Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

MINA

"You did fucking what? " Reuben's voice was low as usual, but laced with a heavy dose of absolute fury. His ice blue eyes snapped with lightning that could have burnt Gianni to a crisp.

Gianni stood his ground. "I had everything under control. I just thought Mina would like to see her brother."

"With cameras and press everywhere," Reuben said. "One image of her would have told Kurt exactly where she was. If she decided to talk to Asher, or he'd seen her, that would have gone viral. Things could very quickly have gotten completely out of control."

Gianni still didn't flinch. "It didn't. Everything went exactly as it was supposed to. She got to see him and the world is none the wiser."

Reuben's gaze slid to me. His expression softened. "Too much could have gone wrong. Risks like that aren't ones I'm willing to take. Not when it comes to Mina." He propped his elbow on the desk and rested his head on the palms of his hands. "Did you get what you needed?"

"Potential information on Kurt arriving in town tomorrow, and a guitar," I said. "You could say I did. And I got to see my brother."

Reuben was right, so much could have gone wrong, but it hadn't. Seeing Asher was soothing in a way I hadn't expected. Knowing he was doing well and seeing it with my own eyes were two different things.

"See, everything worked out perfectly," Gianni said. "Tomorrow we'll get to pin down Lasalle and deal with his ass. For all we know, Asher will still be in town and we can invite him over for a few beers. Or go and see them live. I'm sure they'd have a few tickets left for us."

Reuben grimaced. "Let's deal with one thing at a time. Kurt first."

"I have everyone organised," Damon said. "We'll have people in place hours before the pickup time. If anything looks suspicious, they'll deal with it. When the time comes, we'll be right there. Clarissa will let us know if anything changes."

"Good." Reuben nodded. "I don't want any unexpected surprises tomorrow. No one goes off on their own and does anything rash." He looked directly at Gianni.

"Me, do something rash?" Gianni smiled. "You're thinking of the twins."

"Hey, what did we do?" Hunter protested. He and Parker reclined on the couch, coffees in their hands. "We had no idea what Gianni planned. We didn't even run off and say hi to Zeke."

"No, we didn't," Parker agreed. "We got the hell out of there when Mina said she wasn't ready to talk to Asher. No one ever knew we were there."

"This time," Reuben said. "Which I appreciate. Otherwise we'd be having a different conversation. Tomorrow, I want everyone on the same page. Follow Damon's plan to the letter. If anyone steps a toe out of line, we could be screwed. We could lose this chance at Kurt. I won't allow that to happen because someone feels the need to be a loose cannon."

"My cannon is never loose," Gianni said. He grinned at me.

I rolled my eyes, shook my head and smiled back at him. Nothing ever kept him down for long. Not even been chewed out by Reuben.

"I feel like one of us should have said that," Hunter said. "If Gianni is going to start stealing our one-liners, we might have a problem."

"Not my fault if I'm quicker than you are," Gianni said.

"Being too quick isn't a good thing," Parker pointed out. He grinned and offered Hunter a fist bump.

"Ha fucking ha," Gianni said sarcastically. "I'm never too quick when it matters."

The twins smiled unapologetically.

"That's what they all say," Hunter teased.

"As fascinating as this conversation is," Damon said slowly but meaningfully, "can we get back to the matter at hand? In case you need a reminder, Kurt fucking Lasalle. Remember him?"

I shuddered. I wished I didn't. Remembering him was one of the worst things about waking up in the morning. I wished there was a way I could forget. He still haunted my dreams and nightmares. When I closed my eyes, I could picture him leering at me through the bars of the cage. Looking down at me as he…

"We all remember him," Gianni said as he stepped closer to me. "He's the prick who brought us all together here today. If he was right in front of me, I'd thank him by punching him in the face. Or stabbing him in the dick. Maybe one, then the other." He mimed doing that.

He had a way of making a situation lighter, even when we were talking about someone who, to me, embodied pure evil. People thought of Reuben that way, but he was a pussycat compared to Kurt. Hell, I'd rather be alone with Samuel Bell than Kurt. He was an asshole, but he could be reasoned with. Sort of.

"We all feel that way," Damon said. "But let's not allow our need for revenge to cloud our judgment. The best thing we can do right now, is focus and be cool and calm. Rational. Not rash. If we let our anger guide us, he has a better chance of getting to us. We can't let that happen."

"You missed your calling," Hunter said. "You should have been a motivational speaker."

Damon smirked at him. "I'm not saying anything that isn't accurate. We've all done things in the heat of the moment that could have made a situation worse, or gotten us killed."

"Like driving an SUV into a couple of other cars?" Parker asked.

"That was a completely rational thing to do," Damon said. "I'm sure you'll recall I saved your asses."

"I don't know, it sounds like a heat of the moment thing to me," Hunter said. "Sometimes you have to be flexible, especially when the stakes are high."

"Flexible is good, just don't be stupid," Reuben said. "Any of you. I don't want anyone in this room getting killed."

"I told you he loves us," Parker said. "Not wanting us dead is Reuben's love language."

"Or it might be my way of saying your death would be inconvenient," Reuben said flatly.

"We can read between the lines," Hunter said. "Our deaths would be inconvenient and heartbreaking."

"I'd be heartbroken if I died," Parker said. "As well as inconvenienced."

"Me too," Hunter agreed.

I leaned against Gianni and listened to them banter back and forth. This family I'd found was a little crazy, but they adored each other, in spite of what they might say. If we lost anyone here, we'd all be devastated.

"Maybe we shouldn't go after Kurt," I said softly.

The silence that followed my words was heavy. If I turned into a giant, purple dinosaur, I couldn't have taken them by surprise more than I just had. The only sound in the room for at least a full minute was the pounding of my heart. It beat so hard it almost hurt, but I meant what I said. Like it or not, we had to consider everything.

"What are you saying, sweetheart?" Gianni asked.

"I'm saying he's not worth risking any of you," I said. "It won't change what he did. It won't give me back those five years. It won't erase the memories. I'd rather build new ones with all of you, than take the chance."

"You don't want revenge?" Damon squinted at me.

"I do," I said. "I want that very much. But at what cost?"

"If it costs us our lives, we'll pay that price," Gianni said. "He can't be allowed to walk around, doing fuck knows what to fuck knows who. Not to mention double crossing all of us. We all want our own revenge on him. Whatever it takes, we'll do it. Right guys?" He glanced around Reuben's office.

"I will," Damon said.

"I will too," Reuben agreed. His gaze was so intense my heart skipped a beat or two.

The twins were right, not wanting any of us dead was his love language. If anything or anyone threatened one of us, they'd have him to answer to.

I already cared about him, but those feelings were getting deeper every day. I couldn't imagine living my life without him. Without any of them.

"Us too," Hunter said. "No one fucks with our family and gets away without us fucking back. That's our love language. Like we said, you're our sister now. Your revenge is our revenge. Besides, screwing with people like Kurt is fun."

"It really is," Parker said. "We basically live for shit like this. Some people jump out of planes for fun, we hunt down assholes."

"We'd also jump out of planes though," Hunter said. "And bungee jump. And rappel." He nodded with each new addition to his extreme sport list.

I could imagine him and Parker doing every one of them on a nice relaxing Saturday afternoon.

"You certainly repel me," Gianni laughed.

Hunter flipped him off.

Gianni just grinned. "Bro, you walked yourself right into that one. Don't offer up the opportunity if you don't want me to take it. Because I will, every time."

"Exactly how attached are you to him?" Hunter asked me, clearly joking around. "If you ever feel the need to rid yourself of him, let me know. I'll be happy to oblige."

"That's sweet of you," I said. "I'm capable of getting rid of him myself if I need to. Which I don't foresee happening," I added quickly.

Hunter leaned over to Parker and whispered loudly, "She thinks I'm sweet."

Parker loudly whispered back, "She doesn't know you very well."

Hunter frowned at his twin. "Fuck you too, bro."

Parker chuckled and gave Hunter a hug. "We have to keep you on your toes."

Gianni wrapped an arm around me and spoke softly in my ear. "That was really hot. You saying you could kill me yourself if you needed to. My cock is so hard right now."

I turned my face to him. "I'm not sure how I feel about you getting aroused from death threats."

He wiggled his eyebrows at me. "I can't help being fucked up, but it's more the idea of you killing, in general, than killing me in particular. I'd get just as hard if you threatened the twins or even Damon or Reuben."

"I'll bear that in mind," I said. I wasn't sure under what circumstances I'd threaten to kill any of them. As long as they never tried to restrain or cage me, then I'd have no reason to. If they did, they could expect a blade across their throat, not threats. I wouldn't hesitate if it meant avoiding being locked away again. I couldn't afford to. I wouldn't survive being back in there.

I didn't want to.

"I think we can all agree there's something attractive about a woman who can take care of herself," Damon said.

"And a man who can do that," Gianni said. "Which reminds me about your remark in the music shop. About being kinky." He cocked his head at Damon and looked expectant but hopeful, like he wasn't sure he'd get an answer, but he wanted one. And if he didn't, at least he got an opportunity to get a rise out of Damon. Although, I suspected he'd prefer his curiosity be satisfied, than teasing Damon. I wouldn't have minded knowing, myself.

Damon cleared his throat. "Can I be excused, boss? I have a few last-minute things I need to check over before tomorrow."

Reuben nodded. "Go. Keep me posted."

Gianni made a disappointed sound in the back of his throat as Damon opened the door and slipped out. "We can have that conversation later then. Good talk."

"I'm sure you all have places to be," Reuben said. He gave us all meaningful looks, but lingered longer on the twins and Gianni. His anger had cooled, but the message was clear. If any of them thought to go out on their own, he'd be pissed off at them. He expected them to stick to Damon's plan and bring Kurt in to be dealt with.

No one said anything about me following his plan.