Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

MINA

"Where are they?" I leaned as far forward as the seat belt would let me and peered over the front seat. Damon had connected the tracker in his phone to the dashboard of the SUV, and glanced down at it every so often for directions.

"About another kilometre away," Damon said.

"Stop a hundred metres away," Reuben said. "We won't get any closer without being seen." He pointed at the map, and a street beside the flashing light that indicated the stopped SUV. A smaller flashing light showed the whereabouts of Leon Graves. One transposed over the other.

"Got it, boss," Damon said. He slowed the SUV a few moments later and pulled over to the side of the road.

I followed my three men out of the vehicle and down the otherwise empty suburban street. Shivers slid slowly up and down my spine.

I didn't need to, but I checked my knives and gun anyway. In the corner of my eye, I saw Gianni do the same. Then Damon. Only Reuben seemed calm in spite of everything.

I drew on that, using it to buoy my nerves. Anxiety wasn't useful. If I ever needed to be composed, it was now, tonight.

We reached the corner of an average looking street, lined with trees. On a normal day, nothing much exciting would happen here, not even in Dusk Bay.

A dog barked as we walked past one house. A TV was on in another. It sounded like they were watching some kind of game show. The kind where people answered trivia questions in return for cash prizes.

Gianni enjoyed one which involved a huge machine dropping discs like an arcade game, if the questions were answered correctly. He was good at pop culture questions and I was good at geography and history. Mostly, I think we were both mesmerised by the machine sliding back and forth, pushing the discs forward.

Through the trees, the lights of the first SUV were visible, along with three other vehicles, facing it. Three figures sat in ours, while several people surrounded it. They each had guns pointed at the windows.

"Good luck with that," Damon muttered.

I glanced over at him and nodded. All of Reuben's cars had bullet-proof glass. No one was shooting Leon or the twins, but they couldn't shoot out either.

"Can you make out Kurt?" Gianni whispered.

I squinted, but shook my head. "Not yet."

I wasn't sure if he'd come in person, but I hoped he would. Caleb had put out the word that Leon told us everything except Kurt's whereabouts. In addition to that, he'd put out the suggestion we were moving Leon to a different location. Somewhere likely to get more information from him.

It seemed Reuben had someone working for him, who had different torture techniques to force information out of people. When Gianni spoke of Ice Miller, he spoke with admiration. It took a lot to impress Gianni, so these techniques must be very efficient.

Shame Leon wouldn't end up there.

All of this, in the hope it drew Kurt out to save Leon or kill him.

Judging by the presence of the armed people around the SUV, that was exactly what we achieved.

"I'm going to go around behind the other vehicles," I said. "If he's here, he might be inside one of them."

Reuben nodded. "Gianni, go with her. Damon, signal the twins that we're ready." He pulled out a gun.

Shit was about to get very real.

Gianni and I circled back and slipped between two of the houses.

That meant climbing over fences and dodging a very feisty dog. He looked like a cross between a Jack Russell terrier and a fox terrier, with a fan tail and a face that said, 'give me cheese,' rather than, 'I want to bite your face off.' He even let Gianni give him a pat, before rolling over onto his back and offering me his belly.

"You could use some work on your guard dog skills, buddy," I whispered. "But you're very cute."

The dog wagged his tail, got back up and ran off back inside when someone called his name.

"See, even dogs like you," Gianni said. "Dogs are very good judges of character."

"He liked you too," I pointed out. I gripped the top of the fence and pulled myself up, thankful for the strength I'd finally managed to regain.

"I rest my case." Gianni grinned and pulled himself up beside me. "When this is over, we should talk Reuben into letting us get a dog. We could train it to bite Caleb."

I managed a soft laugh, but we couldn't have done this without the help of Caleb. He was a prickly prick, but he knew how to get things done. That was exactly what we needed right now.

"It would probably bite Damon instead." I dropped down off the fence onto the grass.

"I see no problem here," Gianni said. "Damon would probably enjoy it."

"I suspect you'd enjoy it more," I said lightly.

Okay, thinking about biting Gianni was a distraction I didn't need right now. I pushed it into the back of my mind for later.

We slipped across the next backyard and over another fence, before dropping down in the bushes beside the street. We were twenty metres behind the enemy vehicles.

"Can you see anyone inside?" Gianni asked.

I squinted. "I don’t know. I need to get closer."

" We need to get closer," Gianni corrected.

"It'll be easier for one of us to go undetected," I said. It was a losing battle, but I was going to try to fight it anyway, to keep him safe.

"Maybe, but I'm not letting you go by yourself," he said firmly. He didn't put his foot down often, but when he did, there was as much chance of budging him as there was changing Reuben's mind, or Damon's. Or mine, for that matter.

I was about to rise, when the sound of gunshots rang out through the quiet of the evening.

The dog barked a couple of times, but that was the only indication anyone in any of the houses noticed. They must have assumed it was a backfiring car or someone else's TV.

A shout sounded close by, followed by another, then footsteps running toward our SUV.

"That's our cue," Gianni whispered.

I stayed in a crouch for a few moments longer.

Reuben, Damon and the twins were capable of taking care of themselves, and I was torn. I wanted to see if the person in the back of the vehicle was Kurt, but should we deal with his people first? If it was Kurt in there, we'd get another opportunity, sooner or later. But if my men died in the process… None of this would have been worth it.

"Reuben would want Kurt taken care of," Gianni whispered.

I shook my head. "Not at the expense of family. Killing him isn't worth losing them. We need to go back. We have to help them."

Another shot rang out, followed by a cry of pain. One that was cut short by another gunshot.

The blood froze in my veins.

For the first time in my life, I was unable to move.

It wasn't indecision, it was fear. This was my plan and so much could go wrong. It might already have gone to hell. If it had, it would be my fault. I could have let them kill Leon, or done it myself.

Instead, I'd come up with a plan to try to get Kurt's attention. To get him to come to us. My guys, the twins and Caleb had all filled in the blanks, but it was my idea.

If they died, their blood would be all over my hands. Seeping into my skin. Soaking my soul, like the blood of that little girl.

So much blood it would turn black and flow through the streets.

It threatened to wash over me and drown me, filling my lungs full until I couldn't breathe. My head spun.

"Mina." Gianni gripped my shoulders tight enough to bruise.

I wanted to flinch, but I couldn't even do that. My mind took me right back to the first moment when I woke up in that cage.

I was cold, bare. A tight strap around my ankle. I hurt all over. The insides of my thighs were sticky. I tried to sit up, but I bumped my head on the bars of the cage.

I winced and rubbed my head. What the hell was going on? Was this some kind of prank?

It was dark. My eyes took a while to become accustomed to the gloom. While they did, I felt around me, trying to figure out where I was and how I could get out.

A cage?

The cage was locked. It wasn't long enough to let me stretch out fully, or high enough to let me sit up. I had to curl up to get… Not comfortable. That wasn't happening here, there wasn't room. I couldn't lie flat. I was coiled like a spring instead.

There weren't bars underneath me, just concrete. The cage must have been bolted to the floor. The floor was cold and hard.

How had I gotten here? The last thing I remembered was my father bringing me a drink of… Was it lemonade? He had a strange look on his face, but talked to me about nothing in particular until I drank it all down.

I couldn't remember anything else. Nothing until I woke up alone.

Outside the cage, a door opened and someone stepped inside.

My blood turned cold.

"Mina," Gianni said insistently. "Come back to me. We need you right here, right now. You're not locked up in that cage anymore. No one will do that to you again. I promise. But we need to move. Come on, sweetheart. Come back to me."

I blinked a few times to clear my vision and my mind.

Where was I?

Still on a suburban street, an SUV parked nearby. Gunshots. Shouts.

Shit .

Could I have chosen a worse time to freak out and lose my mind in the shadows of the past? Anyone could have crept up behind me and I wouldn't have known. I tried to remind myself that wouldn't have happened, but I was so lost in the memory… There was no guarantee.

"I'm here," I whispered. "I'm sorry, I don't know what happened."

"What happened was, you're still human," he said gently. "But we need to decide what to do. Do we see if that's Kurt, or do we help the others?"

"I need to see if it's Kurt," I said finally. My guys were not going to let themselves get killed. They weren't. I had to have faith in that. But I needed to know. If we were this close to him and didn't even try, then we'd taken this risk for nothing.

"All right, let's go." Gianni dropped his hands from my shoulders, to wrap them around my fingers. "Unless you'd like me to go first."

"Not a chance," I said. Whatever happened to me, the flashback, it was gone now, replaced with efficient assassin mode.

I might let myself fall apart later, but for now I couldn't. I had to be Mina fucking DiMarco, the Sparrow, for a while longer.

We slipped through the darkness, moving slowly and silently towards the vehicle. A couple of metres away, I stopped again.

"What the hell?" I whispered.

In the back of the car was some kind of dummy. It was propped against the seat, high enough to look like a person. As far as I could tell, it had no face, but that wasn't what had me staring.

Sitting around where a person's chest would be, was a phone. The screen was on, showing a visual of our house here in Dusk Bay.

I couldn't tell who held the phone, but it was pointed at Kurt, who sat on the couch, a gun in his hand. Beside him was Enzo, Angelina and Caleb. They all looked pissed off. Their mouths were covered with duct tape.

Same with the fourth person on the couch with them.

Kurt’s gun was pointed at the temple of my sister, Rose.