Torn Bond: Bonded Duet: Book One Read online

  Torn Bond

  Bonded Duet: Book One

  Copyright © 2020 Abigail Davies.

  All rights reserved.

  Published: Abigail Davies 2020

  www.abigaildaviesauthor.com

  No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form without written consent from the author. Except in the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a piece of fiction. Any names, characters, businesses, places or events are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, events or locations is purely coincidental.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you are reading this book and have not purchased it for your use only, then you should return it to your favorite book retailer and purchase your own copy.

  Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Editing: Jennifer Roberts-Hall

  Proofreading: Judy’s Proofreading

  Photo Credit: © JW Photography

  Cover Models: Bobbi Darting & Tyler Smith King

  Cover Design: Pink Elephant Designs

  Formatting: Pink Elephant Designs

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Tied Bond: Book Two

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Abigail Davies

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  BELLE

  “How far away is this place?” Stella moaned for what felt like the thousandth time as she stared out the window. She huffed out a breath, causing the pane of glass to fog up, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  Stella didn’t have an ounce of patience. She wanted everything right then and there. It was something I’d quickly learned about her on our first day of freshman year at college. We’d been thrown together by random and assigned a shared dorm. The tiny room held two single beds as well as two desks, and we hadn’t even made it to our third full week before we were talking about getting an apartment together as soon as the mandatory first year in dorms was over.

  Now we were halfway through our junior year and living in an apartment, complete with a bedroom each. We’d become best friends in the two and a half years we’d known each other, but along the way, she’d picked up a long-term boyfriend.

  I was all for being the third wheel because there was no way I was going to commit to any of these college guys whose lives revolved around parties and when their next lay would be. But fortunately, Stella’s boyfriend also came equipped with a best friend and roommate, which made us the awesome foursome, at least that was what Stella liked to call us. I was sure she had visions of us being two couples who would go on double dates together, but it would never happen because I didn’t look at Curtis in that way.

  “Not much longer,” Curtis told her, his tone fed up with her asking the same question over and over again. He knocked me with his elbow to get my attention, and I smiled up at him. Curtis was the definition of hot with his ink-black hair and the tattoos rolling over the skin of his arms. Too bad for Stella, he just didn’t do it for me, which blasted her vision of double dates to pieces.

  “C’mere, babe,” Justin told Stella, holding his arms out to her, and she went willingly, shuffling across the seat toward him. Justin was the perfect guy for Stella. He put up with her mood swings and doted on her endlessly, but most importantly, he brought her ice cream when she was feeling down. A man who bought his girlfriend ice cream was perfection in my book.

  Her sigh could be heard over the sound of the engine of the car, and I was starting to understand why she was making those noises. She wasn’t wrong. We’d been in this cab for what felt like forever, and a quick look at the time on the dashboard said we were about to hit the thirty-minute mark. Thank god Curtis said he was paying the fare. After all, it was his idea to go to this club.

  The cab took a turn, and I stared out of the window, spotting a line of people all dressed up in their party clothes. It kept going and going, and we just drove on past them until the cab stopped at the front of the line.

  “Are you serious?” Stella asked, raising her brows at Curtis as he fished out his wallet. “Do we have to wait in that line?”

  Curtis turned to look out of the window and shook his head. “Nah, Bennie is on shift.”

  “Bennie?” I asked, pushing out of the back of the cab with Stella and Justin on my heels. “As in, the doorman at your bar?” It wasn’t technically his bar. Curtis worked in the only decent bar in our college town, which meant we drank for free and had access to the best sticky bar stools in town.

  “Yep.” Curtis flung his arm around my shoulders and moved toward the front of the line. He’d taken to doing that more and more often, but I didn’t overthink it. We’d been on one date when we first met, and we both agreed there was nothing there, much to Stella’s dismay.

  “Stay here,” he said and stepped forward to talk to Bennie.

  Bennie looked over at the three of us, raised his brows, and then glanced back at Curtis. He crossed his arms over his chest, causing his beefed-up muscles to tense, and the grim look on his face told me we probably weren’t going to get inside. He shook his head as his lips moved, and my stomach dropped. If we’d come this far just to get turned away at the door, not only would Stella be pissed, but so would I. And the both of us together would—

  “Let’s go!” Curtis shouted and waved his arm at us. Bennie moved to the side, and Curtis walked by him, waiting for us to catch up.

  I smiled over at Bennie, then widened my eyes at Curtis. “For a second there, I didn’t think we’d get in.” His laugh echoed around us but dissipated as soon as the main doors opened. The music was so loud my eardrums screamed for relief, but once we were fully inside, they acclimated to the thumping beat and the packed club. “Holy shit,” I whispered, but no one could hear me.

  “We need to go to the bar!” Curtis shouted, but I could only just make out what he was saying. I grasped on to his arm as he stepped forward, and Stella’s hand wrapped around my wrist so she didn’t lose us.

  Together, the four of us weaved in and out of people dancing as we pushed through the crowded club. Curtis lifted his hand and leaned over the shiny black surface to speak to the girl behind the bar. A couple of seconds later, shot glasses were lined up, and tequila was poured into them.

  “Here!” Curtis shouted, handing each of us a shot. We made up our own little circle, and one look at Stella’s face told me she thought this place was worth the long cab ride. Her gaze was flinging from one side of the room to the other, taking everything in, but all I could concentrate on were the three people surrounding me.

  It wasn’t that I’d never been to a club before, but nothing like this one. This was the kind of club you hear people talking about, but never actually go to. The DJ was on a raised podium and was talking over the mic while he played a mix of songs, effortlessly streaming them together.

  “Salut!” Curtis shouted, clinking his shot glass to ours, and we all downed them. The tangy flavor rolled over my tongue and burned its way down the back of my throat. I screwed up my face at the sensation and was thankful when Curtis handed me a slice of lime.

  “Let’s dance!” Stella said, and I didn’t eve
n manage to get a word out in reply before she was grabbing my arm and pulling me through the crowds and toward the packed dance floor. She squealed as soon as we found our own little spot and dipped her head down to shout, “This is amazing!” in my ear.

  “I know!” I held my arms in the air and swayed my hips left to right, losing myself in the rhythm of the music. The pounding of the bass felt like it was matching the beating of my pulse. Arms wrapped around Stella’s waist, and she spun, coming face to face with Justin. Not two seconds later, Curtis appeared next to me and flashed me a grin.

  “Told you it was cool!” His breath hit the sensitive skin of my neck, and I shivered from the contact. The packed bodies in this club made the temperature soar, and I knew I wouldn’t last long with my jacket on.

  “I’m hot!” I shouted back to Curtis, fanning my face.

  “Take your jacket off and hand it over to coat check,” he shouted next to my ear.

  I frowned and looked around at the room, trying to see over the sheer amount of people, but with my five-foot-two height, it was nearly impossible. It didn’t matter that the four-inch boots I’d paired with my black skinny jeans gave me a few extra inches, I still couldn’t see if there was anywhere we could leave our jackets.

  “Where is it?” I asked, and Curtis frowned at me and stepped even closer. Almost every part of his body was now touching mine, and my stomach dropped—but not in the good kind of way. “Where is it?” I asked again as I took a step back.

  Curtis spun around and pointed toward the doors we’d come in, and I spotted the neon-lit sign next to a small hole in the wall. “I’ll be back!” I told him, and he nodded to let me know he’d heard me. Pushing through the crowd on my own wasn’t as easy as when you had the force that was Stella paving the way. It took me twice as long just to make it to the edge of the crowd, and I paused to catch my breath.

  I turned to see if I could still see them on the dance floor, but they’d disappeared in the crowd too. My breathing started to pick up, and all the danger talks my mom and dad had given me came rushing back into my brain. I knew how to defend myself; they’d made sure of that. I could take down any guy who attacked me with my self-defense moves I’d been taught by my uncles. Well, they weren’t really my uncles, but they were family.

  The longer I stood on the edge of the crowd, the more I realized I shouldn’t have left the group. There was safety in numbers, but what could really happen in a packed club? It wasn’t like I was on my own in a dark alley. I was surrounded by people who would be witnesses if something happened to me.

  My breathing started to slow the more I talked myself down, and I closed my eyes for a second to center myself completely. Once I felt back to my usual self, I spun around, not looking where I was going, and walked face-first into someone’s chest.

  “Shit, sorry!”

  Hands wrapped around my biceps, righting me. “No worries,” a deep voice replied. I could hear better now that I wasn’t as close to the music, but even if I couldn’t have, I would have known that voice anywhere. It was the voice I’d grown up with, the voice I craved every single day.

  I tilted my head back and blinked several times as I looked up at him. He wasn’t staring at me, though. He was too busy looking at whoever stood next to him. I took in every inch of his face, the scruff covering his jaw and his high cheekbones. I was getting my fill, because I hadn’t seen him since before summer, and that was eight months ago.

  Finally, he looked down at me, but the only part of his body that signaled he knew me was the slight widening of his eyes. I opened my mouth to say something, but the subtle shake of his head told me not to.

  When I went home at Christmas, my dad had told me he was still undercover. Those uncles who taught me self-defense? They were also my dad’s team members. As the head of his DEA office, my dad had put together the best team out there—which included Ford, the man standing in front of me, silently trying to tell me not to break his cover.

  I knew better than that, so I cleared my throat, stepped back, and headed right back to the dance floor. I didn’t look over my shoulder to see if he was looking at me, I didn’t do anything but pull my jacket off, tie it around my waist and disappear into the crowd.

  * * *

  FORD

  I followed Eduardo Garza up the stairs and to the VIP area, gritting my teeth and using all of my energy not to look down at the dance floor. I had to keep my wits about me. I was here to do a job—I had been for the last eight months of my life, so I couldn’t concentrate on the girl who had disappeared into the crowd. But fuck if I couldn’t help it. What the hell was she doing here? In the most dangerous club in the state.

  The VIP area was half full of people partying, but we walked right past them and to Garza’s cordoned-off area. I hadn’t been in this section often. Only people in his inner circle got to come up here to meet with him. But I’d been brought into his inner workings seven weeks ago. It had taken over six months to gain any kind of trust, and all that could be broken with a couple of words from the girl downstairs. Shit.

  My job was to gather as much intel as I could, to collect all the evidence we needed to bring down the great Eduardo Garza, the cartel boss who had been running things for over thirty years. No one had been able to get remotely close to him, but I had. I was working in the dark—no outside contact. I was basically on my own, which meant if things went sideways, no one could help me.

  And now all of that was at risk because a wrench in the shape of a girl who should not have stepped foot in this place had been thrown into the middle of my operation.

  Garza sat down in his usual seat, and Rory and I took the seats opposite him. This was our regular setup, only we didn’t normally come here on a Friday night. It was too busy for Garza’s liking, but he’d been called here to handle some business, so we had to follow.

  “Shipment gets here in three days,” he said, his dark-brown eyes boring into me. “Is everything ready?”

  “Yeah.” I leaned back in my seat, trying to act unaffected, but it was proving harder than I thought. I could handle anything that was thrown at me. I’d done things in my life no sane person would even entertain, but I did it for survival. In the world I’d grown up in, if you didn’t shoot first, you could be dead fuckin’ certain your opponent would. It was your life or theirs, and I would always choose mine.

  “I want them taken out,” Garza growled. “No one crosses me. There are no second chances.” The slight twang to his accent couldn’t be mistaken for anything but Mexican, and the designer clothes on his back and the guards constantly surrounding him meant people moved out of his way when he was walking.

  “You ain’t gotta worry ’bout that,” Rory told him, pouring himself a whiskey. “We got it handled.” Rory had become my partner over the last few months. He wasn’t as new to the cartel as I was, but he’d still had to gain Garza’s trust. He may have gotten his trust, but he’d never have mine. There was only a handful of people I relied on, and even that had taken years to build up.

  “Make sure you do, I don’t want no gringos coming into my territory.” Garza didn’t stop fuming about the new gang who were trespassing into his territory and trying to sell their latest concoction of drugs. But I found my attention moving toward the dance floor, and I spotted her almost right away. She was on her own, her arms in the air, looking like she didn’t have a care in the world.

  She was in danger, more than she would ever know, simply by being here. How could she be so stupid to come to a place like this? And why the hell was she alone?

  “See something you like?” Garza asked, his voice closer now, and I whipped my head around to face him. His gaze was on the dance floor too, and I had no doubt he’d have at least two girls in his office by the end of the night, but Belle would not be one of them.

  “Maybe.” I shrugged, acting indifferent. I was a master at putting on an act, and I knew he wouldn’t doubt me for a second. I’d worked too long and too hard to take this mo
therfucker down. The first time I’d met him, I was a twenty-one-year-old who was second-in-command to the local drug dealer. Back then, I’d never thought I’d end up here, but now, twenty-one years later, I was in the inner circle, about to take him down once and for all.

  Many people had tried to go undercover in his operation and failed, which was why Brody—my boss—hadn’t sent me in until now. But the timing had worked, and the intel we had told us something big was going to go down. That something big would be our golden ticket, but in the meantime, I had to prove myself to Garza, which meant doing everything a lackey would do while making sure his territory was safe.

  One of Garza’s guards stepped closer and dipped down to whisper something in his ear. His brows knitted, his mouth moving into a straight line, and I knew he wasn’t happy. Garza stood and wiped off the sleeves of his jacket even though there was nothing on them. “I have people to see. Make sure you both get the job done.” He left without another word, and as soon as he was out of sight, Rory grabbed the bottle of whiskey and drank right out of it.

  “I dunno about you, bro, but—”

  “I gotta go,” I said, not interested in listening to Rory and his life lessons. The dude was a liability and loved to drink himself into a stupor, but at least he didn’t hesitate when it came to shooting his loaded weapon.

  My gaze didn’t move off Belle as I walked through the VIP area, but I got distracted when I made it to the top of the stairs. Two guys were starting a fight, and I managed to get around them unscathed, but I’d lost sight of Belle in the process. Fuck.

  Even though every fiber of my being wanted to rush down the stairs and search for Belle, I managed to walk at a normal pace. Once I was on the edge of the dance floor, I scanned the room until I saw her hands in the air.