Page 50 of Ruined

"Flexible is good, just don't be stupid," Reuben said. "Any of you. I don't want anyone in this room getting killed."

"I told you he loves us," Parker said. "Not wanting us dead is Reuben's love language."

"Or it might be my way of saying your death would be inconvenient," Reuben said flatly.

"We can read between the lines," Hunter said. "Our deaths would be inconvenient and heartbreaking."

"I'd be heartbroken if I died," Parker said. "As well as inconvenienced."

"Me too," Hunter agreed.

I leaned against Gianni and listened to them banter back and forth. This family I'd found was a little crazy, but they adored each other, in spite of what they might say. If we lost anyone here, we'd all be devastated.

"Maybe we shouldn't go after Kurt," I said softly.

The silence that followed my words was heavy. If I turned into a giant, purple dinosaur, I couldn't have taken them by surprise more than I just had. The only sound in the room for at least a full minute was the pounding of my heart. It beat so hard it almost hurt, but I meant what I said. Like it or not, we had to consider everything.

"What are you saying, sweetheart?" Gianni asked.

"I'm saying he's not worth risking any of you," I said. "It won't change what he did. It won't give me back those five years. It won't erase the memories. I'd rather build new ones with all of you, than take the chance."

"You don't want revenge?" Damon squinted at me.

"I do," I said. "I want that very much. But at what cost?"

"If it costs us our lives, we'll pay that price," Gianni said. "He can't be allowed to walk around, doing fuck knows what to fuck knows who. Not to mention double crossing all of us. We all want our own revenge on him. Whatever it takes, we'll do it. Right guys?" He glanced around Reuben's office.

"I will," Damon said.

"I will too," Reuben agreed. His gaze was so intense my heart skipped a beat or two.

The twins were right, not wanting any of us dead was his love language. If anything or anyone threatened one of us, they'd have him to answer to.

I already cared about him, but those feelings were getting deeper every day. I couldn't imagine living my life without him. Without any of them.

"Us too," Hunter said. "No one fucks with our family and gets away without us fucking back. That's our love language. Like we said, you're our sister now. Your revenge is our revenge. Besides, screwing with people like Kurt is fun."

"It really is," Parker said. "We basically live for shit like this. Some people jump out of planes for fun, we hunt down assholes."

"We'd also jump out of planes though," Hunter said. "And bungee jump. And rappel." He nodded with each new addition to his extreme sport list.

I could imagine him and Parker doing every one of them on a nice relaxing Saturday afternoon.

"You certainly repel me," Gianni laughed.

Hunter flipped him off.

Gianni just grinned. "Bro, you walked yourself right into that one. Don't offer up the opportunity if you don't want me to take it. Because I will, every time."

"Exactly how attached are you to him?" Hunter asked me, clearly joking around. "If you ever feel the need to rid yourself of him, let me know. I'll be happy to oblige."

"That's sweet of you," I said. "I'm capable of getting rid of him myself if I need to. Which I don't foresee happening," I added quickly.

Hunter leaned over to Parker and whispered loudly, "She thinks I'm sweet."

Parker loudly whispered back, "She doesn't know you very well."

Hunter frowned at his twin. "Fuck you too, bro."

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