Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

MINA

The door that led down to the basement of the house in Dusk Bay swung open.

I snapped my attention from the view and looked over the back of the couch.

Typically, Gianni's expression was jovial, while Damon's was guarded. The two of them were like night and day. An open book and a closed one.

I adored them both.

"Did you learn anything?" Reuben asked before I could. He was seated at the head of the large dining table, laptop in front of him. He looked every part the successful businessman he was. As well as being a successful mob boss.

"You could say that." Damon leaned against the door frame, crossed his arms and closed his eyes. He looked weary. We all were. The hunt for Kurt Lasalle was taking a toll on all of us.

"Bitch ass prick sung like a bird," Gianni said. He flopped down beside me and put an arm around me. With only a moment of hesitation, he leaned over and kissed my mouth.

I was getting better at not flinching when anyone went to touch me. I'd even let Damon fuck me while the other two watched.

I was still getting my head around that. It was wonderful, special. Especially given I wasn't sure I'd ever be comfortably intimate with anyone. It was gratifying to know I wasn't as broken as I'd thought I was. Healing.

"What did he say?" I leaned against Gianni, inhaling his warm scent, drawing comfort from his closeness.

"He said that Kurt prick-of-the-year Lasalle is right here in Dusk Bay. Apparently," he drawled the word, "he's been here all along." Gianni gestured behind him, roughly in the direction of the city.

My heart skipped several beats. "He's right here?"

What the absolute, ever loving fuck?

"According to Leon Graves, he left Sydney after we found you in the cage and came here." Damon's tone was dark, laced with both thought and irritation. "He's been laying low ever since. He was waiting for his people to grab Mina and take her to him."

He opened his eyes and settled his gaze on me. Even for someone as guarded as he was, rage burned just below the surface. Fury at the idea of Kurt, or anyone else, touching me.

"Of course he is," I said absently, the possibilities tumbling around in my brain.

"No," Reuben said as though reading my mind. "There's no way in the world we would have let him take you, even if it meant leading us to him." He turned to Damon. "Did he say exactly where Kurt is?"

It was Gianni who answered.

"He passed out right before he got to that. Something about a knife in his calf being painful or something." He grinned and shrugged.

"He says he doesn't know," Damon supplied. "He was 'following orders'. Going where he was told to be."

Gianni made a sound of disbelief. "That's what they all say. I'll give him a few minutes, then try again. Otherwise we'll be searching for a needle in a haystack."

"It's a much smaller haystack than the one we had," Reuben observed. His gaze slid to me. "I don't suppose he ever said anything about having a house here?"

"He wasn't particularly forthcoming about his life," I said dryly. He was too busy taunting me, torturing me and forcing himself on me. Conversation wasn't part of the equation most of the time. Not unless he was telling me lies, like my siblings were all dead.

"I know we don't want to consider the possibility…" Damon said slowly.

"We have to," Reuben said. "If there's any chance Daisy Lasalle knew her brother was here in Dusk Bay, we have no choice but to find out."

I shook my head. "If she knew he was here, she would have dealt with him, or at least told us."

I trusted her almost as much as I trusted anyone not already in this room. She was as angry about what her brother did to me as my men were.

Unless she was an incredible actor.

"While it's even a possibility, we need to consider it," Reuben said. "Gianni, persist with Graves. Damon, tell the twins to go and collect Daze. Have them bring her here for a talk. Mina, you will not go off by yourself again. What we do, we do together."

His expression was firm. Set in granite. He'd take no arguments from any of us, not even from me.

"I was trying to protect you." I raised my chin, just as stony, even though I had no intention of going off alone. Not right now anyway.

"I was hoping it was Kurt who was going to turn up at Clarissa's. If it was him and only him, we'd be having a very different conversation." And Kurt would be dead.

"It wasn't." Reuben's expression was unchanged. "It was an ambush, designed to trap you. If it wasn't for Gianni following you, and Damon working out where you both went, we would be having a very different conversation. The three of us would be trying to figure out how to get you back."

"Which we totally would," Gianni said.

"Only if she was still alive." Reuben's expression softened. "I can't tie you down or lock you up, but I can insist you don't risk yourself like that again."

The love in his tone was obvious, even if he didn't say the words. He didn't need to. We both knew the way we felt about each other.

"You're right," I said reluctantly. "I'm so used to being alone. Before that, I was doing things by myself and for myself. For a long time, I was the only one I could rely on. The only one that was keeping me sane." Or close to it.

"You can rely on us, sweetheart," Gianni said softly. "We can be clowns sometimes, but we love you. We'd do anything to protect and help you. That's what relationships are for. We take care of each other."

"What Gianni said," Damon grunted. "Except the part about being clowns. He can keep that description to himself."

Gianni flashed him a grin. "You know it fits. We just express it differently."

Reuben smirked. "Speak for yourself."

I flinched slightly at the sound of the door that led to the garage opening. It was all the way down the back of the house, but it got me every time. Someday, I'd grow used to it.

I hoped.

My shoulders relaxed when the twins stepped through the door. Both looked exhausted, but cheerful. Nothing seemed to hold either of them down for long. I envied them that.

"Cleanup is done," Hunter reported.

"Speaking of clowns," Damon said under his breath.

"We didn't see any of those," Parker said. "Thank fuck, because I hate clowns." He gave a full body shudder.

Damon snorted. "You're just in time, Reuben has a job for you."

They both groaned when he told them what it was.

"I was hoping for a nap," Hunter said. He exhaled, loud and dramatic. "Just for Mina, we'll do this one thing first. But we expect overtime for it." He clapped his twin on the shoulder and they turned to head back to the garage.

"They usually complain more," Reuben said. He arched an eyebrow at me. "This was exactly what I was saying. We look after each other. Including those two."

I raised my hands in surrender. "I promise I won't go off by myself again, unless I have to."

He arched the other brow.

"I can't promise more than that," I said. "I don't know what might happen in the future. I might have to work alone to save your ass. Or Gianni's, or Damon's. Or even the twins’. But I'll only do it if it's absolutely necessary."

Honestly, part of me was tired of working alone. Not in my job as an assassin, but when it came to the hunt for Kurt. This whole situation was easier, more tolerable, with them to support me.

"We'll make sure any circumstances that would force you to work alone, don't happen." Reuben was nothing if not stubborn. He very much liked things done his way. Or else.

"Yes, we will," Gianni agreed. "We're a team and you know what they say about teams."

"You're not going to say 'teamwork makes the dream work,' are you?" Damon groaned.

Gianni chuckled. "I wasn't going to, but it's not wrong." He snuggled in closer to me.

Silence fell for a few moments, broken by Damon's frustrated sigh. "Fine, what were you going to say?"

"I don't know," Gianni admitted. "I was going to say something off-the-cuff. Like, teams get shit done."

"I should have known better than to ask," Damon said. He scrubbed his face.

"You really should," Gianni agreed. "I think we've left our guest alone for long enough already. I should go and check on him, see if he's enjoying my music."

"I'll come with you," I said. "I want to see what this asshole has to say for himself."

I didn't need Reuben's permission, but I glanced over at him anyway.

"Keep me informed," was all he said.

He stayed out of the torturing of people as much as he could. Especially, from what I could gather, if Gianni had his music playing down in the basement.

Reuben was a badass in his own right, but he didn't deal well with loud noises like music and screaming. He was a complicated man, but I loved that about him.

"Will do, boss," Gianni said.

"Gianni can keep you informed too," Reuben said before I stood. "You don't have to face Graves if you don't want to."

"I want to," I insisted. "Ever since I heard him speak, bits and pieces of the past keep coming back to me. He mentioned Jase and Hammer. I can almost picture their faces. If Leon Graves knows where they are, I want him to tell me." I wanted to find Kurt more than I wanted to find them, but they were still a priority. Which reminded me.

"Do either of you know someone named Prior?"

"It rings a bell." Gianni cocked his head at me. "Why's that, sweetheart?"

"Leon mentioned someone by that name," I said, playing the scene back in my head. "Apparently he tried to stop Kurt from caging and hurting me. He said… Prior told Kurt he was fucked up. Kurt shot Prior for it. It was one of the reasons Leon did nothing to stop Kurt from doing what he did. He figured Kurt would shoot him too."

Which was no excuse, but he was paying for that decision now.

All three men frowned in thought.

"I'll look him up," Damon said. "If he's someone who used to work for us, there should be a record. We tend to keep those for a long time. Bear in mind though, we may never be able to find him to give him a decent burial."

Trust him to understand why I wanted to know what happened to the one person who stuck their neck out for me. He deserved better than a shallow grave, or to have been tossed in the harbour for the sharks to eat. Or incinerated, which was more likely.

I nodded. "I appreciate that." We could at least try.

"If we can't find him, we can do a nice memorial in the garden," Gianni said.

"I'll go and see to it, and a few other things," Damon said. He pushed himself off the door frame and disappeared in the direction of the stairs that led to the upper level.

"I don't know about you, but I'm ready to have some more fun with our friend." Gianni offered me his hand.

I took it and rose. "He's no friend of mine." Gianni's hand was warm in mine, large and reassuring. He got off on the fact I was an assassin and enjoyed killing, but he could be surprisingly gentle when he wanted to.

"To be completely fair, people like him rarely have friends," Gianni said. "So, he's not mine either. That's what makes it funny. It's ironic."

"It certainly is that," Reuben said. "I don't think anyone will miss him when you're finished with him." He rubbed a hand over his eyes and turned his attention back to his laptop screen.

"I will," Gianni said. "He's been a ton of fun already." He smiled happily and we walked to the door that led down to the basement.