Page 28 of Bound By Ruin

Except for Ruin. He never voted.

Tilting my head back, I stare at the ceiling toward his bedroom. If I can get Ruin alone with me, the two of us might be able to sneak off and gut Adella fucking Monrovia for being such a cunt.Especiallyif she’s at the gala. Picture this: an old, crusty bitch is found stabbed to death and rolled up in one of those dusty velvet curtains, like in the movies. Or maybe we can find a trash chute and shove her bony ass down into the dumpster.

Celia would be none the wiser. It would befine.

Snapping his fingers, Rage tries to catch my attention. “Hey. We arenotkilling anyone at the gala. Get that fucking look off your face.”

I cross my arms. “Since when is killing someone at the gala off the table? That was never a rule.”

“Since we became guests. I got all five of us tickets so that we can escort Celia without having to sneak in.”

Thanatos doesn’t seem pleased with the news. “Under what names?”

Rage stabs another piece of fruit, some kind of orange square, before setting his fork down. “I couldn’t exactly tell them to put Rage, Rebel, and Ruin on the guest list, could I?”

My annoyance ticks up five fucking notches. “Uh, yeah, you could have. With the amount of money I grabbed last night, you could have told them you were Queen fucking Latifah, and they still would have let you in. I amnotgoing under another name.”

Rage grits his teeth. “Don’t be stupid. Youknowthat bratva influence can only go so far. Showing up as Rebel won’t win you any favors with this crowd. It’ll make everything ten times more difficult. Remember when you stole that car from the police chief last year? That warrant is still out for your arrest, with your shit-eating grin all over the fucking pictures.”

Ah, my first time in a Lamborghini.

“He’s just mad that I fucked his wife better than him.”

Thanatos stares at me without blinking. “You slept with the police chief’s wife?”

“They were separated.”

“Twice,” Rage growls. “He slept with hertwice.”

“I got you the security code for his computer, didn’t I? What’s the big deal, all of a sudden?” I glare at Rage, not sure where this is coming from or what it has to do with the gala next week.

Than and I both wait for Rage’s reply. He chugs the rest of his coffee and pours a second cup. “We can’t fuck this up. All of us have to blend in, or shit could go sideways in a second. We can’t let Celia go in there alone. Wecan’t.Ruin will be allowed in with his ticket, but you know he won’t be comfortable in a crowd, especially if he can’t wear his mask.”

Clearing his throat, Than mutters under his breath. “He seemed pretty comfortable last night.”

Fuck, I’m going to have to check the cameras to see what I missed. “They had a crowd?”

“The entire room,” Than confirms, nodding. “Half of them couldn’t wait to tear their clothes off.” He scratches the side of his neck and quickly looks away, grabbing his coffee mug and filling it to the brim.

Yeah, half the room, right. Himself included.

Snickering, I let it go. Teasing him won’t get Rage off my back about this gala bullshit. “So we go in, schmooze all the rich city fucks, and make sure that Celia sparkles like a fucking diamond. What’s the big deal? It’s not like anyone will care about which man’s attached to her hip when she’s going to steal the spotlight.”

Rage levels me with a look. “I don’t want you to get arrested for being careless.”

“Just bail me out like usual.”

“He doesn’t want you to bealone,” Thanatos clarifies, nodding like he agrees. “We’re vulnerable when we’re alone.”

My stomach churns at where this conversation is headed. “He wouldn’t kill me,” I mutter, frowning. “He has no reason to care about me at all.” Although our father won the annual Shittiest Dad of the Year award ever since Than was born, he gave more shit to my brothers than to me. I guess being the middle child kept me under the radar.

“Wecare.” Rage claps me on the shoulder. “He could come after any one of us if it makes splitting us up and getting to Celia easier.”

Ugh.Why does revenge have to be so fucking complicated? You kill the guy, then it’s over.Boom.Vengeance complete.

“Well, I still think that Celia should wear one of her own dresses. And the name thing? Fucking stupid.”

I haven’t thought of myself as anyone other than Rebel in a goddamn decade, and I’m not about to start now, no matter what Rage thinks.

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