1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Fury bubbled up and threatened to overwhelm me. ‘Easy, Peaches,' Greg murmured. ‘Breathe. We can't cause a scene here, not now. Not with all of these witnesses.'

He was right, dammit, but logic had no place in the haze of anger that was engulfing me.

I'm willing to try and kill them all if you are, Esme offered. Visions of her claws ripping into the Connection's officers' soft bodies flooded my mind. As I watched a pale-faced Jess being led away in handcuffs, it was hard to refuse Esme's offer of violence.

Soon, I promised her. Soon we will destroy them for this.

I watched as one of the officers smirked at Jess, his eyes lecherous and vile. ‘Do you know him?' I asked Greg tightly, pointing to the Connection creep who was now climbing behind the wheel of the car.

‘Randall.' Greg didn't elaborate and I knew that was bad news. If Greg knew him, it was for a reason; he knew all the movers and shakers, and he knew a lot of bad apples. Back in the day, he'd helped to manage Emory's information network. That Greg knew Randall was worrying because either he was a mover and a shaker or he was a rotten fucking apple. My money was on the latter. Everything about the asshole told me he was growing mouldy from the inside out.

‘Tell me,' I demanded.

Greg grimaced. ‘He's Anti-Crea. His father is high up in the Connection.'

‘Is his father Anti-Crea?' I was trying to focus on anything other than watching my best friend being driven away in a police car instead of celebrating her wedding day.

My heart ached for her. She'd looked so beautiful in her dress and she'd been about to have the wedding of her dreams until the Connection had arrived. And it was Elvira who'd arrested Jess – Elvira! My anger at her was whipping in my gut, making me want to do something vicious and hasty.

I like vicious and hasty, Esme purred. Let's do that.

I ignored her tempting words with effort. How I wanted to let her rip through our enemies, but Jess hadn't wanted her wedding to turn into a bloodbath and I was doing my best to respect her wishes, even if Esme and I were both chafing at the restriction.

‘Chances are good that Randall's daddy is Anti-Crea,' Greg said grimly. ‘But we haven't got any hard evidence.'

Evidence is for pussies, Esme spat. Let's just kill him and feed his corpse to Ares and Ivy.

Usually when she suggested that I was dead against it, but today I found that I wasn't. It was always a bad sign when I agreed with Esme about killing; we were yin and yang, and my morals tempered her blood lust, but at that moment my morals were on holiday.

Before I said or did anything I would regret, I turned and stalked over to Emory. He looked breathtakingly handsome in his tuxedo, but his eyes were full of agony. Goddammit, this wasn't supposed to happen! ‘Where do you need us?' I snapped. ‘What can we do?'

His hands were opening and closing; he was containing his own anger by a whisper. I longed to push him over the edge, to let him wreak the destruction that he was longing to bring about.

Emory took several long breaths before he spoke and I immediately recognised Jess's breathing technique. ‘I've messaged Nate,' he said tightly. ‘I'm hoping that his bond with Jess wasn't masked by the magic-cancelling cuffs like our mating bond was.' Jess had saved Nate's life, but in doing so she had inadvertently created a master–slave bond between them .

He continued. ‘Maybe he'll be able to find her.' When he looked at me, impotence and despair were swirling in his eyes. His fists were still opening and closing rhythmically, and the deep breaths were doing nothing to calm him. I wasn't surprised; I didn't feel calm either.

‘In the meantime I've got lawyers travelling to all the Connection headquarters. No matter where she's taken, a lawyer will be waiting for her. The Connection have nothing on her, nothing! This whole thing is spurious bullshit!' Anger crackled through the air. ‘We'll get witness statements to prove it and blow their case wide open. It's crap, and we'll make sure the whole world knows it.'

I was impressed that his brain was still functioning. If someone tried to take Greg from me, I'd be hip deep in bodies now. Emory was showing remarkable restraint and I supposed that, like me, he was doing it for Jess.

Amber DeLea marched up to us, an exhausted looking Bastion following in her wake. ‘What can I do?' she asked simply.

Emory's forehead creased in thought. ‘Did Jess show you her Connection badge back when she was deputised? A statement from you would go a long way towards helping her.'

Amber frowned. ‘No, she didn't. By the time we met, Stone had gone AWOL and she was no longer a deputy. And you need more than a statement from a witch, you need a statement from someone in a position of power, someone even the Connection would hesitate to piss off.'

She thought for a moment. ‘Nate's father, Lord Volderiss,' she said finally. ‘He's a well-known political figure, and he'll help us because of Jinx's connection to his son. Lord Volderiss must have seen her with the second triangle of the Connection because she was wearing it when she saved Nate's life. He'll remember.'

Emory nodded sharply and turned to his second, Tom Smith. ‘Get a statement drawn up for Lord Volderiss to sign confirming Jess was deputised as a detective of the Connection, then send copies to all the lawyers who are on standby.'

‘On it,' Tom Smith barked and moved away.

‘Chances are she'll be taken to the Connection headquarters in Liverpool,' Bastion said. ‘You want me to check there? Discreetly?'

Emory nodded and clapping the tired griffin on the arm. ‘Please. You go ahead – I'll follow by car.'

‘I'm coming with you,' I interrupted.

He nodded tightly, his eyes still black with rage. ‘I'd expect nothing less.' He summoned Jess's hellhounds. ‘Come on, Indy, Gato. Let's go and get her back.'

The sense of foreboding in my gut told me that it wasn't going to be that easy.