Love Renewed (Entwined Hearts #3) (22 page)

“Fuck,” I growl low. Knowing the rabbit hole just got deeper.

I’ve been home just over a day and have decided to push past my jetlag, opting instead to go out. I want to see Jenson’s office as well as his apartment. I need to see them for myself. The situation occurred at his house. That’s what they’ve told me. Although their version of events is different to what I believe, they say he had Will, Lok and Dex meet him here, with the intention of taking them down, but I’m not convinced. Whatever happened Lok was killed, and there were three bullets found, one coated in blood. They tell me that they haven’t yet managed to find out whose blood it is. Although the intel I’ve received isn’t necessarily viable. It doesn’t matter, though, I would lay my life on the fact that he’s been taken by one of the agents. It would be the only way they could get the jump on him. Jenson’s forty not ninety. There’s no way someone got the best of him unless he trusted them. He taught me everything. There is no one better. Except me. And I’m only better because he was my trainer. My fists clench as I think about my mentor, teacher and sometimes my family. When I had nobody, he was there. I won’t ever forget that. He’s saved my arse on more than one occasion. I owe him my life at least twice over. If someone has hurt him, I will make them suffer.

Entering his office, the same office in which we discussed the missing disk only weeks ago, I notice nothing strange. Everything is as it should be. Opening his PC, I navigate around his desktop and through his files. Nothing untoward. Next I open the safe. Money, a gun and various passports. Just basic essentials. I know enough about Jenson, including passwords and keycodes to allow me entry into his things. Some have been freely given. Some I’ve learnt for myself. It seems, however, that there are one or two that I’m still missing as I try to unlock files on his private laptop. I decide to take it with me and hack it from home. It shouldn’t be too hard to break, but my time here is limited.

Glancing at my watch I close the door, leaving the office exactly as it was. Slipping into the stairwell I run down the eighteen flights of stairs until I reach the foyer. Placing the laptop on the floor I carefully open the door. The night guard is, as I suspected, asleep in the break room. His head tipped back on a chair and his mouth hanging open saliva slipping down his chin. The other guard is checking the floors. He should be on floor sixteen right now, but I need to take into account that he may be running a little early which means he could reach the eighteenth floor and start his descent back down here in the elevator at any moment.

Carefully I move across the foyer and around behind the security desk. There are at least a dozen monitors showing different places in the building. I can see the second night guard has now hit the top floor. I need to make this quick. Accessing the main server and then the video feed, I carefully rewind all the reels for ten minutes and restart. There will be a blip in footage if anyone checks. The likelihood of anyone watching is minuscule, but now, if they do, I won’t be in their line of sight. I move fast grabbing the laptop and descending the stairwell to the basement, as I do so I hear the tell-tale rumble of the elevator which means I made it in time.

Creeping along the blind spots in the basement. Finally, I reach the hidden exit point. Jogging the twenty yards to the underground is easy as fortunately only drunks and homeless people are out at this time of night, and neither pay attention to me. Having the underground so close to Jenson’s offices was a deliberate action on his part. Knowing if there were a need to escape, then the underground would cut off any GPS signal. This laptop will hold a GPS tracker, they would have installed one and activated it when he went missing. I know they will be aware of movement, but they would have lost the trace as soon as I got down here, and that should give me enough time to get home and pull the laptop apart to remove the tracking device. They will pick the signal back up before I destroy it, of that I have no doubt, but it should buy me enough time to hack into the laptop and get over to Jenson’s place before they descend and rip my home apart. It will also mean they’ll be distracted, tearing through my place, so by the time they realise I’m at his home, I should be out. His place will be monitored, though, they will have surveillance. It’s nearly three am now. I need to wait a few hours until it’s early morning. They will expect me at midnight, they will expect me at three am. They won’t expect me at six am as the day is about to break. So that’s when I’ll go.

“Fuck!” I shout, throwing the laptop across the room. It smashes against the forty-inch television in the lounge and bounces to the floor. Twenty minutes ago, I pulled the GPS out of the laptop. Fifteen minutes ago, I put it back together and ten minutes ago I managed to download everything onto a memory stick. But five minutes ago, while starting to wipe the hard drive I saw a glimpse of something. It was a photo, I saw it for about three seconds. Those three seconds felt like a lifetime. Three seconds where I saw a younger Nova. A Nova I thought had disappeared on me. A Nova, who had ripped out my heart. A Nova, who was pictured walking along high street hand-in-hand with my foster brother Ryan.

I’m so pumped. I should be nervous. I can feel butterflies in the pits of my stomach, but I keep pushing them down. I know Dane will want to see me. He loves me. Words or not. He does. I need to hold him. I want to feel his arms wrapped around me. Smell his unique mixture of cologne and mint. I miss his laugh, his smile, but I think mostly I miss his eyes. He always bares himself to me, and that’s probably the thing I love the most about him. He doesn’t hide anything from me. I see everything in his eyes and he allows me that gift.

I arrived in the UK last night and went to Pea’s. Thankfully both her and Con welcomed me with open arms. I knew they would, but a small part of me was still edgy about staying in their home. I would have gone to a hotel, but honestly, the last minute plane ticket sucked up the leftover credit card space I was saving for Christmas.

I tried to call Dane, but his phone was still switched off. After lying in bed restless for about an hour, I finally fell asleep and ended up sleeping like a log, only to wake up ridiculously early. But I’m not complaining as it means I can go over to Dane’s now and have more of a chance of catching him. It’s unlikely he’s going to be up and out before seven in the morning. Leaving a note in the kitchen for Pea, I walk to the local high street and manage to take some cash out of an ATM then signal a passing black cab. I love coming to London because I always get at least one ride in a black cab. I adore them. They’re so British and now I think I know what has always drawn me to them. My memories are still fuzzy in some places, but I’m fairly sure my dad drove a black cab. I’m desperate to gather all my history. I know that I’ll finally be safe to collect it, if I can find it. Dane wouldn’t let anyone hurt me anymore. I give the cab driver Dane’s address and sit back closing my eyes and forcing myself to let my body relax.

“Can you stop just a little bit away, on his road but not outside the actual house? I just…I need a minute,” I stumble over my words.

“Course love,” he answers his voice gruff.

It feels like only seconds and the car slows to a stop. Thanking the driver, I get out and pay the fare. Standing still for a moment, I look around me, taking in the houses. They are all different and yet they match somehow. All large, some slightly imposing, some just look like they’re ready for a big family. The tree-lined street is wide and considering it’s London it’s actually quiet and calm. On a day like today, when the sun is high in the sky and the white clouds few and far between, it almost feels serene. The leaves are starting to fall as it’s coming to the end of October and there’s a chill in the air, but not so much that you would need a coat.

I check the house numbers as I walk down the street. When I arrive at Dane’s home, I take a deep breath and use the one meditation class I took to try and centre myself. Funnily enough, that doesn’t help much. But I smile and take the last few steps up to his large door. Reaching out I grab the heavy knocker and release letting it thump. While waiting for the door to open, I’m sure I hear voices, which makes me uncomfortable. I don’t want to have this discussion with other people in attendance. It takes a moment for my brain to catch up and realise that other people in the house at this time in the morning must mean that he’s had company last night. My stomach turns at the thought. Before I realise it, I find myself taking a step back. I’m not sure if I want to be sick or run, but all thoughts flee my mind when the door is swung open. It’s then I realise I should have let my instinct guide me. I should have run. The guy in front of me is definitely not Dane. He’s shorter, stocky, has scruffy blond hair and dark, menacing eyes. None of that makes my heart drop. It’s the gun in his hand that scares me.