Page 59 of Ruined

Taking a leaf from Mina's book, I aimed for the visible feet.

"Fucking hell!" a male voice called out. He slumped to the ground, hands on his ankles until Hunter put a bullet in his head.

Parker took out another with a shot through his chest, but the last of the would-be attackers turned and ran.

"Go after him," Reuben told the twins.

"On it, boss." They both sprinted across the road and disappeared into the shadows.

Gianni emerged from them, followed by Daisy Lasalle. What the fuck was she doing here anyway?

Gianni picked up the phone and shone it across the two bodies. The third person lay a couple of metres away, groaning in pain.

It was a woman who held the phone; she was now missing a hand. A moment later, courtesy of Gianni's knife, she was missing a whole lot more. Bleeding out onto the footpath before dying quietly.

"Perfect timing," Gianni said cheerfully. He wiped his knife clean on his black T-shirt and tucked it back away, out of sight. "I'm guessing you have a few questions for me. Let me start by saying?—"

"Where's Mina?" Reuben interrupted.

"She went inside." Gianni gestured. "It wasn't Kurt that turned up tonight."

"We know." I clapped him on the shoulder. "It's good to see you, but if you sneak off like that again, I'll put a fucking bullet in your knee."

"I love you too," he said lightly. He drew me in for a quick hug.

I stiffened for a moment, before hugging him back. Later, I'd have time to think about how right it felt to hold him, but right now, we had work to do.

"Have you seen anyone else around?" It was possible Kurt only sent four people to ambush us, but none of us would rule out anything at this point.

"Just you reprobates," Daze said. "And these dead ones." She gestured towards them. "And Clarissa and Leon Graves. It's been pretty quiet apart from that.”

"Right," Gianni agreed. “If Wolf Venom was still playing, we'd be able to hear them from here."

"Too quiet," Reuben said.

"Boss?" I asked carefully. He was visibly as torn as I was. We both wanted to go up those stairs to Clarissa's apartment. To Mina. If there were others around, they could pin us all in. Including her.

"Search the area," he said finally. "We need to make sure it's not?—"

"Full of people who look like they want us dead," Hunter interrupted. He and Parker trotted back toward us, guns still in their hands. "There's another four on the next corner over and four on the opposite one. Now might be a good time to call for some help."

Reuben grunted in annoyance. "Do it. We'll deal with them and then we'll go for her."

"Got it, boss," I said with some reluctance. I pulled out my phone and started to make the call.

CHAPTER 23

MINA

Leon was engrossed in something on his screen when I stepped through the dark entry hall, towards the living room. He didn't look up, but I knew he was aware of my presence. His body language was too relaxed, one leg draped over the side of the chair. His face was turned towards the laptop, but he wasn't seeing anything on there.

"Kurt said you were predictable," he said slowly. He swivelled around in his seat and looked over at me.

I lounged against the door frame, knife held loosely in my hand. "Not as predictable as him. Or you. You might as well have taken out an ad to say you'd be here tonight instead of tomorrow."

"That was the point, silly girl," he said, looking down his substantial nose at me. "He knew you'd figure it out and turn up. He has lots of people outside waiting for your friends. When they're done with them, they'll be up here for you." He leaned forward. "Lots of them. Too many for one little girl to deal with."

He sat back and took a sip from his coffee.

---