Page 4 of Run, Little Rabbit (Blood & Bonds #1)

Chapter Four

Echo

K ai and I have been friends since high school.

He transferred when we were fourteen, and we just clicked.

He was the new kid, and I was the daughter of the mob boss, but he didn’t seem to give a shit.

Everyone else pandered to me, but not Kai.

He’d happily tell me if I was being a bitch or if I was wearing something that didn’t suit, and I liked it.

I’d been missing that brutal honesty, and I appreciated him more for it.

“Why am I here?” Kai asks, eyeballing me from beneath his blonde brows.

He is also perceptive and impossible to hoodwink.

“To piss Veon off.”

“Oh,” he replies as he waggles his eyebrows. “Do we need to make sex noises and slam the bed frame against the wall?”

As per my father’s protocol, Veon slept next door, so he was near if I ever needed him. “No, just the fact that you’re here should be enough to bug him.”

Kai presses his lips to my neck and pulls me into his lap. “Or we could fuck for real. It’s been a while.”

It has, and there was a reason for that. “What happened to just being better as friends?”

His teeth nip my neck, and it does nothing for me. I’m too worked up over Veon and too over Kai to even think about going there. “Stop, Kai, I just…”

He stills, and a soft sigh falls from his plump mouth. I look into his honey-coloured eyes, and I see a spark of hurt. It’s only there for a moment, but maybe this moving apart wasn’t as mutual as he led me to believe.

“I’m sorry,” I say, brushing my thumb over the sharp curve of his cheek.

“I know,” he replies quietly, but it makes me feel a little guilty. Which is stupid. Kai is my best friend, and I don’t like that I’m hurting him. I rest my forehead against his and hold him close.

Kai wraps his arms around my waist, and his hands sweep over the arch of my spine. “I’m fine, Echo. I just miss you sometimes. Miss the connection we had. I know we’re still friends, but… I dunno. Maybe I’m just pining.” He huffs a little laugh, but it sounds stilted.

I open my mouth to respond, but the door to my room creaks. I snap my gaze over towards the sound, and my eyes lock with Veon’s.

I flinch.

Those blue eyes, the colour of cloudless skies and serenity, are filled with hate and heat.

My skin prickles with awareness, feeling the threat in his gaze, but I can’t look away, no matter how much his stare burns.

Veon’s top lip curls in a snarl before he shuts the door with a snap.

“Baby girl,” Kai says with a snort. “What did you do to piss him off?”

I climb off his lap and flop down on my bed with a groan. “I killed Bennie and stole his phone.”

“What?” Kai says sharply. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“Nope,” I reply, popping the ‘p’. “I saw an opportunity, and I took it. It wasn’t exactly the plan, but then the fool disappeared with a young lad, right in front of me.” I wasn’t going to let that stand, and if Kai thought otherwise, he really didn’t know me very well at all.

With a deep sigh, Kai lay down on his side next to me. “I can understand that, Echo. Really, I can, but getting rid of Bennie is a problem.”

I groan. “Not you, too. That’s what Veon said.”

Kai laughs, low and breathy. “Hate to break it to you, but he’s right. His death is going to piss off a lot of people, including your father and mine.”

Kai’s dad, Jace, works for mine and has done since the whole family moved over here from the States.

Jace, who looks like an older version of Kai with sandy blonde locks, honey-coloured eyes and a face that would make angels weep—I mean seriously, the guy is like 50 and hot as fuck—works as my dad’s hitman.

And he’s good. So good that no one really knows his confirmed kill list. Even Kai doesn’t, and Jace is training Kai to take over from him.

Something to do with family legacy and all that shit.

I bet if Kai had been born a girl, he wouldn’t be so lucky, though. Stupid archaic family traditions. I mean, is having a vagina really going to stop you from pulling the trigger?

It’s never stopped me before.

“Well, at least Dad won’t know it was me.” That was at least something of a saving grace.

Kai rubs his hands down his face and releases another sigh. “What are you going to do about the phone?”

I hit him with a flat stare. “Break into it, obviously.”

He groans. “Of course you are.”

“It’s got some serious encryption on it. Must be a lot of secrets on there.”

“Secrets that will probably get you killed, baby girl. Are you prepared for war?”

“War?”

His eyes darken like molasses. “Everyone is going to want to know what Bennie knew. One thing he was good at was finding information and knowing who to sell it to. You better be prepared for people to come looking for that phone.”

“Well, it might be worthless,” I state with a sigh. “I’ll figure out what to do with it in the morning.”

I’m not convinced that I will miraculously come up with a solution to the problem, but Mum always said that things would look better in the morning.

God, I miss her.

“Okay,” Kai whispers, interrupting my thoughts before they could descend into grief. “Let’s make some popcorn and watch some shitty horror movie.”

“Sounds good, but it’s my turn to pick.”

“Sure thing, baby girl. I’ll grab the snacks.” Kai jumps to his feet and heads out of the room, leaving me with the ever-growing worry that maybe this time, I went a step too far.

Conor and Cillian eyeball me from across the table. They both have matching smirks on their faces, which is always unsettling. If they’re enjoying something, then someone, somewhere has probably either just been killed or lost a limb.

Veon stands at my back, and Kai sits further down the table with Jace. A myriad of other faces are sat around the table, all men who work for my father. This can’t be good if my dad has pulled everyone together. Either shit is about to hit the fan, or this has something to do with Bennie.

The door slams open, and in walks my father.

Rory Quinn. I don’t look much like him, with my face bearing the more delicate lines of my mother’s elfin features, but the twins share the harsh lines and ruggedness that sit upon my father’s features.

They make his face look sharp and mean, like he’ll cut you just for looking at him funny, and his scowl seems especially deep this morning.

Fuck.

That means trouble.

I flick a glance towards Kai, and there’s a grim set to his mouth. Fuckity, fuck . This is absolutely about Bennie.

“If you’ve all finished, let’s begin.” Dad’s voice is irritated, his words clipped. “For those of you who haven’t heard yet, Bennie Walker was found murdered in the early hours of this morning.”

The silence in the room is deafening. Guess Bennie was more than mere middle management.

Dad’s eyes wander the room, looking at everyone individually. “Six left their calling card on the body; his phone is missing, and now there is a hunt on for Bennie’s secrets. We need to find it first.”

“Why?” I ask, knowing full well Veon has it in his breast pocket. He hadn’t been able to crack it last night, and we were on the way to an acquaintance of mine when Dad called the emergency meeting. Bet that thing is burning a hole in his pocket.

“Because I don’t want anyone else to have the information,” Dad says, seemingly more impatient than normal. Does he have secrets on there?

“There are murmurings Bennie was into young boys,” Jace says bitterly, his lip curled in disgust. “I think he got what he deserved.”

“Whether he deserved it isn’t the issue,” Dad snaps. “Somewhere this idiot’s phone is circulating with God knows what on it. We need to find it—”

“And then what?” Conor interrupts, a long finger tracing his top lip. “What happens then?”

Cillian cocks his head to the side like a creepy German Shepherd. “Do we open it? Sell the secrets or destroy it?”

Dad stares at his sons like they’ve gone crazy. Sorry, Dad, but that ship sailed a long time ago.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Dad’s eyes narrow slightly, the movement almost imperceptible.

The twins snort and shake their heads. Dad’s like me, though.

He’ll want to open that phone to know all the secrets on it and then figure out how best to use them.

Conor and Cillian couldn’t give two shits.

They just like to know what the plan is; otherwise, they go a little feral, and who knows what would happen then.

“What’s the princess doing here?” Conor asks Dad without even looking at me.

“Fuck you,” I reply.

“Language!” Dad barks. “I’ve asked Echo to join because she was one of the last people to see Bennie alive.”

Shit.

I feel Veon stiffen behind me.

“I was?”

“Yes,” he replies, his green eyes fixed on mine. “You were at Club Riot last night, weren’t you? With Verity and the others?”

I nod, because that was true. “I was. I hadn’t seen the girls in a while, and we wanted a catch-up.” And I needed an alibi, but I wasn’t telling my father that.

“Aww, did the princess need a playdate?” Cillian says drolly.

“No, I was just sick of seeing your ugly mugs,” I reply sarcastically.

That comment makes Conor look at me. He’s always been proud of how good-looking he and his twin are, as if it’s a purposeful mask he takes joy in.

A tool to get what he wants, whether it’s sex, information or something darker.

I also know that the pair of them have hidden a lot from our father, including how deep their psychopathy really goes.

Their pretty faces hide a lot of inner ugliness.

It’s a low blow, but I do like hitting him where it hurts.

“You take that back,” Conor seethes as he points his finger at me.

Veon steps closer, and the twins flick their gaze upwards in unison. You’d think that after growing up with them, I’d be used to it, but nope. When they do something at the same time, it’s still creepy as fuck.

“You should be grateful your little bodyguard is there to protect you,” Cillian says with a smirk.