Page 7 of Ruined

Gianni sat around and clicked in his own seatbelt. "There's only one way he'd let Zeke fly in this. If he quits the band and comes back to the family."

"Where would he fit in?" I adjusted the armrest and propped my elbow. "I mean, he wouldn't take the place of you or Damon."

"Fuck no," Gianni agreed. "No one could replace us. Zeke is a good guy, but he's not going to go around crashing SUVs, or killing on Reuben's orders."

"Then why does Reuben want him to come back so badly?" I asked.

"Because he's family." Gianni shrugged. "He's also good-looking and charismatic. Everything I'm not. He could talk people into doing things without needing to threaten them. By the time they realised what was going on, he'd be long gone."

"I can see the value of that," I said. "What about Asher? Does Reuben want him to return to the fold?"

"He'd be welcome, if he brought Zeke back with him. As far as I can tell, they're a package deal. You can't get one without the other."

"That sounds like them," I said. It didn't seem like that changed at all since I was away.

"Also," Gianni continued, "if you wanted Reuben to welcome Asher, he'd do it. Rose or Dane too."

I wrinkled my nose. "Dane would love that. He'd do everything he could to make himself Reuben's right-hand. Or better yet, his heir."

Gianni smirked. "That would be an interesting picture. Dane DiMarco, the new head of the Brantley family. Over the twins' dead bodies. Not to mention Caleb, Joshua and Lucas. He better make sure they're good and dead first, or they'd be coming for him."

"I think it's better not to encourage him then," I said. That would result in a lot of bloodshed. When things escalated, innocent people tended to come under fire.

"If Dane starts to get too big for his boots, Reuben can always have the Sparrow deal with him."

Gianni had glanced out the window as he spoke and missed seeing me twitch in response. Even an assassin had to draw the line somewhere. I drew it at killing my own family, but to avoid all that bloodshed, I may have to consider it.

"I'm sure that won't be necessary," I said, my voice tighter than I intended.

Gianni's gaze swung back to me. "Sorry, I shouldn't make light of killing members of your family. You must miss them."

"I do," I agreed. Seeing my cousin Ric a couple of weeks ago felt surreal. At some point I'd be ready to see my siblings, but right now I had to focus on the job at hand.

"It's better they keep thinking I'm happily living a suburban life for now." The truth was going to shock the hell out of them.

Unless Asher changed a lot since I saw him last, it would rip his heart out. Rose too.

"You mentioned your family," I said carefully. "If you don't want to talk about them…"

He shrugged and steepled his fingers before pressing them to his lips. "My family is Italian. You probably figured it out from the look of this mug." He pointed a finger at his face. "They're up to their eyeballs in mafia shit. They'd prefer I worked with them than Reuben."

"Why don't you?" I asked.

He exhaled, long and slow. "I've never gotten along with them. They…" He searched for the words. "They don't give a shit who they step on to get what they want. They'll happily step on each other. If you can't even trust your family, then who the fuck can you trust?"

"The family you choose," I said.

He grinned behind his fingers. "Exactly. So I choose Reuben, Damon and you. And not them. Lucky for me, they don't live in Australia, for the most part. Also, Reuben was happy to sponsor me to join the Brotherhood."

I grimaced. "I shouldn't be surprised they're still around."

"The Brotherhood of Kings has been around for a few hundred years; they aren't going anywhere anytime soon," Gianni agreed.

"The Brotherhood, owning governments since the dawn of time," I said sarcastically. Although, that was the truth of it. "Are they letting women join yet?"

"Only as fillies." Gianni's smile was teasing, knowing he'd get a rise out of me. No woman was allowed to join the Brotherhood, but they could become a filly, offering sexual favours in the hope of catching the eye of a powerful man. My parents met that way. Reuben's parents too, probably.

I'd never been interested in hunting for a powerful husband, especially after what I heard about the Brotherhood. They tended to hand women around like they were a bag of chocolate pieces, to be shared, used, and degraded.

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