his best impression of a thundercloud. He did a dramatic spin on his heel, whirling round to me, and I barely contained my eye roll at his theatrics. “I don’t like her being here.”

“You think any of us do?” I snapped, losing my patience.

Winter cleared her throat loudly, widening her eyes at me, and I winced, turning my head to see Jessa standing in the doorway, clasping the first aid kit with a stricken look on her face.

Shit.

She took a visibly deep breath, straightening her shoulders, then headed into the now completely silent kitchen and handed Winter the first aid kit. Her green eyes met mine, so wide and so fucking sad that something inside me twisted painfully. “I know none of you want me here. I…I’ll make sure I stay out of everyone’s way. You won’t even know I’m here.” Her voice wobbled as her whispered words fell from her in a rush.

She was gone before I could explain that I’d been replying to the first part of Caiden’s comment. Not the part about her.

Caiden at least had the good grace to look ashamed. “Fuck,” he muttered. His eyes met Zayde’s, and they had a whole silent conversation while Winter taped up my thumbs in silence, using way more of the stretchy bandage stuff than was necessary.

Z disappeared from the kitchen, and Cade sighed, rubbing his hand over his face. “It’s getting late. Let’s talk about it tomorrow, yeah?”

Winter nodded as she examined my thumbs. Satisfied with her work, she released my hands, then leaned up to press a soft kiss to my cheek.

When they’d both left the room, I stayed where I was for a while, my head spinning, before I decided I might as well go upstairs. My thumbs were throbbing, and I needed painkillers. I glared at them. Couldn’t even have a fucking wank with them all bandaged up like this.

On the landing, I stopped outside the guest bedroom where Jessa was staying. I lifted my hand to knock but paused when I heard a noise. Pressing my ear to the door, I heard the unmistakable sound of muffled crying coming from inside the room.

There was nothing I could do or say that would make the situation any better. If anything, I’d make it worse.

Lowering my hand, I stepped away.

Her soft cries still echoed in my ears when I closed my bedroom door.