Page 53 of Ride with the Devil

It takes me a second to make sense of what he said. The Hummingbird… “Cross told me about him. The mysterious hired hitman who burned down Cross’s studio. Shit. Is that why he was targeted? Because Winter ordered the hit?” My stomach goes tight. “He’s got reasons to be pissed at me. Is that why you’re calling? Am I next?”

Devil’s answer is a soft growl. “Not quite, Luca. And, far as we can tell, Winter didn’t order the hit on Cross. Someone elsedid, using the same assassin. But Winter made the most recent contract.” The boss’s voice develops a harsher edge. “Onme.”

What?

“Do you need me back? You don’t have to worry about the girl anymore… Devil? I can help.”

“Fuck, yeah, I need you back, but not for the reason you’re thinking.”

“Boss?”

“Listen to me, Luca. The contract community isn’t as big as you’d guess with all the fucking mafia guys and crooks coming after us. You know of the Reed Twins?”

I’ve heard of them. A pair of deranged identical twins who Devil hires out as killers whenever he wants a hit, but he doesn’t want it falling back on him. One of them is the brains of the operation. The other is the muscle. “In Shadowvale, right?”

“You got it. Once it got out that the Hummingbird would be coming after me, Nicholas Reed took it upon himself to figure out who the Hummingbird is, especially since she seems to have disappeared since taking the contract. She’s supposed to be good, too, but she ain’t as good as she thinks. Too many of her clients saw her damn face.”

Hang on?—

“She?”

SEVENTEEN

HUMMINGBIRD

LUCA

“That’s right,” Devil says. “It’s a woman. Mid-twenties. Brown skin. Brown hair. Curly. Brown eyes. Sound familiar? She has another distinguishing feature, too: a small ‘H’ tattoo on her hand for Hummingbird.”

No.No.“Devil…”

“I know. Soon as Reed filled me in, I knew exactly who he was talking about.”

No. “Kylie? He thinks it’s Kylie?”

“Her name changes, but her MO never does. She leaves a hummingbird at every scene.”

I know. Cross had one.

But if she was supposed to killDevil?

“She doesn’t have one. You checked her pockets that night. She didn’t have one.”

So she has similar features, down to the ‘H’. So she’s disappeared since we locked her way in the mountain cabin. It can’t be?—

“I know. But what about you? Did you check the trunk?”

“I… no. When I pulled her out of the trunk, I didn’t think to search under the trash liners I left in there.” I was too focused on getting her inside of the cabin. After that, it just never occurred to me. But now… the skin. The curls. The ‘H’...

‘H’ for Hummingbird.

“Hang on, boss. I’m going to check right now.”

Keeping my phone to my ear, I grab the car keys that I keep habitually in whatever pants I’m wearing. Popping the trunk, I quickly run my gaze over the bags. Nothing stands out against the black plastic. Shoving them aside, I look at the interior beneath it.

Nothing.

“No.” I start to lift the flap that covers the spare tire. “There’s nothing—fuck.”

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