Page 36 of Ruined

"Dusk Bay," Reuben said briskly. "My house there is more secure than here. Damon, Caleb, have your connections be on the lookout for any information regarding the Sparrow, especially any offers to sell her identity." Evidently he'd decided to take Caleb's words seriously.

Unfortunately for me, Caleb was right. Kurt would sell that information to whoever would pay for it.

"We could stop him from getting rich," I said softly.

They all stopped to stare at me.

"I could sell that information myself," I said. "Or I could give it away for free."

"No." The word was simple, the delivery soft, but Reuben's expression was firm. "Start packing."

"Listen to what she has to say," Caleb advised. He crossed his arms and nodded to me.

Reuben glared at him, but didn't contradict him. Instead, he leaned against the door frame and looked back at me while I spoke.

"If we release the information, we can control what people hear," I said. "And who hears it. If we leave it to Kurt, he gets to make millions, and he controls who he speaks to and what he gives them. I can't freely disclose information about past clients. Just enough information to satisfy people. They can do whatever they want with that. We can carefully choose what we share for minimal impact on us and our interests. And innocent people. Kurt won't have that kind of restraint."

Reuben looked thoughtful. He didn't dismiss the idea, but he didn't agree with it either.

"I'll consider it," he said finally. "We now leave in fifty-five minutes." He turned and walked out of the room.

"For what it's worth, I think it's a good idea." Caleb nodded and stepped away himself.

Damon waited until he was gone, grimaced and said, "I hate to agree with anything Caleb said, but it is."

"Technically, we're agreeing with what Mina said," Gianni pointed out. "You need help packing, sweetheart?"

"I don't have much," I said. "You should go and pack your things."

"I'll go and organise the jet," Damon said. "And speak to my contacts about putting your plan into action."

"You think Reuben will agree to it?" I asked.

Damon shrugged. "I don't see how he'd have a choice. This is the best way to stop Kurt from having control over this. It might also help to flush him out." He tucked his hands into his pockets and strode out of the room.

I glanced at Gianni.

He looked back at me and frowned. "What?"

"I was expecting you to say something like you wanted to flush Kurt down the toilet."

I grabbed the handle of the suitcase Reuben gave me and pulled it out of the top of the wardrobe. I set it down on the bed and started to toss things inside.

Gianni laughed. "I must be losing my touch if I missed that one."

"Or you thought it was low hanging fruit and weren't going to bother," I offered.

"When it comes to Kurt, there's no such thing as too low." In spite of my assurances that I didn't need help, he started to pull my underwear out of the drawer and place it neatly in the suitcase. "Not even toilet humour."

"I suppose so." I tossed my jeans in beside my underwear.

"So, you can pick locks and have a device that disables security alarms," Gianni said. "What other tricks do you have up your sleeve?"

"Is that why you offered to help?" I asked, half teasing. "So you could get the gossip?"

"It's mostly because I like your company, but colour me curious," he said. "Caleb was also right, that device would bring in millions, maybe billions, of dollars. Imagine the places we could get into with a few of those."

I cocked my head at him.

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