My shaking hands clicked the top of the message from Curtis as I tried to get myself under control, and I pressed the call button. I hadn’t spoken to Curtis often on the phone. Normally we texted, but I couldn’t tell him what had happened over a message.
The ringing tone echoed over the line as I pressed my cell to my ear, and my other hand reached for Lottie, where she had her head on the bed. She stared up at me, her dark-brown eyes full of sadness.
“Well, hello there, stranger,” Curtis’ deep voice said. He seemed happy. Obliviously happy.
“Hey, Curtis,” I managed to croak out.
“Belle?” he asked, and gone was the easygoing attitude he’d had seconds ago. “You okay?”
“I…” I stared down at the comforter on the bed. “No, I…I…”
“Hold on, I’m on break, let me go outside.” He was at work. He was on a shift, and I was about to tell him that his best friend was dead. I was about to reveal to him that things wouldn’t ever be the same again. Not at college. Not in his apartment. “I’m back.” I heard his breath over the line. “What’s going on?”
“I…I don’t know how to say it.” I pulled in a breath and held it for five seconds, then let it go again. Silent tears streamed down my cheeks, but I didn’t move to wipe them away. “Stella and Justin…they…I…we…”
“What about them?” Curtis asked. “Belle, what’s going on? You’re scaring me.”
“They’re…they’re dead.” The whispered words felt like they’d been shouted, and the silence that followed told me he was in shock, just like I was. “I…I came home, and they were…there was blood and…”
“Wait.” Curtis’ voice was different now. There was a crack in his tone. “Blood? Why was there blood? How did they die? I don’t understand. I saw him a few hours ago, and he was fine.”
“There’s been some things going on, and…I can’t tell you everything, but they’re dead…someone killed them in my apartment.”
“What the fuck,” he whispered, and then the silence stretched between us. I wasn’t sure what else I could say. I wasn’t sure there was anything I could say. “Are you okay? Where are you?”
“I’m—” My cell was ripped out of my hands, and I gasped and whipped my head up to face a very angry-looking Ford. He ended the call and dismantled my cell. “What are you doing?” I asked, raising my voice.
“What am I doing?” he asked, his voice low and threatening. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? We’re in a fuckin’ safe house, Belle. You can’t call people.”
“I…I was just talking to Curtis. He needed to know what happened.” My shoulders drooped, and my body sagged against the headboard. “Justin is his—was—his best friend. He has a right to know.”
Ford’s nostrils flared, and his hands clenched at his sides. His chest moved on each inhale, and I just stared at him, wondering what he was going to say and do. I’d never seen this side of Ford before, and even though on the outside looking in, I knew it was scary, I also knew he’d never hurt me.
“It takes seconds for someone to trace you from a call, Belle. Seconds. They’re sending you a warning. They’re sending me a warning.” He widened his stance. “I’m trying to keep you safe. I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“I…I know that,” I whispered. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
Ford scraped his hand up and down his face and then through his hair. “I know, Baby Belle.” His voice was softer now, more like the Ford I’d gotten to know these last couple of months. “You can’t use your cell. Not until we know it’s safe.”
I blinked at him. “And when will that be?”
“Verdict comes in on Tuesday. Until then, we stay here. Your dad is sending some of the guys to guard outside.” His body seemed to droop the longer he spoke, and finally, he sat on the edge of the bed. “How are you doing?”
I swallowed and stared at his hand as it landed over my knee. I wasn’t really sure what I was feeling right then, but I knew with Ford here, I’d be okay. “I’m sad,” I told him. “And angry. You have to find who did this, Ford. You have to.”
“We will,” he promised. “We’ll make sure they don’t get away with it.” My eyes felt like sandpaper as I stared at him, and the tiredness I’d been fighting was coming back full force. “You’re tired. Get some sleep.”
He rubbed his hand over my leg and then stood, but I reached out to him, holding him as tight as I could. “Stay with me,” I begged. “I don’t want to be alone.” I tried to convey to him how I was feeling with my eyes.
“Okay,” he murmured and shuffled onto the bed. His arms wrapped around me, cocooning me in his safeness. I closed my eyes, and for the first time tonight, I didn’t see Stella and Justin on the bed covered in blood.
Instead, it was Ford and me.
Chapter Fifteen
FORD
Four nights.
Four long nights of barely any sleep and trying to make Belle feel as safe as she possibly could. She hadn’t come out of the bedroom for two days and only ventured out after that to ask if we’d found out who killed her best friend and her best friend’s boyfriend. Each time I told her we were working on it.
I wasn’t lying. We were working on finding out who had done it. But I didn’t give her the details. Like how all the footage for the entire day had been wiped. Or how every camera for three blocks had been shut down four hours before we got back into town. Someone had been planning something, I just wasn’t sure whether Stella and Justin had been the targets, or whether it was meant to be Belle and me.
She didn’t need to know those things. All she needed to know was that we’d find the killer, no matter how long it took.
Now it was Tuesday, and the judge had made a decision, which meant all we had to do was wait to find out what was going to happen. I was trying to explain it all to Belle as she sat across the table from me while eating her lunch.
“So, if he gets sent down, that means I can go back to college?”
“Yeah.” I drummed my hands on the table. “If you want to.”
She bit down on her bottom lip and played with some crumbs on her plate. “I only have a few weeks left.” I nodded because I knew that. “Even if I just go back for those few weeks, then I can decide what to do about my last year over the summer.”
“You can do that.”
Her gaze met mine, sorrow shining in the depths. “But what about you? And the apartment?” She shook her head. “I can’t go back to my apartment, Ford. I…I just can’t.”
I reached forward and clasped her hand in mine, trying to reassure her. Brody and I had already put a plan in place if Garza got sent down, but we’d also put a plan in place if he didn’t.
“We’ve got you a room in the dorms. It’s ready and waiting with some of your things in it.” I paused, debating whether to tell her the rest. I didn’t want to keep secrets from her. She’d been sheltered her entire life, but now wasn’t the time to leave anything out. “But if he doesn’t get sent down”—I swallowed—“you’ll have to go into witness protection.”
“Witness protection?” She gasped and held my hand tighter. “As in…I won’t see any of my family ever again?”
“Only until he’s dealt with. It won’t be long.”
She let her head drop and placed her hand over her face. “I can’t believe this. All because I came to the club that night. It’s all my fault—”
“No.” I let go of her hand and pushed off my chair. “It’s not your fault, Belle.” I crouched down beside her and held her face in my hands. “Listen to me, sweetheart.” Her gaze met mine, and a tear slipped down her cheek. “This is not your fault. You didn’t ask for any of this to happen.”
“But—”
“No buts,” I interrupted. “You didn’t know what was going to happen. I had no idea the danger Stella and Justin were also in. If I had…” I paused and closed my eyes. Hindsight was a thing of beauty. You could see all the mistakes you made, but the horro
r of it was that you couldn’t change a single thing. “All that matters is what happens now. We have a plan in place. All we need to do is wait.”
She bit down on her bottom lip, and I knew she was trying to keep her emotions at bay. She’d cried every night since we’d found Stella and Justin, and I’d held her tight, promising not to let go. But the reality was that after today, I’d have to let go completely. It didn’t matter whether Garza was sent down or not, because I couldn’t be by her side. I was making things worse. I was creating a bigger target on her back, and I refused to see her suffer because of it.
Every part of me wanted to tell her that, but as I stared at the agony on her face, I couldn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to cause any more pain, so I pulled her to me and held her.
“It’ll be okay, Baby Belle. I promise. It’ll be okay.”
I wasn’t sure how long we were in that position at the kitchen table, both of us full of words neither could voice. The only sounds in the house were the ticking of a clock and Lottie as she trotted in and out of each room. But we stayed deathly still, afraid to move and break the bubble we were in.
The ringing of my cell blasted through the house like a bomb had exploded, and I yanked away from Belle and pulled it out of my pocket. Brody’s name flashed on the screen, so I turned it around so Belle could see it too.
“This is it?” she asked.
“This is it,” I confirmed. I pulled in a breath and hit the answer call button, then placed it next to my ear. “Brody,” I greeted.
“Fifty-five years with chance for parole after thirty,” Brody grunted, not skirting around the issue. Fifty-five years seemed like a long time, and Garza would probably be dead by then, but if he got parole, he’d be an old man by the time he got out. A really old man. I stared at Belle, and she stared right back with hope in her eyes.
“Has Belle decided what she’d going to do?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I stepped toward Belle. “She’s going back to college to finish the year out.”
Brody groaned. “I thought she would.” A beat of silence consumed us, and then he continued, “Take her there. Stay the night to make sure she’s okay, and then come home tomorrow. We need to debrief and work out our next move.” I wanted to tell him I didn’t want to come home, but I couldn’t. It had been over a year since I’d last slept in my own bed.
“Okay.” I lingered on the line, not sure what else to say. “I’ll speak to you later.” I ended the call and stared at Belle. “He got fifty-five years.”
Her eyes glazed over. “So, I can go back to campus?” She sounded sad that she had to go back, and I wanted to tell her she didn’t have to, but I knew deep down she just wanted to finish this year and get it done with.
“You can go back.”
She blew out a big breath and then stood. “Now?”
“We can wait a little—”
“No.” She shook her head. “We need to go now, or I’ll never want to go back.”
“Okay.” I stepped toward her as she stood, hesitating. Did she want me to comfort her? Or did she want to be left alone to try and work through everything? I wasn’t sure which step to take, so instead, I just watched her as she spun around and headed up the stairs.
I was still in the same position when she came back down with a small bag of her things. “Let’s go,” she demanded.
I opened my mouth to say… I had no idea what to say. She was pushing everything aside and barreling forward. Whether that was a good thing or not remained to be seen, but at least she wasn’t curled up on the bed any longer.
She waited at the front door with Lottie beside her, an old habit she’d gotten into. But I didn’t tell her that or point it out. Instead, I opened the door, checked outside, and then gave her the signal.
BELLE
The drive to the dorms was slow. I wasn’t sure if it was because I couldn’t really remember the journey to the safe house, or whether it was because I was dreading being back in the same place. Ford had supplied me with a burner cell until my dad could get a new one delivered, but I hadn’t even opened it to the messages that had come through.
I saw my mom’s name flash on the screen, along with my dad’s, Asher’s, and Cade’s, but I couldn’t bring myself to answer. If I wanted to be able to do the last few weeks of this year at college, I had to push it all down, as far down as it could get. I could deal with it all later. I could go over and over it in my head when I had the capacity to work through it.
And right now, I didn’t have the energy to think about it.
The last five months had been a whirlwind. So much had happened, and not just between Ford and me. I turned to look at him as he pulled up into one of the lots outside the dorm buildings, and I wondered what he thought. Did he think I should have gone home? Did he think I was making a mistake?
I wasn’t sure because he’d pulled his mask on, and so had I.
A car pulled up beside us, and I whipped my head around to face it. “What the…” Uncle Ky lifted his hand in a wave, and Uncle Ryan nodded at me. “What are they doing here?”
“They were at the house,” Ford said, and I glanced at him. “I told you that.” Maybe he had, but I couldn’t remember it. I could barely remember the last five days. “They’re gonna take Lottie home.”
“What? Why?”
“She can’t stay in the dorms with you, Belle.” I knew what he was saying made sense, but if Lottie wasn’t staying, did that mean he was going too? He must have been able to read my features because he said, “I’m staying. You’ll have to sneak me in after curfew.”
A breath whooshed out of me at his words, and my shoulders curved in. I was trying to hold myself together the best I could, but my stomach was churning, and nausea was making its way around my body at lightning speed.
“I’m gonna be sick,” I managed to croak out a second before I swung the door open and puked. I heard slamming of doors as I brought up the lunch I’d eaten, and then someone was holding my hair and stroking my back.
“You’re okay.” Ford’s voice made its way through the pounding in my ears. “Go get some water,” he barked at someone else, and a second later, a bottle was pushed toward my face. “Take a drink,” he said, his tone softer as he spoke to me.
I lifted my head and kept my eyes squeezed shut as I took a pull of the water and then spat it back out again.
“You sure this is a good idea?” I heard Uncle Ky ask. “Maybe she should just—”
“I’m not going home,” I ground out, and opened my eyes. “I’m gonna finish these last few weeks, and then I can put all this behind me.”
I pushed out of the car and walked around the back where Lottie was waiting with Uncle Ryan. “Sweet girl,” I murmured, and crouched down so I could wrap my arms around her. She came to me willingly, almost as if she knew she wouldn’t be seeing me for a while. Tears threatened to fall, but I managed to keep them at bay. I’d cried so much in the last week that I wasn’t sure if my body could handle losing any more tears. “I’m going to miss you.” I pulled back and stared into her eyes. “But I’ll see you really soon, okay?” Lottie licked my face in reply, and then I stood, needing to get this over with and settled into my room. I had classes tomorrow and a shift at the coffee shop. I’d already missed one shift and couldn’t afford to not turn up again.
“Let’s go,” I said, but I wasn’t sure who I was talking to as I walked into the building and to the front desk. A security guard was manning it, and I gave him my name.
His eyes widened as he looked behind me, and I knew from the way my skin buzzed that Ford had followed me in. “Erm…yes, I have a package for you here.”
The security guard handed me a manila envelope, and I opened it. Inside was a key, a pamphlet with rules on it, and also a map of campus. “Thanks,” I told him, staring at the key and the fob which had Room 6F written on it.
I spun and came face to chest with Ford. I held the key up for him to see the room number and then walked over t
o the elevators on the back wall. I hit the up button and waited for the doors to open.
“Curfew is ten. So I’ll have to sneak back in after that,” Ford told me, keeping his voice low. I didn’t answer him because there was nothing to say. My entire life had imploded, and now I was running on empty. I was cruising, trying hard not to hit the brake pedal.
The elevator opened, and we moved inside and then waited as it took us up to the sixth floor. Girls were moving from room to room on the floor as the doors opened, but I didn’t take any notice of them. I was on a mission to get into my room, and finally take a breath again.
I recognized people’s faces, and when they saw me, whispers started to surround the hallway. They knew what had happened to Stella and Justin—they had to know—and now they were looking at me with suspicion. I wanted to scream at them and tell them it wasn’t my fault, but I didn’t really believe that.
Ford took the key from my shaky hands and gripped on to my elbow to halt me. He unlocked the door marked 6F, and walked us inside. The door closed behind us, blocking me away from the rest of the world.
“It’ll die down after a while,” Ford told me, but his hazel eyes said something different. I nodded anyway, acting as if I believed him, but the truth was I didn’t. I didn’t think it would die down, and even when it had, the image of them would still be stamped into my brain.
I spun around in a slow circle, taking in the small room. A single bed was pushed against one wall with enough space between a closet and a set of drawers to walk between. A door on the left gained my attention, so I moved toward it and opened it up. A tiny bathroom comprising of a sink, a toilet, and a mini shower cubicle filled the space, and I was relieved I didn’t have to use the communal bathroom. The toothbrush in the holder called my attention, and I couldn’t resist picking it up and brushing my teeth. Once I was done, I placed it back in its holder and stepped back into the main part of the dorm room.
The door clicked closed as Ford asked, “You hungry?” I shook my head and pressed my hand to my stomach. The nausea had eased up a little, but I wasn’t sure I could keep anything down. “Tired?”
Bonded Duet: Ford & Belle: Torn Bond & Tied Bond (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 3) Page 19