Page 1 of Ruined

CHAPTER 1

MINA

The dream was always the same.

I stepped through the darkness, silent as a ghost.

The layout of the house was seared into my memory. I'd gone over the map more times than I could count, making sure it was embedded tight. Every room, every door, every corridor.

The only variable was the placement of furniture, and that was predictable. The couch under the window, dining table near the kitchen. 'Standard for today's living,' as those home design shows on TV called it.

The room where my target should be sleeping was at the other end of the house.

Some people in my line of work like to wake up their targets before they kill them. I didn't. It was a waste of time, and added another unknown variable to the situation. The target might wake quickly and set off some kind of alarm. Worse than that, they might offer more money than the hit out on them. That created conflict and uncertainty I had no time for.

Once I took a job, I saw it through until the end.

No, they'd never know I was coming.

I placed my gloved hand on the doorknob and started to turn it.

"Who are you?" a voice said behind me.

I turned.

What happened next was always a blur. I don't remember the knife going in, or… much of anything. I went from standing beside the door, to finding myself on the floor, holding the girl until long after she died.

"You shouldn't still be here."

Even in my dream, hearing Kurt's voice, looking up to see him, gave me chills. He loomed over me, dressed like I was, all in black.

"What did you do?" he demanded.

I had no answer. This was not what I'd come here for.

"Mina," he hissed. He grabbed my arm and tugged me to my feet. "We need to get the fuck out of here."

I let him pull me to the door and out into the night. The moment the cold air hit my face, I stopped.

"I need to finish what I started." I turned to go back in but froze at the sound of a scream from inside the house.

Kurt's grip tightened on my arm. "Too late." He huffed out a frustrated breath. "You fucked this up. Hell, Mina, you were trained better than this."

"It was an accident." But he was right. I had fucked it up. Badly. I was better than this. I'd never been sloppy before. Never killed anyone who wasn't my target. Especially not…

"Cry about it later," he snapped. "We need to go."

I nodded vaguely and followed him through the dark, to our waiting car. We just got inside when the front of the house lit up. Sirens wouldn't be long.

Kurt started the engine and drove away like we weren't in a hurry. Even if we were seen, we'd soon ditch the car and use another. We'd have to, to be sure we weren't caught.

"What the hell, Mina?" He glanced over at me.

"I don't know," I said, vague and numb. "I don't know what happened." I ran through it in my head, over and over, but all I found was a blank space between her seeing me, and her dying. I didn't remember moving toward her, but obviously I had. Her death was evidence for that.

"I'll tell you what's going to happen next," he said. "The Sparrow is going to have to disappear for a while. We'll put it out there that someone else was behind this tonight. With any luck, they'll buy it. Fortunately, at least one of us did the job they were there for tonight." He lifted a hand from the steering wheel and rubbed his chin.

I pressed myself down, smaller against the seat. I'd had a bad feeling about this job from the start. I was used to working alone. Kurt was there to hack into the computer system and get some information. I was there to take out my target.

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