Page 55 of Ruined

"I'm surprised," Hunter said. "Knowing Gianni, I thought he would have taken her to tonight's Wolf Venom concert. No one would have recognised her up in the nosebleed seats."

"It was sold out." Reuben looked unimpressed with that suggestion.

"And you know that, how?" Parker leaned forward from where he sat in the back seat.

"It's my job to know things," Reuben said. "Unless people go behind my back like this." He appeared to be perfectly calm and composed on the outside. We all knew him better than that. On the inside, he was a cauldron of cold fury.

Like I was.

"Just remember, Mina cares about Gianni," Hunter said. "Try not to shoot him too much."

"I'm not going to shoot him," Reuben said. What he left unsaid was clear. If Gianni did anything to her, including encouraging her to leave the house without us, he'd be a lot worse off than if he was dead.

No one asked what would happen if Mina was the one who coerced him.

"Who said Reuben doesn't have a heart?" Parker asked.

"I might have said that in the past," Hunter said. "I'm pretty sure Zeke said the same. And Caleb, Joshua and Lucas. I'm as surprised as anyone to find out he actually does. Much less that it beats for Mina DiMarco."

"Don't make me shoot you," Reuben said darkly. "If either of you so much as look at her in a way that's not brotherly…"

"We wouldn't dream of it," Parker said. "Mina is sweet, but she is not for us."

"Fucking right she's not," I growled. She belonged to Reuben, Gianni and me. No one else. I didn't let myself think about us belonging to each other. That was something we’d have to think about later. Assuming we got a later.

I focused on driving, while the others fell silent.

The drive from the house in Dusk Bay Heights, to the city, wasn't far, but it felt like it tonight. It could have been a hundred kilometres instead of twenty. The traffic was heavier than usual for this time of night, with people heading home from the concert.

Personally, I wouldn't have minded going, but I knew how Reuben felt about his brother's band. That was a conversation not worth having, just to go to a rock concert.

"Still no answer on either of their phones." Reuben sounded frustrated.

That didn't surprise me. If they were up to something, they'd want to keep them silent.

Mina always did now, after that call from Kurt. She had little reason to accept incoming calls anyway. Anyone who had her number, could either text or speak to her in person. The rest of her communication was done via some app on her phone I'd only gotten a glimpse of. Something, I presumed, was only for assassins, not everyday people like me.

"We'll get to her in time," Hunter said. "If there's anything I know about Mina and Gianni, it's that they have each other's backs. They won't let anything happen to each other."

"They better not," Reuben growled.

I'd never heard that much emotion in his voice before. If anything happened to either of them, he'd be as gutted as I would. He'd burn down the whole world in retribution.

I'd hand him the matches.

"Park around the corner from where the car is," Reuben said as we drove into the city. "We don't want anyone to know we're here."

"Got it, boss," I replied automatically.

I ran through the best places to park, finally settling on a side street around the corner from the vegan grocery store. It was empty at this time of night, apart from a darkened delivery truck and a couple of wheelie bins.

I killed the engine and was the first out of the car. My shoes barely touched the ground before my gun was in my hand.

"Just making sure you're all aware this might be a trap," Hunter said carefully.

"Of course it might," Reuben said. "Be alert for anything."

"Okay, just checking." Hunter nodded and made sure his gun was loaded and the safety off. "Wouldn't want to walk into anything fatal."

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