Chapter 16
R iordan
Cassie stared at me, her lips apart and desire right there in her eyes. Then she briefly shuttered them. “Thank fuck ye said that.”
“You expected different?”
“Maybe I just couldn’t see a way to get my third soft kiss if I was mad at ye, too.”
Heat swarmed me.
I pointed at the back of the couch. “Sit there.”
“Yes, boss.”
Dutifully, she perched on the sofa back. I moved in on her. Parted her knees to get closer and dropped my mouth to her waiting one. We started slow, Cassie anticipating me. She’d learned the way I kissed her and was giving it back. An angle to her head, our faces meeting perfectly, closed eyes and soft, shared breaths.
Lightly, her fingers ghosted up my side. Fire trailed in their wake. I stifled a groan of need. Without breaking the kiss, I captured her wrists and held them behind her back.
It changed her posture so her chest was out and her shoulders back. Heat drowned me. It would be so easy to tie her up like this then strip her and fuck her. The natural next step and the path our energy was leading us to.
Had to stop. With a growl, I kissed her once more but lightly and shifted back.
No part of me liked my actions.
“Three,” she breathed, counting for me because I’d lost the ability.
“We should go.”
“We should spend a week just doing more of that.”
I wanted nothing but what she described. I held my gaze on her, on a knife’s edge of going back in for more.
Cassie pressed her fingertips to her mouth. “There’s something else I need to do first. It’s regarding what Tyler told me.”
At whatever expression I’d taken on, she grinned. “It’s not what you’re thinking. I asked him to help me find someone, and he found that information.”
I considered that. What felt like forever ago, in her room in the warehouse, Cassie had confided that she’d never known her mother and that she was an orphan. She didn’t even know her birthday because the woman had concealed it. The weight of Tyler’s information had to be heavy on her. It was a fucking relief to me, though for a very different reason.
“Your mother?”
She huffed out a breath. “Stop mind reading me.”
“You started it. So, he found someone who knew her?”
Cassie nodded. “A woman who used to work with her and who lives in Aberdeen. I need to see her.”
I checked my phone for the time. It was after midnight. Aberdeen was a couple of hours’ drive east. Deadwater was over three hours south. It made a much longer trip, but a possible one.
“Then we’ll go there first. We need to be back at the warehouse and locked in when Arran makes his call to Red. I don’t care how many protesters are outside, it’s going to be dangerous as fuck in Deadwater. Not just for you but for everyone. We go now or we don’t go.”
The lamplight danced in her eyes. “Don’t tempt me with a good time.”
Packing took under a minute. I retrieved my bike helmet and backpack, shoving the gun under the possessions my sister had sent. Cassie collected a few things from her room and changed into warmer clothes, zipping herself into a jacket.
We stole out of the apartment like thieves.
From elsewhere in the house, voices sounded, and instead of taking the main staircase, she directed me to another corridor and down a narrow set of steps that led to a back door.
“Worried about seeing your brothers?” I asked.
“More worried about what I’ll say to Jamieson if he tries to manage me again.”
“Will he stop you?”
“I’d like to see him try.”
Outside, a cool and dry night greeted us, with no sign of any remaining skeleton crew, presumably Tyler having sent them home, nor was there a helicopter anywhere in sight. It really was over. The siege had lifted.
Across the car park, we reached the red Audi. Cassie gave a growl of anger and kicked the nearest wheel. Flat. I circled the vehicle. All four of them.
One guess who had done that.
She turned on her heel and marched to a low building that edged the car park. Throwing open a door, she hit the lights and revealed a row of expensive vehicles. I recognised a Rolls-Royce, and the others were clearly high-end and well-maintained. Cassie bypassed them to a lockbox on the wall.
It was empty.
“Let me guess, that should contain keys.”
Mutely, she nodded.
My pulse quickened. I’d never done this before but instantly had the answer. I held out my helmet. “Unless they’ve vandalised my bike as well, get ready for a crash course in riding pillion.”
Cassie lifted her gaze from the garage floor. Amusement replaced the frustration in her features. “Weird way to propose, but I accept.”
“What?”
“Ye know that putting me on the back of your bike is as good as an offer of marriage?”
I folded my arms. “No, it isn’t.”
She sauntered past, collecting my helmet as she went. “I’m not fussed about the type of ring ye buy me, but be aware that I’m telling everyone our news. Shall we go?”
Glowering, I stalked after her.
After my bike had been delivered, I’d moved it to the side of the house. It was where I’d left it, and a quick examination told me it was untouched. Perhaps Jamieson hadn’t seen it, or knew messing with my property would be a step too far.
I stood in front of her and took the helmet. “I’m going to tighten it so it fits your head.”
She grumbled about it flattening her hair but let me touch her. Carefully, I eased it onto her head, tucking her soft curls under.
“Won’t ye be in danger not having one?”
“I haven’t come off a bike since I was learning to ride at sixteen. The greater risk is once we head south and hit up the motorway and then the cities. If we’re seen, I’ll be pulled over, and as we’re both armed, that’s a shitshow in the making.”
“Wait, if ye don’t mind a stop on the way, I’ll get us another.”
“Whatever works. It’ll beat getting stopped by the cops.” I reached for her bag, stuffing it into my half-empty one.
Cassie shrugged it on then tapped out something on her phone. “Hey, fiancé, I’m going to need your phone number so I can give ye the addresses we’re heading to.”
I pursed my lips but recited the digits. Cassie saved it then drop-called me so I had hers. Then she held up a pausing finger. Turning, she backed up against my chest and activated her camera, taking a shot.
“What? I need one for your profile. There. Now I’ve sent it to ye as well. Our first engaged couple’s shot.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re incorrigible.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
A door opened somewhere in the mansion, and a shout followed. “Cassie?”
Her smile fell. “Mind if we just leave? I’m seriously not in the mood.”
“Fuck, okay. Step over the bike to get on.”
Cassie peeked at it. “I’m too short. I’ll never get my leg over.”
“Then climb on me, little backpack.” I crouched and tapped my shoulder.
Her eyes danced. “Too cute, Rio.”
I barely had time to process the nickname when she clung to my back, wrapping her arms and legs around me, her weight so slight as I climbed on the Ducati. Cassie dropped into her seat. I reached back to set her boots on the pegs.
Then I snapped her visor closed and revved the engine.
At last, it was time to leave.
We circled the mansion and spat gravel, not looking back. Cassie whooped, letting go of me to make a hand gesture I couldn’t see. Yeah, fuck her brother.
A few miles down the road, I stopped to extract my phone and set up navigation. The first address Cassie had sent me was only a thirty-minute drive away, but I had the unfortunate bad habit of seeing arrival estimates as a challenge.
We zipped through dark countryside, the roads completely empty and perfect for biking. We had a full moon, my bright headlight, and elation guiding us. Wind rushed me, cooling my blood but doing nothing for my building energy. Particularly at the feel of Cassie so close. Her tight arms. Her hands. Her thighs.
After what felt like no time at all, the route took us past a loch and through a pair of tall stone gateposts, the road continuing over a bridge and to a castle. We hooked right, circling the ancient building. Cassie directed me to a set of steps that scaled the outside of the castle wall.
I killed the engine. “Who the hell lives here?”
Scotland was littered with castles, but I’d never met anyone who owned one.
A man jogged down the stairs, a black helmet in his hands.
“Him,” Cassie said helpfully.
A second on, and I recognised the red-headed thirty-something as one of the people who’d flown into protect Cassie. A mountain rescue man, as I recalled.
“Hey, Max, sorry for the midnight request,” she chirped.
“Nae bother. I worked late tonight anyway. Good to hear it’s all over.” He lifted the helmet. “Did my best regarding cute. Luckily Lia had the same idea once. We had it stashed in the flat.”
Cassie removed my helmet and accepted the new one, gleeful at the decoration. It had two black cat ears. I flicked them to make sure they were road safe. Fixed ones would break her neck if she came off and they caught the road. These were flimsy, though. Not dangerous. I slid it onto her, getting a buzz at her blue-eyed gaze holding mine for a beat.
She was too fucking adorable.
I liked this. Liked the instinctual way she held me as I rode.
“You a biker?” I forced my attention back to Max.
“Aye, but I’m a da, too, so I don’t get out so often. Where are ye two heading in the middle of the night?”
“Somewhere,” Cassie answered.
“Be sure to stay safe in that somewhere.”
“Thanks, Max. See ye.”
She tapped my back, a clear signal that we weren’t hanging around. I gave Max a fist bump, tugged my helmet on, then biked out of there.
The empty roads weaved through the Cairngorms National Park. I took it steady at first, just enjoying being out and not wanting to let loose for Cassie’s sake. But she rode so perfectly with me, banking out with me at corners, and even shifting her hands from my body to the engine block when I had to brake.
When we hit a straight coming down a foothill, a wide-open road ahead of us, I squeezed her hands, linked across my middle.
Hold on to me.
She hugged me harder.
I let rip with the throttle. My bike was built for this, and the Ducati flew. Fresh air, moonlight, good tarmac, and Cassie’s laugh was music to my ears. From all the hours I put in at work, I hadn’t taken a long ride in months. For the first time in forever, I got a burst of freedom so strong, it staggered me.
We passed a ski centre and came down off the snow roads, on the Highland tourist route. In a matter of months, the road could be icy and risky on a bike, but in the middle of autumn, it was perfect.
I could almost forgive Cassie the kidnap attempt so that I experienced this.
My body had constructed a different argument altogether. Worse when her fingers slid under my jacket to link over my t-shirt, nestling warm against my skin. I wanted her. Desperately, I wanted to stop in some dark lay-by, perch her on the bike, and kiss her stupid. I wanted to mess with her. Strip her by the side of the road. Brand the image in my mind of her body draped over my bike.
But I didn’t forget our destination.
Nor the way I guessed she was feeling at what was coming up.
A couple of hours in, we hit the outskirts of Aberdeen. The closer we got, and the more urban our surroundings with streetlights and city roads, the more rigid Cassie became. When we arrived at Union Road, she squeezed my shoulders, and I cruised to a halt.
“There it is. That building above the pizza place.”
With the engine off, I helped her down then stretched out my body, scanning our surroundings. Duncan House was our target. An unremarkable block of flats above a row of shops and in between others on the city centre street. A man sloped up to the door panel and pressed a buzzer.
Adrenaline sparked inside me.
Cassie tapped my helmet. “Keep this on.”
“You’re not doing the same?” She’d already removed hers.
“Might need it as a non-lethal weapon.”
She collected something from inside my backpack, then tightened it on her shoulders. A crackling sound came as the man’s buzz was answered, and I jumped forward to catch the slow-moving door before it fell closed behind him.
We entered to a plain staircase.
Cassie consulted her phone briefly then jogged up to the third floor. The same man waited outside a flat.
He slanted a look at us, focusing on me over Cassie’s head. In my leather jacket and black helmet with the visor up, I knew how I appeared, and leaned into the intimidation until he took a step backwards.
“That’s the flat we want,” Cassie whispered.
The door opened, and a woman in her dressing gown appeared in the frame.
Cassie launched forward. The woman gasped and recoiled, closing the door. Cassie was already there, and my hand landed beside hers to force it open.
To the waiting man, I jacked my thumb. “Fuck off.”
We hadn’t had time to discuss a gameplan, but we didn’t need one. We were in.
The sex worker, as I assumed she was, fled down the short hall in her flat. “Colin! Wake up.”
Cassie and I burst into the living room to the woman shaking awake a skinny man on the couch.
In the light from an uncovered lamp and a silent, flickering TV, he jerked up, eyes red but immediately trained on us. “The fuck’s going on?”
From a pocket, Cassie extracted a handful of notes. Fluttered them.
Instantly, Colin switched his gaze to the money. She threw it at him. “Get out. We won’t hurt her. Call the cops and the opposite will be true.”
Without a second glance, Colin snatched up the cash from the filthy carpet and fled. I’d been ready to use my fists, but cash talked just as loud.
Cassie’s target was probably in her early forties and as thin as her betraying boyfriend. She clutched her dressing gown closed at her chest and backed to the wall, her bobbed blonde hair swinging. “Whatever ye heard, they’re lying.”
For a long moment, Cassie watched her. “Do ye recognise me?”
“Don’t know ye from Adam. If ye leave, I’ll forget I ever saw ye.”
“Take another look, DeeDee.”
At Cassie’s tone, or maybe the use of her name, the woman lost some of her panic. “No one calls me that anymore. Who are ye?”
“Someone’s daughter. It’s important that ye tell me her name.”
DeeDee’s gaze turned cautious then curious. Her eyes flared wider with recognition. “No. It cannae be.”
“Who do I remind ye of?” Cassie pressed.
“A ghost, sweetheart.”
“Did the ghost have a name?”
Slowly, DeeDee nodded. “Cassandra Archer. But surely not. No way.”
My stomach tightened. Tyler’s information had been right.
Cassie sagged. Automatically, I crept a hand to her shoulder to support her. Her fingers touched mine, then she regained control.
From her inside pocket, she collected another bundle of cash. Then she perched on the sofa Colin had vacated. “I said I wouldn’t hurt ye and I won’t. I’ll also pay for your time and replace the money you would’ve made from the john we just scared off. In exchange, you’ll tell me every detail ye recall about Cassandra. Now.”
DeeDee sang like a bird. Hesitantly at first, and a little better after I removed my helmet. She shared details of a woman she’d known twenty years ago. Cassie’s mother. They’d worked side by side as teenagers new to the sex trade, and had been friends.
“I was there the day she found out she was pregnant.” DeeDee finished rolling a joint on the beer-can-strewn coffee table. She sparked it up. “I guess that was with ye.”
Cassie pressed her lips together. “Ye don’t have to pretend it was a happy moment. I know who my father is. Or was.”
DeeDee pushed her hair behind her ear. “We all knew your da. He used to send cars for girls, and the drivers would have money to buy dresses. Everyone went to him once.”
Implying they didn’t a second time.
The woman spoke on, describing her own encounter with McInver. How he liked his women to put on a show with each other. I concealed a cringe at the image of the lecherous old scrote.
“Was Cassandra a favourite of his?” Cassie asked.
“I don’t know about that, but she was willing to go back for more. She had goals none of the rest of us did. Ambitions.”
Cassie’s breath hitched. She leaned in. This was important to her.
DeeDee held out the joint in offer and shrugged at our refusal. “Waste of time if ye ask me. All ambition buys around here is time in the big house or a quicker death. Your ma wanted to run her own brothel. She lined up a few of the girls to work for her. Seventeen, and she acted like she could take on the world. Then she got knocked up. Even with a belly out to here she could scare the shite out of some arsewipe who wouldn’t pay for a trick. I’d see her march up to cars and give them an earful. Fearless. Then she had ye. I remember the day like it was yesterday.”
I took the seat next to Cassie. Her hand crept out to twine around my wrist.
Her fingers shook.
“Do you remember the day of the week?” I asked.
“Sunday, right at the end of the month. Cassandra’s mother was Catholic, and she joked that ye were her gift from God. She hid ye, though. Social services were sniffing around. Guess they got her bairn in the end, if she didnae raise ye. I always wondered what happened to her.”
Cassie sat back, silent and seemingly stunned.
“You didn’t keep in touch,” I asked in an attempt to fill in a gap.
“Naw. She vanished one day. She always had an eye out for danger, either from the social or her da. I figured she’d ran from one of them.”
Cassie sucked in a breath. “Did she ever say who her parents were?”
DeeDee’s gaze narrowed, then she sat back. “Don’t go barking up that tree. It isnae worth your bother.”
“Why, are they bad news?”
“Once upon a time, they were the worst kind of bad news, but most of them are dead or serving at His Majesty’s pleasure in Barlinnie.”
A notorious Scottish jail.
“They were gangsters,” I confirmed.
She nodded. “Ever heard of the Spring Hill gang? Your grandfather ran it. Made money from protection, lending money, and dealing. That kind of thing. At age fifteen, Cassandra was told she was getting married. That’s why she ran.”
“Mafia,” Cassie breathed.
“Aye. Leave well enough alone. Ye still have an uncle or two living the life so better stay off their radar.” DeeDee checked her phone. “I have a client downstairs. Is this going to take longer?”
Cassie stood. “No. Here. The money I promised. Thank ye for telling me about her.”
DeeDee snatched the cash and disappeared it inside her dressing gown. “Anytime, sweetheart. Come back if ye want more.”
Cassie hesitated then bent to the coffee table to collect a pen. On a receipt, she wrote something. “If ye remember anything else, anything important, can ye call me?”
DeeDee’s expression shifted. “She doesnae live around here anymore. I won’t see her to tell ye.”
“Ye won’t see her at all. She died a long time ago.”
The sex worker blinked. “Well, shite. She deserved better.”
We left, and I spotted Colin in a doorway across the road, lurking, and at least not calling the police. Though I guessed that didn’t happen much around here.
Cassie strode to the bike and took her helmet, which I’d carried, and shoved it on. Now obviously wasn’t the time for talking. Even if I had words to say, I wasn’t sure she wanted to listen.
Besides, I’d realised something she wouldn’t want to hear. Like her brothers, I had the urge to wrap her up in cotton wool. Lock her away safe where the world couldn’t touch her. If I told her it, she’d probably knee me in the balls.
Cassie raised her gaze to me.
Broke my heart with the weariness in her features.
“Take me home.”