Love Renewed (Entwined Hearts #3) (23 page)

I still can’t get that photo out of my head. What the fuck does it mean? Why does it even fucking exist? I need to focus on the task at hand, but it’s hard. This is bigger than just me. I have Pea and Con to think about. They know about Pea and Saul that they’re my siblings, but more than that, they know I’ve become close to them. My sloppiness has brought their safety into question. I should have waited until I was out to try and form a relationship, but I was selfish, and couldn’t wait, now their lives may be in danger. I already called Saul last night and asked him to stay on his honeymoon until I tell him to come back. One thing I’ve learnt about my brother in the last few months, when he trusts you it’s one hundred fucking percent. Which means when I asked him to stay out there without asking questions, he just said “okay.” Like it was that easy. Once again I find myself in awe of my little brother and just a little more proud. Now though, I need to wrap this up and get to Pea’s. I need to find a way of making her safe and I can feel the memory stick burning a hole in my pocket.

I search through Jenson’s home. They met him in his lounge. But he wasn’t alone, I can see the struggle in the bedroom, and this concerns me. He had been dating Hilary on and off over the last ten years. She’s a petite, quiet, understated woman. Mousy brown hair which sits on her shoulders and brown eyes. To me she’s average, but I think that’s what Jenson liked about her. That she was normal. In the world we live in, normal is what we strive for. She was a nice woman. Polite, friendly and always had a smile. I keep using the word was, because if she was with him in the bed then she’s already gone. That’s going to kill him if he’s still alive. Although my interaction with her has been limited, I know that whenever they were apart it was because Jenson didn’t want her tangled in our world, because of exactly this reason. Our worlds can’t mix, and when you let them touch the colours run, they seep into each other. You get beauty for a moment in the dark, but then eventually the dark takes over the light. That’s why we always keep ourselves away from others. While everyone else is making friends, forging relationships, we strive to
not
make connections.

Finishing my checks and realising that whatever has happened there are no answers here, I leave and make my way to Pea’s house. Checking the time I see it’s only just after seven am, she’ll probably be sleeping, but I have to wake her. It’s not safe to leave her unprotected, she needs to be aware of what’s going on, more importantly Con needs to be aware so he can protect them. When I arrive, I knock as quietly as possible, just enough to wake someone. I need to alert them to my presence, but I don’t need to tip off anyone else. They’re bound to have people sitting out the front of her house, but the back is surrounded by trees so their view will be hindered. Parking in the back street and jumping the fences was the only way. So as I stand at her back door, I’m over the fucking moon to see her face peer through the glass. Quickly she opens the door and ushers me in.

“Dane!” she snaps.

“I’m sorry Pea. It’s just, I needed—”

“She’s not here,” she cuts me off with words that instantly freeze the blood in my veins.

“Who’s not here?” I speak slowly and quietly as Pea’s eyes widen at my sudden anger which I’m trying really fucking hard to control.

“Libby,” she whispers.

“Pea, where’s Con and Eleanor?” I ask, knowing that I might lose my shit at any moment. Pea points upstairs and then her voice quivers.

“W…What’s going on Dane?”

“Sunshine, be very clear. Where is Nova, and when did you last see her?”

She nods and I can see her hand tremble. I know she has no idea why I’m so mad, but I also sense that she’s not trembling because she’s scared of me. It’s more because she can tell there’s something bigger going on and she’s frightened of what it could be.

“She came here last night, she wanted to see you, Dane.” I feel my heart trying to smash through my ribcage, the pure force of how quickly it started to thump. “S..she..she left a note. I mean…I heard the front door close this morning, she was quiet, but I still heard her. I came down ten minutes later, and she’d left this note.”

I take the note and read the words, each one slicing me deeper.

Pea,

I don’t know how long I’ll be gone today. Hopefully, I won’t be back!

I’m going to get him, Pea. I’m going to get my forever.

Love,

Libby.

“She went to my house,” I whisper and Pea looks up at me her eyes searching for answers that I can’t give her. “Fucking hell!” I shout and punch the cupboard, my fist going straight through and blood instantly seeping to the surface of my torn skin.

“What the fuck, Dane?” Con shouts from halfway down the stairs.

“It’s okay, Con, honest. Just stay with Eleanor, okay? Please?” Pea coaxes and Con nods his head, but his eyes are narrowed. He sighs and makes his way back upstairs.

“They’ll have her,” I tell Pea.

“Who?” she asks.

“Whoever is trying to kill me, whoever is trying to kill Jenson!” I’m talking to no one and everyone at the same time. I just can’t stop the anguish now.

“What? Who is trying to kill you…Dane?” Pea is raising her voice, her hands on her hips.

“They’ll have her,” I say again sinking to my knees.

“Wait…who are you? What are you doing in Dane’s house?” I know I need to keep him talking. I’m outside, and that means I have a chance of escape, there’s no way he’s getting me into that house. It’s daylight now, albeit early morning, if I can just think for a second without the alarm going off in my head, warning me of the imminent danger, then maybe I stand a chance of getting away. It’s a long shot I know, but I’m not going down without a fight.

“Do you know where he is?” His voice is slightly accented and has a deep tone, rumbling rather than talking. I shake my head.

“No, sorry. I’m just going to go, I’ll come back later,” I say edging backward.

“Why would you want to leave the party, pretty lady? I’m sure we can find Dane together.” As he speaks I hear a car pulling up, but I’m too scared to turn around and see if it could be a help.

“No, no, it’s okay. I’m tired and not in the mood to party.” I try to smile at him, doing everything in my power to give myself a few more minutes. All at once he reaches forward to grab me and I dodge his advances. As I turn around ready to run, he grabs my left shoulder and pulls me backward. I spin on my heel, simultaneously pulling my right arm back as I do. Then as I turn I punch him in the face. His hand drops from my shoulder and I bring my left fist up in an uppercut and hit him again. My left hand is sloppy, but it still makes enough impact that his balance falters.

“You whore, you’re going to pay for that,” he shouts as I pull myself back from his reach. Twisting away, my foot moves forward and then something smashes me on the head.
Hard.
The force brings me down, but I don’t quite hit the floor before everything goes black.

My eyes flicker open. I must have been asleep as I’m laying down. The first thing I see is a blue cloth. It’s bunched up in front of my face. As I reach up my body to pull it away, I notice the grey walls of the room. It takes a few minutes for my brain to pull all the pieces together.

“Dane,” I cry sitting up and then grab my head from the movement.

“Who are you?” Another voice speaks and I automatically screech with shock. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” The male voice tells me.

I look behind me and see a man sitting in the corner. No that’s not right. He’s tied up in the corner, like a naughty pet. He’s broad and handsome, even with the cuts, bruises and blood that covers a lot of his body and face. He’s mixed race and it looks like his eyes are chocolate brown, but as they’re so bloodshot it’s hard to tell. I can see tattoos up both arms that disappear under the sleeves of his T-shirt and his jeans are torn.

“Shit,” he spits out. “You’re Elizabeth Burchall, aren’t you?”

“How do you know…wait, who are you?” I ask the first two questions in my head amongst the many.

“Fuck. Dane will either rescue you or die trying. They fucked up taking you, that’s for sure.”

I say nothing opting instead just to stare blankly. At this point I’m not sure what I have to say, the whole situation is so fucked up. So far-fetched. It’s like I’m living in an episode of
24.

“Who are you?” I try again.

“Jenson. You don’t know me. Dane does.”

“But you know me?”

He doesn’t answer in words, just nods. I assess my body. Strangely it feels okay, except my head which throbs. I tentatively touch my temple.

“Be careful, when they brought you in you had a fair amount of fresh blood coming from your head. I couldn’t get to you to check you over. That was hours ago now and the blood has dried. As I smooth my hand over my hair, I can feel the clumps of dried blood. Thankfully although aching, I don’t think I’m too badly damaged. I can see clearly enough, and I’ve woken up from being knocked out. Those are both good signs that there’s no lasting damage. I look at my hands and feet to see that I’m not bound at all, so I gently get up and walk around the room checking for exits.

“Be quiet when you walk around,” Jenson says and I glare over at him, not sure why he’s telling me what to do, when I’m trying to find a way out of here so I can get help. He smiles at me. “I can see why he’s always loved you,” he tells me and it stops me in my tracks.

“Who exactly are you and how do you know me?” I snap.

“Sorry babe, I’m not going to be telling you much. Everything that you need to know will have to come from Dane at some point. It’s not my place. What I will say is that I’ve known Dane for years and I trust him completely, plus he’s the best at what we do. If we stand any chance in this situation, it will be from him.”

I ignore his words and continue moving around the room, then, remembering his earlier comment I stop, turning to him. “Why did you tell me to be quiet? Nobody’s here but us.”

“Because if they hear you, then you’ll be tied up like me,” he tells me and I feel guilty at my earlier annoyance.

“Okay, thanks,” I mumble.

“Of course, I have to look after you as best as I can while we’re here. If I didn’t, then they might as well kill me now because Dane would do worse than those dicks ever could.”

“Dicks? You know the people who have kidnapped us?” I sit back down on the makeshift bed as I realise there are no exit points. There isn’t even a window in this room, so I have no idea whether it’s night or day.

“Yeah, I know them. They’re supposed to be part of my team. They’ve turned dark. I’m not sure what they want. They seem to have someone else with them too. Someone who isn’t part of my team. I’m not sure of the connection yet.”

“Do you need a key?” I ask.

Jenson pulls in his eyebrows and frowns. “For the cuffs,” I answer his unasked question and point at his hands.

“Yeah. I could pick it if I had a strong enough pin,” he tells me.

“Well, would a bobby pin from my hair help?” I ask sceptically.

“Yep, that would work,” he replies.

“You’re freaking kidding me, right? I mean that’s like the shit they say in movies to get people out of sticky situations,” I say laughter in my voice.

“No. Absolutely not. You just have to look on YouTube to see how to do it, babe. Now do you think you could remember where we are and give me a pin?” he asks and I nod fishing a couple out of my hair, pulling hairs in the process and cursing like a sailor.

“Seriously babe, you need to be quiet.” I narrow my eyes at him.

“And you need to stop calling me babe.”

He smiles back at me. “Noted. Now can you open the bobby pin, make it into an E shape but obviously without the middle line?” I nod and get into shaping the pin. “It doesn’t have to be perfect ba…Elizabeth, just rough. They could be down here at any moment,” he tells me and I nod passing him the pin.

“Libby,” I state. Jenson looks at me while fiddling with the cuffs behind his back. “It’s Libby now. I don’t go by Elizabeth much anymore.” Nodding at me, I hear a click as one cuff opens then quickly another click then both his wrists are free.

“Fuck that feels good,” he says rubbing his hands and stretching his arms.

“How do you know we’re down? I mean you said they could be down here at any moment. How do you know?”

They always go upstairs when they leave. The sound gets quieter and higher not lower and the lack of windows. It stands to reason we’re in a basement. If I were in their position, I’d put us in a basement. Less chance of escape.”

“Well, that makes me feel better,” I tell him sarcasm dripping from my words.

“You know most women would be crying right now, not throwing sass,” he tells me with a smirk.

“Yeah, well, I’m not most women.”

“Yeah, I already know that. But now I’m seeing it for myself,” he tells me and winks.

“So what do we do now?” I ask.

“We wait.”

“What do you mean, we wait? Wait for what?”

“We wait for world war three to commence.”

“Okay, you’re scaring me now. What is going on? Who’s trying to kill you? Who has Libby and why did she have a black eye when she came here last night?”

The last question from Pea gets my attention and I sit up straight, looking up at her from the floor. “What do you mean last night?” I ask, suddenly feeling vibrations simmering through my body.

“She came here last night,” she replies.

“Yes, but the black eye?” I choke out.

“Oh, well, I asked her and she said there’d been a disagreement the night before she came over here. She wouldn’t tell me any more, just said it was all sorted now.” I work my jaw back and forth trying to ease the tension that’s building inside me. Closing my eyes, I centre myself. This is what I’ve needed. Something to focus me. I’ve allowed myself a moment to fall apart. But that isn’t me, and now I need to do what I do best, what comes naturally. I’m going to pull these fuckers apart. By whatever means necessary.