Page 142 of Hell Breaks Loose

“Yeah. I remembered your dad wearing it when I…”

“When you took the contract to kill him,” Hellena continues.

“From him, for him,” she reminds us all, throwing up her hands in defense.

“Why were you looking for it, though?” Gavin squints, crossing his arms.

“Because my grandfather left me something just like it in his will a few years later. So when I came back to do that business shooting Rachelle and Hell, I thought I’d see if I could find it. Damon’s, that is.”

“Where is yours?”

“I’ve got it at one of my hidey-holes on the edge of town for safekeeping. Figured I’d get back to it eventually, find the link.”

“And there must be a link,” Hellena asserts, sliding out a folded photo from her pocket and dropping it open for all to see. A sting of relief for her pings in my chest upon seeing the photo. She must have found it at Damon’s house when they went back. “My mom had a bracelet just like it.”

“You said that when we found the ring,” Gavin starts. “I thought maybe it was just a relationship thing between them. But if Alaya had one too…”

“And she got it from her grandfather.” Ora leans forward.

“Who killed that member of the Seven up on Egret Ridge.” Hellena nods.

“Then he probably took it from that old codger’s corpse,” Alaya finishes, grinning.

“That codger was related to my mom’s family, not that that matters. What does is that this means we may be looking at seven red rings. For what, though?” I continue in the most obvious direction.

“To open a Sinful vault, perhaps?” Hella shrugs, sliding down into a chair. “I just wish I had my dad’s journal.”

“We do,” I say nonchalantly.

“What?” Hell’s head whips around.

“I went back to the safe when I got back to town after I found you at Marco’s. Didn’t want to risk it getting damaged or falling into the wrong hands.”

“I thought it was gone! The safe was cleared out. Where is it?!” She grabs my arms, shaking me lightly.

“In a safe place.” A place no one would think to look.

“When were you going to?—”

“When we weren’t hiding out in the mountains anymore and, or, needed it for some reason. Not like we’ve had much time to do research lately.”

Idiot. I could have been doing said research.

Don’t say it.

“You could have been instead of hiking around with me!” Gavin huffs, shaking his head with a bit of humor.

“I, uh, well, excuuuuse me for getting distracted with the love of my life coming home!” I throw up my arms.

“The love of your life, huh?” Hellena hums, rising to pull me in close, bouncing to her tiptoes to peck me on the lips.

“The one and only.” I brush her cheek with my knuckles.

“Back to things that aren’t one and only.” Ora coughs and points a finger down her throat. “Doesn’t that ring remind anyone of the ‘O’ in the old Block signage above the barn at the old compound?”

Frequent visits to the Block as my alter ego, Dirk, flash through my head at the mention. The sign hung over the bar in the community area. “Holy shit. I think you’re right.”

“Grandaddy would totally do something like hide a priceless Sinful heirloom in plain sight.”

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