Torn Bond (Bonded Duet 1)

“I know,” Ford growled, cutting her off. “Is the paperwork in order?” he asked her, and even though I wanted to see what they were doing, I was too engrossed with getting doggy cuddles from Lottie. She was excited, more excited than I’d ever seen her, and it was then I realized what Ford had done.

He knew Lottie would have to be put down, so he’d saved her. He’d saved her because he knew how much she meant to me. He may have adopted her, but I had no doubt she would be just as much my dog as she was his. And he’d read the paperwork a week ago. That was after he’d told me us kissing was a mistake. It was after he’d let me believe he didn’t feel anything for me.

Ford always said actions spoke louder than words, and if this action was his way of saying sorry, he was forgiven entirely.

Chapter Ten

FORD

I stared at the screen of my laptop as I waited for the call from Brody. The footage from the cameras in the apartment was on my screen, and I couldn’t stop looking at Belle. She sat on the sofa in the living room with Lottie curled up on her feet, not willing to move even an inch away from her. They’d been like that from the moment we’d brought Lottie home from the shelter a few days ago. She was her shadow, and I had no idea how she’d act when we had to leave for classes or for one of Belle’s shifts.

So far, we’d stayed inside, only going out when Lottie needed walking. Belle said she was ready to go back to class, but I wasn’t prepared to put her at risk. The near break-in last week had put me on high alert—even more so than I already was. Not to mention what had happened afterward.

I’d let myself go. I’d taken what I’d wanted, and I didn’t have a single regret. Not that morning, or each morning after that as I woke up beside her, her body pressed against mine, and her coconut-scented hair in my face. We were living in a bubble, a bubble I knew wouldn’t last forever, but I was enjoying it while we were there.

My cell rang, the tone piercing the silence in the air, and I spotted Lottie’s ears perking up at the sound. Brody’s name flashed on the screen, so I clicked “answer call” and spoke through the speaker part of my headphones.

“Brody,” I greeted.

“Ford,” his gruff voice replied. “I have all the guys with me.” A chorus of greetings rang out, and I could imagine them all sitting in Brody’s office. Kyle was almost always on the sofa in there, and Ryan would definitely be next to the window with Jord not far from him leaning against a wall. They were predictable, too predictable sometimes.

“You got an update?” I asked, keeping my gaze fixed to the screen of my laptop as Belle stood and moved into the kitchen. She disappeared from one frame and then appeared in another. I’d installed more cameras since last week. The ones that were already there were fine, but I needed to ensure there wasn’t a single blind spot in or outside of the apartment.

“Trial started this morning,” Brody grunted. “DA thinks it won’t take more than two weeks.”

I frowned, sure I’d heard him wrong. Trials like this always took longer than that, unless they plea bargained. There’d only been one case in my entire career where the court proceedings had lasted less than fourteen days. “Two weeks?”

“Yep.” I heard some shuffling over the line. “We have a solid case, so it’s just a waiting game now. As soon as he’s sent down, Belle will be safe, and you can come home.”

Home. I wasn’t sure where home was anymore. When I was a teenager, home was with my mom. We may have lived on one of the roughest, poorest blocks in the neighborhood, but I never went without. Mom always said she was too good for the likes of the people around us, and she acted like that too. She’d stick her nose up in the air and ignore the people around her. It rubbed off on me in a way people didn’t like, and that was how I’d learned to defend myself. When people had an impression of you they didn’t like, they made it known any way possible, and for me, it was by older kids trying to bring me down a peg or two.

Right up until the day she died, I only fought back when I absolutely had to. And then the year I turned fifteen, she passed away suddenly, and from that point, I drifted from one place to another, becoming angrier and angrier by the day.

I wasn’t sure anywhere would feel like home. I hadn’t felt that for over twenty-five years. But as I watched Belle sit back on the sofa with a small smile on her face, I knew she gave me the sense of home. I felt at peace when she was near me, and my raging thoughts quieted when she touched me. She didn’t look at me like the monster I was inside. She didn’t see the invisible blood on my hands from the men I’d killed. She didn’t see the scars on my knuckles from the fights I’d both won and lost. She didn’t see any of that. She just saw Ford, the man who would protect her at any cost.

When I was away on jobs, Belle would be one of the first people I’d want to see afterward because she was the closest thing to family I had. But now…now I wasn’t sure. Half of my mind was stuck on how I’d seen her for her entire life, but the other half couldn’t stop thinking about the noises she made when we kissed, or the way her body felt pressed against mine.

I was at a crossroads, knowing I should have taken the left turn, but when it came to Belle, I would always take the right.

“Ford?” I shook my head at the sound of Brody’s voice. Fuck. I’d been thinking about his daughter while I was on a call with him, and that was the crux of this situation. Belle had me all out of sorts

, and I didn’t know where I was landing. She made me forget where I was, and that wasn’t good for anyone, not when people relied on me to be observant.

“Sorry,” I murmured, and I had no doubt they were all surprised. I never apologized…for anything. “What did you say?”

The silence stretched between us, and then he said, “Spring break. The lake house.” I closed my eyes as I thought about the plan for next week. The lake house was a tradition Brody and Lola had set up years ago, but I didn’t think they’d be doing it this year, not with everything that was going on. But maybe that was a reason to do it. We needed to come together and remember why we did what we did. “Asher, Lola, and I are going up on Thursday evening.”

I cleared my throat. “Belle has class Friday morning, but we’ll come up afterward. Should be there late evening.”

“Got it,” Brody grunted. “The rest of the guys are coming up Sunday.” Brody huffed over the line. “I need a break. I swear this case has aged me twenty years.”

I heard a snort, and then Kyle quipped, “Don’t blame that gray hair on the case, old man. It’s just your genes.”

“Fuck you, Ky,” Brody barked back, but there wasn’t anything behind it. These guys had worked together for over thirty years, and I’d been working with them for twenty. We had a banter most people didn’t understand. We had to find funny in situations that would destroy us otherwise. The job we did was shadowed in darkness, but we all needed light in our lives.

A grin spread on my face as I leaned back against the headboard of Belle’s bed. I was aware that things were moving at lightning speed, but I couldn’t help myself. I’d never given myself to anyone the way I did with Belle, and although that should have scared me, it didn’t. She was the light to my darkness, and I needed the light more and more as time went on.

Something on my laptop screen moved as I listened to Ky and Brody fling insults back and forth, and I pushed closer to see what it was. The front door opened, and then Justin and Curtis waltzed in, and my nostrils flared.