Ford took my hand. “What’s the matter?”
“Huh?” I whipped my head around to face him. “What?”
“You’re bouncing your leg like a jockey racing a horse.” He raised his brow. “What’s the matter?”
I inhaled a breath, trying to get my nerves under control. “I’m just…I’ve never driven your car before.” The security guy passed my ID back, and I slipped it into my wallet.
“It works like every other car,” Ford quipped back, tapping the steering wheel as if to prove his point as he drove through the security gate and then pulled up outside the front entrance. “You’ll be fine. It’s the safest place you can be, remember?” I did remember. He’d told me about all the things he’d had fitted onto the car and how it was bulletproof. But it wasn’t me I was worried about.
“What if I scratch it?”
He shrugged. “Then I’ll fix it.” He opened the door and got out, and I stared at him as he moved around to my side and opened my door too. He was acting as if we did this every day. “It’ll be fine, Baby Belle.” He held his hand out for me, and I placed mine in his and let him help me out. “It’s only a car.”
I glanced back at the shiny metal and cringed. “But it’s your car.” I shook my head and turned back to him, my shoulders drooping. “I need to get my own.”
“You do need your own car, but not because you might damage mine.” He pulled me against him, and my hands landed on his chest. His embrace calmed me, and I knew I was being overdramatic about it, but it was because I was nervous. “Stop fretting. Go to the store, come back, and then I’ll take you for lunch before you go home. Okay?”
“Lunch?”
“Yep. I may even indulge you with your favorite…”
My eyes widened. “Burgers?”
“And fries.” He bent down and moved his face closer to mine. “Calm down. You’re fine.” He pressed his lips to mine gently, and I got lost in his touch until he pulled back and let me go. I couldn’t help staring at him as he opened up the back door to let Lottie out, and then reached across the seats to give Leo a kiss on the head. His jeans pulled taut against his ass, and I took in my fill. “See you later, little man.” He pushed back out and handed me the keys. “Love you, Baby Belle.”
“Love you too,” I heaved out, trudging around to the other side of the car. I had no option but to drive it. “I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”
Lottie stood beside Ford as they waited for me to get inside, and I quickly adjusted the seat forward so I could reach the pedals. My legs were half the length of Ford’s. As soon as I felt comfortable, I turned the ignition on and moved the car toward the security gate. It opened as soon as I stopped, and I glanced in the rearview mirror to take one last look at Ford, who was grinning up a storm.
“Thank you,” I told the guy in the booth, and slowly pulled out. My hands clenched the steering wheel so tight I was sure I’d lose feeling soon, but once I was halfway to the store, I started to get the hang of the car and relaxed back a little. It was wider than the last car I’d driven—my mom’s—and a tiny tap of the gas made it fly. I could hear Leo fussing in his seat, and a quick look at the time told me I needed to feed him before we went into the store.
I pulled into the parking lot and parked toward the back and in a corner to give me some privacy. I stepped out of the car, retrieved Leo, and then moved into the passenger side to give us more space. By the time we were settled, he’d started crying, so we’d made it just in time.
My head leaned back against the headrest as he fed, and I slowly rolled my head to the side, watching people come in and out of the store. I never thought I’d be here, with a baby, about to go into the store to get enough food and supplies to last the week, and yet here I was. A fully fledged adult. But I couldn’t deny that it felt right. It was like the universe knew this was meant to happen, and although I’d gone through so much in the last twelve months, I wouldn’t change a single thing because it had all led me to this moment.
Once Leo was finished, I put myself back together, burped him, and exited the car. His little eyes closed as he fell asleep in my arms, and I was thankful that at least I’d be able to make it around the store without having to soothe him.
The cart had an attached baby carrier, so I strapped him inside and pulled my list out. Yes, I’d become the person who had a list when I went grocery shopping. I felt my mom taking over the older I got, and I realized I was becoming a version of her.
By the time I was in the line to check out, the cart was overflowing, and I was glad Ford had let me use his car because there was no way I would have been able to walk home with all of this stuff, no matter how much I managed to hook on to Leo’s stroller.
I paid—thankful there was someone there to bag all of my items—and then headed back out into the biting cold. The wind whipped against my cheeks, and I pulled the hood of Leo’s coat partially over his face so it didn’t get him as bad as it got me.
My cell vibrated in my pocket as I clicked on the button to open the trunk. It didn’t take me long to load all the groceries inside, and then I headed over to the cart bay to put the cart back and lift a still sleeping Leo out. I was almost across the lot, and only about ten feet away from Ford’s car, when tires squealed out into the otherwise quiet area.
My stomach dropped, my gut churning, and I whipped my head around to see a black van speeding into the lot of the grocery store. I quickened my pace, my instincts telling me something wasn’t right, and I yanked open the back door and placed Leo in his seat just as the van screeched to a stop behind the car.
I turned my head as the back door slid open, and I came face to face with two masked men. I slammed the car door shut on Leo and put my hands behind my back. Their boots pounded on the ground, and they were two steps away from me as I clicked the button on the fob to lock the car. Leo was safe inside the car. And that was all that mattered. I dropped the key fob on the ground and pushed it under the car with a flick of my foot. I didn’t care what they were here to do to me as long as Leo was okay.
Hands grappled at me, and I put up a fight, throwing punches and scraping my nails down anything I came into contact with, but a sharp scratch pierced my neck, and within seconds, my fight left me entirely, and the world started to become fuzzy.
Everything tilted, my body sagging, and I stared at the car as they dragged me to the van. My brain was telling me to fight, but I’d lost all connection with my body. All I could do was stare at the car with my baby inside it, and hope that he’d be found.
FORD
The more I combed through all of the paperwork, the more confused I got. Nothing made sense, not from the get-go. People I’d never heard of were popping up in statements and witness testimonies, and that was only while I had been undercover. The things that were added to the files after Garza’s arrest were jumbled, the timeline making no sense.
Why hadn’t this already been sorted through? Why had it gone to storage like this? It was almost as if someone had rifled through everything and not covered their tracks once they’d found what they needed.
I pulled up Rory’s information for what felt like the thousandth time, trying to find a link between him and Curtis, but it just wasn’t there. What did he have to do with Curtis? Was he the reason he was in the cartel in the first place? Maybe there was something other than business going on here? Maybe they were together? But no, Curtis had told Belle he wanted her all to himself, so it couldn’t have been that. Maybe they were related? But I couldn’t find any trace of that, and I was still waiting on Curtis’ birth certificate to be emailed through to me.
Scrubbing my hands down my face, I leaned back in my seat and pushed my hand through Lottie’s fur. I was stumped, not knowing which way to go because the breadcrumbs I was trying to follow had all been eaten.
My cell buzzed on the table, and I didn’t recognize the number, so I let it go to voicemail. I’d shot off a message to Belle at noon, asking her how long she’d be at th
e store, and that was thirty minutes ago now, but I had a feeling she’d probably been delayed thanks to Leo and his insane feeding schedule. Every couple of hours he wanted more milk, and we’d taken to her pumping her milk more regularly than before so we could do half of his feeds with a bottle because it was just too much for her to feed at that demand.
“Hey, Ford?” Ky called, and I spun around on my chair to face him. He held the receiver to his desk phone in his hand and frowned. “Any reason your car would be called into dispatch?”
“What?” My head reeled back, and my brows furrowed. “What’s the call?”
He murmured something down the line, and his eyes widened. “Abandoned baby in the car.”
I flew out of my seat just as my computer dinged with a new email, but I couldn’t worry about that right now. Why the hell would Belle leave Leo in the car—
“Something isn’t right,” I ground out, already heading past Ky. My gut screamed at me to get there as fast as I could. “Belle wouldn’t leave him in the car, not unless his safety was at risk.” It may have been something innocent like she’d run back into the store, but I knew Belle, and I knew after everything that had happened, there was no way she would have risked that. Which meant alarm bells were ringing in my head.
I heard Ky’s footsteps behind me, and I glanced down at Lottie. Her body was tense as if she was about to go into battle. She knew something was amiss too. I yanked my cell out and brought her number up, calling it, but it went right to voicemail. “Where’s Brody?” I asked, stepping onto the elevator and punching the button for the ground floor.
“Out,” Ky replied and pulled his cell out. He threw me the keys to his car as we descended, knowing I’d want to drive. He reeled off the address of the store where the call came in from, but I already knew where Belle had been heading.
The elevator doors whooshed open, and I didn’t waste any time sprinting out of the main building and toward Ky’s car. I opened the door, and Lottie jumped in, then I slid inside and started the engine. Ky jumped into the passenger side, his cell to his ear.
“Brody isn’t answering, so I’ve messaged him to call me back.”
I didn’t answer Ky as I sped down the road and toward the grocery store. My hands shook the closer I got, and my stomach rolled, almost as if it knew what was going on before I’d even gotten there. A set of blue lights flashed across the lot, and I narrowed my eyes at the way they were parked behind my car on a slant. A uniformed officer stood next to the back window, looking inside it, and I knew that was where Leo’s car seat was.
I slammed my foot down onto the brake pedal and shot out of the car with Lottie behind me. One of the uniformed officers turned around and reached for the gun on his belt, but I flashed him my badge and shoved him aside. “How long have you been here?”
“Five minutes,” the officer replied. “A call came in on dispatch—”
“I already know that.” I pressed my hand against the window and looked down at Leo. His cries were getting louder, and I leaned closer, realizing he wasn’t strapped in. “She was in a rush,” I gritted out, glancing up at Ky, who was checking the other side of the car. “Anything that side?”
“Looks clean,” Ky responded and then held his cell up. “It’s Brody.”
“Tell him what we know. Leo is here, Belle isn’t.”
“On it.”
I walked around the car, inspecting all of it, and couldn’t see a scratch or mark. When I made it back by Leo, I murmured, “It’s okay, little man. I’m gonna get you out.” I crouched down, looking under the wheels, and a small flash of something underneath the car caught my attention. I reached for it, and as I pulled it out, I realized it was the car fob. Had Belle put that here?
“She’s been taken,” I ground out, shooting back onto my feet.
“What?” Ky moved around to me, his cell still at his ear. “Here.” He handed me the cell. “Brody wants to talk to you.”
I took it. “Belle’s been taken.” I was straight to the point because now wasn’t the time for niceties.
“How do you know?” Brody asked, his voice deep and threatening.
“Brody? What’s going on?”
“Is that Lola?” I asked, staring down at Leo. I pressed the button on the fob and opened up the car door.
“Yeah.”
“Bring her with you.”
“Why?” Brody asked, cursing under his breath. “Tell me what the hell is going on, Ford.”
“My car was called into dispatch. Leo is inside it, but Belle is gone.” I pointed at Leo and then looked at Ky, silently telling him to pick him up. “I found the fob underneath the car, and Leo wasn’t strapped in.” I moved around to the trunk and pressed the button to open it. “The groceries are in the trunk.”
Leo’s screaming got louder, and I craved to go to him and hold him, but I needed to give Brody the rundown first. We needed to plan.
“I’m five minutes away,” Brody said, and the line went silent.
I handed Ky back his cell and plucked Leo out of his hold, rocking him and cradling him to my chest. I had no idea how long Belle had been gone, and I had no idea when Leo was last fed, but his cries quieted, and his eyes closed, leaving behind his wet face from his tears.
“Guard the car,” I told the uniformed officers. “When my superior gets here, tell him we’ve gone into the store.”
The uniformed officer nodded, and I walked away from him, my teeth grinding together. I needed hard facts about what had happened because, right now, I was working off a theory. Ky ran ahead to get the store manager, and I walked beside Lottie, hoping that Leo wouldn’t start crying again, at least not until Lola got here. I was torn, wanting to stay with Leo but needing to know where Belle was and what was happening.
“You can’t bring that dog in here, sir.” I flashed my badge and didn’t entertain replying to the security guard, who looked like he couldn’t chase a sandwich out of a paper bag, never mind someone stealing from the store. I whipped my head left and right, searching for Ky, and I finally found him toward the end of an aisle, waving his hand.
Cradling Leo tighter, I walked down the aisle and heard my name being called when I was halfway to him. “Ford!” I spun around, my shoulders dropping at the sight of Lola and Brody running toward me. “Give him to me,” Lola said, holding her arms out.
I passed Leo to her, feeling a lump building in my throat. Where the hell was Belle? Did we not go through enough just to get to this point?
“I’ll take him back to your house,” Lola said, her voice soft, but I could see the tears shining in her eyes. I couldn’t take looking at her face because I wouldn’t be able to do my job if I let my emotions take hold of me. I needed to go into agent mode and only look at it like that because if I didn’t, I was afraid I’d lose it.
“Take my car,” Brody said, placing a kiss on Leo’s head and then Lola’s. “I’ve got people on the way to escort you, so wait until I message you, okay?”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“His seat is in my car,” I told her, moving back a step. I didn’t have time to stand here talking, not when we didn’t have any information. I ran my finger down the side of Leo’s face, stared at him for a beat, and then spun around and ran down the aisle toward Ky.
Footsteps pounded behind, and when I turned, I spotted Brody catching up with me. “The manager said he has the tape,” Ky said, standing in a doorway to keep the door open. “He’s bringing up this morning’s feed now.”
I clipped my head in a nod, not needing to say anything as Ky led us down another hallway and to an office with several screens attached to the wall.
“Hi, I’m the manager of the—”
“Show me this morning. East side of the lot.” I didn’t have time for unnecessary words, not when I didn’t have a clue where Belle was.
“Right. I…” He cleared his throat and pulled against his too-tight collar. “I’ve started it from seven this morning.” He pressed play on the re
mote, but my patience was wearing thin, so I took it from his hand and stepped closer. I clicked fast-forward and watched for my car to enter the lot.
“There she is.” I clicked play and stared at the screen as Belle got out, then got Leo out and walked around to the passenger side. I took note of the time stamp 10:17. “She’s feeding Leo.” I clicked fast-forward again and pressed play as she got back out at 10:34. I watched as she walked across the lot, then forwarded it again until I saw her walking back into the frame, only this time, she had a cart. The numbers at the bottom of the screen read 12:10.
“That was an hour ago,” I murmured, not able to look away as Belle put all the groceries into the trunk and then walked away with the cart. She came back into the frame a couple of seconds later, cradling Leo, but then her head spun to the right, and she sped up. “Something came into the lot.” I pointed at the screen, and I felt Brody move closer too.
Belle opened up the door, put Leo inside, and it all seemed to happen so fast. The lights on my car flashed to indicate it was locked, and then she turned just as two men grabbed ahold of her. She fought for mere seconds, and then her body went limp, and she was dragged into a van which was on the edge of the frame.
“Get that exact time up on the footage from the camera that covers the entire lot,” I demanded. “Twelve fourteen.” The manager darted across to the computer, and then another screen came to life, a still of the same scene only from a different angle. I pulled my cell out and took a picture of it. “We need copies of these.”
“Of course,” he stammered out.
I turned to face Brody, my entire body strung so tight I was afraid I’d snap. Someone had taken Belle, and we had no idea who or why. Deep down, I had an inkling.
I just wasn’t sure it was plausible.
Chapter Thirty-Four
BELLE
My head was fuzzy, my mouth dry, and my entire body ached. They said it took a few seconds to come around and realize where you were, but I knew immediately what had just happened. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but I could tell we were in the back of a van and driving along a bumpy road.
Bonded Duet: Ford & Belle: Torn Bond & Tied Bond (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 3) Page 40