Chapter One
Emma
It had taken me six weeks to get back to bloody London.
I was in New York with my mother when I got the note. The reminder that my work wasn’t done.
Francis Middleton is the worst of them. You cannot let him walk.
A year ago, this journey had started with a note just like this. Printed on heavy ivory card stock. That message had pointed me to the Elite, the secret society my brother would have been part of. The same secret society that had been responsible for his death. I’d gone to the only people I could for help. Ben Covington, East Hale, Drew Wilcox, and Bridge Edgerton. My brother’s closest friends.
They’d promised me retribution.
But now at the finish line, things had stalled. And instead of telling me something, anything, they’d gone silent and shuffled me away from London… presumably for my own safety.
But one, I didn’t need saving. And two, this note had found me in New York, so how safe had I been really?
East, Ben, and Bridge hadn't been kidding when they said they’d take care of everything. Bridge and the boys had bought my mother’s house, regardless of what it was actually worth, just like that and put it wholly in her name. As if it was nothing. And then they forced me back to the States with my mother. Which, God, I loved my mother, and it was good to see her. But it wasn’t for them to decide who I was or what I wanted to do. I wasn't a child anymore.
Hell, they’d even gotten me a dream job. But the whole time I was there, not a single word came about my brother, his killers, or what they were doing about the final one.
Which meant I had to take matters into my own hands. Which meant returning under cover of night so to speak…if I didn’t want the four assholes of the apocalypse to send me right back to my mother like a recalcitrant child.
I’d need to fly under the radar. And not tip them off that I was back. While I was still doing marketing work for my old company remotely, I'd also need a job here in London. I’d been careful though. My passport had been stamped in France, and then I'd taken the train. Immigration would mark that they'd seen me come through, but Bridge wouldn't have access to that. East’s fiancé, Nyla Kincade might with her Interpol connections, but I didn't think she'd rat me out like that.
The point was, they didn’t own me. I was the one who'd gotten them started on this vengeance thing to begin with, and now they wanted to kick me out of it?
Toby was my brother. I deserved vengeance just as much as they did. I deserved to be part of the takedown, but they’d tried to keep me out of it.
Well, not anymore.
I’d been watching Bridge for the last two weeks, and what I’d heard was true. He and Mina had broken up, so he'd been rambling around that house by himself. Sometimes, when he'd work late, he'd stay at his suite at the hotel. I'd been watching the house all day, and he still hadn't returned, so it meant he was very likely going to stay at his suite.
I parked my car and walked the block up to the house in Belgravia. I smiled to the security guard, who I recognized from the last couple of times I'd been there, and he said, "Oh, Miss Varma."
I flashed him a winning smile that said I belonged there. "Yes, I'm here to see Mr. Edgerton. Is he here?"
He shook his head. "No. Not according to the logs. He won't be returning this evening."
Even better. I would grab his laptop, have a quick look, and I'd be in and out before he even knew anything. Sure, he'd see me on the security cameras eventually, and the guard would tell him I’d been there, but I'd be long gone by then. And I’d stay hidden.
"Would I be able to go in? The last time I was here I left something behind, and I sort of need it now. I have the code."
The furrows of his brow eased before they even started to form. "Oh, you know the code. Please type it in here, and you may enter."
That was the thing about being forgotten. While we'd been meeting, we all had our own personal codes so as not to deal with security every single time we came. Even though Mina's had been changed, there was no reason to change any of ours. Bridge had simply forgotten that I had access to his house. Amateur.
I typed in my code and then said a little prayer to every god I could think of. I’d been raised Catholic, but I hadn't darkened the door of the church in at least fifteen years. But now, it seemed like as good a time as any to find my faith. When the screen lit green, he nodded and pressed his own code to open the gate. "Just use the same code for the front door and you're good to go."
"Oh, excellent. I won't be but a minute."
I went in swiftly, as if I owned the joint. Bridge thought he was so slick in keeping me away from all of this, but what he didn't understand was that I would not sit back like a little woman. Toby would have expected me to be a hundred percent myself. And this was me being myself. Bridge Edgerton could kiss my ass. He'd been telling me what to do for years, but I was done with being controlled.
When I let myself in the house, a giddy sense of excitement tripped over my skin as his scent hit me. No longer was there a hint of femininity in the house. No bowls of potpourri, but the scent of sandalwood lingered in the expanse. It made a part of me deep inside clench. I loved that smell. Why did he have to smell so good? Honestly, he was a pure asshole, but he smelled like a fucking delight.
I thought back to that one kiss we'd shared when we were kids. Possibly the hottest kiss I'd ever had in my life. But he'd walked away, vowing to never touch me again, which was fine, because I had zero interest in being controlled for the rest of my life.
Liar.
A quick search of the house told me his laptop wasn't there. And that's what I fucking needed. There was a prick at the back of my eyes as I resisted the urge to cry. No. All this meant was that I was going to have to go to his suite in the hotel. And that would take a little more ingenuity, but I wasn't giving up. Bridge Edgerton had another think coming if he thought I was just going to sit back and do as I was told.
Bridge
I hadn't been staying at the house lately. Suddenly, it seemed I had turned into Ben before Livy came along. I had a big fancy house and refused to stay in it. I’d only opted to stay in the house tonight because I had a meeting on this side of town in the morning. But I’d avoided my own staff by slipping in through the back during a shift change.
I wasn’t going to subject any of them to my mood.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
What's wrong is that the woman you thought you loved was hired by your fucking father.
It was like the old man would never cease to be a thorn in my side.
He wanted nothing to do with me publicly, but he still wanted to control me.
I grabbed the pillow and rolled over in the bed again. I was hot. Tight. Itchy. I just wanted out of my own fucking skin. Sleep was so far off in the horizon, I felt like giving up. I was in the process of rolling over again when I heard something in the other room.
What the fuck was that? It sounded like a light scraping noise.
I sat still, calmed my breathing, and waited. That was definitely a muttered curse coming from the living room of the suite.