Page 58 of Ruined

"I know, right?" she responded. "That's one of the reasons I moved here. That and the fact people are mostly nice here. For a bunch of criminals. I mean, not everyone is a criminal here, but you know that. Oh, sounds like the kettle has boiled. Excuse me for a minute, I'll make you a coffee. I might even have one myself, even though it's late. Wouldn't want to fall asleep when you want me to drive you. How do you have it? White with two sugars? Okay I'll just be a moment or two. I might even have some biscuits around here. You must be hungry."

"Yeah, whatever," Leon replied vaguely. Apparently he wasn't impressed with her hostess skills. Or maybe he was an ungrateful prick.

I pictured him hunched over a table, laptop in front of him while she hurried around the kitchen, making him a coffee and hunting around for a snack. She seemed to be making as much noise as she could.

She knew I was there, or at least suspected. She was talking to cover any noise I might make.

I smirked at the idea. I made mistakes, but never noise, not when I didn't want to. Who was she expecting, if she wasn't expecting an assassin?

She might assume Reuben would send the twins to collect Leon. A fairly accurate assumption to make, most of the time. If Reuben knew Leon was here, Hunter and Parker would be knocking the door down by now. Me, I preferred to catch Leon unaware.

That meant continuing to move soundlessly, like the shadow Damon once told me I was. At the time, his remark hurt, but I embraced it now.

I was part of the shadows. Darkness inside and out. I didn't need the sunshine to feel whole. I needed this. To be the cunning predator moving through the night, ready to claim my prey.

Like the door at the bottom of the stairs, the one at the top was unlocked. I pushed it open slowly and stepped through.

Damon

"Graves went inside with Clarissa," I reported.

What game was she playing? She'd sent me a message that would raise my suspicion. She must be hoping we'd turn up to take him off her hands.

We'd done the first. We could do the second, but it was too easy so far. If Kurt was thinking a couple of moves ahead of us, this was just about to go south.

If Clarissa was working with him, she'd also go south, to an early grave.

Although, was it really early, in our line of work? Now I thought about it, it was probably about average.

Either way, she'd end up dead, which would be unfortunate. Up until now, she'd been invaluable and trustworthy. Maybe she still was. There was time for her to prove herself yet. If she could.

She'd know as well as I did, once the seeds of suspicion were planted, they tended to take root and grow. Coming back from this would be difficult.

In the corner of my eye, I caught a hint of movement. Then another. There were two people on the opposite corner. No, three. Four. I couldn't make out any more, but fuck only knew who else was hiding in the dark around here.

Across from them I caught another hint of movement. Someone walking up the street toward them. Someone making no effort to avoid being noticed

Gianni. And someone else. Someone taller than Mina. Daze? What the fuck?

Neither of them were usually that sloppy. Given they were now, they were doing it for a reason. They wanted to be seen. They were trying to draw them away.

As far as I could tell, they didn't know we were there yet, so they weren't trying to distract attention from us.

Where was Mina then? She didn't seem to be with them. They were trying to lead any potential attackers away from her.

Was that brave, stupid, or both? It was classic Gianni. He'd take risks others wouldn't, especially when family was involved.

I made a mental note to throttle him later for trying to do this. Daze too.

Across the road, someone spoke. A light flashed on, aimed directly at Gianni. He threw himself to the side as a shot rang out. It must have missed him by a hair.

The bullet hit the wall instead. This was Dusk Bay, no one would notice another one lodged in the side of the building. Eventually, someone would come along and paint over it.

I didn't think.

I aimed for the light and squeezed the trigger. The gun recoiled in my hand. The gunshot echoed, followed by a cry of pain.

The phone dropped to the ground, offering a faint glow from the screen. It wasn't much illumination, and it'd turn off quickly, but it was enough.

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