Chapter 24
R iordan
My black trainers landed with silent thuds on the mansion’s back patio, and I adjusted the skeleton mask down across my lower face, making sure I was covered. Before I left the warehouse, I’d made a last-minute change out of my biker boots, and though it had felt weird speeding across Deadwater without them, I’d made the right choice.
Stealth was my goal this evening.
In the shadows, I held still and gazed at the building. A new camera had been installed high on the back wall, but it was an old-fashioned kind that rotated. I counted ten seconds from one side to the other. No problem. I could get inside in less.
Burglary wasn’t a skill I’d honed, but breaking and entering had been an unfortunate side-effect of living with Genevieve’s dad. The old boy would go on drinking binges and lose his keys. He’d then return home and call a locksmith, insist that they replace the chamber, get inside, then fall into a dead sleep. Gen would come home and be stuck outside, unable to rouse him. The first time it happened, I was seventeen, and I’d worked out how to use my sister’s hair pins to release the lock.
Odd how that skill was serving me in breaking into my bio father’s house again.
The camera swung back my way, and I held my breath, counted to three, then darted across the open space. At the back door, I slid my skeleton key lock pick—an upgrade I’d acquired—into the lock. The pins clicked, and the lock gave. I ducked inside the kitchen.
All in under seven seconds.
Earlier this evening, I’d chatted with Everly, and she’d given me the lowdown on our father.
“He’s a stickler for routine and obedience. He likes things just so but is frugal, so most of his trips to other cities or abroad are sponsored by others. He declares it all, though. It’s too public for him to hide, so goes on his mayoral calendar.”
She’d shown me it.
He was away tonight, though returning in the early hours. The opportunity had grabbed me by the balls and not let go.
“A big part of his ego is made up by the fact we’re descended from royalty, though by a lord sleeping with a servant. Father ignores that point.”
I’d told her I preferred it.
“You know, I do, too. But Father is so nuts about it, he had a heraldic family tree made. It’s painted onto cloth and hangs in the formal living room. It’s his pride and joy.”
Out of the kitchen, I prowled down the darkened hall.
Everly’s information had not only primed me for the mayor being out of town for at least a few more hours, but also clued me in on the fact that any security measures he would have put in place since she left would be basic. He didn’t like spending money.
She’d also given me a target for my plan.
Originally, my need for revenge had taken shape in my mind as an explosive event. Life-changing. Possibly life-ending. Cassie had suggested a drip-feed plan, and I fucking loved the idea. To slowly drive him insane would be perfect.
I’d also had to get over myself and throw the first stone.
Cassie’s bravery in everything she did had inspired me.
At the front of the house, the formal living room lay in darkness. Shutters had been closed over the lower half of the sash windows, but enough light from the streetlamps filtered in to show me my target.
Over the mantel was the family tree artwork. My relatives, all neatly listed. A smile curled my lips, and I pulled the flick knife I’d taken from Cassie’s bedroom when I’d waited for her. Carefully, I lifted a chair and took it to the mantel, settling it without a sound on the rug.
I climbed up.
My fucking hand shook.
As a kid, I’d wanted a father’s love so badly. Gen’s dad hadn’t given any, so I’d started to see myself as unworthy. Now I knew my biological father thought the same, that feeling could be gutting, which made no sense because I didn’t respect either man. I didn’t want it. I needed to prove what I really thought of them.
Steeling my nerves, I sliced down one side of the picture, the sharp blade cutting through with ease. Next, I stretched to the top of the frame and cut again, angling the blade to come down the right-hand side. With my free hand, I supported the material as it fell away, only the base of it connected now.
A clank came from somewhere inside the house.
I froze and listened.
No one else lived here. Everly had told me the housekeeper had quit. There was a security team who patrolled the street, but they didn’t enter homes without reason.
Heavy footsteps thudded on the stairs, descending. Fuck. Whoever it was would pass right in front of the living room door.
I was a sitting duck. I couldn’t move without either the chair or the painting making a sound. Nor did I have an easy route out of this room. Whoever it was, I’d have to rush them. I was good for a fight, better for Cassie’s brother’s extensive lesson, but that would mean abandoning my prize.
Annoyance curdled my blood.
The person finished their descent and strolled past the living room entrance, a phone raised to their ear.
My mouth fell open, recognition instant.
It was Piers Roache. What the fuck was he still doing on the scene?
Luckily, he was engaged with his call, and not with the house. His voice echoed in the hall. “No, it wasn’t like that. Are you fucking listening?”
I held my breath and made a choice. I wasn’t giving up my mission. Not for him. If I needed to, I’d take the fucker out.
With slow, steady actions, I lifted the painting and pierced the final edge.
“I don’t give a fuck about that bitch,” Piers continued on. “He still wants my money but he has less to offer. Yes, the business centre is going ahead. Without me, it couldn’t happen. Makepeace rubs people up the wrong way. His daughter was the diplomat who opens doors. Stupid slut.”
A clink followed, ice in a glass, which meant he was in the kitchen.
I packed away his words for dissection later and cut the last of the painting free from its frame. Then I rolled it up and folded the knife. Piers was in my path, which meant I needed another route out. If the front door was unlocked, I could make a break for it across the front garden and down to the street. I was fast. Dressed in black. With any luck, I’d make it back to my bike. If it wasn’t, I’d waste time I could’ve used to rush Piers.
Choices.
In the formal living room’s entryway, I peered out. The front door had a deadlock which gave me hope. Locked from the inside. It would open if I pulled both handles.
I squinted right, seeing nothing but the entrances to the kitchen and to the room across from it which Everly had called the mayor’s Council Chamber. All heavy furniture and oak panelling. The place where deals got made and old white guys got their dicks sucked.
I’d contemplated a little graffiti scored into the Council Chamber’s table as an added bonus of my visit, but now was the time to get the hell out of here.
But just as I readied to go, something appeared at the window beyond.
A small figure, peeking in.
I stopped dead.
No fucking way.
I took another glance at the skeleton staring back at me. It was the same fucking full-face mask Cassie had worn to Bronson’s interrogation. My heart lurched. I didn’t want to believe it. I was seconds away from freedom and getting away with my theft, but I couldn’t leave.
Not if Cassie had disobeyed me and had pursued me.
Piers droned on, the arsehole moving on to another topic, though he remained in the kitchen. My other option was to exit through the Council Chamber which had French doors to the garden, though was directly in line of the camera.
The one Cassie stood right beneath.
Clenching my jaw, I jogged down the hall, the heavy painting flopping under my arm. I dove into the Council Chamber and backed against the wall, just as the kitchen door opposite creaked open.
“He’ll be back any minute,” Piers told his caller.
For fuck’s sake. My careful—okay, spontaneous—plan was falling to pieces. If Piers entered the formal living room, he’d see the picture frame with a gaping hole in it. If he changed his mind and came in here to wait for the mayor, we’d have to brawl and I’d lose the picture.
All I had left was speed. I homed in on the French doors. There was no key in the lock, and the handle twisted noiselessly but didn’t give. Fuck. Grabbing my skeleton key, I worked the lock. For every millisecond that passed, my heart beat faster. Sweat broke out on my brow, and I fumbled the key and almost dropped the painting.
Cassie appeared on the other side of the glass. I glowered at her and made a second attempt. She didn’t budge. Didn’t let me out of her sight. All I could see was her eyes, and the expression in them nearly ended me.
I’d scared her.
Panic had me working faster, then in a rush of fucking heaven, the lock gave.
To hell with any noise. I burst out of the door and lifted Cassie straight into my arms, wasting no time in sprinting down the patio and onto the grass. She whimpered and held me tight, clinging to my front while I put all my power into my legs to run. At the end of the garden was a newly installed fence that blocked up a gap to the neighbours’ garden. Not a problem for the millionaires who lived on this road but perfect for burglars. No wonder the mayor had stumped up to fix it.
Earlier, I’d scaled it easily. Now, I had a passenger.
I manoeuvred Cassie onto my back. “Hold this. Don’t drop it. And don’t let go.”
She clutched the painting, freeing up my hands to climb. Footsteps thumped down the garden. Something rustled in the bushes.
“Who the fuck is that?” Piers shouted. “Stop, thief.”
I kept climbing, hauling us to the top then throwing a leg over. A glass shattered on the sturdy fence panel an inch from my hand, raining splinters over my arm and to the ground. I didn’t look back. I ignored the sour stench of whisky that sprinkled on my skin. All I needed was for Cassie to hold on while I dropped us down the other side.
Still clinging to me, she squealed and jerked.
I twisted back. Beneath us, Piers had seized her ankle. My heart pounded, fear soaring. I gripped the fence to keep us balanced. If I let go, we’d fall.
“Get the hell off me.” She kicked out at him.
Piers’ expression shifted from anger to something different. In the low light, I picked out fear. He’d recognised her voice.
“You,” he snarled.
“Hey, Piers, how’s the dick?”
For a second, he faltered, but then recovered and bared his teeth, grappling for her other leg. “What are you holding? What did you steal?”
“I’ll take your balls if ye ask nicely.” She kicked again.
“I’ll hurt you for what you did, and I’ll take pleasure in it.”
Fury broke over me. Loosening one hand, I hung from the other with a death grip and threw a punch at Piers’ ugly face. He dropped his hold and fell, clutching his face. With a whimper, Cassie climbed me, clinging tighter as I righted us on the fence.
On top once again, I didn’t waste time in swinging over and using my rubber soles to slide down the sheer drop then let go and fell the rest of the way, landing like a cat on a pile of loose earth. Cassie stayed in place, for once obeying orders.
A thud hit the fence. “I’ll fucking end you, bitch. I’ll destroy you from your mouth to your cunt and force your boyfriend to watch.”
Cassie gave a dark laugh. “Not if I get there first, mushroom dick.”
If Piers was trying to come after us, I wasn’t waiting around to see. I turned and ran full pelt down the neighbours’ garden and out along the side of the house. The need for stealth had gone. A light sprang on, and someone called out, but I kept going, all the way to my bike.
“Do you have a car?” I asked.
“Nope. Cabbed it.”
A thousand furies descended over me but I didn’t voice them. At the kerbside, I jammed the helmet on Cassie then revved the engine.
Without pause, I got us the fuck out of there.
Down the expensive row of houses we flew. The wind whipping across my hot face did nothing to cool my raging emotions. I had to assume Piers would call the police, which meant sticking to quieter roads the second I could and not taking the more direct route home. Likewise, if any passing lucky cop spotted me biking without a helmet, they’d pursue us.
We’d be caught red-handed.
I’d take the blame so Cassie could walk free, but breaking and entering with theft would land me jail time, particularly with the victim being who he was. I smacked the handlebars and ran a red light, too shaken up to notice until the last second.
A horn blared. I swore and banked around a corner.
Cassie giggled then trailed her finger down my back, drawing a heart.
I forced my breathing to slow and cut through the suburb, emerging into the next and doing the same until we stole down a street that led to Deadwater’s town centre. If we could cross that, we’d be within easy reach of the start of the harbour walk. That route was pedestrianised, which meant no cops, at least not in cars, and I could bike down it mostly unseen. We’d be back at the warehouse in under ten minutes.
A siren wailed somewhere nearby.
Cassie squeezed me. I pulled into a side road and cruised on until we passed a junction onto the city centre. A police car zipped past. Shit. Needed to get out of sight. Killing the engine, I wheeled the bike backwards and into a lane.
We waited in the dark, concealed in shadows. My chest rose and fell, my heart still racing.
Cassie’s fingers linked under my jacket then crept beneath my t-shirt. She caressed my belly, and a poorly timed kick of lust sank through me.
I didn’t stop her.
I craved her touch. The thought of her being in danger did bad things to me. It broke something in my brain.
The sirens grew louder. Another answered, coming from a different direction. I scanned the walls of the surrounding buildings, though couldn’t yet see any strobing lights. It could be for us, or it could be for one of the hundred other crimes taking place in town tonight.
Cassie popped my jeans button.
I gripped her hand. “Stop.”
She relaxed, so I eased my hold, training my senses once more on the night. Around us was mostly offices, all in darkness at the late hour. If I?—
In a fast move, the wicked girl opened my jeans fully and plunged her hand inside. She wrapped her fingers around my semi, and fire spread through my veins, starting at her touch and blitzing through me. On reflex, I sat back to give her better access, lost to every other thought.
She stroked me. I gritted my teeth to stop from making a sound.
For a dazzling few seconds, I followed that pull. The unstoppable force of her. How she owned my need. An engine roared nearby.
Fuck, wait .
We could be discovered any second. A passerby coming home from a club. The cops taking a right up our road and hunting in the alleys.
I had to end this.
But she felt too good. Cassie eased her hand up and down, a dark little chuckle following when I was harder than nails in seconds.
My blood pumped faster, and I flexed my limbs, trying to keep my mind aware of more than just sex. It was a losing battle, though I noted the sirens passing then moving deeper into town.
It took an embarrassingly long time for me to take action. Reaching back, I palmed her thigh, unable to resist sliding my fingers up her bare leg and under her shorts. I should squeeze her to tell her to cut it out. My touch roamed higher.
She shivered. Oh fuck, that action threatened to end me. But we couldn’t linger here. No matter how my body demanded it.
Cassie needed to learn a lesson about restraint. She couldn’t always do what she wanted. For her own good, I had to teach her.
Whipping an arm back, I brought her to my lap. Just as rough, I pushed her to lie out on the engine and handlebars with her legs wide around me to expose exactly the part of her I needed to torment.
Cassie moaned into her helmet. I had half an insane mind to drag it off and kiss her senseless.
Yet that lesson was still needed.
I slid my hand under her clothes to cup her between the legs. “If you fuck around like this, you’ll get us into trouble.”
Another sound of pleasure.
I rubbed the heel of my hand into her clit. “Danger turns you on, doesn’t it? Do you want me right now?”
She arched into the touch. I grazed my fingers into her underwear and eased one into her, my whole body thrilling at her tight heat squeezing me. Fucking hell. I didn’t want to stop. An ease in and out had her bucking onto me.
I could make her come in seconds.
Pulling free nearly killed me, but I flipped up her visor, putting the finger that had been inside her into my mouth. “Tough. Now hold on and don’t slide off from how slick I’ve made you.”
Cassie glowered, her blue eyes narrowing before she slammed the visor back down and let me get her back into place.
Wheeling out of the lane, I peered into the street then gunned the engine, shooting over the junction and down the lane across from us. Deadwater had started as a medieval harbour town and still retained the twisted, narrow roads and multiple places to hide.
I knew them well. Took us along lesser-used ones and evaded any waiting cops. At the harbour, I followed the river, bumping over the cobbled boulevard, the neon pink-and-black signs of Divine and Divide soon coming into view. People ambled along, some staggering, one yelling at me to get on the road. I flipped him the bird and kept going.
Cassie resumed her torture of playing with me.
I didn’t try to stop her. Soft fingertips caressed my shaft, and I glanced down to ensure I was still covered. I drove us around the back of the warehouse, half out of my mind, parked up, then tapped my shoulder. Cassie understood, clinging on to me when I carried her off, the painting wedged between us. I turned from the building and reinstated my jeans, though I could do nothing to hide the bulge.
Once we were inside, I tugged off my bandanna and set Cassie on her feet. She removed the helmet then took the stolen goods back from me with a buoyant grin. Fucking infuriating. Without giving her the chance to speak, I wrapped my bandanna around her face, forcing it between her teeth, then tied it off behind her curls.
The joyful expression dropped to a dark scowl.
At the desk, the guard raised his eyebrows but said nothing. If he challenged me again, he’d regret it.
I propelled Cassie through the inner door. “I’m so fucking furious with you. What you did at that house was insane.”
She stopped dead in the hall. I grabbed her hips and threw her over my shoulder, striding out to the central corridor and to the lift. It was waiting, and I ignored all of the gawping peanut gallery to carry her inside. When the doors closed, Cassie thumped my back with her fist. I didn’t let her down.
On the fifth floor, I paced to her bedroom and threw open the door.
It was empty.
The bed gone. All her clothes missing, my rucksack, too.
All that was left was her detective wall, the map of Deadwater and connecting pieces of string still in place.
What the fuck was going on? Was she leaving? I dropped her onto her heels again, and those furious eyes trained on me. She wrestled with her gag. I snatched her hands away to stop her removing it. If she was walking out, I didn’t want to know.
Cassie pointed back to the lift then freed her hands to show me seven on her fingers.
I dove my eyebrows together. “Seventh floor?”
She nodded, then growled and bucked against me when I picked her up once more. She dropped the painting. I snatched the thing up and returned to the lift. Selecting floor seven did nothing until I held up my pass. Then, it lit up and we moved, exiting to a part of the warehouse I’d never been before. Cassie pointed at a doorway, and I held my pass over that as well.
It turned green. I entered an apartment.
Though mostly empty, there were signs of life. A door open. A line of kitchen spotlights lit. I crossed the living area to a hallway, finding myself in a bedroom.
All of our possessions were here. Not just the bed we’d used, but Cassie’s clothing rail. Fucking hell, the bags from my car had been brought up as well. That could only have been my sister’s doing.
Confusion dogged me for several seconds, but an explanation could wait. Pure emotion guided my next steps.
Cassie had misbehaved tonight. She’d gone beyond the pale. If I hadn’t seen her first, if I’d been out of there before she arrived, she could have been hurt . I needed her to understand just how out of control that made me feel.