Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

MINA

"Pack as much as you can, " Reuben said. "I want to be out of here within the hour."

"Where are we going?" Gianni followed him to the door.

"Dusk Bay," Reuben said briskly. "My house there is more secure than here. Damon, Caleb, have your connections be on the lookout for any information regarding the Sparrow, especially any offers to sell her identity." Evidently he'd decided to take Caleb's words seriously.

Unfortunately for me, Caleb was right. Kurt would sell that information to whoever would pay for it.

"We could stop him from getting rich," I said softly.

They all stopped to stare at me.

"I could sell that information myself," I said. "Or I could give it away for free."

"No." The word was simple, the delivery soft, but Reuben's expression was firm. "Start packing."

"Listen to what she has to say," Caleb advised. He crossed his arms and nodded to me.

Reuben glared at him, but didn't contradict him. Instead, he leaned against the door frame and looked back at me while I spoke.

"If we release the information, we can control what people hear," I said. "And who hears it. If we leave it to Kurt, he gets to make millions, and he controls who he speaks to and what he gives them. I can't freely disclose information about past clients. Just enough information to satisfy people. They can do whatever they want with that. We can carefully choose what we share for minimal impact on us and our interests. And innocent people. Kurt won't have that kind of restraint."

Reuben looked thoughtful. He didn't dismiss the idea, but he didn't agree with it either.

"I'll consider it," he said finally. "We now leave in fifty-five minutes." He turned and walked out of the room.

"For what it's worth, I think it's a good idea." Caleb nodded and stepped away himself.

Damon waited until he was gone, grimaced and said, "I hate to agree with anything Caleb said, but it is."

"Technically, we're agreeing with what Mina said," Gianni pointed out. "You need help packing, sweetheart?"

"I don't have much," I said. "You should go and pack your things."

"I'll go and organise the jet," Damon said. "And speak to my contacts about putting your plan into action."

"You think Reuben will agree to it?" I asked.

Damon shrugged. "I don't see how he'd have a choice. This is the best way to stop Kurt from having control over this. It might also help to flush him out." He tucked his hands into his pockets and strode out of the room.

I glanced at Gianni.

He looked back at me and frowned. "What?"

"I was expecting you to say something like you wanted to flush Kurt down the toilet."

I grabbed the handle of the suitcase Reuben gave me and pulled it out of the top of the wardrobe. I set it down on the bed and started to toss things inside.

Gianni laughed. "I must be losing my touch if I missed that one."

"Or you thought it was low hanging fruit and weren't going to bother," I offered.

"When it comes to Kurt, there's no such thing as too low." In spite of my assurances that I didn't need help, he started to pull my underwear out of the drawer and place it neatly in the suitcase. "Not even toilet humour."

"I suppose so." I tossed my jeans in beside my underwear.

"So, you can pick locks and have a device that disables security alarms," Gianni said. "What other tricks do you have up your sleeve?"

"Is that why you offered to help?" I asked, half teasing. "So you could get the gossip?"

"It's mostly because I like your company, but colour me curious," he said. "Caleb was also right, that device would bring in millions, maybe billions, of dollars. Imagine the places we could get into with a few of those."

I cocked my head at him.

"Right, you don't need to imagine. Have you ever been tempted to rob a bank, just because you could?" He matched the angle of my head and smiled.

I scoffed. "I prefer a challenge." My lips moved as I considered adding to that, but I pressed them together and smirked at my own thought.

"What? Where did kid-Mina sneak into?" He pressed his palms to his hips and lifted his chin expectantly.

"Nowhere I wasn't paid to go," I said evasively. I stepped around him to pick up a couple of books from the table beside the bed.

"Where did you want to go?" he asked.

"You'll think it's silly." I placed the books down on top of my jeans.

"Have you met me?" He looked at me sideways. "I like silly. I don't think you could say anything sillier than the thoughts that go through my mind on an hourly basis." He raised his hand and gave me a 'give it to me' gesture with his fingers.

I sighed and straightened up. "I had a crush on a popstar once. I thought about breaking into his house and… I don't know. Stealing his underwear or watching him sleep. Something stupid like that." I shrugged.

Gianni smiled. "That's adorable. If he had half a brain cell, you could have just knocked on the door. I wouldn't have turned you away if I was him."

"There's no challenge in knocking on the door," I said. "It doesn't matter anyway, because I didn't know where he lived, or what his real name was. It was just a childish fantasy."

"Those are the best kind," Gianni said. "The problem with growing up is losing things like that. What was his name?"

I made a face. "Bobby Starlight. Like I said, I was young." He sang songs about love, relationships and corny things like dancing under the light of a full moon.

His lyrics and upbeat tunes were a sweet counterpoint to the rest of my life back then. They helped to balance out all the death and gave me a place to escape to. It didn't hurt that he was ridiculously good-looking, with washboard abs and tattoos to spare. He was the fantasy of teenage girls all over the world. The one time I could have seen him on tour, I'd had a job all the way in London. I was gutted, but work always came first. Especially when I was still building a reputation.

"I love him," Gianni enthused. "He hasn't released anything in years, but I bet we could find him." He looked as though he might pull out his phone right now and send a message to his own contacts to find out the real name and address of Bobby Starlight. For all I knew, Asher might have been one of those contacts. Didn't people in the music industry know each other, or something like that?

I shook my head. "We should focus on the present and the shit that matters." I closed my suitcase and zipped it up. That part of my past was so long ago it didn't matter anymore. We had more pressing things to do, like find Kurt, and Leon Graves.

Gianni stepped over to me and placed his hands lightly on my shoulders. He looked me straight in the eyes, knowing I could step away from him at any time, but wanting to get his point across, because it was important to him.

"There's no reason why you can't have childish fantasies if you want to. If I'm too young to give them up, then you are. I know Kurt stole them from you, but I want to help you get them back. Everyone deserves to have some fun once in a while. Especially you. I'm not saying we should break in and steal a person's underwear. Although, I'm not ruling that out either, but we could do other things."

"Don't steal his underwear for me," I said.

I'd be deluding myself if I didn't think he'd do exactly that if I asked him to. I wasn't sure there was anything he'd say no to if I wanted it. He was sweet, but I wasn't going to take advantage. Especially not when I was struggling to find my own independence again.

"I won't steal his underwear for you, but I might do it with you," he said with a grin. "Seriously, what did you used to do for fun?"

"Kill people," I said flatly. "I read books and I killed people."

"As hot as that is, you must have done other things," he pressed. "Did you go out and dance all night? Go to the movies? Lie around with your friends, giving each other facials while you gossiped about boys?"

I glanced away from him and let my eyes glaze as I thought back. All of that seemed like a thousand lifetimes ago. It could have happened to someone else, or in my imagination.

"Used to play the guitar," I said finally. "I thought maybe I'd be in a band with Asher some day. Or tour with Bobby Starlight." I snorted at the ridiculous idea. "Can you imagine an assassin touring the world as a guitarist?"

It would be a nice cover, but it sounded like something out of a mafia rock star romance book. Was that such a thing? I'd have to look it up.

"As a matter of fact, I can," Gianni agreed. "You would have been amazing. You still might be. I'm sure Reuben wouldn't mind buying you?—"

"I can buy my own guitar," I said, slightly more snappy than I intended.

I exhaled softly. "I'm sorry. I just feel like…that dream passed me by. There's no point in trying to pretend it's going to happen. For one thing, Asher's band already has a guitarist."

"That doesn't mean you can't get a guitar and play it for fun," Gianni said. "I could play with you. We could jam."

"You play the guitar?" I squinted at him. I couldn't quite imagine him doing that.

He grinned. "No, but I can play the triangle. And believe it or not, I'm not too bad on the flute." He mimed playing one, his lips pursed as he blew into an invisible instrument. "You never heard this from me, but Damon is pretty good on the saxophone."

"Don't tell me, Reuben is secretly an accomplished drummer?" I asked.

Gianni chuckled. "I don't think Reuben would be caught dead playing a musical instrument. Besides, I think he's more the bass player type." He mimed playing one of the four stringed instruments, leaning backwards as though he was rocking out to an audience.

A laugh slipped out from between my lips. "That's an interesting visual image. I'm not sure I'll be able to get that out of my head."

"You're welcome," Gianni quipped. "Maybe you can work on him to learn to play. He could use another outlet to let himself relax."

"I might start by getting my own guitar first," I said. He was right, I should give myself the chance to enjoy my life. As much fun as killing and reading were, I enjoyed making music. Even if I was the only one who ever heard it.

"Do you need help packing?" I pulled out my phone and glanced at the time.

I had no reason to believe Reuben wasn't completely serious when he said we'd had an hour. If that was the case, we used up half of that already.

"I'm still packed from when we went to Dusk Bay," Gianni admitted. "Never got around to unpacking. You're going to love the house there. It overlooks the beach. There are stairs that lead right down to it. It's the only way to get there by land. The view is absolutely fucking beautiful."

He grabbed the handle of my suitcase and led me out the door.