Chapter 21

MINA

Gianni pushed me off my feet and threw himself over me, arms wrapped around me tight.

I landed on the footpath with a thud, forced my eyes shut, and curled up as small as I could.

He let out a grunt of pain. His ragged breath was hot on the side of my face. Fingers dug into my hip, holding frantically while hell rained down behind us.

I heard a shout, but couldn't make out the words past the ringing in my ears.

Gianni's body pressed against me was overwhelming. Conflicting. Both comforting and terrifying at the same time.

Finally, everything fell. Everything but the pounding in my heart and the roaring of blood through my veins.

"Mina?" Reuben's voice sounded distant, like he was talking through a tunnel.

Someone helped Gianni to his feet. His weight was suddenly gone from me.

I opened my eyes and squinted.

Reuben crouched beside me.

"I'm okay." I rolled over and sat up. "Gianni?"

Gianni waved me down. "I'm all good. The back of my shirt might be a little singed." He grabbed the hem and pulled it around to frown at it.

"I'll buy you another shirt," Damon told him. He stood between Gianni and the burning house, flames dancing in the night behind him.

"I knew you cared." Gianni gave him a quick hug before he too crouched down beside me. "You okay, sweetheart?"

"I'm fine," I said vaguely.

My eyes were on the destroyed house. "He did this." I was both horrified and more furious than I ever remembered being. "He knew I'd be here."

"He was probably hoping we'd still be inside," Gianni said.

"The prick seemed to be targeting us." Hunter approached from the shadows, appearing unhurt.

"It does seem a bit personal." Parker was right behind him. "I'm officially offended."

"Me too," Gianni agreed.

"Get out of here," Reuben told the twins. "Gianni, Mina, back in the SUV. I want to be gone from here before the police arrive. Damon, have people move into the area and keep an eye out for Kurt."

"Good idea, boss," Gianni said. He stood with a wince of pain.

Reuben offered me his hand to help me to my feet. His usual closed expression was laced with concern and anger.

"He's fucking with us," I said.

"Or he misjudged," Reuben said quietly. "He might have expected you to be inside for longer."

"Possibly both," Damon suggested. He had his phone to his ear, his expression tight.

Once again, I had more questions than answers. Was he somewhere nearby, deliberately waiting until we were clear before setting up the explosion? Or had he timed it wrong? Did he have any idea a child would be in the house tonight? If he did, he must have known how I'd respond. Was it aimed at me or, like the twins suggested, they were the target?

My lips pressed together, I followed Reuben to the SUV and let him help me inside.

Gianni grimaced, but settled down beside me. "I should say thank you again," I said. "For protecting me. You could have been killed."

"Better me than you, sweetheart," he said. He seemed a lot less cheerful than he usually was. If anything, he seemed rattled. I wouldn't have thought it was possible if I hadn't seen it for myself. Nothing seemed to get to him like this had.

"I'm not that easy to kill." The smile he gave me was forced.

"If we were still inside, or a metre or two closer, we would have been," I said. "Five minutes earlier and he would have killed a child." I watched Gianni's expression carefully.

"Lucky for her he didn't," Gianni said.

"What would you have done if he had?" I asked.

Gianni shrugged. "If she was dead, chances are I would be too."

"But if you weren't?" I pressed. "If you were alive and she was dead, what would you do?"

"In this particular case, we're already hunting him down and want him dead. That hasn't changed." He looked curious as to why I was asking. Enough so that I decided to back off before he was the one with the questions.

"I guess we can't kill him twice," I conceded.

"Technically, we can," he said with a grin. "I have a friend who brought a guy back to life three or four times, just to see how many times he could. But he's a sadistic fuck if I ever met one. On the other hand, that comes with the territory."

"Some people get more enjoyment out of it than others," Damon said from the driver's seat.

"I'd suggest Damon was talking about himself, but I've never known him to get off on other people's suffering," Gianni said.

"Did you just say something nice about me?" Damon asked.

"I guess I did, in a roundabout way," Gianni agreed. "Did you like it?"

"I could get used to you not being an asshole," Damon said.

I leaned my head back against the seat and watched the city lights flash by as we passed.

This whole night was a lot to process. Was Kurt nearby, watching us? I sensed that he wasn't, but no more than that. Without doubt, he'd engineered all of this, but whether things went to plan or not, I had no idea.

I couldn't discount the idea he hoped Reuben and Damon would step into the house with Gianni and me. If that was the case, why not set off the explosion before we left? He would have caught at least two of us if he had.

Although, he'd had five years to kill me if he wanted to. He hadn't. He preferred to toy with me. If that was his plan, then he'd try something else to get to me. If we didn't get to him first.

"We're being followed," Damon said, breaking through my thoughts.

Gianni and I both swivelled around in our seats and looked out the back window. The traffic was light, and the dark vehicle made no attempt to hide the fact they were tailing us.

When Damon turned down a side street, they turned too. When he steered the SUV back onto the main road, they stayed right with us.

They made no attempt to get closer to us until a couple of streets from home. There, they manoeuvred themselves so close the front of their car almost touched the rear of the SUV.

"Hang on," Damon said. He slowed the SUV right down, before pressing his foot hard on the accelerator and jumping forward. He took a bend so fast I thought the tyres on the right-hand side of the car might lift off the road.

I grabbed hold of the handle above the door beside me and held on tight.

Gianni had his gun out, but made no attempt to use it. "Bullet-proof glass," he explained. "Works both ways."

Damon slowed the car down again, and Gianni lowered the window beside him. He stuck his hand out and got off a couple of shots in the direction of the sedan. One hit the side of the windscreen and left a crack, but the sedan didn't slow.

Gianni pulled his hand back in and closed the window. "Fuckers have bullet-proof glass too. I guess they mean business."

"We're not usually followed by people who don't mean business," Reuben said. He sounded as though this happened regularly.

I glanced forward to see him quickly shooting off a text message. A few moments later, his phone flashed with a return message.

"Keep driving," he said. "The twins can be here in three minutes. They're still in the area."

"Got it, boss," Damon said. He resumed driving at a normal speed, weaving through traffic.

I didn't know Sydney well enough anymore to know where we were going, but the traffic and houses gradually thinned, leaving us in a more industrial part of the city. Somewhere less likely to contain crowds or innocent people. Somewhere with less chance of collateral damage. Or, maybe, more places for us to hide.

Reuben's phone lit up again. "The twins are on their tail." For a moment I thought he might leave this to them, but then he said, "Find somewhere to pull over."

"Got it, boss," Damon said again. He didn't question the orders, just drove past a handful of cars and into an empty parking lot in front of a tyre shop.

The car that was tailing us followed us in, another dark sedan right behind them. They must have realised the twins were there, because they turned a tight circle and drove right out of the car park, past the twin's car.

"That was anticlimactic," Gianni remarked.

"You spoke too soon," Damon said.

The sedan stopped sideways across the exit leading out of the car park. The doors opened and several figures stepped out.

"Looks like party time after all," Gianni said. He turned to me. "Is there any chance we can convince you to stay in the car?"

I smiled slightly and pulled out my knives. "Nope."

He sighed dramatically. "That was what I thought. Boss?"

"Keep her safe," was all Reuben said before he opened his own door and stepped out of the SUV.

I slipped out but stayed near the car, using the vehicle as a shield. Just because I'd spent five years living out of the world, didn't mean I was oblivious to the futility of having knives at a gunfight. If I had an opportunity to use them, I would. Otherwise, I'd stay out of the way.

Reuben stayed beside me, Damon and Gianni on either side of us, guns trained on the approaching figures.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the twins get out of their vehicle, guns in their hands.

"This is an interesting place for a chat," Gianni said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

"This isn't a chat." The first of the strangers, a man in his forties with a long chin, said.

"I thought not." Gianni raised his gun and shot him in the centre of his forehead.

The other three dropped back, crouching on the other side of the SUV.

"We came to deliver a message," one of them called out.

"Why can't these motherfuckers learn to text?" came from the direction of the twins. "Even Reuben can text."

"What message?" Damon asked.

"Kurt Lasalle said to back the fuck off."

"We have no intention of backing off," Reuben said coldly. A heartbeat later he said, "Kill them."

Apparently he wasn't in the mood to follow the suggestion of whoever said not to kill the messenger.

Before anyone could move to follow his orders, another two dark sedans stopped behind the first, further blocking the exit.

"Shit just got real," Gianni said.

Damon hummed his agreement. "Too fucking real."