Page 21 of Ruined

My body tensed, ready to defend myself.

Instead, she pulled out a phone.

"The pass code is four, three, two, one." She handed me the phone.

I frowned at her, then at the phone. "Okay." I tapped on the screen and entered the pass code. An app was already open on the phone. One that contained photos and videos.

I felt the blood drain out of my face. "Fucking hell, where did you get this?"

She shook her head and curled up again, the blankets up to her chin.

I shook my head and looked down at photo after photo of her. She couldn't have been more than eighteen.

A few candid ones showed her smiling and laughing with her siblings.

After those, were at least twenty of her lying naked, eyes closed. The bars of the cage were around her, the strap on her ankle. She looked peaceful, unaware she was about to wake up in hell.

I found myself clicking on a video, and immediately wished I hadn't. She was still unconscious, but Kurt was laughing, opening her legs and climbing on top of her…

I closed the video and turned off the phone. No wonder she'd unravelled. This would have brought everything back to her like a blade in her heart. Tore open wounds that were finally starting to heal.

"How did you get this?" I asked again. "Did someone send it to you? Let me guess, Kurt." He'd do anything to mess with her mind. He knew all the buttons to push to drive her over the edge. "How long have you had this?"

She didn't answer. I wanted to shake it out of her, but that might be the thing that broke her completely. None of that mattered as much as what we needed to do next.

I tossed the phone onto the bedside table and scooted over closer to her. "I saw you kill a woman. I know you killed that attacker the other night, before they could get to Reuben. You shot those other assholes in the foot. You might be the shadow, but you're a badass. Those photos, that was the old you. You survived all of that. None of that is your life anymore. You're here now, with us."

I placed the tips of my fingers on her shoulder. She twitched, but didn't flinch away.

"Someone took those photos," she whispered. "That video. Someone took them and didn't stop him. They stood there with that phone filming him while he…" She swallowed audibly.

"Do you know who?" I asked. Whoever they were, they'd be missing every finger they used to hold that phone if I got a hold of them.

She shook her head slowly. "I remember one of the men. A friend of Kurt's. His name is Stefan Lowe."

"He won't be a problem anymore," I said. "I just got a message from one of my contacts that he was killed tonight. It seems like someone took a contract out with the Sparrow to end him. I don't suppose you sent the Sparrow after him?"

I was joking, but something about her demeanour shifted slightly. Something that drew both my attention and my suspicion.

"Mina?" I tightened my grip on her shoulder slightly.

"People like Stefan make lots of enemies," she said, her voice empty. "He got what he deserved."

I frowned. "You didn't tell me how you got that phone. No one has been in or out of the house all night. I'd know if they had. They would have set off the alarm. Unless they turned it off. Was it Gianni?" He was known to slip out every now and again, for reasons of his own. Reuben was aware of his movements, so I never questioned it.

"Was it you?" I asked. "You went somewhere in the middle of the night?"

She didn't answer, but I knew I was right. "Where did you go? Did you kill Stefan? That's where the phone came from." I was missing something, but I couldn't figure out what.

"You can't tell Reuben," she whispered.

"The hell I can't." I started to stand.

She grabbed my wrist and held on with a grip that was surprisingly firm. "You don't understand."

I lowered myself back down, pulled my wrist away from her and crossed my arms. "Then make me understand. What the fuck were you doing leaving the house in the middle of the night by yourself? Did you kill Stefan?"

She closed her eyes. "Yes. I remembered him from before and tracked him down. I thought he might know where Kurt was. He gave me the name of someone who used to work for Kurt. Leon Graves. Then I killed him." She told me about the locked room and finding the phone in the box under the bed.

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