by CR Robertson
“The past is no longer asleep, and the dead are starting to awaken. Matteus is already panicked by my re-emergence, so expect a recall by the Council. Keep your eyes open and ears to the ground, Xavier, because sooner or later that Council will burn, and I’ll piss on its ashes.”
He didn’t bother to look back, closing the door behind him quietly.
“What did all that mean?” Cassandra asked.
“No idea, but we’re all leaving tomorrow. This building is no longer safe. At least no one knows about the estate since it was bought through one of my alias names. He’s right about one thing: if we’re not Xavier and Cassandra Bartholomew, then no one will know where to find us.”
Her arms snaked around my waist. “I’ve run from this all my life, and now it feels like the past has finally caught up with me.”
I kissed the top of her head, staring at the door. “What did he say to you when he hugged you?”
“He said a series of numbers, although I have no idea what they mean.”
“Let me get the guys, because they are the only people in the world that I trust with your safety apart from me.”
“What about Megan?”
“We’re all going. There are plenty of rooms. I think we need to get Uncle Lucas involved, since I trust him with my life. Start packing our stuff, baby, while I try to decipher this mess with the guys. Make sure you memorise those numbers.”
Cassandra went into our room where Megan still sat beside the window. Jordan and Ash waited for me in the other living room I rarely used.
“Do we want to know?” Jordan asked between grated teeth.
“Probably not, but we’re all going on a road trip. We’ll leave at first light tomorrow, so best pack what we’ll need for a new base of operations.” For the first time in a long time I felt uncertain about the future. The hand of death had finally caught up with me and currently breathed down my neck and sent a shiver down my spine.
***
Chapter Fifteen
Cassandra
I spent my entire adult life looking over my shoulder. Over time, I learnt not to buy items that couldn’t be packed quickly and easily. Xavier told me only to pack the essentials since he’d been periodically moving stuff to our new home. Half his suits and clothes had disappeared. He’d made me pack a suitcase of my stuff every time he was passing the area on business.
We were in London because it was convenient and central. Now we were setting up a new basecamp.
Jordan arrived earlier with a van which was filled with computer equipment and suitcases from all of us. A motorbike was in the back of it as well. When we left, it was to look as if we were going shopping or to the gym. Megan went with him to swing past her apartment and collect the rest of the belongings she needed for our road trip.
I sat staring out the window at the view that had come to comfort me in recent weeks. Since I was so lost in my thoughts, I jumped when Xavier’s arm wrapped around my growing waistline. From being barely noticeable, it seemed like overnight I looked pregnant. Something that seemed to amuse my husband since he kept touching my stomach.
“Everything is nearly packed,” he said against my throat, his lips skimming my sensitive flesh.
“Yeah, there are only a few bits and pieces left in case we need them here.” I loved our apartment, and the thought of leaving it made me feel queasy.
“This is still our home in London,” Xavier said as if he read my mood. “We’re just shifting our move to the country forward.”
“I just like the thought of the doctor being close at hand here.” The idea of giving birth terrified me and I generally tried to put it to the back of my mind. Now all my fears seemed to be coalescing into a focal point that I wasn’t sure that I could face.
“She’ll be on speed dial and we should be back closer to the birth.” His arms squeezed me, and his forehead pressed into my shoulder. “You need to relax, Cas.”
“As a child, I never knew any different, but as an adult who studied law, I knew what happened to me wasn’t right. There was nothing I could do about it—who would believe someone who was supposed to be dead? Now I need to face the fact that my family was slaughtered, and I should have been included.” Taking a deep breath, I met his eyes in the reflection in the window. “My father was in the Council and should have been safe, but someone targeted him and his family. What if the same thing happens to us, Zee? What if it’s our little girl, left on a country road holding her dead sister’s hand.”
He engulfed me in his heat, lifting me into his arms. “Not going to happen, Cas. Jay, Ash, and me aren’t the same lazy businessmen who hide within the Council. We’re the ones who take the fight to the door of whoever is our enemy. If that turns out to be the Council, they need to start watching their backs, because none of us will stop until every single one of them has vanished like Malcolm.”
I burrowed deep into the heat of his arms. “I can’t lose you, too.”
He grabbed my chin between his fingers, forcing me to look at him. “Not going to happen, baby. I told you that this was forever. I meant it. I want to build a treehouse with our son, feed the ducks in the pond with our daughter, have a life with my wife.”
“Dad wanted that too…”
“That may be true, but I promise you that I will do everything in my power to ensure that it happens.” He kissed the tip of my nose.
“So what happens in the morning?” I asked in an attempt to try and move my brain from the sorrow that was threatening to crest over me in waves.
Xavier sighed, and carried me over to the sofa to settle us both on it. “We need to check the safety deposit boxes to see what breadcrumbs have been left. You know what should be in there, so we’ll look to see what your uncle wants us to see.”
“And the other box that requires two keys?”
“I don’t know if we have time to get to all of them, it would have been quicker and less noticeable on bike.” I opened my mouth, but he shook his head at me. “Not going to happen, so don’t even think about it.”
“We can use the tube to most of them. That’s what I used to do, and let’s be honest, no one is going to suspect a playboy billionaire to be using the tube to get across London.”
Xavier stared off into space, chewing the side of his mouth. “It’s possible. The security is ridiculous, but possible.”
“Hooded tops and caps cover a multitude of sins and help avoid CCTV when you travel. Big sunglasses are an advantage too.”
“We could buy a backpack to put all the stuff into…” he agreed.
“And cheap hooded tops so that no one suspects that it’s us.” I bumped him with my shoulder. “One last adventure before we retire to a boring life in the country.”
“Life with you is never boring,” he retorted with a delightful pout.
“We could make this work,” I encouraged. “Since Jay is already at the house, we can enlist Ash like that night at the auction.”
Xavier rolled his eyes at me since that night didn’t turn out as planned.
I knew I’d won when he got his phone and started texting on it. They never planned anything without all of them being involved. He became engrossed in his phone, so I turned on the TV to watch nonsense in the background.
“Do you still have the keys or were they in the van with Jay?”
I lifted a long chain from around my neck and jangled it in his face while still watching a documentary on serial killers. He narrowed his eyes at me as if suspecting I planned this all along. In reality, I just wanted to keep them with me.
Xavier’s phone rang and he lifted it to his ear. “Honestly, Jay. Ash and I are going to throw a few diversions up for anyone tracking me from here. Yeah, I know you have your bike with you. What about Megan? Oh, she didn’t look upset earlier. Hold on and I’ll ask.” He held the phone away. “Is Megan upset with Jay?”
“Yep. He kept that he was a homicidal maniac from her,” I replied, still glued to the documentary.
“
You hear that? Yeah, she’s watching some crap about how to create a serial killer.” A laugh followed. “Imagine them hiding in plain sight.”
“You’re being a dick,” I informed him in a sing-song voice. “All three of you are psychopaths.”
“Jay says he’s a sociopath, for your information.”
I glared at Xavier’s smiling face for two seconds and pointed to the TV. “The difference is negligible.”
“Gotta go, Jay. We’ll chat in the morning.”
Xavier slid down further into the sofa, settling me between his legs, with my head on his chest. “Why are we watching a show about serial killers?”
“I’m trying to understand my husband.”
“Since when was I a serial killer?”
I propped myself up to stare at him. “Have you killed more than one person, and did you use the same MO?”
He shrugged and nodded.
“Then you’re a serial killer. Congratulations.”
“Do I get a membership badge?”
“Nope, maybe a documentary one day.”
“Fair enough,” he commented. “Do you want snacks?”
My wide grin was my reply since my waistline was no longer a concern for the next few months.
“Okay, let me get some snacks and then I’ll see if I can pick up a few pointers on how to become infamous.”
“Is Megan okay?” I called after him since my phone was still sitting in splendid isolation in disgrace because it received a dick pic.
“She threw the vase in the kitchen at Jay.”
My eyebrows flew up. “Hopefully not my sunflower one. That’s my favourite.”
“Jay could have been injured,” Xavier pointed out.
“If he’s bitching on the phone to you, he’s fine.”
Xavier held up a bag of Doritos and another of popcorn.
“I’m eating for two.”
His smile made butterflies emerge in my tummy and my heart beat faster. “I’d best bring both then, since I don’t want Bubble getting hungry.”
I sat up and clapped my hands for him to throw a bag, ripping it open to grab a handful of snacks.
“You sure there’s only one in there?” Xavier nodded to my tummy. “We did have a lot of sex those first few weeks. I was nearly dehydrated from the amount of my cum you were wearing.”
I shoved him and he flashed me that panty-melting smile as he filled his mouth with popcorn. Settling himself to watch my new favourite series, he dragged me beside him and tucked me in.
Warmth spread in my chest since I finally realised this was the type of relationship I wanted. Not just amazing sex, but companionship and friendship as well. Xavier had demolished every barrier around me and rebuilt my life with him firmly in the centre of it.
***
Chapter Sixteen
Cassandra
“I hate you.”
Xavier’s grin contradicted me.
How did a man used to wearing designer suits and fitted clothes look so damn good in ripped jeans and a black hooded jacket? He had a baseball cap on backward and sunglasses to hide his eyes. He was drop-dead gorgeous with his scruff since he hadn’t shaved in a few days.
I pulled at my own dark-red hooded top and felt frumpy in comparison. My hair was piled up in a messy bun and my eyes hidden with a huge pair of sunglasses that would mess with facial recognition.
Xavier grasped my hips and dragged me against him. We were currently “sight-seeing” in London with Xavier adopting a perfect American accent. He made it more realistic by making us take selfies in front of landmarks. Jordan was somewhere in the background, dressed similar to Xavier and jamming security feeds before we arrived at each safety deposit location. Ash chatted away in all our ears as I decided I wanted to be part of the gang.
Jordan had glared at me, Ash rolled his eyes, and Xavier gave me one of his smiles that made me make stupid decisions.
Over the years, the contents of the safety deposit boxes had been a comfort to me. I’d sat in the private booth and ran my fingers over documents that my dad had touched, trying to find a connection to the family I’d loved and lost.
We wandered into the next facility on our list.
“I’d like to view my box,” I said, producing the appropriate key.
“And I phoned to create a new account.” Xavier handed them his fake documentation. My eyes had bugged earlier when I saw he had an entire collection of aliases. I’d thought I was badass with one, and I didn’t even create it.
The girl lifted his passport, but her eyes were glued on my husband. I fought the desire to poke her in the eye or close her mouth. Normally I could walk in and out of these places with no one noticing me.
My discreet cough made Xavier’s lips twitch. He may be used to these reactions from hormonal women, but I wasn’t. The woman cast me a glance, her gaze assessing me. Her wrinkled nose said she found me wanting.
Xavier turned his back to her and tugged my back against his stomach, his arms wrapped around me, and chin propped on top of my head. He tended to do this every time I felt insecure, almost as if he was subtly telling me he had my back.
“Your box has been arranged, Mr. Black. Did you want it brought up?”
“Yeah, we’ll view both boxes together.” He flashed her that smile that caused her to forget the protocol of viewing boxes separately.
This was the third box we’d visited. At the first facility, it surprised me to discover he’d organised another box. He moved all the paperwork into the new one. “Best to remove temptation,” he explained.
Xavier watched silently as I checked all the paperwork and other contents that were precious to me, carefully moving them to their new location.
“That’s new,” I said, handing him a few pieces of paper. He’d already photographed everything on his phone on a previous visit.
Xavier photographed the new documents and put them back into the old box. “Let’s not contaminate what your dad left behind,” he said in explanation.
I didn’t question his actions because he knew more about keeping us safe than I did.
He reached into the backpack he had and dropped a pouch into my new safety deposit box.
“What is it?”
“The jewels from the auction. I still had them, and figured this was as good a place to hide them as any.”
“Why this box?”
“Your mum’s jewellery is in this one.”
I sat back and looked at the box. “She always wore her engagement and wedding rings. I never worked out how they were in here and not on her the night of the accident.”
“I’ve been looking into it and think they were making a run for it. The police files say there was packed luggage in the boot.” Everything in the room stilled around me until there was only the words Xavier spoke left. “Maybe she put her jewellery and rings into storage to come back for them at a later date? Was her ring recognisable?”
The closed jewellery box stared at me in accusation because I had never been able to open it before. I knew it was her engagement ring since I’d seen the box a thousand times at the side of her bed. It was the last piece of her that had been untouched by time.
I chewed the side of my mouth, my gaze locked on that red velvet box with a gold clasp. “The last time I saw it was when it was on her finger. I’ve never been able to open the box.” My fingertip touched the top of the box.
“It’s fine, Cas. You don’t need to open it now.”
My eyes finally came up to meet his. “I never had the strength to do it on my own. But I’m not on my own anymore.”
His fingers threaded through mine on the table. “You never will be again.”
It was a tiny box but felt like it weighed a tonne when I lifted it. Kimberley and I used to play with her jewellery and make-up when we were young. Emotion formed a ball in my throat even as I tried to swallow the tears that were beginning to form.
A perfect pale pink stone surrounded by diamonds that also ran into the st
art of the band. Her wedding band was platinum with stones inlaid to match the pale pink stone.
“Fucking hell. Yeah, that’s recognisable.”
My eyebrow arched in question.
“That’s a pink diamond, a big one. Worth more than a house.”
“Oh.” My lips formed a circle. I’ve never considered what the stone was before.
“Anyone who’s seen that would know it was unique and who owned it.” Xavier continued. “If you were changing your identity, then leaving something like that behind would make sense.”
My fingertip traced over the stone, a tear falling down my cheek as I remembered it on my mum’s finger.
“Cas, there’s something else you need to know.”
I tried to blink the tears away, stilling as Xavier brushed them away with his knuckles. If I didn’t look at him, then he wouldn’t erode another memory of them.
“The reason the Council didn’t know they were dead was that the family in the car that night were not Frank and Elise Jenkins and their daughter Kimberley. They had new names and passports. It was probably why the authorities never knew there should have been another girl in the car that night.”
They were running from an unseen enemy, my father taking us away to start a new life far from something that he feared. That fear had been warranted considering that they ended up dead.
“There are newspaper reports from the time about the family dying in a freak one-car accident. They weren’t driving your dad’s car, and were carrying fake documentation, so no one in the village knew it was them. Your dad’s business partner seems to have taken care of everything else, including the funerals. He was the only one I can find who knew that your dad was escaping. The gravestone went on a few years after their deaths.”
A vague memory of standing at the fresh graves flitted through my mind. He was right, there hadn’t been a stone to tell the world who was buried there. The next time I visited, I was an adult and the stone had been present on their grave.
