Torn Bond (Bonded Duet 1)

Instead of dwelling on an hour of my life lost, I swung my backpack onto my shoulder and moved out of the class. My cell pinged when I was halfway down the hallway, and I pulled it out, reading the message from Stella and then shooting her off a reply.

Stella: We’re at The Burger Bun Cafe. Meet us there?

Belle: Thank god. I’m starving. I’ll be there in five.

My stomach grumbled on cue as if it’d just been woken from a deep sleep, and I clutched at it. There was nothing I loved more than food—burgers in particular.

The Burger Bun Cafe was across campus, so it would take me more than the five minutes I’d said to get there. As soon as I got out of the building, I started to speed walk. I weaved in and out of the students making their way to their classes, and was halfway across campus when the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. A prickly feeling washed over me, and I slowed down, scanning everyone around me, trying to find the source of the feeling.

People milled about, none of them looking at me, but that didn’t mean the feeling dissipated. In fact, the closer I got to The Burger Bun Cafe, the more intense it became. I didn’t want to spin around and look behind me, because I knew that would be too obvious, but I needed to check. My dad had always taught me to trust my gut, and right then, my gut was screaming at me.

A bench on the edge of the sidewalk gained my attention, and I stopped, placing my bag on it. I searched through my bag, pretending I was looking for something, but really, I was checking out the people behind me. Nothing looked out of place. In fact, it all looked super ordinary—students laughing, rushing to their classes, and a group of people gathered on one of the grassed areas. Maybe I was imagining it? I was still on edge after seeing Ford at the club last weekend, and maybe constant suspicion had seeped into my subconscious.

He was only thirty minutes away from me, so close, and I hadn’t known this entire time. Maybe it was seeing him undercover and his warning to get out of the club that had me on edge. I hadn’t told Stella the real reason why I’d left without finding them. I’d made up an excuse about being sick and needing to get home, and she’d taken me at my word, but part of me had wished she’d questioned more. At least then I may have had an excuse to tell her about the kiss. The kiss…

My heart beat like crazy in my chest, and I could feel my blood thumping in my ears as it rushed around my body. I wasn’t sure if it was the memory of Ford holding me and his palms leaving their mark on my body, or the fact that I was still looking around, trying to find the source of my gut feeling.

“Hey.”

I jumped out of my skin and spun around, my hand flying to my chest. “Jesus, Curtis!” I slapped my palm against his bicep and tried to slow my racing heart at the sight of his grinning face. “You scared the shit out of me.”

He chuckled and pushed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Sorry, Belle. I thought you saw me.” I frowned, and he stepped closer. “You looked right at me.” He tilted his head to the side and looked down at my bag on the bench. “What are you doing?”

“I…” I stood fully, bringing my bag with me, and scanned around us. There wasn’t anything there. It was just my imagination. “I was heading to The Burger Bar Cafe to meet Stella and Justin.”

“Same,” Curtis said, stepping back from me. “Wanna walk over together?”

“Sure.” I heaved out a breath, trying to loosen my tense muscles as we started to walk side by side. Ford had gotten into my head, and the next time I saw him, I was going to give him hell. I’d never felt unsafe here, not like I did when I was back home. At home, everyone knew who my dad was, they knew what he did and who he put away. But here, I was invisible. No one knew my dad was the head of a DEA team. They didn’t know what he’d been doing for the majority of his life. They didn’t know me as Belle Easton, daughter of Special Agent Easton. I was just Belle, the girl who couldn’t understand philosophy and had a love of burgers.

“I was worried.” Curtis’ voice made its way through my thoughts, and I stared up at him. His dark-brown-eyed gaze met mine as he pushed his hand through his ink-black hair, and I realized he was waiting for my answer to a question I had no idea he’d asked.

“I’m sorry.” I tried to laugh it off, but I had a feeling it wasn’t working. “My brain is still in my philosophy class.” I shook my head. “What did you say?”

Curtis pulled open the door to The Burger Bun Cafe and smiled down at me. “I was just asking why you left early on Saturday night. I was worried.”

“Oh.” I placed my hand on my stomach and glanced around the cafe, searching for Stella. I found her almost immediately with her lips attached to Justin’s. “I wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t find you in the crowd, so I left.” I didn’t give Curtis the chance to answer as I slipped past him and toward the counter. I ordered my usual—double patty burger with extra onions, fries, and a Diet Coke—then took my table number and rushed over to Stella and Justin. “Hey!”

They kept sucking face until I banged the wooden block on the bottom of my table number onto the table.

“Oh, Belle, you’re here.” Stella’s cheeks tinged pink, and I raised a brow. She was never embarrassed about kissing Justin in public. My gaze tracked over them both, and I spotted Justin’s arm sliding back toward him. I screwed up my face, not even wanting to think about what they were doing under the table before I got here.

“Yep.” I sat down, ignoring the way they were looking at each other. I waited for either of them to say something, but when they stayed silent, I finally said, “So, what were you two kids up to?”

Justin coughed as he took a drink of his soda, and I couldn’t help the grin spreading over my face. I had to put up with all their kissing and moaning and groaning in the apartment, so I had no idea why they were so embarrassed. Unless they didn’t know I could hear them? Oh man, what if they thought they were being quiet when all this time I could hear almost everything.

“Just…talking,” Justin said, his usual deep voice high.

“What’s that?” Curtis asked, sliding into the booth next to me.

“I was just asking what they were up to,” I said, my voice sickly sweet. I turned to look at Curtis and quirked my lips. I knew he also heard them at his apartment because we’d spoken about it several times.

“Cool.” Curtis pulled his cell out and looked back up at them. “So? What were you up to?”

“Nothing,” Stella answered, right at the same time a tray of food was placed on the table. My food. “We going out this weekend?” Stella asked. “That club last weekend was awesome. Maybe we should go back there?” She was trying to push us into a new subject, and I would have normally called her on it if it wasn’t for the fact she’d spoken about the club—the club I had seen Ford in. The club we’d kissed in.

I opened my mouth, about to make an excuse as to why I didn’t want to go back—why I couldn’t go back—but it was Curtis who said, “Nah. I think we should stay in town this time. Drinks are cheaper when you know the barman.” He winked at Stella, and she rolled her eyes. “What do you think, Belle?”

I placed a fry in my mouth and picked up my burger. “Cheap drinks win every time.” I took a huge bite of my burger, effectively cutting myself out of the conversation. I didn’t care where we went this weekend, as long as it wasn’t back to the club Ford had warned me to stay away from. But I couldn’t deny the small part of me that wanted to rebel against his orders and turn up there, just to find him.