Page 19 of Corrupted

I slipped into a chair just as Damon said something about the Vipers.

"If he's there, we need to speak to them," Damon was saying.

It took a moment for my brain to catch up to what he was saying. "You think Enzo is working with them?"

When it came to Damon's brother, I was as conflicted as everyone else in the room. I wanted to kill him on Mina's behalf, or at least hold him down while she did it. I also didn't want to cause a rift between either of us, and Damon by killing his brother.

"He has in the past," Damon said. "They'll know where he is, if anyone does. They're his kind of people."

"Riffraff?" I suggested.

Not that I was perfect, but the Vipers were a special breed of asshole. The kind that left their morals at the door. I was aware that we took part in human trafficking from time to time, but the Vipers put in orders for the kinds of people—usually women—they wanted to receive. I tried not to think too much about what happened to them after that, but I knew they had a lot more freedom than Mina was afforded.

Usually.

"Exactly," Reuben remarked. He rubbed his chin. For the first time in a long time, he actually looked relaxed. For him, that meant slightly less wound up than usual. Definitely the look of a man who got laid.

I glanced over to Mina, who sat on the couch near the window which was usually occupied by the twins. Her legs were crossed at her knees, eyes half closed as if she wasn't paying attention.

I knew better. She was listening to everything we said and everything we didn't say. Taking in every nuance and every movement. If things went to hell, she'd move in a heartbeat. Faster than a heartbeat.

I let my gaze linger on her, appreciating the sight. She was so fucking gorgeous, she sucked the breath out of my body.

I raised my hand to my neck and brushed the pad of my thumb across the healing wounds around my throat. Picturing her with the knife while she rode me made me harder than diamonds in a heartbeat. Just when I thought she couldn't surprise me, she went and did something like that. I had a feeling I'd still be uncovering layers of her until the day I died. She was fascinating and complex. I loved that about her.

My attention returned to Reuben as he spoke.

"We'll all go," he said finally. "They won't kill me, that would be too messy."

"If they know Mina is looking to kill Enzo, they might—" Damon started to push himself up from his chair.

"Then we don't tell them," Reuben interrupted. "You're looking for your brother. That's all they need to know."

Damon sank back down with a gusty exhale. "I don't trust them with her."

"That's why we're all going," Reuben said. "They won't get past us."

"Let them try," I said. I wasn't afraid of a bunch of street thugs. "I don't mind handing them their asses."

"This would be better if I went by myself," Damon said. One last attempt to change Reuben's mind, albeit a weak one. He was defeated and he knew it, but he wasn't going down without a final swing. "I can talk to them."

"They won't say no to me," Reuben said, effectively ending the conversation.

"No." Carlos Jones looked Reuben right in the eyes, arms crossed over his burly chest, chin jutting out like a dare. "I cannot give out the whereabouts of anyone who works for me."

"You mean, you will not," I said.

Carlos' eyes barely moved. "Same thing."

We'd been given a cool welcome to the Vipers' headquarters, which was little more than a warehouse beside the Dusk Bay docks. Several members of the cartel gave us dubious looks and a wide berth, as a young man led us to the cartel's leader.

A short, stocky man in his mid-forties, the only place he had no visible ink was his face. He didn't need it; the scars across his forehead and cheeks were enough decoration. They made him look exactly like what he was. The kind of man women should cross the street to avoid.

Like me, but with less class.

"Enzo is my brother," Damon said. His tone was as icy as Carlos. "I know the cartel rules."

"Don't quote my own rules to me," Carlos snapped. "I wrote them."

---