Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

DAMON

"You brought me all the way here to question my loyalty?" Caleb stood with his palms pressed against the top of Reuben's desk, his upper body leaning forward as though he might loom over his older brother.

He was taller, around the same height as me, but he lacked Reuben's presence. Caleb was commanding, but compared to Reuben, he might as well be in the background.

No, I wasn't biased. Much.

"You're always looking for an excuse to borrow my jet," Reuben drawled. "We thought you might enjoy the ride."

"Bullshit," Caleb snapped. He pushed himself back from the desk and turned around, a hand on the back of his head. He stood with his eyes closed for a few moments before turning back to Reuben.

"You think I'm working against you? With a lowlife piece of shit like Kurt Lasalle? Why the fuck would I do that? I've worked hard all these years to build our family into what it is. You think I'd throw that away? For what?"

"If you thought you could replace me, you might take the opportunity," Reuben said evenly.

Caleb's jaw clenched, but he didn't deny the suggestion. If he thought he'd succeed, he might well step out of line. But if he was going to take that bet, he'd have to be very sure he'd win. Otherwise, he'd be stepping out of an aircraft without a parachute. Literally.

Caleb dropped his hand to his thigh with a slap. "I'm not working against you with Kurt fucking Lasalle."

"Who are you working against him with?" Gianni leaned against the door frame, his head cocked.

Caleb looked like he might lunge at Gianni and punch him in the face, but managed to restrain himself.

"I'm not working against Reuben," he growled. "I have my people looking for Kurt, as requested." He shook his head. "Why are we even having this conversation?"

"Because someone told him Mina was here," I said. I reclined in one of the chairs to the side of the room, my ankle resting on the opposite thigh. A subtle reminder that I was more trusted around here than Caleb. A reminder that didn't go unnoticed, from the glare he gave me.

"Who told him?" Caleb demanded. "You said she was?—"

"Yes, I did," Reuben said. "But Kurt had that information anyway." He didn't explain how he knew. Caleb didn't need to be privy to that. Unless Reuben thought he did. He wouldn't hear it from me or Gianni.

Caleb frowned and sank down into a chair, elbows propped on his thighs, where they threatened to wrinkle his perfectly tailored suit. He exhaled, long and slow. "What are you thinking?"

"Either we have a leak, or he was watching on the occasions we left the house," Reuben said.

"We checked the ice cream parlour for cameras," I said. "The only one present was CCTV and we destroyed the footage. The car park was the same. If the house where we found Frank had cameras, we'll never know, since the place exploded."

"If I was going to keep a woman against her will, I'd have cameras on her," Caleb said slowly.

"Sounds like you're speaking from experience," Gianni said. "But there were no cameras in the basement. Not in the rest of the building except outside. We dealt with that one too."

"I know you don't want to hear this, but is there any chance Mina is working with him?" Caleb asked.

I wasn't aware I was about to move, but I leaped out of my seat and grabbed Caleb by the front of his suit to haul him out of his.

"If you ever fucking say anything like that again, you'll be breathing out your ass," I growled.

To his credit, Caleb looked unruffled. He was fully aware I wouldn't kill him unless Reuben ordered me to. No matter how tempted I was.

"Like I said, you wouldn't want to hear the suggestion, but that doesn't mean it didn't need to be said," Caleb said evenly. "I'm no student of psychology, but Stockholm Syndrome is a thing. We both know people can be made to do all sorts of things with the right level of brainwashing. Isn't that Gianni's specialty? Convincing people that what they think is true, isn't it?" He grabbed my wrists and pulled them off the front of his suit.

I glared at him before stepping back to the other side of the room. If I was too close to him, I might do something I'd regret.

"I have considered the possibility," Reuben admitted. "If that's the case, then she wouldn't be acting on her own choice. What Kurt did to her left her traumatised. Every time she's reminded of him, she looks ready to slice off her own skin and step out of it. When she first saw me, she thought I was going to have her killed. She was relieved . She would have preferred to die than stay there."

Caleb nodded and reclaimed his seat. "I trust Daisy Lasalle when she says her and her boyfriends aren't involved. She worked for me for years. She's never spoken highly of her brother. Now, she seems more inclined to make him breathe out his ass." He nodded at me to acknowledge his use of my wording.

"I trust the twins," Reuben said. He steepled his fingers and pressed against his lips. "What are we missing?"

His brow was furrowed with measured thought and a dose of annoyance. He didn't like it when he didn't know things. When he wasn't fully in control.

"It's possible Kurt was guessing," Caleb said. "You know he was operating behind your back. He would have known you'd come for him at some point. Someone got Mina out of that basement. He might have put one and one together and actually managed to come up with two."

"He could have been fishing for information," I conceded. "But I don't think so. Everything he said seemed calculated. Like he knew exactly what he was going to say. He was sure he knew all the right buttons to press."

"He was very sure one of us would be in the room with her," Gianni said. "I know for a fact there aren't any bugs or cameras inside this house. Not unless we control them."

His words bounced around in my mind for a few moments before they bumped into a firm idea.

I stood up straighter. "Can you excuse me please, boss?" I slipped out of the room before Reuben could even acknowledge I'd spoken.

I slipped down the corridor and down to the last place I saw Mina. The place she seemed the most comfortable, apart from her bedroom.

I stopped in the doorway of the library. Sure enough, she was sitting on a chair in the corner, reading some kind of sports romance. I didn't realise rugby romance was a thing, but then again my knowledge of the romance genre was limited.

"How do you get into buildings undetected?" I asked.

She looked up at me and frowned. "How do I—" My question sank in. She seemed reluctant, but finally said, "I have a device."

"Where is it?" I asked. "Where is this device?"

She slipped the bookmark into her book and set it aside. "In my bedroom, why?"

"I need to see it." I should have guessed it was something like that. After years of speculation, I had an answer to one of the more interesting mysteries. I'd take some time to think about it later. In the meantime, there were more pressing matters.

Still looking uncertain, she stood. "Okay."

I followed her upstairs, vaguely aware Gianni, Reuben and Caleb stood outside Reuben's office watching us in confusion.

In spite of that, they were behind us when she reached into a drawer, pulled out a jumper and unfolded it.

Inside was a small, black device with a screen on the front.

"This disables alarm systems." She placed it on my outstretched palm.

"Mina is the Sparrow," Reuben said to Caleb, his voice low and reluctant.

Shit.

I probably should have thought of the consequences before I bolted out of the room, but I got an idea and ran with it. If there was a chance waiting might get us killed, then I had no choice.

"How does it work?" I asked.

"It hacks into the Wi-Fi that security systems are run on these days," she explained. "It reads the code and switches the system off."

"So if it hacks, it can be hacked," I reasoned.

"If technology has changed since it was invented," she agreed. "It was supposed to be hack proof. At least, as hack proof as anything could be."

I turned the device over in my hand. In the back were four, small screws. "I don't suppose you have a?—"

She reached into the drawer again and pulled out a small screwdriver. She held it out to me with the handle facing me.

I nodded my thanks and accepted it. She really was prepared for almost anything. How many knives did she have hidden in those drawers and around the room? If I was her, I'd have several, in case anyone got past the security system.

The device balanced on my palm, I carefully unscrewed each of the screws and handed them to her. I had to use the screwdriver to pry off the back of the device, but it eventually came off with a pop.

"Bingo." Sitting in the back of the device was a tiny bug. The kind used to listen in and track people. The kind that crunched satisfyingly under my heel.

"He said I was predictable," Mina said, her eyes glazed as she spoke. "I thought he meant coming here, but he didn't. He knew exactly where I kept my phone and that device. He knew if I ever got out of that basement, I'd go back for those things. That could have been inside the device for years. Waiting."

Her face was pale again. That asshole really knew how to get to her. Fuck only knew what else he'd done that we hadn't uncovered yet.

"Mina DiMarco is the Sparrow?" Apparently it took Caleb a few moments to process that information. "How long until Kurt tells the world that?"

Or maybe he processed it immediately and moved quickly to the implications, conjuring scenarios in his mind. His tone wasn't panicked, or even concerned.

His brow was creased as he made calculations in his head. Planning like someone plans moves in a game of chess. Reuben was commanding, but Caleb was the strategic brother. Often several moves ahead of everyone else.

I turned to glare at him.

He shrugged and raised his hands. "Don't say it hasn't occurred to you, because it would have. If this prick has gone to such lengths to track her, then what's keeping him from pulling the pin on this?"

"What would he have to gain from telling everyone?" I asked. "People would want proof. The only way he could give them that would be to throw himself under the bus."

"I wish he would throw himself under a literal bus," Gianni said.

"People like him don't give away information like that," Caleb said. "They sell it to the highest bidder. Can you imagine the amount of zeros information like that would go for? That device Damon is holding in his hand is almost as valuable." He gestured at me.

"The price governments would pay for retribution against her for assassinating their officials would be eye watering. Or better yet, finding out who hired her. Information like that could bring down whole administrations. Hell, countries could collapse. You know the kind of people she was hired to target. I'm not fucking exaggerating." His jaw was set tight.

"We're not letting them torture Mina," Gianni said, his low voice a thinly veiled threat.

"Then we better find Kurt fucking Lasalle before he can offer her up," Caleb said. "Because people aren't going to let any of us stand in the way when there are millions of dollars involved."