Page 32 of Ruined

"I should have realised he'd try to contact me when I switched my status back to active." The rest of the conversation played on my mind, going around and around on repeat. Most of it made my stomach turn.

"Unless he was dead, there was no way to keep that information from him." Reuben lowered himself down into a chair opposite me. "He's smart enough to keep an eye out for any sign of you."

"How did he know I was here with you?" I asked. That was at the forefront of my mind, more than Kurt's threats and reminders. "He said someone told him. The only people who have seen us together work for you or they're dead."

"It wasn't me," Gianni said immediately.

"It wasn't anyone in this room," Reuben said. "It better not be anyone who works for me." The fury hadn't completely evaporated from his expression. He looked like a bomb about to explode.

"What would any of them have to gain by telling him?" Damon asked slowly. "We know Rose wouldn't say anything. Neither would Daze. She'd skin her boyfriends alive if they did. That leaves the twins and Caleb."

"The twins wouldn't," Gianni said. "They may be as morally grey as the rest of us, but they also don't like men who abuse women. Which narrows it down to…"

"Caleb," Reuben said darkly. "If he's working with Kurt, against me, it will be the last thing he does."

I didn't know Caleb well, but I remembered Daze warning me about him. That he was ambitious and would grab any opportunity that arose. How loyal was he to his oldest brother?

"I'll tell Caleb to come here for a little chat," Damon said.

Reuben nodded. "Do it. Better yet, send the jet to pick him up. I don't want to give him an opportunity to run, and if he's done nothing wrong, sweating for a while won't hurt him."

Damon pulled out his phone and stepped out of the room.

Reuben scrubbed a hand over his face. "Are you all right?"

"I don't know," I admitted. I let Gianni take the phone from my hand and look through it.

He tapped on the number Kurt used to call me, but it was already disconnected, if it wasn't fake to begin with. "I suspect it might be impossible to trace him through this, but we can ask the twins to try."

"It can't hurt, but he'll probably be long gone from wherever he is now by the time they figure it out," I said. He was proving to be slipperier than a snake.

"We know one thing for sure," Gianni said. "He's still alive. And while he's still alive, we can find him and remedy that."

"That was a mistake," I said slowly. "If he really was smart, he'd find a way to convince us he was dead, so we'd stop looking for him."

"I wouldn't stop," Reuben said darkly. "But you're right, he let his arrogance and his obsession for you do the talking. That will be to his detriment."

"We also know he's still in the country," I said.

They both looked over at me sharply.

Reuben frowned. "How do you?—"

"I recognise the bird in the background. It's some kind of cockatoo. I only heard it once, and only briefly, but it was clear enough." I shrugged.

Gianni's lips dropped apart. "Not gonna lie, I'm impressed."

"When you have to rely on being stealthy and observant, you tend to notice even the smallest thing," I said. Anything you miss could get you dead, or worse.

"Anything else?" Reuben asked, his eyes intent on me.

I frowned and thought back. "Maybe a car. It was in the background though. Like… He was outside, some distance from the road. Everything else was just him and his bullshit. I wish I could narrow it down further."

"Still in the country is narrower than we had before," Reuben said. "Judging by the way he sounded, he wouldn't have travelled far from Mina. He might well be on the outskirts of Sydney."

"If he is, we will find his sorry ass," Gianni said. "And we'll make it even sorrier."

"You have any idea if there was anywhere he liked to go?" Reuben asked.

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