Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

DAMON

I stopped outside the door to Reuben's room. Even this close to midnight, the door was open and a light was on inside. I didn't hear any groaning, so I decided it was safe to push the door open a little further and peer inside.

Typical of Reuben, he was still fully dressed, sitting on a chair near the window reading a recently released, thick epic fantasy.

Not my kind of thing, but they kept him engaged for hours. I'd bet that when he was a child, if he was quiet, it wasn't because he was up to something. He would have been sitting in a corner reading. When he wasn't learning to take over from his father.

I glanced around the room. "Mina isn't in here."

He looked up, his brow creased. "No. I thought she was with you or Gianni."

"She might be with Gianni, but I can't find him either," I said. "Neither of them are in their rooms, or anywhere in the house as far as I can tell. I tried ringing Gianni, but there was no answer. It's possible his phone was on silent and he didn't hear it."

Reuben slipped his bookmark into his book and set it aside. He sat up straighter, hands on his thighs.

I ignored the way my pulse ratcheted up. This was not the time for that.

"What else?" he asked. He knew me too well.

"One of the cars is missing. According to the tracker, it's in the city."

"It didn't get there by itself," he stated.

"No, and the staff are all accounted for. It's only Gianni and Mina I can't find." I shoved my hands in my pockets to keep from showing the worst of my frustration and concern.

"Fuck," he said softly. "Gianni wouldn't have…"

"No," I agreed quickly. "If they're together, she's a willing participant."

"You think they're together," he said.

"They better be." I couldn't think of another scenario. "I have a theory that Mina thought Kurt might come to Dusk Bay earlier. She might have decided to confront him. Gianni went with her."

"Why wouldn't she come to us?" Reuben asked. He shook his head slightly. "It doesn't matter. You have the location of the car? Wake the twins, we're all going." He pushed himself to his feet.

I nodded. "Yes, boss. I'll get them and the car ready."

"We'll get to her in time," he said half to himself.

"Of course we will, boss. Knowing her, she'll have him pinned down by the time we get there. Tied up and ready for us to bring him back here." I wished I could be so sure.

"Without doubt." He stopped beside me and placed his hand on my shoulder.

If I thought my pulse was going faster before, it was doubled now. My heart was beating so fast I could barely catch my breath. His face was so close to mine, his breath would have brushed my lips if he turned just slightly.

My balls throbbed. Time stopped while we stood there side-by-side, his skin burning a hole in the fabric of my T-shirt.

Moments passed, like a clock ticking slowly.

"We should go," I managed to grind out.

His throat bobbed as he visibly swallowed. "Yes." He dropped his hand and stepped past me.

The moment contact was broken, time started again. My shoulder felt colder than ice, but I shook myself out of my stupor and went to wake the twins.

All of the Brantley brothers must be night owls, the twins weren't asleep either. Fortunately for everyone concerned, because I suspected when woken up they came out swinging. Or stabbing, if a knife was close to hand.

I gave them a brief explanation and they were hurrying down to the car behind me. I had to give them credit. They'd fully accepted Mina as one of their own. If she ever needed them, they'd be there for her. At this rate, she'd have her own army.

Reuben was waiting patiently beside the car, with one of the staff who'd sorted guns for each of us. Usually Gianni's job.

I was going to tear him a new one when I saw him next. He should know better than to go out on his own, even in Mina's company.

If anything happened to either of them, I was going to be… I'd have to finish that thought later. Right now, I needed to be cool and clearheaded. I'd leave being rash to everyone else.

"The car is near Clarissa's store," I said. The comment was more or less redundant. Where else would Gianni or Mina have gone?

"I'm surprised," Hunter said. "Knowing Gianni, I thought he would have taken her to tonight's Wolf Venom concert. No one would have recognised her up in the nosebleed seats."

"It was sold out." Reuben looked unimpressed with that suggestion.

"And you know that, how?" Parker leaned forward from where he sat in the back seat.

"It's my job to know things," Reuben said. "Unless people go behind my back like this." He appeared to be perfectly calm and composed on the outside. We all knew him better than that. On the inside, he was a cauldron of cold fury.

Like I was.

"Just remember, Mina cares about Gianni," Hunter said. "Try not to shoot him too much."

"I'm not going to shoot him," Reuben said. What he left unsaid was clear. If Gianni did anything to her, including encouraging her to leave the house without us, he'd be a lot worse off than if he was dead.

No one asked what would happen if Mina was the one who coerced him.

"Who said Reuben doesn't have a heart?" Parker asked.

"I might have said that in the past," Hunter said. "I'm pretty sure Zeke said the same. And Caleb, Joshua and Lucas. I'm as surprised as anyone to find out he actually does. Much less that it beats for Mina DiMarco."

"Don't make me shoot you ," Reuben said darkly. "If either of you so much as look at her in a way that's not brotherly…"

"We wouldn't dream of it," Parker said. "Mina is sweet, but she is not for us."

"Fucking right she's not," I growled. She belonged to Reuben, Gianni and me. No one else. I didn't let myself think about us belonging to each other. That was something we'd have to think about later. Assuming we got a later.

I focused on driving, while the others fell silent.

The drive from the house in Dusk Bay Heights, to the city, wasn't far, but it felt like it tonight. It could have been a hundred kilometres instead of twenty. The traffic was heavier than usual for this time of night, with people heading home from the concert.

Personally, I wouldn't have minded going, but I knew how Reuben felt about his brother's band. That was a conversation not worth having, just to go to a rock concert.

"Still no answer on either of their phones." Reuben sounded frustrated.

That didn't surprise me. If they were up to something, they'd want to keep them silent.

Mina always did now, after that call from Kurt. She had little reason to accept incoming calls anyway. Anyone who had her number, could either text or speak to her in person. The rest of her communication was done via some app on her phone I'd only gotten a glimpse of. Something, I presumed, was only for assassins, not everyday people like me.

"We'll get to her in time," Hunter said. "If there's anything I know about Mina and Gianni, it's that they have each other's backs. They won't let anything happen to each other."

"They better not," Reuben growled.

I'd never heard that much emotion in his voice before. If anything happened to either of them, he'd be as gutted as I would. He'd burn down the whole world in retribution.

I'd hand him the matches.

"Park around the corner from where the car is," Reuben said as we drove into the city. "We don't want anyone to know we're here."

"Got it, boss," I replied automatically.

I ran through the best places to park, finally settling on a side street around the corner from the vegan grocery store. It was empty at this time of night, apart from a darkened delivery truck and a couple of wheelie bins.

I killed the engine and was the first out of the car. My shoes barely touched the ground before my gun was in my hand.

"Just making sure you're all aware this might be a trap," Hunter said carefully.

"Of course it might," Reuben said. "Be alert for anything."

"Okay, just checking." Hunter nodded and made sure his gun was loaded and the safety off. "Wouldn't want to walk into anything fatal."

"We won't," I said. I'd considered the possibility Gianni and Mina had. There was a chance they might both be…

I wouldn't let myself finish that thought.

I led the way down Riley Street, all the way to the corner, where I stopped. I raised a hand to indicate that the others should wait, then peered around the corner.

The street that stretched out in front of me was quiet. The other of Reuben's cars was parked by the side of the road, engine off, in darkness. Intact, as far as I could tell. And empty.

"I'm not seeing anyone," I whispered. "Living or dead."

A light was on above the grocery store. Clarissa's apartment. I squinted, but if anyone was inside, I couldn't tell.

"Have you tried communicating with Clarissa?" Reuben asked.

"I sent her a text to confirm there were no changes from the plans we made earlier today," I said. "She replied that everything was under control."

That was when I started to suspect something was wrong. I started searching the house for Mina and Gianni, and any missing cars. Only when I was certain did I take the information to Reuben. He didn't appreciate people going off half-cocked and making assumptions without looking for the evidence. No, I had to be sure before I bothered him with it.

After all, Mina and Gianni could have been out in the garden practising knife throwing, or fucking.

"That's a weird way of saying yes," Parker said.

"Sounds like a thinly veiled no to me," Hunter said.

"Funny, I was thinking the same thing," Parker agreed. "That sounds like something I'd write if I was under duress, with someone looking over my shoulder. Someone like Kurt."

"Exactly," I agreed. I rubbed my chin with my thumb and pointer finger.

The stairs leading up to Clarissa's apartment were narrow. Only one and a half people could walk up them at the same time. Anyone at the top could pick us off one by one. If he was there, we might have a hard time reaching him.

If Mina was up there with them, we'd fucking try. I didn't care if I died, as long as she didn't, and wasn't taken by him. Those options weren't even on the table.

The question was, where did Clarissa fit into all of this? Had she double crossed us? I didn't want to believe that, but right now, all possibilities were up in the air.

I ducked aside as a car slowed and came around the corner. If they saw us in the shadows, there was no sign from inside the vehicle. They didn't stop to look or turn the headlights on us. They drove on until they reached the car park behind the grocery store.

With practised precision, the car slid into a parking space. The engine was turned off and the driver's side door pushed open. Clarissa stepped out.

I gestured the others forward and moved around the corner silently as the passenger door opened and a man stepped out.